The Lame Walk

What is all the noise and confusion about this morning? See the crowds streaming through the streets of the little town. And those left at home are leaning out of their windows, shading their eyes, and looking into the distance where a white, dusty road runs from the town through fields and over hills. The crowd is going in the same direction and clear down that road what seemed a tiny speck is growing bigger and bigger. Yes, it is another crowd coming this way, and in the center walks a Man in long white garments that flutter in the breeze. You can just catch the echo of the shout that goes up when the two crowds meet. Now they are all moving this way and boys and men are running ahead, waving branches of palm and clearing a path for the Figure in white. Hear the glad “Hosannas” they are singing. They are entering the city now, and no sooner do the people in the windows see through which street the procession will pass than they hurry inside and quickly the road is lined with another crowd who have carried thither all their sick.

See the old blind man in front of that house. He is asking what all the excitement is about, and they tell him: “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” At once he shouts with all his might: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” They tell him to hold his tongue, but he cries out the more: “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And lo! Jesus steps from the road and goes up to the blind man and lays His hands on his eyes, and when He takes them away, the blind man can see, and the whole crowd bursts like thunder into cries of “Hosanna! Hosanna to the Son of David!”

As Jesus steps back into the road, a poor mother blocks His way, and kneeling before Him, holds up in a ragged shawl her little child all wasted from fever. And Jesus takes the little creature in His arms and presses him to His heart, and when He gives him back to his mother, the child is well and laughs and claps his little hands. And there beneath a tree is a poor man stretched on a mattress. His friends have carried him, for he cannot move. Jesus sees him now and speaks to him: “Arise and walk!” Look at him getting up and following with the crowd. And there is a little girl. She looks so sad and pale, for she can not walk. She is paralyzed and her father is carrying her in his arms. Jesus is talking to her now and laying His hand on her little shrunken legs. Will she be cured? Why, she is crying out that she is well, and her father is letting her stand on the ground, and away she goes, skipping and running.

Look at that poor old woman behind Jesus. She has been sick for many years. She does not want anyone to see her and she is pushing through the crowd on her hands and knees. There! she has caught the hem of His gown and pressed it to her lips. She knows she has been cured at once, for see the joy in her face as she slinks away.

And now they have come to the corner, and just down the side street a thin, white face watches from the window. Nobody sees it, and oh! how the boy wishes Jesus would look up. But Christ passes out of his sight and all hope is gone. The hot tears spatter on his cheeks when he hears a step on the stairs. He turns his head and sees in the doorway a face of such beauty and such kindness that he cries out: “Jesus of Nazareth!” And Jesus comes in, for He heard the boy’s prayer, and He leans over the little straw mattress and takes the small hot hand in His. And when He leaves the house, the boy runs by His side and stays close to Him all day, and scarcely can be made at night to go back to his home.

And now they have reached the edge of the town, and the crowd has gone wild with joy and follows Jesus out into the fields, where, sitting on a low hill, He talks to them of His heavenly Father and tells them what they must do to get to Heaven. There is such sweetness and such power in His words that they forget everything else, and when at last the sun has set in the west, Jesus has to send them home. And He stays alone to spend the whole night praying to His Father for us all. And in the morning, He rises from His knees and starts off once more to cure the bodies and the souls of the poor people in some other little town.