The Last Days of Jesus

by Bill O'Reilly

  It is late afternoon when Jesus departs the temple courts in order to get back to Bethany before nightfall. Jesus and the disciples retrace their steps back out of Jerusalem, past the tent camps on the Mount of Olives—where trampled palm leaves and olive branches still litter the dirt road. Even though the crowds have made it clear that they wanted him to be their king and treated his arrival as a prelude to his coronation, Jesus has neither said nor done anything to lead Caiaphas or Pilate to believe that he is plotting a rebellion.

  CHAPTER 19

  “HOSANNA”

  MONDAY, APRIL 2, AD 30 JERUSALEM MORNING

  It is dawn. Jesus and the disciples are already on the move, walking purposefully from Bethany back into Jerusalem. The pandemonium of yesterday’s jubilant entry into that city still rings in Jesus’s ear. He was adored by the people as “Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee” when he dismounted at the city gates. It was a coronation of sorts, a celebration. But to the authorities, the spectacle was cause for great concern. Jerusalem hasn’t seen such a moment since Jewish rebels tried to capture the city in 4 BC and again ten years later. Those rebels, of course, paid for their actions with their lives.

  Jesus knows this, just as he knows that the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, and the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas, are constantly on the lookout for rebels and subversives. He is well aware that each received at least some word from spies and subordinates that Jesus had ridden into the city on a donkey, stirring up the Passover crowds.

  Jesus spots a fig tree. He and the twelve disciples are just outside Bethany, and Jesus has had little to eat this morning. He walks alone to the tree, hoping to pluck a piece of fruit, even though he knows that figs are out of season. Jesus searches the twisted branches, but sees only leaves. Jesus is annoyed at the tree. “May no one ever eat fruit from you again,” he says.

  The outburst is uncharacteristic, and the disciples take note.

  Once again, the group walks into Jerusalem and straight to the temple. It has been three years since Jesus turned over the money changers’ tables. No longer an unknown figure, Jesus of Nazareth is now famous. His every movement is watched, as the Pharisees wait for the vital slipup that will allow them to make an arrest. Pilgrims cluster around Jesus, too, including parents with their children in tow, just like Mary and Joseph with the young Jesus so many years ago. A substantial number of the crowd today are followers of Jesus.

  The little children begin cheering for Jesus. “Hosanna to the Son of David,” calls out a child.

  And then, as if it were a game, another child calls out the same thing. Soon, some in the crowd beg to be healed, right there in the temple. The Pharisees, as always, are watching. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” the chief priests and scribes call out indignantly to Jesus.

  More hosannas ring throughout the temple courts, shouted again and again by children.

  An ancient fig tree in a valley outside of Jerusalem. Drawing in ink by James Tissot, 19th century. [The Bridgeman Art Library]

  “Do you hear what these people are saying?” the chief priests repeat.

  “‘From the lips of children and infants, you, Lord, have called forth your praise,’” Jesus tells them, quoting from David.

  The religious leaders know the psalm well. It is a call for God to bask in the adoration of the children, then to rise up and strike hard at the powers of darkness who stand against him.

  If the Pharisees’ interpretation is correct, Jesus is actually comparing them to the forces of evil.

  But still they don’t motion for Jesus to be arrested. Nor do they try to stop him as he leaves the temple, trailed by his disciples.

  The sun is now setting, and the first cooking fires are being lit on the Mount of Olives. Jesus and the disciples once again make the long walk back to Bethany. For now, he is a free man.

  Six hundred years ago, when Jeremiah prophesied that the temple would be destroyed, he was punished by being lowered into an empty well. Jeremiah sank up to his waist in mud and was left to die.

  But the time of Jesus is different. He is not a lone man, but a revolutionary with a band of disciples and growing legion of followers. His outbursts in the temple were an aggressive act against the religious leaders rather than a passive prediction that it would one day fall. Jesus is now openly antagonistic toward temple authorities.

  At his home in the wealthy Upper City in Jerusalem, Caiaphas hears accounts of the temple crowds’ responses to Jesus. He realizes more fully just how dangerous Jesus has become.

  The threat must be squelched. As the temple’s high priest and the most powerful Jewish authority in the world, Caiaphas is bound by religious law to immediately take extreme measures against Jesus. “If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder,” reads the Book of Deuteronomy, “that prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the Lord your God.”

  Caiaphas knows that Jesus is playing a clever game by using the crowds as a tool to prevent his arrest. This is a game that Caiaphas plans to win. But to avoid the risk of becoming impure, he must move before sundown on Friday and the start of Passover.

  This is the biggest week of the year for Caiaphas. He has an extraordinary number of obligations and administrative tasks that must be tended to if the Passover celebration is to come off smoothly. Rome is watching him closely through the eyes of Pontius Pilate, and any sort of failure on the part of Caiaphas during this most vital festival might lead to his dismissal.

  But nothing matters more than silencing Jesus.

  Time is running out. Passover starts in four short days.

  CHAPTER 20

  “RENDER UNTO

  CAESAR…”

  TUESDAY, APRIL 3, AD 30 JERUSALEM MORNING

  Dawn breaks. The countdown to Passover continues as the citizens of Bethany are stirring. Inside Lazarus’s home, Jesus and his disciples wash their hands and eat their daily bread before setting out for another day in the temple courts.

  The group soon falls in alongside a line of travelers. Today Jesus will teach in the temple courts, and he has prepared a number of parables that will explain difficult theological issues in ways that even the most unread listener can understand.

  “Rabbi, look,” exclaims a disciple as they walk past the fig tree that Jesus searched for fruit yesterday. Its roots are shriveled. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” the disciple asks.

  “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer,” Jesus responds.

  The disciples will marvel at what happened to that simple tree for years to come. They will write about it with awe, even decades from now, and quote the two-sentence response of Jesus.

  As they draw close to Jerusalem, Jesus knows that a drama will unfold. He could sense it yesterday, when the religious leaders hovered at the fringe of every crowd, watching him intently as he interacted with his followers. These priests and Pharisees wear robes that are even more resplendent than normal this week, choosing their most colorful and expensive garments as a way of setting themselves apart from the drably dressed pilgrims. The priestly robes are a reminder that they are vital members of the temple, not mere visitors.

  Sandals found at the excavation site in Masada, Israel, from the 1st century AD. [The Bridgeman Art Library]

  Jesus, meanwhile, still clothes himself like an average Galilean. He wears his seamless tunic, and over it, a simple robe. Sandals protect his feet from sharp pebbles and sticks as he walks, but do little to keep off the dust. So the walk from Bethany down into Jerusalem often gives him an unwashed appearance in comparison to the Pharisees, many of whom have bathing facilities and ritual pools in their nearby homes. And while his accent might sound country within the confines of the city of Jerusalem, J
esus does nothing to hide his native tongue. If anything, it works to his advantage, for it so often leads the religious leaders to underestimate him as just another pilgrim from Galilee.

  Jesus and the disciples pass through the city gates. Their movements are now being closely tracked by the Roman spies and religious authorities, so their arrival is noted immediately. Jerusalem has grown louder and more festive with every passing day, as pilgrims continue to arrive from throughout the world. Voices speaking in Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Egyptian, and Hebrew now fill the air. The bleating of lambs is another constant, as shepherds bring tens of thousands of the small animals into the city to be sacrificed on Friday.

  Jesus enters the temple courts. He selects a spot in the shaded awnings of Solomon’s Porch and begins to teach.

  Jesus tells a parable about a wealthy landowner and his troublesome tenants. The summation is a line stating that the religious leaders will lose their authority and be replaced by others whose belief is more genuine.

  Then Jesus tells a second parable about heaven, comparing it to a wedding, with God as the father of the groom, preparing a luxurious banquet for his son’s guests. Again, the religious leaders are the subject of the final line, a barb about a guest who shows up poorly dressed and is then bound hand and foot and thrown from the ceremony. “For many are invited,” Jesus says of heaven, “but few are chosen.”

  Portrait of Augustus Caesar on a Roman coin from the 1st century BC. [The Bridgeman Art Library]

  A new group of temple priests has been sent to challenge Jesus. Aware that they’re unlikely to catch him in a theological misstatement, they now try to trick Jesus using politics. “What is your opinion?” they ask. “Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?”

  “Why are you trying to trap me?” Jesus seethes. He asks for someone to hand him a denarius. “Whose image is this?” he asks, holding up the coin. “And whose inscription?”

  “Caesar’s,” they answer.

  “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s,” Jesus tells them. “And to God what is God’s.”

  Again, the crowd is awed. Although Caesar is a feared name, Jesus has put Rome in its place without directly offending it. The brilliance of these words will last throughout the ages.

  Having failed in their mission, the group leaves. They are soon replaced by the Sadducees, a wealthy and more liberal temple sect who count Caiaphas among their numbers. Once again, they try to trick Jesus with a religious riddle, and once again they fail.

  Julius Caesar, a 19th-century engraving. [The Bridgeman Art Library]

  Soon the Pharisees step forward to take their turn. “Teacher,” asks their leader, a man known for being an expert in the law, “which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

  Under the teachings of the Pharisees, there are 613 religious statutes. Even though each carries a designation, marking it as either great or little, the fact remains that all must be followed. Asking Jesus to select one is a clever way of pushing him into a corner, making him defend his choice.

  But Jesus does not choose from one of the established laws. Instead, he articulates a new one: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”

  The Pharisees stand silent. How could anyone argue with that? Then Jesus goes on to add a second law: “Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

  Jesus has now defeated the sharpest minds in the temple. But he does not settle for victory and walk away. Instead, he turns and criticizes the priests in front of the pilgrims. “Everything they do is done for people to see,” he tells the crowd. “They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted in the marketplace and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.”

  Eventually Jesus departs the temple and will not be seen in public until the time of his arrest. On the way out, he seals his death sentence by predicting the destruction of the temple. “Do you see all these things?” he asks. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

  Jesus says these words to his disciples, but a Pharisee overhears. That statement will become a capital crime.

  A short time later, as darkness falls, Jesus sits atop the Mount of Olives. A week that began in this very spot with him weeping while astride a donkey now finds him reflective. With the disciples sitting at his side, Jesus speaks in parables so that they will understand the meaning of his words that tell them to live their lives to the fullest. The disciples listen with rapt fascination, but grow concerned as Jesus predicts that after his death, they also will be persecuted and killed. Perhaps to lessen that impact, he shares his thoughts on heaven and promises the disciples that God will reveal himself to them and the world.

  Mount of Olives seen from the Bethany Road between 1900 and 1920. [Library of Congress LC-M32-159]

  “As you know,” Jesus concludes, “the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

  Even as Jesus speaks, the chief priests and the elders are gathered at Caiaphas’s palace. They are now in a frenzy. Killing this prophet is the only answer, and time is short. First, Jesus must be arrested. After his arrest, there must be a trial. But the religious laws state that no trials can be held during Passover, and none can be held at night. If they are to kill Jesus, he must be arrested either tomorrow or Thursday and tried before sundown. Making matters even more pressing is the religious stipulation that if a death penalty is ordered, a full night must pass before the sentence can be carried out.

  Caiaphas knows that the most important thing right now is to take Jesus into custody. All the other problems can be addressed once that occurs. None of the pilgrims who have thronged to Jesus in the temple courts can be alerted, however, or there could be a riot. A confrontation like that would mean Pontius Pilate would become involved, and Caiaphas will be blamed.

  So the arrest must be an act of stealth.

  For that, Caiaphas will need some help. Little does he know, but one of Jesus’s own disciples is making plans to provide it.

  All that traitor wants in return is money.

  CHAPTER 21

  JUDAS ISCARIOT, BETRAYER

  WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, AD 30 JERUSALEM NIGHT

  Judas Iscariot travels alone. Jesus has chosen to spend this day in rest, and now he and the other disciples remain behind at the home of Lazarus as Judas walks into Jerusalem. It has been five days since the disciples have arrived in Bethany and three since Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. Jesus has yet to publicly announce that he is the Christ, nor has he given any indication that he would lead an uprising against Rome. But he has enraged the religious leaders, which has put targets on the back of Jesus and the disciples. “You will be handed over to be persecuted, and put to death, and you will be hated by all the nations because of me,” Jesus predicted yesterday when they were all sitting on the Mount of Olives.

  Judas did not sign on to be hated or executed. If Jesus can just admit that he is the Christ, then he will triumph over the Romans. Surely the religious authorities will then be eager to align themselves with him. All this talk of death and execution might come to an end.

  A page from a 12th-century botanical manuscript. [Mary Evans Picture Library]

  So Judas has decided to force Jesus’s hand.

  The decision was made moments ago during dinner. Mary, sister of Lazarus, approached Jesus to anoint him with perfume. She broke off the thick neck of the flask and poured nard, an exotic scent imported from India, on his head in a show of devotion.

  Judas expressed irritation at such a waste of money. Passover, in particular, is a holiday when it is customary to give money to the poor. This time he is not alone in his disgust. Several other disciples join in before Jesus puts an end to the discussion.

  “Leave her alone,” Jesus orders the disciples. “Why are you bothering her?
She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”

  Once again, Jesus’s words are bewildering. He allows himself to be anointed like the Christ, and yet he is predicting his death.

  Judas picks his way carefully down the bumpy dirt road. His journey could be an act of stupidity. He knows that. For he is intent on going directly to the palace of Caiaphas, the most powerful man in the Jewish world. Judas believes that he has an offer of great value that will interest the leader of the Sanhedrin.

  Judas is a known disciple of Jesus, however, and this strategy could very well lead to his arrest. And even if nothing like that happens, Judas is uncertain whether an exalted religious leader like Caiaphas will actually meet with an unwashed follower of Jesus.

  Making his way from the valley into Jerusalem’s gates, Judas navigates through the revelry of the crowded streets to the expensive neighborhoods of the Upper City. He finds the home of Caiaphas and tells the guards his business. Much to his relief, he is warmly welcomed into the spacious palace and led to a lavish room where the high priest is meeting with the other priests and elders.