quoting a word of scripture in which the Messiah is shown as David’s Lord.  If they had been open-minded they might have inferred from this that perhaps the man before them was not so impossible a Messiah as they thought.  This last question closed the colloquy; there awaited yet, however, Jesus’ calm, scathing arraignment of the hypocrisy of these religious leaders.  There was no longer any need for prudence and every reason for a clear indication of the difference between himself and the scribes in motive, in teaching, and in character.  The final conflict was on, and Jesus freely spoke his mind concerning their whole life of piety without godliness.  Never have sharper words of reproach fallen from human lips than these which Jesus directed against the scribes and Pharisees; they are burdened with indignation for the misleading of the people, with rebuke for the misrepresentation of God’s truth, and with scorn for their hollow pretence of righteousness.  Through it all breathes a note of sorrow for the city whose house was now left to her desolate.  The change of scene which introduces the widow offering her gift in the temple treasury heightens the significance of the controversies through which Jesus had just passed.  In his comment on the worth of her two mites we hear again the preacher of the sermon on the mount, and are assured that it is indeed from him that the severe rebukes which have fallen on the scribes have come.  There is again a reference to the insight of him who sees in secret, and who judges as he sees; while allusion is not lacking to the others whose larger gifts attracted a wider attention.  The whole scene is like a commentary on Matt. vi. 2-4.

185.  Still a different side of Jesus’ life appears when the Greeks seek him in the temple.  They were probably proselytes from some of the Greek cities about the Mediterranean where the synagogue offered to the earnest-minded a welcome relief from the foolishness and corruption of what was left of religion in the heathen world.  Having visited Jerusalem for the feast, they heard on every hand about the new teacher.  They were not so bound to rabbinic traditions as the Jews themselves, they had been drawn by the finer features of Judaism,—­its high morality and its noble idea of God.  What they heard of Jesus might well attract them, and they sought out Philip, a disciple with a Greek name, to request an interview with his Master.  The evangelist who has preserved the incident (John xii. 20-36) evidently introduced it because of what it showed of Jesus’ inner life; hence we have no report of the conversation between him and his visitors.  The effect of their seeking him was marked, however, for it offered sharp contrast to the rejection which he already felt in his dealings with the people who but two days before had hailed him as Messiah.  This foreign interest in him did not suggest a new avenue for Messianic work, it only brought before his mind the influence which was to be his in the world which these inquirers