by Brian Godawa
Had he become delirious with rage because of the ineffectiveness of his teaching? But he had caused an uproar amidst the ruling class already. He had the attention of the authorities. Maybe it had not been enough for him. Maybe he wanted more.
Demas thought he could teach the Nazarene a trick or two about using a whip. He and Gestas noticed the Roman soldiers standing by, watching, doing nothing. They were actually smiling amongst themselves. To them, this was the harmless tomfoolery of a madman Jew. Something for their entertainment, not restraint.
The next thing he did shocked them all.
Jesus walked right up to the tables of the moneychangers and started overturning their tables. Coins went flying everywhere. The men shouted curses.
Jesus shouted back in a voice that outdid his opponents’ anger.
“IT IS WRITTEN, MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL THE NATIONS. BUT YOU HAVE MADE IT A CAVE OF BANDITS!”
People cleared away from Jesus. He stood there alone with heaving chest and wild eyes, his hair a tattered mess about his face.
Demas and Gestas looked at each other. They both knew at that moment that this fool was no leader of an insurrection or army of warriors. He was a frustrated backwoods madman with delusions of grandeur who had fooled enough people with his confused babblings and magic tricks, but whose real impotency was now on display before the world.
The fact that he had condemned the temple itself as a “cave of bandits,” the very identity of the Zealots, clearly meant he had no sympathies for their cause. They left to report to Barabbas that they should move ahead with their own plans.
The scribes and Pharisees had enough temerity to speak up and complain to Jesus. One of them stepped forward and said angrily, “You are not the only one here who knows the Scriptures, Rabbi. You quote the prophet Isaiah and you act out this prophecy of yours like Jeremiah acted out his prophecies. But Jeremiah stood in the divine council of Yahweh. By what authority do you perform this theatrical prediction?”
Jesus responded, “I will tell you by what authority I do this if you first tell me if the baptism of John was from heaven or from man?”
Simon and Mary overheard the Pharisees discussing amongst themselves. Jesus had them on the horns of a dilemma. If they said, “from heaven,” then he would say, “Why did you not believe him?” And if they said, “from man,” then the people would stone them because they believed John was a prophet. The lead Pharisee said, “We do not know where it came from.”
Jesus retorted with contemptuous spite, “Then neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Another scribe shouted out, “What sign then do you show us for doing these things?”
Jesus looked about and said through clenched teeth, “Destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up.”
The religious authorities looked at one another, surprised at the absurdity. One of the scribes called out, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you will raise it up in three days?”
Jesus shook his head and said nothing.
Another scribe reached down and picked up a denarius from the ground. Simon could see that this one had penetrating, skeptical eyes. He lacked the shock and offense of the others. The scribe noticed some Herodians had gathered around and smirked with satisfaction. He said with a sarcastic tone, “Jesus we know that you are true, and teach the way of Yahweh truthfully. You do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by outward appearances or status.”
Simon scowled. This one reeked with diabolical intentions.
The scribe continued, “Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
The attempt to trap him did not intimidate Jesus. He said, “Why do you put me to the test, you hypocrites?” Voices of shock and offense went through the gathering crowd of religious leaders.
“Show me the coin for the tax.”
The scribe tossed the coin at Jesus. He caught it, still glaring at the scribe with angry eyes. There was something about the scribe that seemed inhuman, as if he was a creature impersonating a man. Simon knew that creature was trying to trap Jesus into defying Caesar, which was tantamount to treason, and therefore worthy of death.
Jesus slowly approached the scribe, while continuing to stare into his eyes. He raised the coin as he moved, showing it to everyone. “Whose likeness and inscription is this?”
Someone shouted out, “Caesar!”
Another said, “Our king!”
Simon and Mary saw that the Roman soldiers had moved closer to listen in, ready to respond to any call for uprising.
Jesus now stood face to face with the scribe. Simon saw the deviant step back just a little, as if in deference.
Jesus spoke to the crowd, while still glaring at the scribe. “Therefore, render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God, the things that are God’s.” And he tossed the coin away. The crowd murmured. The soldiers looked at one another with uncertainty. Nothing illegal about that. What could they do?
Simon heard Jesus whisper to the scribe, “Leave, Belial.”
The scribe turned in anger and trampled out toward the gates.
Jesus looked around at the accumulation of religious authorities. He said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites and actors! You are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So, you outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and the lawlessness of Belial.”
The religious authorities around him began to rumble with anger and even shout curses. But Jesus kept going. He pronounced woes upon their pettiness in keeping detailed religious rituals while negating the weightier things of the Law of God, such as justice and mercy and faithfulness.
Someone yelled out, “We have the Law and Prophets!”
“Yes,” replied Jesus. “And you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers! You vipers, you Seed of the Serpent! How are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?”
Some of the authorities were so vexed, they left in a huff. Only the hecklers remained. “You blaspheme!” yelled one.
Jesus continued unabated. “I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you kill and crucify, and others you flog and persecute. And because of this, upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this very generation.”
By this point, the scribes and Pharisees had left. Only stragglers and onlookers remained. The disciples had cowered around the pillars, trying not to be noticed.
Then Simon and Mary saw Jesus cry. Mary moved to comfort him, but Simon held her back.
Jesus cried out, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings. But you were not willing. See, your house is left to you desolate!” He gestured all around him to the temple area.
Now, even the Romans were leaving this madman to his meaningless babbling.
“For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of Yahweh!”
He finally stopped. He wiped his eyes of tears, and began to walk toward the eastern Shushan Gate.
The disciples followed tenuously. They felt like cowards. They had not moved to support their lord, because they were too shocked and frightened by his words.
Mary turned to Simon and said, “What did he mean by this display? The scribes said he was acting like a prophet. What did that mean?”
Simon explained to her as they followed through the Court of the Gentiles toward the east exit. “The prophet Jeremiah performed many of his prophecies as dramas before the people. Jesus was not trying to fix the problem of temp
le corruption by throwing over tables and releasing animals. He is but one man. What he was doing was similar to Jeremiah. He was prophesying through dramatic display.”
“What kind of prophesy?”
Simon whispered it to her, “The destruction of the Temple.”
She looked at him with shock. “But the Temple is the heart and soul of our religion. It is the means of atonement for sin. Why would Yahweh want to destroy the Temple?”
“To build a new one, pure and undefiled.”
She tried to follow, “The one he said he would build in three days?”
“Mary, he was referring to his own body with that statement. The temple of his body.”
She could not quite put it all together. Questions were filling her mind like the cacophony of noise around them.
“What did the scribes mean by a prophet standing in the divine council?”
“The authority of the prophets derives from their being called into Yahweh’s throne room before the holy Sons of God. It is like a heavenly court. And the prophets are the prosecutors of Yahweh’s spiritual lawsuits. If you haven’t stood in the divine council, you do not have the authority of a prophet of Yahweh.”
“Has Jesus ever stood before the divine council?”
“He is one of the divine council. The unique one-of-a-kind Son of God, uncreated. Remember how he refers to himself as the ‘Son of Man?’”
“Yes. How can he be a Son of Man, and the Son of God?”
“Because he is both. Daniel the prophet had a heavenly vision of the Son of Man ascending on the clouds to the very right hand of Yahweh, the Ancient of Days. The right hand of Yahweh is the place of his omnipotent power. The Son of God is the second Yahweh in heaven.”
Simon then quoted the prophet from memory,
“‘And to him was given dominion
and glory and a kingdom,
that all peoples, nations, and languages
should serve him;
his dominion is an everlasting dominion,
which shall not pass away,
and his kingdom one
that shall not be destroyed.’”
Simon was clearly bothered by the ramifications.
He said, “Jesus is prosecuting a heavenly lawsuit against Israel.”
Chapter 26
Longinus with thirty other Legionary officers finished a chant of the greatness of Mithras as “sol invictus,” the unconquered sun. They filled the benches of the small rectangular Mithras temple and shrine. It was a vaulted subterranean chamber just outside the Antonia, created for their secret new religion. Pontius Pilate led the group by virtue of being the senior member of the gathering. The membership consisted mostly of Roman army officers, from legates to tribunes and centurions and even some lower level ranks like optios. As a religion of privilege, they kept their activities mostly secret, including the initiation rites each must undergo to join.
Pilate elevated a chalice of wine and a bone of bull’s meat and said, “This is the flesh and blood of our god, Mithras the mighty. Let us eat and become one with the power.”
The officers ate their meal on a long table the length of the cave. Above them, the vaulted ceiling had the stars of heaven engraved in its arch. The temple was, like all temples, a representation of the cosmos. The centerpiece of that cosmos was a large stone relief of the god Mithras in human form, engaged in tauroctony, the slaying of the sacred bull. Mithras held the nose of the bull with his left hand and pierced him with a sword in his right. The signs of the zodiac encircled the engraving, along with several scenes from the myth of Mithras: his birth from a cosmic rock encircled by the Serpent of wisdom; and a feast of the Bull’s flesh called the “Banquet of the Sun,” which they now re-enacted.
Longinus felt refreshed by his involvement in the ritual feast, its rules, its orderly regulations. Down here, he could have the peace of focus, away from the noise and pungent smells in the Semitic “holy city,” with its massive influx of traveling Jews from every corner of the earth. The only holy city to him was the eternal city, Rome, with its classic architecture of perfection and heavenly beauty. These backwater Jews and their primitive tribal culture seemed to create nothing of lasting permanence beyond its singular temple complex, and even that displayed Greco-Roman influence and Phoenician design. The only beautiful things in this Mediterranean garbage dump were its Roman structures, the Hippodrome, the theater, and Herod’s palace, all built by Herod, the Roman sympathizer.
Longinus sighed. He just wanted to find his seditious bandits, crucify them and get back to leading his century in battles for the Empire.
After they finished the meal, censers were lit with an incense of special intoxicating herbs. The aroma gave the initiates an inebriated high. They laughed and joked through the smoky haze, but eventually stumbled out of the sanctuary to return behind the walls of the Antonia.
After the initiates left, Longinus stayed behind alone, for contemplation. The misty haze still hung in the enclosed underground temple.
He closed his eyes and prayed to Mithras for help to find his criminals. A voice interrupted his prayer.
“Longinus.”
He stopped and looked up. Before him, in the hanging mist, stood a being eight feet tall, with glimmering bronze skin.
Longinus froze. He murmured, “Mithras?”
It did not answer him. He felt the terrible greatness of the being. It was rather skeletal and androgynous looking, unlike the masculine muscular features he expected of the warrior god. But it was frightening still. Longinus had never been very spiritual in his leanings. He performed Mithraic cult acts more out of obedience to his military order than out of actual belief.
But now everything he believed had been stood on its head.
“Who are you, my lord?”
“The principality of Rome. Chief of the gods.”
“Jupiter?”
The being said, “Think of me as you will. I know of your commission, Longinus. That you seek Barabbas and his Zealot criminals. I have heard your prayers.”
Longinus whispered, “My lord and god.”
The principality said, “I am here to help you find them.”
• • • • •
Before Jesus could make his way through the crowds of the outer court to the Shushan Gate of the temple, he was stopped in Solomon’s colonnade. A group of about twenty Pharisees blocked his way.
One of them shouted out, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!”
The disciples gathered near him.
He said to his accusers, “I told you and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness to me. But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Another countered, “Who are you to claim such greatness?”
“My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
The members in the group looked at each other in agreement. They drew stones out of their sacks. They had obviously prepared for this in advance. The leader, a scrawny, tall man, said to his comrades, “You heard him. Blasphemy! He makes himself out to be God!”
The disciples drew near. Peter, James, and John stepped in front of Jesus to take the stones for him if needed.
Jesus moved them apart so that he could look the scrawny leader in the eye. Then he spoke to the entire group of them.
“Is it not written in your Law, ‘I said you are gods?’ If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”
It flustered the accusers. They could not answer.
Simon whispered to Mary, “That is what we spoke of earlier. Jesus is one of the divine cou
ncil.”
Simon didn’t have the time to explain that the Psalm Jesus quoted also described Yahweh’s judgment upon the other gods of the nations for their usurpation of justice.
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
The scrawny one spoke up again. “The son of David!”
“How is it then,” said Jesus, “that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying. ‘The Lord says to my Lord, ‘sit at my right hand, until I put all your enemies under your feet’’? If David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
The Pharisees stood perplexed. They muttered to one another, but could not give an answer.
Simon whispered to Mary, “He is saying that Messiah must be more than a man. He transcends David. He is David’s god.”
Mary understood the language of conquest as well. A triumphant king’s foot on the neck of his enemies was total victory and dominance. Jesus was claiming full authority over the powers. But when? When would he make good on this promise? Where were his armies?
A Sadducee pushed his way forward in the crowd. He made way for a group of Sadducees behind him. He was an elder who carried himself with much pride. He called out, “Rabbi, I have a question about resurrection!”
Simon grumbled, “Will these competitions never end?” The Sadducees always seemed to want to start a fight over resurrection, since they detested the belief.
The proud one said, “Now, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ Am I misinformed?”
“No,” said Jesus.
Simon could not stand the mocking contempt of the questioner. He knew it was only mere moments before the Sadducee would turn into an accuser, like all the others.
“Well, you see then,” said the proud man, “I have a problem. Because I know this family who had seven brothers. The first married and died, having no offspring. So he left his wife to his brother. Then that second died and gave her to the third.”
