Jesus On Mars

by Philip José Farmer

  Miryam ate with them, but she served herself. .She ate quickly and sparingly and left to shop in the market before the men were halfway through their meal.

  While eating bread and honey, Jesus said, 'I had expected that all four of you would have asked that you be admitted into the Fellowship of the Sons of Light. That is, as Hebrews. But so far you have made no request. What is it that holds you back? Hardness of heart?'

  He chewed, swallowed, then said, 'Or is it that you are still unconvinced that I am indeed the Messiah? And that my powers are only seeming, that, in fact, I am tricking you?'

  The food in Orme's stomach seemed to transmute into a lump of iron. He wished that that serious subject could have been avoided so that he could enjoy the meal. There was, however, no way to avoid this. He didn't have the courage to tell Jesus that he would prefer another time for this subject.

  'Three of us are firmly convinced that your demonstration was valid,' he said. 'One is still trying to rationalise, but...'

  'That is the woman, Madeleine Danton.'

  It was not a question,

  'Yes. May I ask how you know?'

  'I know the souls of all of you.'

  'Then,' Orme said, greatly daring, 'you shouldn't have to ask what hinders us.'

  'I know your souls, that is, your characters, but I cannot, or will not, read minds.'

  'I think,' Orme said slowly, 'that we've hesitated because we've been raised in different religions. None of which have prepared us for what we've found here. In fact, what we were taught to believe is so different, so contrary to the situation here, that... uh... we find it hard to accept. It'd be easier, I think, to accept something totally alien to our beliefs. But here... some things are exactly what our religions said they would be. But, others... well, they contradict... if you see what I mean.'

  'They shouldn't. Hfathon says that Bronski told him that your scholars have known for a long time that your holy texts are full of interpolations, of pious frauds, and that many of your dogmas are based on misinterpretations, deliberate or otherwise. That your holy texts contain contradictions that can only be reconciled by the most desperate and illogical rationalisations.'

  'Yes, but very few people know of these. Or want to know. I'll have to admit that I was one of them.'

  'And still are,' Jesus said.

  He sipped on his wine, then said, 'Bronski has also spoken of the Antichrist. Perhaps that worries you. I don't understand the references fully, so we've requested an Earth government, your Canada, to transmit to us the full text of this book you call the New Testament. In the original Greek, of course.'

  Orme thought, what a sensation that must've made! Jesus Christ asking for a copy of the Gospels!

  'We've also requested that the nation of Israel transmit to us the full text of the sacred writing of the Jews. We will compare these to ours.'

  A cat, russet-coloured, long-legged, long-eared, and with some tiger markings on face, legs, and tail, strolled in. It meowed, then jumped up on Jesus's lap. He stroked it while, purring, it fixed its golden eyes upon Orme.

  Jesus smiled as if he was enjoying a private joke, and he said, 'Of course, it is possible that I am not what I claim to be. I could be this Antichrist whom the man you call John the Divine wrote about. By the way, could he be that Yokhanan who was one of my twelve disciples?'

  Orme cleared his throat. 'It is generally believed that he was. But Bronski said that there is no proof.'

  'It doesn't matter. From the quotations given by Bronski, it's a superbly poetic apocalyptic vision. John was obviously symbolising the Roman Empire when he talked about the seven-headed beast and the great whore of Babylon. And he just as obviously expected the coming of the Messiah and the days of judgement in his own lifetime. But then so did I.

  'However, that is beside the point, though interesting. What about this Antichrist? If I should be he, then there also has to be a Christ, a Messiah. Do you believe that there is indeed a Christ? Or do you, in your heart of hearts, think that he, too, is a myth?'

  'No,' Orme said huskily, 'I don't believe that. I do believe in Jesus Christ, my saviour, mankind's redeemer.'

  'Good. So... I could be his great antagonist.'

  Jesus was smiling as if he was enjoying this dialogue immensely.

  'Let us consider other possibilities. Is the Antichrist this devil, this Satan, to which the New Testament refers so often, according to Bronski?'

  Orme cleared his throat and drank some more wine to relieve the dryness.

  'Not as I understand it. The Antichrist will be a mere man, but he will be directed by the Devil.'

  'This Devil, as I understand it, is a fallen angel, whose name was Lucifer in English. The word is derived from Latin and means Light-Bringer or Light-Bearer. Correct?'

  'Yes.'

  'The Hebrew holy writings include the Book of Job. In this, Lucifer is only one of the angels, though a chief one, and he is not evil. He's a temporary prosecuting attorney chosen to argue against Job's case. It is you so-called Christians who have made him into a fallen angel, a being with horns and hoofs and a tail.'

  'That's an old folk legend,' Orme said. 'Nobody nowadays really believes that he has horns and all that.'

  'The point is that you Christians had to have an evil force which was almost as powerful as God. That's an idea which was probably borrowed from the Persians, by the way. Thus, much of the evil in the world could be attributed to him. But it is obvious that man does not have to be influenced by a spirit to be evil. His evil is sufficient unto himself. There are spirits, angels, but these are not evil.

  'Suppose, though, that I am Satan. What would I be doing on Mars? Why, I would be preparing an evil force to invade Earth and completely subdue it. Thus, evil would reign there, my enemies would be slain, and I would have established a worldwide kingdom which worships only evil. Although, from what I've heard of Earth, I'm not sure that Satan doesn't rule there now.'

  Jesus laughed, startling the cat on his lap. He soothed it with a few strokes between its ears.

  'Look about you. Can you truly believe that the Martians are an evil people and that I am Satan?

  'Of course, I could still be the Antichrist, and the goodness here is only a facade, a reasonable facsimile.

  'But there are other possibilities. Let's imagine some of them. What about something that could, scientifically speaking, possibly exist? Nothing of the supernatural about it, though it can't be proved, at this time, that it is in the realm of the natural. As if the Creator wasn't natural, though he is at the same time outside of Nature.

  'Let us say that, during its interstellar exploring, the Krsh spaceship stopped on a planet that seemed to hold no life. This was somewhat larger than Earth, and its sun was considerably larger than Sol. A blue giant. In fact, the Krsh did land on such a planet.

  'Let us say that, though there was no life as we know it on this planet, the Krsh instruments did detect strange electromagnetic phenomena. These roamed the surface of the planet in seemingly random pattern. In actuality, they were moved by winds. The electromagnetic winds from the blue giant.

  'Let us say that the Krsh never knew the true nature of these phenomena. They tried to capture some but were unable.

  'Let us imagine that these electromagnetic phenomena were actually sentient beings. They were composed of pure energy fields which were as complex as human beings and just as intelligent. In some respects, they were more intelligent. They did not have a society as we know it, but they had one. They communicated with each other, they had a language, the words would be transceived modulated pulses of electromagnetic frequency.

  'Let us say that one of these was possessed of immense curiosity. Instead of fleeing the strange forms of life that had landed on its planet, it investigated. And it found, through experimentation, that it could possess the body of one of the strangers, or not so much possess it as integrate with it. This led to its being able not only to share its intellect and its emotions but to become, in e
ffect, its host. And it was able to take over control of the host without the host being aware of it.'

  Jesus laughed again and took another sip of wine.

  'Interesting speculation, isn't it? So, it also discovered that it could mutate its own energy fields so that it could resemble exactly any of the strangers. Its companions would not be able to tell the difference. To them, the facsimile was no different from the rest of them or any different than he had been before.

  'Of course, the facsimile or the possessed would have to exhibit the same limitations as any person. He couldn't walk on water or float through! the air or repair damaged cells with a touch of the finger. Or bring life back to the dead. If he did that, he might raise questions, cause doubts, and initiate an investigation. The Krsh were not your ignorant superstitious men of Earth of that time. They wouldn't accept these strange powers as suddenly given by the Creator. They might have suspected the truth. If they had, they would have used their delicate instruments and found a troubling electromagnetism that no Krsh would have radiated.

  'However, before long the possessor learned this, and it was able to confine the radiation so that there would be no chance of detection.

  'But why not reveal itself to the Krsh? Would they harm it? It didn't seem likely, since the Krsh were a peaceful folk. They would allow it to spend time in the atomic reactor that provided the fuel for the drive of the ship. You see, this energy being was like every other living thing. It had to have food, and it got this from radioactivity. It could absorb, or digest, but it did not have to excrete. It used one hundred per cent of the energy taken in.'

  Orme muttered, 'The sun.'

  'You mean the globe that floats in this cavern. Yes, it is fuelled by an atomic reactor, though it is used much more efficiently than those on your world. This would explain why I spend so much time in the sun. I am renewing my being in more ways than one. That is, it would explain it if I were indeed this being. But this is, of course, pure speculation. I am amusing myself and, I hope, you, too.

  'Let's say that this being decided not to reveal itself yet. It had to know the strangers much better before it took a chance. So, it left its host from time to time to reside in the reactor of the ship. And it occupied all the Krsh, one by one, before the ship had reached Earth. It came to know its hosts well, better than they knew themselves. It was able eventually to read the unconscious minds of the Krsh.

  'Just as I, if I were indeed that being, could read your unconscious. But I, if I were this thing, wouldn't do so now. You see, becoming my hosts, I also became human. And I find the trip into the unconscious very disturbing. It's a nasty place down there, my son. Of course, I'm still imagining this; I'm speaking as if I were indeed this hypothetical creature.

  'Now, on to the adventures of this pure energy-being that became human. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, this being developed a human conscience. It couldn't escape it, since it became a man. All the Krsh were highly ethical and so it, too, became highly ethical. Moral problems, which not only never had been its concern but which it never had heard of before, now occupied its thoughts.

  'Was it moral to occupy the body of another sentient being and control it? The answer was that it was not. Was it moral to just live in a host and leave the free will actions up to its host? The answer was that it was moral. But as a guest in another's body, it was a parasite and a very bored one. It wished to control the body, to direct it so it, too, could act as a free-will agent. But it couldn't because that would be evil.

  'Nor would it momentarily convert its energy into matter and so assume the likeness of one of the Krsh. To reveal its presence now would cause all sorts of consternation. And if the Krsh found that it had been taking over their bodies and minds, they might decide that it was too dangerous. And, being intelligent and highly scientific, they could find means to destroy it. Or if not, to hurl it into space and leave it behind.'

  Jesus, still smiling, paused. 'You don't seem to be enjoying your meal. Miryam is an excellent cook, so it can't be the food.'

  Orme said, 'It's very good. I was so fascinated that I forgot to eat.'

  He cut a slice of mutton and began chewing. But the meat seemed to have lost its taste.

  Jesus said, 'And then the ship came to Earth. As you know, it was there for three years. The energy-being thought about staying there and letting the Krsh go on without it. But it really was a horrible place from the viewpoint of the Krsh and from mine, since I was now a Krsh. The terrible plagues: leprosy, gonorrhoea, smallpox, and the rest. The horrible conditions in which most people lived. The wars, the massacres, the stupid laws, the hatreds, the plight of the children, need I go on?

  'And yet I grieved for them and would have liked to change their condition. The Krsh themselves had plans for coming back some day and introducing their science, their technology, and their society. But there were those who said that to give these bloodthirsty savages the means of making weapons would result only in more horrors.

  'Finally, the electromagnetic being decided to return with the Krsh to their native planet. It would become a Krsh and Jive among them as one. This wouldn't be easy, since the Krsh had records of every citizen, and the sudden appearance of an unaccounted one would cause an investigation. Perhaps it could form the body of a just-dead Krsh, get rid of it, a thing easily done, and take his or her place.

  'The ship finally left Earth. Among those humans on it were Matthias and some of his fellow Hebrews. They talked much of this Yeshua' the Messiah, the Anointed of the Merciful One. The Hebrews were successful in converting their fellow Terrestrials to their religion, but they didn't get any place with the Krsh.

  'And then an idea came to the being. It would form a body which exactly mimicked that of the dead Jesus. And, as Jesus, it would announce that he had decided to go with the Krsh to their world and preach there. And some day he would return to Earth, to Jerusalem itself, and establish the new state of Zion as foretold, though somewhat ambiguously, In the book you call the Old Testament and the New Testament.'

  Orme cleared his throat again and said, 'Pardon me, Rabbi, but wouldn't this be unethical?'

  Jesus chewed on a piece of bread and honey for a moment.

  'Yes, in one sense. But this being saw a way to make the people of Earth healthy and happy. So, the higher ethics, the higher law, won.'

  'I've heard that before,' Orme murmured.

  'Ah, you mean evil people talk about the higher law to justify their evil actions? That is true, but there is no doubt about the validity of this particular reasoning. Nor would the thing, as Jesus, have used force and violence to bring about this Land of Beulah on Earth. These would, unfortunately, result in war. But then, as I once said, "I bring a sword, not peace." The peace comes later.'

  'And then?' Orme said. 'I mean, what happened then on the ship?'

  'You have seen what happened. The Sons of Darkness trailed the Krsh vessel, and the Krsh had to dig into Mars. The rest you know.'

  'Not entirely, Rabbi,' Orme said. There is much that I've not been told. Perhaps much that has been deliberately concealed. Anyway, why have you waited so long for the... uh, millennium? To return to Earth? Surely, after a hundred years or maybe even before, the Krsh could have gone back to Earth?'

  'Yes. But they did not number many. And the humans had to integrate with the Krsh, and the faith had to be well established. Besides, a quick return would have found the Earth people in the same situation as when the Krsh left them. But the Krsh said that in time the Terrestrials would advance in science and perhaps in humane institutions. They would be at a stage where the Martian science and technology and institutions could be both readily understood and assimilated.

  'Then, too, they did what this being who called himself Jesus told them to do. He said that when the time to return came, they would know it. That time, as foretold by Matthias, would be when the Earthmen came to Mars.

  'It is possible that the being named Jesus hinted to Matthias what he should predict.'<
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  There was silence for a while. Jesus finished his breakfast, and then he said, 'Let us give thanksgiving to our Creator for this food.'

  Orme scarcely listened to the Hebrew prayer. Was this man putting him on? Was he just having fun? Or...?

  Jesus rose and said, 'We can talk a little more. Then I must ask you to leave since I have business to attend to.'

  They went into the front room. Jesus sat down in a large overstuffed chair. Orme took a seat on a sofa.

  Jesus church-steepled his fingers, and said, 'There are other speculations, too. Suppose, for instance, that it was not an energy-being that possessed a Krsh when they were on the planet of the blue star. Suppose that, when they were on the planet of the hominids, some other creature possessed a Krsh. This would not be an energy being but some strange form of parasitical life, a loathsome slug. This creature has the ability to infiltrate the body of another being, to reside within its tissues much like a worm. But it can take over the brain of a sentient being and become, in a sense, sentient itself. And this creature has then followed much the same route that I outlined for the energy being, though perhaps with evil intent.'

  'But that theory wouldn't account for its powers.'

  'I suggest that this sluglike thing also had the ability to tap the potentialities of a human being, potentialities that human beings don't themselves realise they have. Not as yet, anyway. I keep telling them, and they refuse to believe.’

  'Which of these stories is true, Rabbi?'

  Jesus, his dark eyes seeming to blaze as if they were glass windows of a hot furnace, spoke loudly.

  'You have heard the truth, and you have seen it! I tell you, son of man, that this son of man has revealed everything needful to you! You do not have much time to decide the path to salvation!'