Chapter Twenty-One
LIFE
In the morning he left Sepphoris. They spent the whole day in almost silence, journeying to Bethsaida and, at last, came into the home of Ada and Simon Peter. There Jesus was shut away the whole day, and would not come out until the next morning. He let it be known he was at prayer and would not be disturbed. The crowds were gathering, and though Judas and John guarded the door, they allowed in Magdalene and Binah. They knew they had better.
Jesus sat cross legged on the ground in his old dirty robe, and Magdalene carried a great package with her which now, kneeling before him, she lay before him.
“The wedding feast is ended,” she said, opening the package to reveal a bright red fabric.
“The time to unite heaven to earth is come,” Binah said, and revealed a bolt of deep cobalt blue.
“You have received the baptisms of men,” Magdalene said, “now receive that of women.”
And she and Binah, and Susanna and Joanna, and Mary and Salome, and Rachel and Ada, Ahinoam and the mother of Matthew and Alphaeus as well, took Jesus out of the house and they marched before him in a line which none interrupted, and they took him to the women’s baths, to the place no man dared enter, and while he was in them, there rose up a chant while the disciples and the people watched from without, and within they heard the splashing of water, water poured upon water, the sound of sheers on hair grown too unkempt, too long.
A chorus of priestesses, they sang:
Who is this coming from Edom,
from Bozrah with crimson-stained garments?
Who is this robed in splendor,
marching in the greatness of His strength?
“It is I, proclaiming vindication,
mighty to save.”
Why are Your clothes red,
and Your garments like one who treads the winepress?
“I have trodden the winepress alone,
and no one from the nations was with Me.
I trampled them in My anger
and trod them down in My fury;
their blood spattered My garments,
and all My clothes were stained.
For the day of vengeance was in My heart,
and the year of My redemption had come.
And now, from the bath house Jesus emerged, followed by women chanting, and he wore a bright blood red robe of scarlet, and draped over him was a great mantle of rich blue, and Magdalene and Binah lifted it over his head. As he processed into the heart of the street, they sang:
“I looked, but there was no one to help;
I was appalled that no one assisted.
So My arm brought Me salvation,
and My own wrath upheld Me.
I trampled the nations in My anger;
in My wrath I made them drunk
and poured out their blood on the ground.”
And then, before them all, Jesus cried out:
“I will make known the LORD’s loving devotion
and His praiseworthy acts,
because of all that the LORD has done for us—
the many good things for the house of Israel
according to His great compassion and loving devotion.
For He said, “They are surely My people,
sons who will not be disloyal.”
So He became their Savior.
In all their distress, He too was afflicted,
and the Angel of His Presence saved them.
In His love and compassion He redeemed them;
He lifted them up and carried them
all the days of old.”
Voice ragged as a crow, he cried:
“But they rebelled
and grieved His Holy Spirit.
So He turned and became their enemy,
and He Himself fought against them.”
And then, in the silence, as the women fell to their knees, and even the disciples went to their faces, Jesus shouted:
“I have come to ignite a fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!
“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth?” he railed.
“No, I tell you, but division. From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
“Make every effort to enter through the narrow door! For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able. After the master of the house gets up and shuts the door, you will stand outside knocking and saying, ‘Lord, open the door for us.’ But he will reply, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’ And he will answer, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evildoers.’”
And he went on, raising his arms and those voluminous red sleeves.
“There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves are thrown out.”
There were Romans in the crowd, the Centurion Lintellus, Sebastian, Rufus, Simon whom he had fished with and eaten forbidden shellfish.
“People will come from east and west and north and south,” he declared, “and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God. And indeed, some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”
“Leave this place!” some men about Jairus shouted.
“Leave, Lord! Get away!”
Sebastian felt the same way. His heart burned for this beautiful Jesus, so different from John in the desert, so different from the grey robed man he had met, and yet filled with the same fire.
“Leave!” Jairus’s wife, Leah, cried. She was glad when he was gone north, happy to hear of his deeds from afar where he thrived in safety.
“Leave, because Herod wants to kill You.”
But this new Jesus, this thunderous lord of blood and storm laughed out loud.
“Herod? Herod? Herod!” he shouted, “Herod, killer of men and destroyer of men who feasts on the dreams of the dead! Herod!
“When you see him, if you hear from him, go tell that fox, ‘Look, I will keep driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ Nevertheless, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.”
And while breaths were sucked in, Jesus continued, wailing:
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! Look, your house is left to you desolate. And I tell you that you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
If they wanted a sign that Jesus was the Messiah and, what was more unspeakable, the Son of God, then the greatest proof was how in those frantic days before he went south, much like God, he seemed to be everywhere.
Some told of how he and the disciples sailed across the Sea of Galilee to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus stepped ashore, he was met by a demon-possessed man from the town. Some, though, said he met two, but isn’t one enough? At any road, for a long time this man had not worn clothes or lived in a house, but had lived in the tombs. When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torture me!”
Jesus had commanded the impure spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was chained hand and foot and kept under guard, he had broken his chains and had been driven by the demon into solitary places.
Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” and he replied, “Legion,” because many demons had gone into him. They begged Jesus repeatedly not to order them to go into the Abyss. There was a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside, and the demons begged Jesus to let them go into the pigs, and he said yes. Now, everyone agrees, and the story had been told many times how, eyes flashing with lightning, those poor squealing hogs raced down the steep bank into the lake and drowned screaming.
The disciples and Jesus were all horrified, and standing there in his red and blue he may have wondered how wise it was to have mercy on demons, who by now were certainly in the Abyss, and none on the herdsman or the animals they’d lost. When those herdsmen ran back into the town, the people came out to see what had happened and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind. Quite justifiably they asked Jesus to leave them, and he obliged.
It is said the man from whom the demons had gone begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.”
And so he did.
But they also tell that on his way home, a storm that turned the skies a sick green and the waters into high glass green waves took the Galilee and the boat rose and fell, terrifying the disciples while Jesus slept sound as Jonah in the bow of the ship, and then they woke him, terrified, and he stood up, shouting at the wavs, “Peace be still!”
And so the water was calmed at once.
He now headed south, leading his Twelve and his more than twelve and their wives and their husbands and their children like a small army, blue mantle trailing over one arm while the sun burned on his red robe. By now, Malthace the daughter of Jairus was nearing a marriageable age, but still she walked at the side of Jesus, as did Benjamin and Mark who led the other little children of that whole group, including Jesus’s nephews and nieces by Rachel and Joses. So in this world where wise men had no patience for women and no time for children, people began bringing their babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When some of the disciples saw this, they rebuked those who brought them.
But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them! For the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”
Others told that either outside of Arimathea or some place along the Jordan, a certain prince of Israel asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Some said the one who asked was Nikodemous, but Nikodemos later said it never was.
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”
Even listening to this, John felt the princely young man was being tested, and he looked to Magdalene who nodded as if to say, “Yes, he is.”
But what the young man said was: “All these I have kept from my youth.”
And what Jesus said was, “You still lack one thing: Sell everything you own and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
John wondered on this. After all, Lazaros was a very rich man and this had never been asked of him or Marta. Matthew, who had no problem walking away from his life, and almost through it a compromise to give over his house to become a hotel for Jesus’s followers, thought it perfectly reasonable.
The young prince, though, became very sad because he was extremely wealthy.
Everyone agreed that Jesus said the next, though if he said it later in the night or as the man departed none seemed to remember.
Jesus had loved the man and he said, sadly, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”
“Who then can be saved?” some asked.
And Jesus said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
“Look,” said Peter, “we have left all we had to follow you.”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times more in this age—and in the age to come, eternal life.”
From town to town he marched, occasionally zigzagging, but largely heading south, gathering ever greater crowds, gathering the cobalt blue mantle about him.
In those days, Jesus took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything the prophets have written about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and insulted and spit upon. They will flog him and kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.”
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