They left in the night, and John was convinced that Jesus had worked some magic as they passed down the hill on which Nazareth was built, and through the coming darkness wound their way down the valley and up to the great city of Sepphoris.
“We won’t be going to Nazareth again I don’t think,” Philip remarked, and Jesus said nothing to this.
In less than an hour they were in Sepphoris, but before that hour they were in the surrounding villages, in the influence of that great city which, even on a Sabbath was full of noise and business. They passed the sprawling squares with their Greek temples, and arcades, the high, ivied walls and tiled roves of lavish houses and, at last, arrived at the home of Lazaros where Marta opened the door to them.
She cried out with joy and threw her arms around Jesus.
“Gone too long, gone too long,” she said. “And now here we are, all together again.”
“And he has returned with friends,” Lazaros clapped his hands.
“And so many!” said Marta.
“Well, never fear, there is much room here.”
She embraced Mary and Rachel and welcomed Photine and Miriamne into her house, and an after Sabbath feast was being prepared, and while Marta went about making sure everyone was served, she learned or confirmed the stories she had heard of Jesus in Jerusalem, and also about his wanderings in Samaria and his expulsion from Nazareth.
“It is not true that he healed no one in Nazareth,” Seth said. “He healed a few.”
“But there was little faith there,” John said, and Seth nodded.
The night gathering was turning into a party, and the doors of the house were open so that once news of Jesus’s arrival had spread, many came, and some had spent the entirety of the holy day in the study of the Torah. While bread was baking and meat was roasting, an expert in the Law stood up and said, “Rabbi, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
John expected to Jesus to lannch into one of his strange speeches about water and blood and bread from heaven, but instead, Jesus turned to him, raising an eyebrow.
“What is written in the Law?” the man continued.
Jesus replied. “How do you read it?”
The man in his phylacteries wound about his wrist, and his black and red robes, answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’”
Then he added, “And ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Jesus, who was sitting agains a pillar with one leg outstretched. and the other steepled, played with his big toe and commented:
“You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.”
Marta entered with the serving women, pouring wine and, coming back with bread and steaming bowls of grain.
Meanwhile the man asked Jesus, “But Rabbi, who is my neighbor?”
Jesus did not answer right away. As Marta was departing, in fact, he saw coming down the steps, all in a white, loose gown, black hair all down her shoulders like a child or a vision, Magdalene. As she approached all eyes were on her, and as Marta came back with a jug of wine, she frowned a little while Mary promptly kissed Jesus, and then sat at his feet.
She placed her head on Jesus’s lap, and he sank his hand into her wealth of hair saying, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down the same road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
“So too, when a Levite came to that spot and saw him, he passed by on the other side. But when a Samaritan on a journey came upon him…”
“Here some frowned and the Samaritans who had come along clapped their hands together, laughing.
“When a Samaritan on a journey came along,” Jesus continued, “he looked at him and had compassion. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
“The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Take care of him,’ he said, ‘and on my return I will repay you for any additional expense.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
Looking about the room that was crowded with so many faces, the lawyer murmured, “Lord, the one who showed him mercy,”
Jesus nodded.
“Go and do likewise.”
It was about this time, as the man was standing against the pillar, taking this lesson into himself, that Marta returned and looking at her sister, declared:
“Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me!”
Mary roused herself and sat up, a little embarrassed.
“But of course!” she said, and began to rise when Jesus’s hand brought her down again.
“Marta, Marta,” Jesus said in a very serene and half asleep voice, “you are worried and upset about many things.”
His left hand was on Mary’s shoulder and his right hand held Marta’s
“Only one thing is necessary,” Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”
“They would have killed me.”
“The people of Nazareth.”
“Aye,” Magdalene said.
“I had them,” Jesus said. “I had them, and then I pushed. I pushed and I turned them. It was like that in Jerusalem. That man, those crowds. I had them, and then I pushed. Why?”
“To test them for what they are,” Magdalene said. “Anyone turned so easily was never going to be true.”
“Maybe you’re right.”
“I am. You don’t always know yourself. But I do.”
“So little faith,” he shook his head. “And the violence in them, shown so quickly! They tried to kill me…”
“And yet they did not.”
“They did not.
“How late is it?”
“So late it’s almost morning,” Magdalene said as they walked together in the verdant courtyard, the fountain trickling in its center..
“Was it difficult for you?” he asked, “remaining here?”
“As difficult as it will be to remain here when you leave,” she said, “and you are leaving again. I know this.”
He sat down on the lip of the fountain, and Magdalene bent down, taking a small blade of grass which shone silver under the yellow moon in its cobalt sky.
“I went into the heart of Jewry,” he said, “and sent them all over the scattered towns of Israel. And then we went in Samaria.”
“And next you will go into the whole world.”
“I need to go to that temple again.”
“You don’t mean the one in Palmyra,” she said. “You mean the one I never saw.”
“The temple to the mystery of Eshmun. The son of God who rose and died.
“I…” he shook his head, “I believe that what I am and who I am to the whole world I will find it outside of our people’s lands. I must return to the temple.”
Mary nodded and Jesus said, “Do you know the Romans even have a song about the child who will be born to free them all, the child whose coming will change the nature to things?”
“No!”
“All the world knows the legend,” he said as she sat down beside him with a small bundle of snowdrops.
“But the legend must be born in time.”
“And must you be the one through whom it is born?”
Jesus nodded, not looking entirely pleased.
“I think I must.”
