“He speaks truth—that one,” a man in the crowd said to another. “Look at the Pharisee there.” He pointed toward Elam. “See how he flinches.”
“You lie!” Elam shouted, but when the men around the speaker began to move toward him, he tried to push his way through the crowd to escape them.
“I am going to the high priest,” he shouted at them. “He must silence this—this Galilean!”
Before the men could reach Elam, Jonas managed to place himself and the mule in their path so that they were blocked from his former master. Meanwhile, as if in answer to Elam, the voice from the temple porch continued. “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whited sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. You also outwardly appear righteous to men but within are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.”
A murmur from the crowd drowned out the speaker’s words for a moment, and Jonas pushed forward in order to hear, holding Eleazar’s lead rope in his hand. When once again the voice of the Nazarene came to his ears, it was now a cry of pain more poignant than any Jonas had ever heard.
“You serpents! You generation of vipers! How can you escape the damnation of hell? O Jerusalem! O Jerusalem! That kills the prophets and stones them who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left desolate, for I say to you, you shall not see Me henceforth till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”
The voice stopped speaking and shortly afterward the Nazarene and His disciples appeared at the head of the temple stairs, moving in a compact group. As Jesus passed, Jonas was startled to see how ravaged His face had become since He had seen Him a few days before on the road leading into Jerusalem. The group passed several paces from where Jonas stood and he heard one of the disciples comment on the richness of the temple buildings.
Jesus did not pause but His voice was heard by hundreds who stood in the street or followed Him down the steps. “Truly I say to you,” He declared, “there shall not be left here one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down.”
Then He was gone and the crowd swirled after Him.
With the street somewhat less jammed than before, Jonas was now able to see Veronica again and he moved toward where she sat on her mule, the basket of vases in her lap.
“Shalom, Jonas,” she said, and when he brought Eleazar alongside she reached out to scratch the old animal’s ears. “I see you sold your load today.”
“Only two this week, and both at half price.”
“I haven’t done much better,” she admitted, looking down at her vases. “There is so much excitement over Jesus that nobody wants to buy. The merchants are grumbling everywhere that He will ruin their business if He stays in Jerusalem any longer.”
“He sounded just now as if He were leaving for good.
“You heard how He overturned the chests of the money-changers and the booths of those who sell animals, didn’t you?”
Jonas nodded. “The people are excited now, but I have seen them this way over others who called themselves prophets. When the Nazarene leaves, it will be the same. The Pharisees will oppress us with the Law and the publicans will collect the temple tribute, with something to spare for their own purposes. Nobody helps the poor, Veronica, nobody but themselves.”
“I think Jesus will help them. You heard what He said just now about the Pharisees?”
“Yes. But the only difference between Him and the others is that He doesn’t seem to be afraid to say what we all think.”
Veronica laughed, and just then Jonathan came running down the steps of the temple. “The guards are dispersing the crowd,” he cried. “We must get out of the way.”
Jonas pulled on the lead rope to get Eleazar away from the commotion that now was boiling around the steps of the temple. Veronica waved to him as she and Jonathan disappeared down the street.
Abiathar’s burly figure appeared at the head of a party of guards, pushing a rabble of beggars and others down the steps. “Get back, you vermin!” he shouted. “Don’t keep honest people from the temple!” Cries of anger and indignation sounded on every side but the crowd moved under the impetus of the temple guards, no one wanting to be the first to feel the prick of a sword point.
“He must be going to arrest the prophet,” Jonas said half to himself and half to the mule. “I knew Elam would not let Him go unpunished.”
Zadok came swinging his deformed body along the street with his powerful arms and spitting vituperation at the guards. His eyes were bright and his sallow face was flushed with excitement.
“Abiathar is driving out the beggars because they listened to the Nazarene!” he cried. “Put me on the mule, Jonas, before the crowds trample me under foot.”
Jonas tugged at the cripple’s body until he could get his hands on Eleazar’s back and swing himself up. “Are they going to arrest the prophet?” he asked.
Zadok shook his head vigorously. “Not now. The people would tear the guards to pieces. But they will take Him right enough. After what He said about the scribes and the Pharisees! Abiathar will do it at night; that is Caiaphas’s way.”
The guards had reached the street level now and were driving the beggars and onlookers before them. “Off with you!” Abiathar shouted. “The temple is no place for thieves and beggars! Clear the streets!”
“The Nazarene was talking about you, Abiathar!” Zadok screeched from his vantage point on Eleazar’s back. “You whitewashed tomb filled with dead men’s bones!”
The captain of the guard wheeled, sword in hand. “You’ll feel my sword, impudent scoundrel,” he roared, then saw who it was that had spoken. “So it is you, half-man? I should have known.”
“Take a word of advice from a friend, Abiathar,” Zadok called. “Leave the Nazarene alone or the Galileans will gut you the way they do the fish!”
“You don’t scare me, you freak,” Abiathar said contemptuously. “We’ll take care of the Galilean in good time.” He looked at Jonas. “You there, woodseller. Keep better company if you want to stay out of trouble.”
The crowd had scattered now. “I might as well ride home with you, Jonas,” Zadok said. “Beggars will get little more today.”
As they moved through the streets, the cripple chattered happily, for his nimble tongue was rarely silent long. “Abiathar is worried. I could see it in those pig’s eyes of his. And that means Caiaphas is worried too. This Nazarene is a brave man—and a foolish one—to speak out against all of them at once. Now the Pharisees will join the priests in seeking to kill Him.”
They reached the beggars’ warrens outside the gate without incident. Across the Kedron Valley Jonas could see a small party of men ascending the slope of the Mount of Olives toward the public garden called Gethsemane. It was common knowledge that the Nazarene spent the night at the house of Lazarus surrounded by the Galileans who served as his bodyguard, but the lovely garden of Gethsemane was not far off the road to Bethany. Zadok went into his own hovel while Jonas busied himself rubbing Eleazar down with a piece of cloth and a little oil. The old mule’s coat was getting thin from age and his skin tended to become irritated. While he worked, Jonas talked, half to the mule and half to himself, as he often did when the two were alone together.
“Only two loads of wood sold this week, old friend,” he said. “We’ll both be hungry at this rate.”
Eleazar twitched an ear as if he were listening intently.
“Everything the Nazarene said was true,” the woodseller continued. “The Pharisees are self-righteous and the priests are fat and prosperous from what the sellers and the money-changers pay for letting them cheat the pilgrims. But nobody ever does anything for people like us.”
The r
ubdown completed, Jonas poured a measure of grain and gave it to the mule. “I’ll be glad when the Passover is over and the Prophet goes back to Galilee,” he continued. “Though I can’t help wishing He would heal Veronica and let her walk again.” He glanced toward the doorway of Zadok’s hovel and saw that the legless man was sitting there, munching bread and goat’s-milk cheese with a few dates. “They say He raised Lazarus from the dead, so He might even be able to heal Zadok.”
The cripple popped out of his hovel, his eyes wide with indignation. “I heard that, hunchback,” he said. “Keep your prayers for yourself, or for those that are asking for help.”
“I only said it would be nice if Jesus of Nazareth would heal Veronica—and you, too.”
“Why should I want to be healed?” Zadok snapped. “What do I want that I don’t have?”
“But—”
“I have what money I want. People give it to me so I won’t put a curse on them. I have food and a house to live in.”
“But if you could be whole—”
“Then I would have to work as you do, or go hungry because I was too proud to beg. That way I would be nobody, but as I am, everybody knows Zadok the half-man. Even Abiathar is afraid of me.”
“I never thought of that,” Jonas admitted.
“That’s why the people will never really follow the Nazarene,” Zadok said. “He wants to change everything and most of them are satisfied with things as they are.”
II
Judas of Kerioth was troubled as he followed Jesus and the others across the bridge spanning the Brook Kedron that flowed between Jerusalem proper and the Mount of Olives. Its waters were turbulent from the winter rains and heavily tinged with red from the blood of the sacrifices which were sluiced off through an opening beneath the great altar and directed by way of a tiled drain down beneath the temple and into the stream. The others, he knew, were excited by the forthright way in which Jesus had attacked His enemies that afternoon, but Judas was not sure that the Master’s actions had been what they all considered them to be, a prelude to the final assumption of authority tomorrow or the next day. These were the only remaining days before the Passover itself, when any such action would be unthinkable.
Judas could not forget that last anguished cry of Jesus, “You shall not see Me henceforth, till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” If this meant that Jesus would not return until the chief priests and the Pharisees named Him the Son of Man and welcomed Him to the city, then, Judas was convinced, the cause was already lost.
That Jesus could still be proclaimed Messiah and King in Jerusalem, Judas did not question for a moment. But it would have to be with such a blinding manifestation of glory and power that even the high priest could not deny His identity any longer. And Judas had seen no sign that Jesus intended any such thing. Nor did he see it now as the Master came to the Garden of Gethsemane where He loved to stop and pray for a while in the early evening before passing around the shoulder of the mountain to Bethany. Jesus was still sad as He gathered those He loved most around Him, and Judas had never seen His face so ravaged by pain and grief as now.
Simon Peter asked the question that was foremost in the minds of all of them. “Tell us what shall be the sign of Your coming and of the end of the world?” he asked, meaning the world of Rome and Israel as it existed then and the new glory of the kingdom in which Jesus would rule as Christ and King.
“Take heed that you are not deceived,” Jesus answered somberly. “For many shall come in My name saying, ‘I am Christ, and the time draws near.’ Do not follow after them, but when you shall hear of wars and commotions, be not terrified, for these things must first come to pass. The end is not by and by, but nation shall rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. And great earthquakes shall be in divers places and famines and pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.
“Before all these,” He warned, “they shall lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and into prisons, to be brought before kings and rulers for My name’s sake. And it shall turn to you for a testimony.
“Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate before what you shall answer,” He advised them, “for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist. And you shall be betrayed both by parents and brethren and kinsfolk and friends. Some of you they shall cause to be put to death, and you shall be hated of all men for My name’s sake, but not a hair of your head shall perish. In your patience possess your souls and when you shall see Jerusalem encompassed with armies, then know that its desolation is nigh.
“Then let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains,” He continued, “and let them who are in the midst of it depart, and let not them that are in the countries enter into it. For these will be days of vengeance that all things which are written may be fulfilled. There shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled.”
The disciples could not believe He was speaking other than in the form of a parable, for Jerusalem with the shining golden dome of the temple lay in full view across the Valley Kedron, the softened rays of the setting sun giving it a beauty which it possessed perhaps at only one other time, with the coming of the dawn. It was incredible that this lovely city, which they devoutly believed He would tomorrow choose as His own, could be destroyed and that they should undergo the tortures He had described.
Now His voice changed and He began to teach them with a true parable.
“Behold the fig tree and all the trees,” He said, the sweep of His hand taking in the wooded slope of the garden and the green of the olive and fig trees. “When they shoot forth you see and know of your own selves that summer is near at hand. So likewise when you see these things come to pass, know you that the kingdom of God is near at hand.
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom,” He told them. “Five of them were wise and five foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps but no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slept and at midnight there was a cry, ‘Behold, the bridegroom comes! Go out to meet him.’
“Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps and the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.’ But the wise answered saying, ‘Not so, lest there not be enough for us and you. Go to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.’
“While they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came; saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I know you not.’
“Watch therefore,” He counseled them, “for you know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man comes. Then shall the King say to them on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave Me meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me drink. I was a stranger and you took Me in. Naked and you clothed Me. I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
“And the righteous shall answer Him saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and fed You? Or thirsty and gave You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in? Or naked and clothed You? When did we see You sick or in prison and came to You?’ The King will answer them, ‘Inasmuch as you have done it to one of the least of these My brothers, you have done it to Me.’
“Then He shall say also to them on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his ange
ls. For I was hungry and you gave Me no meat. I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink. I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
“Then shall they also answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to You?’ And He shall answer them saying, ‘Inasmuch as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to Me.’ And they shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous shall go into life eternal.”
For a moment after He finished speaking, Jesus’ eyes were fixed upon the beautiful city where the lights of evening were now beginning to wink into being. Finally He rose to His feet and said almost matter-of-factly, “You know that after two days is the feast of the Passover and the Son of Man is betrayed to be crucified.”
Without saying more, He left the garden and started along the path that joined the road leading to Bethany. The disciples were somber as they followed Him. Although they did not understand His words, they could not help but know from His manner that He had been warning them against some awful tribulation which was soon to occur, something very different from their own plans for the remaining days of the Passover season.
III
It was already growing dark when they left the garden and no one noticed that Judas did not immediately follow the party but remained behind. In the now empty and silent garden, he was alone as he considered Jesus’ actions that day and the words He had just spoken concerning His coming death.
As keeper of the purse, Judas had been largely concerned with the mundane affairs of Jesus’ ministry; he had never really understood its spiritual aspects. Like others, he had been thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom in which Jesus would rule Israel as the Messiah, with political, as well as spiritual, control over the nation. And to a man who had grown up in the little Judean village of Kerioth, the prospect of controlling the purse strings for the entire kingdom had seemed almost breathtaking in its implications. He had seized upon it eagerly when given an opportunity to become one of the disciples, and on occasion had not hesitated to help himself to the common purse.
The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Page 36