e children and gave them
his blessing, as the mothers wanted him to do.

Another thing that Jesus said, which the disciples could not
understand, was that they ought to forgive anyone who did them an
injury. One day Peter came to him and asked: "Lord, if somebody keeps
on doing wrong to me, how many times should I forgive him? Seven
times, perhaps?"

Peter thought that seven times would be doing very well. But Jesus
answered: "_Seven_ times! Multiply that by seventy! Forgive him until
you have lost count of the times!"

When the disciples heard that, they knew that Jesus meant they should
never stop forgiving anyone who wronged them. This seemed to them to
be more than they could do unless God helped them. They would need
more faith in God. So they said, "Lord, give us more faith than we
have."

Then Jesus had to tell them that they really did not have any faith at
all. He said: "If your faith were only as big as a mustard seed--the
smallest seed there is--you could say to that tree over there, 'Be
pulled up and be planted in the sea,' and it would be done."

No, the disciples did not have much faith. They did not understand
Jesus. They were jealous of one another. They thought that Jesus ought
to be a king, and each of them thought that he ought to be the king's
right-hand man. The disciples were afraid. If Jesus went up to
Jerusalem, they could not tell what would happen. Sometimes they
thought it would be best if Jesus would stay out of sight where his
enemies could not find him.

Worst of all, there was one of the disciples who was not loyal--Judas
Iscariot. Judas was planning something so terrible that no one except
Jesus knew what it was.

Jesus could not wait until his disciples understood. He could not wait
until they were brave enough, or strong enough or good enough. If he
did, he would wait forever. And there was very little time.

There was something that he had to do now--the thing he had planned to
do all along. Back in the days when he was all alone in the
wilderness, after John baptized him in the Jordan, he knew that this
was what he would have to do someday. Now the time had come. He must
go back to the Temple, where he had stood and watched the Passover
lambs being killed when he was a boy of twelve. He must go and get
ready for the Passover.

[Illustration]

Jerusalem was about two miles away. He could not stay on in Bethany.
He must go to Jerusalem at once.

He called two of his disc