The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ Part 6

'I have said it . . . Very well: your sins are forgiven.'

'And yet I'm not healed,' she said.

She closed her robe.

Christ said, 'And I am not my brother. Didn't I tell you that? Why did you ask me to heal you, if you knew I was not Jesus? Did I ever claim to be able to heal you? I said to you "Your sins are forgiven." If you don't have sufficient faith after you've heard that, the fault is yours.'

The woman turned away and faced the wall, and drew her robe over her head.

Christ left her house. He was ashamed, and he went out of the town and climbed to a quiet place among the rocks, and prayed that his own sins might be forgiven. He wept a little. He was afraid the angel might come to him, and he hid all night.

The Wise and Foolish Girls.

Now the time of the Pa.s.sover was getting close, and this prompted the people who listened to Jesus to ask about the Kingdom again: when will it come? How will we know it? What should we do to be ready for it?

'It'll be like this,' he told them. 'There was a wedding, and ten girls took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom and welcome him to the banquet. Now five of them took their lamps and nothing else, no spare oil, but the other five were a bit cleverer than that, and they brought some flasks of oil with them.

'Well, the bridegroom was delayed, and time went past, and all of the girls began to feel drowsy and closed their eyes.

'Then at midnight there was a cry: "He's coming! The bridegroom is here!"

'The girls woke up at once and started tr.i.m.m.i.n.g their lamps. You can see what happened next: the foolish ones discovered that their oil had run out.

'"Give us some of your oil!" they said to the others. "Look, our lamps are going out!"

'And two of the far-seeing ones shared their oil with two of the foolish ones, and all four were admitted to the banquet. Two of the clever ones refused, and the bridegroom shut them out, together with two more foolish ones.

'But the last wise girl said, "Lord, we have come to celebrate your wedding, even the least of us. If you won't let us all in, I would rather stay outside with my sisters, even when the last of my oil is gone."

'And for her sake the bridegroom opened the doors of the banquet and admitted them all. Now, where was the Kingdom of heaven? Inside the bridegroom's house? Is that what you think? No, it was outside in the dark with the wise girl and her sisters, even when the last of her oil was gone.'

Christ wrote down every word, but he resolved to improve the story later.

The Stranger Talks of Abraham and Issac.

Next time the angel came, Christ was in Jericho. He was following Jesus and his disciples as they made their way to Jerusalem for the Pa.s.sover. Jesus was staying in the house of one of his followers, but Christ had taken a room in a tavern not far away. At midnight he went outside to use the privy. When he turned to go back inside he felt a hand on his shoulder, and knew at once that it was the stranger.

'Events are moving quickly now,' the stranger said. 'We must talk about something important. Take me to your room.'

Once inside, Christ lit the lamp and gathered up the scrolls he had filled.

'Sir, what do you do with these scrolls?' he said.

'I take them to a place of great safety.'

'Will I be able to see them again? I may need to edit and correct the entries, in the light of what I have since learned about truth and history.'

'There will be an opportunity for that, never fear. Now tell me about your brother. What is his mood as he gets closer to Jerusalem?'

'He seems serene and confident, sir. I wouldn't say that has changed at all.'

'Does he speak of what he expects to happen there?'

'Only that the Kingdom will come very soon. Perhaps it will come when he is in the temple.'

'And the disciples? How is your informant? Is he still close to Jesus?'

'I would say he is in the very best position. He is not the closest or the most favoured Peter and James and John are the men Jesus speaks to most confidentially but my informant is securely among the middle-ranking followers. His reports are full and trustworthy. I have checked them.'

'We must think about rewarding him at some stage. But now I want to talk to you about something difficult.'

'I am ready, sir.'

'You and I know that for the Kingdom to flourish, it needs a body of men, and women too, both Jews and Gentiles, faithful followers under the guidance of men of authority and wisdom. And this church we can call it a church will need men of formidable organisational powers and deep intellectual penetration, both to conceive and develop the structure of the body and to formulate the doctrines that will hold it together. There are such men, and they are ready and waiting. The church will not lack organisation and doctrine.

'But you will remember, my dear Christ, the story of Abraham and Isaac. G.o.d sets his people severe tests. How many men of today would be ready to act like Abraham, prepared to sacrifice his son because the Lord had told him to? How many would be like Isaac, ready to do as his father told him and hold out his hands to be bound, and lie down on the altar, and wait peaceably for the knife in the serene confidence of righteousness?'

'I would,' said Christ at once. 'If that is what G.o.d wants, I would do that. If it would serve the Kingdom, yes, I would. If it would serve my brother, yes, yes, I would.'

He spoke eagerly, because he knew that this would give him the chance to atone for his failure to heal the woman with the cancer. It was his faith that had been insufficient, not hers; he had spoken harshly to her, and he still felt ashamed.

'You are devoted to your brother,' said the stranger.

'Yes. Everything I do is for him, though he doesn't know it. I have been shaping the history especially to magnify his name.'

'Don't forget what I told you when we first spoke: your name will s.h.i.+ne as greatly as his.'

'I don't think of that.'

'No, but it may give you comfort to think that others do, and are working to make sure it comes about.'

'Others? There are others besides you, sir?'

'A legion. And it will come to happen, have no fear about that. But before I go, let me ask you again: do you understand how it might be necessary for one man to die so that many can live?'

'No, I don't understand it, but I accept it. If it is G.o.d's will, I accept it, even if it's impossible to understand. The story doesn't say whether Abraham and Isaac understood what they had to do, but they didn't hesitate to do it.'

'Remember your words,' said the angel. 'We shall talk again in Jerusalem.'

He kissed Christ on the brow before leaving with the scrolls.

Jesus Rides into Jerusalem.

Next day, Jesus and his followers prepared to leave for Jerusalem. Word had spread that he was coming, and many people came to see him and welcome him on his way to the city, because his fame was now so widespread. The priests and the scribes, of course, had been aware of him for some time, and they didn't know how best to react. It was a difficult matter for them: should they endorse him and hope to share his popularity, at the cost of not knowing what he would do next? Or should they condemn him, and risk offending the people who supported him in such numbers?

They resolved to watch closely, and to test him whenever they saw the chance.

Jesus and his disciples had reached Bethphage, near a place called the Mount of Olives, when he told them to stop and rest. He sent two of the disciples to find a beast for him to ride on, because he was tired. All they could find was the foal of a donkey, and when the owner heard who it was for, he refused any payment.

The disciples spread their cloaks on the donkey and Jesus rode it into Jerusalem. The streets were thronged with people curious to see him, or eager to welcome him. Christ was among the crowd, watching everything, and he saw how one or two people had cut palm branches to wave; he was already composing the account of the scene in his mind. Jesus was calm and unaffected by the clamour, and acknowledged all the questions that people called out without answering any of them: 'Are you going to preach here, master?'

'Are you going to heal?'

'What are you going to do, Lord?'

'Will you go to the temple?'

'Have you come to speak to the priests?'

'Are you going to fight the Romans?'

'Master, will you heal my son?' The disciples cleared a way to the house where he was going to stay, and presently the crowd dispersed.

The Priests Test Jesus.

But the priests were determined to test him, and soon the chance came. They tried three times, and each time Jesus baffled them.

The first test came when they said to him, 'You preach, you heal, you cast out devils now, by whose authority do you do these things? Who gave you permission to go about stirring up excitement like this?'

'I'll tell you,' he said, 'if you'll give me an answer to this question: did John's authority to baptise come from heaven, or from earth?'

They didn't know how to answer him. They withdrew a little way and discussed it. 'If we say it came from heaven,' they said, 'he'll say, "In that case, why didn't you believe in it?" But if we say it was of human origin, the crowd will be angry with us. John's a great prophet as far as they're concerned.'

So they had to tell him, 'We find it hard to decide. We can't answer you.'

'In that case,' he said, 'you'll have to do without an answer from me.'

The next test they put him to concerned that perennial difficulty, taxes.

They said, 'Teacher, you're an honest man, we can all see that. No one doubts your sincerity or your impartiality; you show no favours, and you don't try to ingratiate yourself with anyone. So we're sure you'll give us a truthful answer when we ask you: is it lawful to pay taxes?'

They meant lawful according to the law of Moses, and they hoped they would trick him into saying something that would get him into trouble with the Romans.

But he said, 'Show me one of those coins you pay taxes with.'

Someone handed him a coin, and he looked at it and said, 'There's a picture on here. Whose picture is this? What's the name underneath it?'

'It's Caesar's, of course,' they said.

'Well, there's your answer. If this is Caesar's, give it back to him. Give G.o.d the things that are G.o.d's.'

The third time they tried to trap him involved a capital offence. The scribes and the Pharisees happened to be dealing with the case of a woman who was caught committing adultery. They thought that they could force Jesus into calling for her to be stoned, which was the punishment authorised by their law, and hoped that this would cause trouble for him.

They found him near the temple wall. The Pharisees and scribes took the woman out and stood her in front of him, and said, 'Teacher, this woman has committed adultery she was caught in the act! Moses commands us to stone such a woman to death. What do you say? Should we do it?'

Jesus was sitting on a rock, leaning down and writing with his finger in the dust. He took no notice of them.

'Teacher, what should we do?' they said again. 'Should we stone her, as Moses says?'

He still said nothing, and went on writing in the dust.

'We don't know what to do!' they went on. 'You can tell us. We're sure you can find a solution. Should she be stoned? What do you think?' Jesus looked up and brushed the dirt off his hands.

'If there's one of you who has never committed a sin, he can throw the first stone,' he said. Then he bent down again and wrote some more. One by one the scribes and the Pharisees went away, muttering. Jesus was left alone with the woman.

Finally he stood up and said, 'Where have they gone? Has no one condemned you, after all?'

'No, sir, no one,' she said.

'Well, you'd better go too, then,' he said. 'I'm not going to condemn you. But don't sin any more.'

Christ heard about this from the disciple who was his informant. As soon as he was told about it, he hurried to the spot to see what it was that Jesus had written in the dust. The wind had blown his words away, and there was nothing to see on the ground, but nearby someone had daubed the words KING JESUS on the temple wall in mud. It had dried in the sunlight, and Christ brushed it off quickly in case it got his brother into trouble.

Jesus Becomes Angry with the Pharisees.

Soon after that, something provoked Jesus into anger with the Pharisees. He had been watching how they behaved, how they dealt with ordinary people, how they a.s.sumed airs of importance. A questioner had asked him whether people should do as the Pharisees did, and Jesus said: 'They teach with the authority of Moses, don't they? And you know what the law of Moses says? Listen to what the scribes and the Pharisees say, and if they agree with the law of Moses, obey them. But do as they say don't do as they do.

'Because they're hypocrites, every one of them. Look at the way they vaunt themselves up! They love to sit in the place of honour at a banquet, they love to sit in prominent positions in the synagogue, they love to be greeted with respectful words in the marketplace. They preen themselves on the correctness of their costume, while exaggerating every detail to draw attention to their piety. They encourage superst.i.tion and they ignore genuine faith, while all the time they're fawning over prominent citizens and boasting of the importance of their powerful friends. Haven't I told you many times how wrong it is to think that the higher you are among men, the closer you are to G.o.d?

'You scribes and Pharisees, if you're listening be d.a.m.ned to you. You take endless scruples over the tiniest matters of the law, while you let the great things like justice and mercy and faith go unnoticed and forgotten. You strain the gnats out of your wine, but you ignore the camel standing in it.

'd.a.m.n the lot of you hypocrites that you are. You preach modesty and abstinence, while indulging in the costliest luxuries; you're like a man who offers his guests wine from a golden cup, having polished the outside while neglecting the inside, so it's full of dirt and slime.

'd.a.m.n you each and every one. You're like a tomb covered in whitewash, a handsome structure, gleaming and spotless but what's on the inside? Bones and rags and all kinds of filth.

'You snakes, you brood of vipers! You've persecuted the best and the most innocent, you've hounded the wisest and the most righteous to death. How in the world do you think you're going to escape being sent to h.e.l.l?

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem what an unhappy city you are. They come to you, the prophets, and you stone them to death. I wish I could gather all your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings! But will you let me? No, not a chance. See how sad you make those who love you!'

News of this angry speech spread quickly, and Christ had to work hard to keep up with the reports of his brother's words. And more and more frequently he saw the words scrawled on walls, or scratched into the bark of trees: KING JESUS.

Jesus and the Money-changers.

The next thing to happen didn't only involve words. In the temple there were many activities connected with buying and selling: for example, doves and cattle and sheep were offered for sale to those who wanted to make a sacrifice. But as people came to the temple from many places both near and far away, some of them had money different from the local coinage, and there were money-changers there too, ready to calculate the exchange rate and sell them the money to buy doves with. One day Jesus went into the temple and, provoked by his growing anger against the scribes and the priests, lost his patience with all this mercantile activity and began to upset the tables of the money-changers and the animal-sellers.

He flung them this way and that, and took a whip and drove the animals out, shouting, 'This should be a house of prayer, but look at it now! It's a den of robbers! Take your money and your buying and selling elsewhere, and leave this place to G.o.d and his people!'