Myers turned to Acts 7:55 and read, “But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
“Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and they stoned Stephen, he calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
He closed the Bible and handed it back.
“So you see, Jesus should have been stoned, if his crime was really Blasphemy.”
Tamara thought about that for a bit, then asked, “And what about the trial before Pilate? Jesus’ account of it is certainly different from the Gospels.”
Myers sighed. “What you first have to realize is that the Gospels are not historical reporting. They were not written by people who lived in those times, but later. When Jesus was alive, the only thing he cared about was the coming Kingdom of God. At the end, he came to believe that he was the Messiah, the Chosen One, who would fulfill the prophecies and make the kingdom happen. And that he thought of it as an overthrowing of the Roman rule, as well as straightening out the priests and the Temple. You’ve heard Jesus tell us that it was likely that, with God’s help, the Jews would defeat the Romans and cast them out of their land. In that respect, Jesus was very much like many of the Jewish leaders of his time, a revolutionary at heart, a zealot even. That part of Jewish history is filled with armed rebellions against Rome, both before and after Jesus’ time.
“Okay, got that picture? Good. Now comes his death. Then what? No Kingdom of God in sight. Just continued Roman rule and hard times. The only difference is that there is this little core of Jews who believe in Jesus’ teachings and in him as the Messiah. They were his disciples originally, plus converts among the Jews, both the homegrown ones and those who visited Jerusalem for the holy days but lived in other parts of the world. Those people believed that he had risen from the dead and was therefore the long-awaited Messiah. Originally they were waiting for the Kingdom to follow any day. But as time passed, and no Kingdom showed up, their beliefs changed. Saul, aka Paul, had a lot to do with that. He turned Jesus’ sacrifice from a fulfillment of the prophecies that God’s Kingdom might come, to a sacrifice for the sins of all people that they might be forgiven. Paul changed Jesus’ early believers immensely.
“I’m getting to my point. Now we have the revolt against Rome and the crushing defeat of the Jewish people. That was in 66-73 CE. There were anti-taxation protests and attacks upon Roman citizens. The Romans responded by plundering the Temple and executing about 6,000 Jews. A full scale revolt followed. Shortly thereafter, Cestius Gallus, the Legate of Syria, brought down an army to restore order. The Jewish rebels defeated them at the Battle of Beth Horon and slew 6,000 Romans. That really shocked the Roman leadership and they came down hard. Well, the short of it is that the Jews were crushed, Jerusalem burned to the ground, and many killed. Tacitus, a historian of the time, said that no fewer than six hundred thousand men and women of every age were killed. Josephus puts the number at one million. But he often exaggerates.
“This left a nasty taste in the Roman’s minds concerning the Jews. It was not good to be a Jew at that time. Those who had formed a church believing in Jesus were stuck in a hard position. They did not want to be included along with the Jews who had made war with Rome, so what to do? At this point, and again thanks in a great part to Paul, the early Christ was transformed from a rebel to a peaceful preacher concerned only with man’s sins and redemption.
“At this point the Gospels were written. Mark was the first, written about the time of the Great Revolt, probably in Syria. The target audience was the early Christian community. Most scholars believe that the original text of the gospel ends at Mark 16:8 with the discovery of Jesus’ empty tomb and that the account of his resurrection appearances is a later addition.
“Now here’s the important part. The writer of Mark did not want to antagonize the Romans. So hints of Jesus’ revolutionary zeal had to go, and the Romans absolved of responsibility for his death. If not the Romans, then it had to be the hated Jews who killed him. Caiaphas dupes Pilate into carrying out a tragic miscarriage of justice. Pilate tries to save Jesus. Or so says Mark.
“Now we go to Matthew, written around 90 CE. In that, Pilate is warned by his wife to have nothing to do with ‘this innocent man.’ Pilate washes his hands of blame. The Jews respond, according to the writer of this Gospel, with ‘may his blood be on our heads, and on our children.’ Matthew 17:1.
“Next we come to Luke, written about the same time, probably in Antioch. In this one, Luke extends amnesty not only to the Romans, but to Herod Aptipas as well. Luke 23:14 ‘...Ye have brought this man unto me, as one that perverteth the people: and, behold, I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this man touching those things whereof ye accuse him: 23:15 No, nor yet Herod: for I sent you to him; and, lo, nothing worthy of death is done unto him.’
“Now we come to John, the last to be written, probably around 100 CE. In this one, Pilate does all he can to save Jesus, not because he is guiltless but because he seems to believe that Jesus maybe, in fact, the ‘Son of God.’ Nevertheless, Pilate is forced to condemn Jesus by an unruly mob. As if Pilate would really care what the Jewish people think. His disdain for Jews was well known. John puts words in Jesus’ mouth: ‘the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’ Then he insults the whole Jewish nation when he has the crowd chanting, ‘We have no king but Caesar!’
“See a pattern here? Those who wrote the Gospels had only one purpose: to prove Jesus was put to death by the Jews, not the Romans. The farther away from the actual events you get, the stronger that purpose is stated. Factual accuracy was of little importance.
“Now we get back to your original question. You asked why our Jesus’ story is not the same. He says that Caiaphas and a few others condemned him in the middle of the night. Then Pilate makes him wait until morning. When he does see him, all he cares about is the claim that Jesus has kingly pretensions and therefore guilty of sedition against Rome.
“It is the Gospel authors, and those who later added theological enhancements and outright fabrications, who draw a picture of an innocent Pilate and nasty old Jewish priests.
“I believe Jesus,” he concluded.
Tamara did not know what to say. She had studied the Bible and history, but never had the Gospels explained to her that way. Yet it made sense.
“And that’s the long-winded explanation you get when you ask an old college professor a simple question.”
Chapter 49: Spooky!
“There’s something else I want to show you,” Stryker told Stockman as they walked out of the building. Behind them the T-Rex was roaring for his lunch. “Come on to my office. There’s someone I want you to meet.”
Going into his office, he told the sexy blonde secretary, “Have Adrian come on in, please.”
Stockman was recovering from the shock of coming face to face with a drooling T-Rex. Just as he was about to resume his normal blustering facade, Stryker told him to sit down and wait, in a voice that said he was no longer afraid of the Congressman.
A minute later another man came in, a non-descript man of medium height, mid-fifties, business suited, and looking like a successful lawyer. Stockman gave him a harsh look.
“Allow me to introduce Mr. Adrian Connors, the Deputy Director of the CIA. Adrian, I believe you have something to say to Congressman Stockman?”
There followed a very brief, very one-sided conversation. Condensed version: “It is in the best interests of our national security that Project Dry Wells remain classified. If this is not done, we at the CIA will be very unhappy. Likewise will the FBI, NSA, Naval Intelligence, and a few others who utilize the facility here for purposes of our own.”
“I...” Stockman began but was cut off.
�
��And when we are unhappy, others tend to be more unhappy. For example, were you to say one word about this project to anyone – repeat anyone – it may be necessary for us to release to the press certain documents concerning insider trading of Stanee Oil stocks. And some very interesting photos we have of you with a certain under-aged summer intern.”
Stockman turned as pale as a ghost.
“Understand me?”
“I understand,” he stammered out.
“Good. The information we are gaining via this project is far more important than any single man. And if any man endangers that relationship between our agencies and Chronodyne, he will be removed.”
Stockman did not want to ask if “removed” meant kicked out of his nice, plush job in Congress, or something worse. One never knows with the spooks.
Adrian nodded to Stryker, who was grinning, and left.
“I believe you have a plane to catch back to Washington, Congressman Stockman?”
With only a quick nod as a goodbye, Stockman turned and walked out, giving his aide a nasty look as he did. In the outer office, Adrian was talking with the Security Director Manhusen about something.
Back in his office, Stryker was telling Crane, “I don’t think we’ll get any more problems with Stockman.”
“Good riddance,” Crane agreed.
“And I’m certainly glad that our hastily erected cell held back the T-Rex. I wasn’t certain those bars were strong enough.”
“So am I. Did you know he bites?”
Chapter 50: Side Trip
After an exciting day, Jesus napped most of the way back to their rented house. Since it was evening when the Beechjet landed, they had an early dinner in Albuquerque at a steakhouse called “Rancher’s Roadhouse”. Jesus enjoyed his first T-bone steak along with a new wine. He was quite worn out on the trip back.
The next day was spent mostly sleeping late and enjoying the scenery. Jesus and Tamara took a walk across the grassy meadow and through some of the pine forest. Apparently he had seen pine trees before, but not quite such tall ones. He seemed fascinated with the variety and quantity of wild life, from chipmunks to deer. Tamara made a mental note to take him to a good zoo some day.
They did not talk much, there being the language barrier and all, but it was a peaceful, enjoyable time for both of them. Occasionally Jesus would point to something and look at her, and then she would tell him what it was in English. He would repeat the word twice, and then go on. He laughed when she told him that little furry creature with the bushy tail was a squirrel. All she could think of was that the word meant something else in Aramaic. After a while she tried reversing the game. She pointed to a flower or an animal and lifted her eyebrows at him. Usually he would say something that she would try to repeat, but a couple times he simply shrugged his shoulders, indicating that he did not know what it was. A few times she caught him looking at a high flying airliner making contrails in the blue. Flying must be something pretty special to someone who had always assumed that it was impossible for a human to leave the ground.
When they got back, Juliette informed them that Stryker had called and it was safe to return to the project. Apparently, Stockman had not taken as long as he might have. Also, they were told, he left with no intention of bothering the project again. The three of them speculated on what might have caused his sudden change of heart. Something drastic, was all they could come up with.
They decided to make a side trip on the way back. Actually, it was a bit out of the way since where they were going was on the other side of Project Dry Wells, but all agreed that it would be an interesting visit and worth the time. So, after packing their bags, they drove off to the old town of Santa Fe, which Myers translated for Jesus: Holy Faith.
Santa Fe is a city that revels in its past. Everywhere one looked there were ancient buildings in the Spanish style – and tourists. Tamara had done a little research on the Internet the night before and knew just where she wanted to take Jesus. They parked, and walked along a red stone wall to a set of stairs that led to a double towered Spanish church, also done in red stone blocks. Myers read the sign for Jesus: “The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi.”
To the left of the steps was a bronze statue of Saint Francis, standing there with one hand held out and the other resting on the back of a wolf. Jesus asked who that was and was told. There seemed to be a little confusion about what a saint was and why the man had a wolf for a pet. An explanation of sorts took place while they were walking up to steps to the impressive front door. The statue seemed to bother him. Myers had to remind him that this was a church, but not a Jewish one. Images were accepted here where they would not have been in his day.
Inside the church was built as most Catholic churches were, in the shape of a cross. Rows of wooden seats led up to an altar, while pillars supported a high, vaulted ceiling. Stained glass windows allowed colorful light to spill into the church. When they neared the back, the altar held a small statue of Jesus with a panel behind him picturing fifteen saints. The statue showed Jesus holding a cross in one hand and the other raised upward to the sky. He had a most suffering expression on his upturned face. Jesus looked at that and shook his head. They sat down in a pew with Myers on one side and Tamara on the other. She told him that this was one of the fancier churches, but was still built to honor God and was a place to worship him. She told him that the priests did good in the world, and that the gilt trim, elaborate colored windows and works of art were there to show the people the glory of God. Jesus slowly shook his head.
“This is as the priests in the Temple were. Rich and fat and always taking money from the people. Do people sacrifice to God here?”
“They pray to God here,” Myers told him.
Jesus looked around, and his eyes came to rest on a statue hung on the wall, a depiction of Jesus hanging on the cross. There were nails through his palms and crossed feet. His long hair and the crown of thorns upon his head were done with wonderful detail, as was each muscle in his body. The artist had even caught an amazing look of suffering in his eyes. For a long time Jesus looked at the figure, saying nothing, and oblivious to the handful of tourists or worshipers around them. Finally, he looked to Myers, then Tamara and said, “That is not what it was like.” He looked down at the leather bands around his wrists.
“They do not know how it was,” Myers told him, “only that you suffered for your people. That is what this statue means to them, your sacrifice for them.”
“This is not a synagogue,” Jesus said simply. “Not a holy place.”
“It is to these people. They worship differently, but they believe in you and your teachings.”
Jesus took one last long look around, and then said, “Let us go from this place.”
Tamara was on the verge of tears. She had hoped to impress Jesus with how people worshiped today. But it would seem that it had done the opposite.
As they were walking out, Juliette pulled out her cell phone and snapped a few photos of Jesus, even going to far as to ask him to stand next to the statue of Saint Francis for one shot.
As they walked back to the car, Juliette waved the cell phone, and told Tamara, “That’s a unique photo. Jesus in a Catholic church! And nobody recognized him!”
Tamara said nothing.
Chapter 51: Alone in the Dark
What was going wrong?
In the dark apartment, alone, a man sat on the bed and hung his head. Only a tiny, pathetic light came around the closed curtains, along with distant sounds of traffic.
He had done as they told him. But the tablet with the video had not done what it was supposed to. This false Jesus was still alive and being treated as an important dignitary by those who created him. He had not reacted as he should have. If anything, from what he could see, Jesus was more talkative, more at ease with the staff than before. God only knew what lies he was telling, what blasphemies spewed from his mouth.
The man shuddered. It was obvious that the Church wante
d this fake Jesus stopped. They had given him the tablet. He had delivered it. Now what? They did not call him. They did not tell him what to do. Was he to decide himself? And how could he? He was just a simply believer. But now, when he needed guidance from the Church most of all, there was no word.
During the last few years, it was the Church he had clung to, and that probably that saved his sanity. His beloved wife had died at far too early an age, victim of a car crash that had left him with only bruises. How could God have taken her for no reason? Mona had been so full of life, so happy. It had torn him up inside that he had lived while she died. What possible reason could God have for wanting to take her but leaving him? For a time it shook his faith to the core. He prayed to be shown some reason behind the tragedy. But no reply came. Beginning to doubt all that he had held as true, he almost turned from the Church, and would have but for one minister who spent many hours trying to help the man come through his crisis of faith.
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