by Paul L Maier
ELEVEN
Nothing was really the same anymore, Jon mused, as he fought to keep up with communications in his office at Hebrew University. Things were both better and worse. Even technological progress, like the e-mail he was answering, turned out to be two-edged. To be sure, e-mail was immensely handy—how many overseas seminars had been arranged for him without lifting a phone, pasting a stamp, or spending a penny? But at what cost? E-mail now drained an extra hour or two from each working day, and that was with a secretary in Cambridge and another in Jerusalem weeding out the spam, the ads, the free offers, the virus warnings, the virus warning retractions, the endless anecdotes, and the inevitable jokes—however well intended.
And the mail list in his in-box never seemed to go away: always, always a stack to be answered when he had the time.
Travel was not the same anymore either, thanks to Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Security personnel—some of whom seemed to have come from another planet—responded woodenly to computer selections for further screening of passengers. How often at airports he would see a frail old lady, hobbling on a cane, asked to spread her arms for additional wanding, while burly males in the prime of their lives breezed past, thanks to political correctness and the sin of racial profiling. Never mind that nineteen out of nineteen hijackers who assaulted the United States on 9/11 came from the same racial-ethnic origins.
Nothing was the same anymore in Christianity either. While world terrorism had an ecumenical effect in drawing various faiths closer together, it polarized others—like Jon’s own Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. That conservative church body had one of its biggest intramural fights ever over whether or not it was proper for one of its clergy to offer prayer in Yankee Stadium on the same platform as representatives of other faiths. Those with a rigid mind-set claimed this act had betrayed the faith, but Jon thought any Christian should have the right to pray anywhere under any circumstances.
But far more significant issues were rocking the ship of the church. Roman Catholics had the horrendous problem of priest pedophilia to surmount, while Protestants wrangled over the role of women in ministry, what forms of liturgy to use, how to deal with homosexuality, the charismatic movement, those fixated on prophecy, and the like.
But nothing split world Christianity more than the Joshua Ben-Yosef phenomenon. Jon now saw that the faith, like ancient Gaul, had divided itself into three parts: a strong and growing third was convinced that Jesus of Nazareth had truly returned, a middle third thought Joshua an impostor, and the final third was undecided. A fissure was opening even in his own marriage: Shannon was living with a new joy that Jesus had returned, while he himself was somewhere between the skeptical and the undecided.
The trends, however, indicated that the division into thirds would soon break down. From public opinion polls, religious magazine surveys, and theological conferences, the army of the convinced was growing—at the expense of both the “undecideds” and the “Joshua-impostor” segments. To his dismay, Jon found himself serving as something of a spiritual lightning rod for the entire issue. Much of the Christian world trusted him because of his quasi-heroic role in the Rama crisis, and he was now absolutely unable to handle the volume of correspondence, e-mails, and faxes pouring into his offices in both Cambridge and Jerusalem.
Rod Swenson of MIT saved the day by establishing a web site for Jon that was constantly updated with the latest information on Joshua. “It’s the least I can do for not yet solving the Jesus Bulletin incursion, Jon,” he told him, using something so primitive as a transatlantic phone call. “Just feed us your information as you want it to appear. We’ll take it from there and continually update your web site.”
“Thanks much, Rod,” he replied. “Do you suppose we could do this thing on, say, two levels? Most would get the general information, but a very select list would get additional—and very confidential— detail, such as yourself, Jeff Sheler at U.S. News, another friend who has the pope’s ear at the Vatican, and, of course, the members of our ICO?”
“Easily done. Just send me a list of your special URLs and e-mail addresses. What’s your ICO, by the way?”
“The Institute of Christian Origins.”
“Oh, yeah, I remember now. The big theological think tank that handled the Rama crisis, right? The spiritual geniuses who helped you save Christianity?”
“All correct except the final verb, Rod. And thanks, good friend!” After hanging up, Jon pondered the ethics of involving only one media editor in his select list, rather than the entire coterie. But Sheler had been the first to cooperate with him in the early stages of the Joshua affair, and they had been exchanging information for months. Jon was sure he could rely on Sheler whenever he imparted something truly speculative or confidential: he knew it would not be published. Later, it might indeed show up—with Jon’s permission— in a book Sheler was already writing on Joshua Ben-Yosef.
For several months now, Sheler had been reporting to Jon on the intelligence his colleagues had been gathering in Israel, especially on Joshua’s youth and background, while Jon had reciprocated in sharing his and Shannon’s eyewitness encounters. His Nicodemus visit, for example, made Sheler almost want to hop the next plane to Israel. While he did not make that particular trip, hundreds of thousands of others were preparing to. For those convinced that Joshua was Jesus, this ultimate pilgrimage seemed almost mandatory, a once-in-a-lifetime—no, once-in-a-millennium opportunity to see God in human form and receive His blessing now in time, and certainly for eternity. If the Creator was gracious enough to grant humanity an intermediate coming of His Son, it would be eternal folly to pass up this opportunity—extraordinary, immense, unparalleled, and cosmic as it certainly was. To see Jesus Himself—people would die for the chance!
At first, the international travel industry rejoiced over the tourist bonanza developing for Israel, a perfect antidote to the many months of terrorism and bloodshed between Palestinians and Israelis. Soon, however, that same industry threw up its collective hands in dismay. Despite the precarious nature of the peace that seemed to have descended on the Holy Land, all flights to Israel on regular carriers were booked solid for the next five months, and hotel reservations were filled even beyond that, since many Europeans decided to drive to Israel when they couldn’t book flights.
Jon was not surprised, then, when he received an urgent call from Ehud Olmert, the mayor of Jerusalem, asking him to attend an emergency meeting of the Israeli cabinet on the morrow. Jon turned his symposium over to a grad assistant and appeared at the Knesset in West Jerusalem at 9:00 A.M.
Not a member was missing, in view of the gravity of the situation. “I should like to introduce Professor Jonathan Weber to our conference,” said Israeli premier Daniel Cohen. A graying sage of impressive stature with the air of a commander-in-chief, Cohen continued, “Dr. Weber hardly needs an introduction, since he has been here before under, shall we say, unusual circumstances. His is the voice we respect in any matters dealing with Christianity in Israel. “As we all know, great international attention has focused on one of our Israeli citizens named Joshua Ben-Yosef. Many consider him to be the returned Jesus of Nazareth. Others, of course, do not.”
All eyes now seemed to shift to Jon, as if searching for some reaction that would betray his own personal opinion. Jon’s poker face, however, was less than cooperative.
“Thus far,” Cohen continued, “the State of Israel has tried to distance itself from any involvement in this case. As Jews, of course, we do not believe that Ben-Yosef could possibly be Jesus, since that extraordinary Rabbi died two thousand years ago. Nevertheless, we do respect the beliefs of Christians, who have looked for His return throughout that period of time.”
Cohen stopped, sipped a glass of water, and resumed. “Now, however, nothing less than an army of Christians is approaching Israel—something that will put our whole infrastructure to a tremendous test. The logistics alone have forced us to limit this new wave of tourists to a rate we had not
anticipated until 2050 C.E.
“There are also security dangers: with our entire police force and even sectors of the Israel Defense Force involved in handling the huge crowds that we anticipate, what if the Palestinians choose this as the moment to resume suicide attacks?” Cohen now stood up and strolled pensively along the conference table. Then he stopped, looked over toward Jon, and asked, “Or what about Joshua Ben-Yosef himself? What if all this massive acclaim turns his head and he becomes . . . political? What then?”
Loud murmuring swept across the cabinet. Jon felt a churning in his stomach as he thought to himself, Oh, no, not again! Please, not a twenty-first-century parallel to the Jewish Sanhedrin!
Cohen smiled briefly and added, “Pure speculation and extremely unlikely, but the idea was first raised by several members of Shas and their representative here in our cabinet, Isidore Schornstein.”
Schornstein was frowning, apparently a bit miffed by Cohen’s slighting reference. Shas, Israel’s strongest religious party, had only 17 out of 120 seats in the Knesset, but its clout in Cohen’s cabinet was out of all proportion to its size. Cohen’s Labor government would have fallen to the Likud without their support.
“In any case,” Cohen concluded, “we all have questions about Ben-Yosef. Professor Weber, what’s your opinion? Should the government be concerned? Or are we overreacting?”
Jon sat up straight in his chair. “Well, honored members of the cabinet, Ben-Yosef, as you know, is puzzling the entire world. I’ve personally seen the man only four or five times, and nothing he has said or done seems any threat whatever to the establishment. He is, of course, a stringent critic of the evils in society—much like the prophets in the Hebrew Bible—but I’ve heard nothing at all that’s subversive in what he has to say. The man has remarkable charisma, of course, and his following is most enthusiastic—and growing. But they haven’t caused any demonstrations or riots anywhere in Israel, have they?”
Cohen looked to Judah Meir for a reply. A stocky specimen with ruddy skin, Meir was interior minister and the man to whom Shin Bet, Israel’s version of the FBI, reported. He cleared his throat and shook his head. “No . . . although we have resumed putting a tail on Ben-Yosef.” He stopped abruptly, looked at Jon, and asked, “Be kind enough to keep this confidential, Professor Weber?”
“Of course,” Jon replied.
“Over the last weeks, our agents have followed him and his group to and from Galilee several times. There were large crowds everywhere, but we never heard him say anything against the government.” “What about his so-called healings?” asked Cohen. “Did you see anything like that?”
“Sure. Plenty of them. At least the people thought they were healed, but we’ve had ‘faith healers’ before, haven’t we?”
“Back to you, Professor Weber,” said Cohen. “What’s your opinion on the healings, so-called?”
Carefully, Jon responded with a condensed version of everything he knew about Joshua’s therapeutic activities, concluding with Shannon’s experience at the Pool of Siloam and their apparent verification the next day. Cabinet members sat wide-eyed and silent. Some moments ticked by before one mumbled comments to the next and a general din of discussion ensued.
It was too much for Schornstein. Almost angrily, he turned to Jon and asked, “So, Professor Weber, do you Christians really believe that Mr. Ben-Yosef is the returned Jesus of Nazareth?”
Jon now reported the latest world opinion poll among Christians; it showed 41 percent affirmative, 31 percent undecided, and 28 percent negative, with the usual error ratio of plus or minus 4 percent.
“And what about your theologians?” Schornstein inquired.
Jon smiled and said, “Predictably, they’re totally divided on the issue, which is what one would expect of theologians.”
The room tittered, while Schornstein seemed less than amused. He probed further. “And what about that theologian whose opinion we evidently value very highly here in Israel? How does Professor Jonathan Weber regard Joshua Ben-Yosef? Is he, or is he not, the returned Jesus, in your estimation?”
Again a sudden hush blanketed the room, and all eyes were on Jon. “A fair question, Mr. Schornstein,” he replied, “even if I’m a historian rather than a theologian. I can only be candid: my own wife, Shannon, now believes that Jesus has indeed returned in the person of Joshua Ben-Yosef, and that this is His intermediate coming to sustain Christianity before His final coming at the end of time. As for me, I’ve seen an extraordinary number of indications that this could be true in fact—for reasons that would take the rest of the day to explain. And there are an astonishing number of parallels between the words and deeds of Jesus and Joshua. However, I’ve tried very hard to maintain neutrality on this issue as I continue searching for the truth.”
Again, silence commanded the chamber. Finally Schornstein banged his fist down on the table and shouted, “So, my colleagues! Here we sit and quietly discuss whether or not a renegade Jew making a preposterous claim to divinity is or is not the same as another renegade Jew who also disturbed the peace two thousand years ago, and has caused endless suffering to the Jewish people in the twenty centuries since! This is madness! Absolute madness! You claim, as you sit here, to be good Jews, yet you dawdle away while letting our embattled state serve as the womb for a second monstrosity that this time could destroy Judaism in general and Israel in particular. And this time it won’t be the Romans who conquer us and destroy our city, but the armies of Christian tourists—probably followed by real armies in a twenty-first-century version of the Crusades!”
When Schornstein paused, several colleagues tried unsuccessfully to calm him down. A quick gulp of water and he continued, looking to the left and right. “And so, you genial liberals in this cabinet, just do nothing while the goyim out there prepare another attack on our monotheism with their so-called doctrine of the Trinity! Perhaps, with Mr. Ben-Yosef, it will now become a Quadrinity and—”
A negative roar filled the room, interrupting Schornstein’s tirade. Premier Cohen banged for order, looked to Schornstein, and commented sharply, “Perhaps our worthy representative of the ultra-orthodox might refrain from introducing religious racism into this discussion?” Then he turned to Jon and apologized for Schornstein’s outbursts.
“No apology necessary,” said Jon. “None at all. After the Holocaust—after Dachau, Buchenwald, Belsen, Treblinka, and all the other horror spots—I can fully understand any extreme opinions among Jews anywhere in the world. At the same time, I’d like to remind Mr. Schornstein that the main thrust in Christian theology for the last century has been to abhor anti-Semitism in all its terrible forms, to recognize in Judaism our mother faith, and to foster optimal relations between Christians and Jews.”
“Hear, hear!” and other assenting comments greeted Jon’s statement.
“And your scholarship in particular has been most helpful in this regard,” said Cohen. Then he turned to Schornstein and asked, “We certainly don’t wish to ignore the opinions of Shas in this matter, and so we must ask: what do you think we should do, Mr. Schornstein, in the case of Joshua Ben-Yosef?”
Schornstein thought for a moment and then replied, “I think Ben-Yosef should be arrested.” Then, in a louder voice, “In fact, I would urge that he be arrested.”
“Yes, and how about crucifying him after that?” shouted Moshe Breitenstein, the Israeli minister of tourism, as he slapped the table. “Let’s make a martyr out of Ben-Yosef!” he shouted derisively. “That will turn him into the returned Jesus for sure!” Glaring at Schornstein, he continued, “On every issue raised in the cabinet or in the Knesset over recent months, you, Isidore, have chosen the path of suspicion, paranoia, legalism, restriction, regression, and repression. You reject everyone or everything that fails to support your excruciating narrow-mindedness! Human progress would be impossible if people like you were in the majority!”
“Now, see here, I—”
“You represent only a fraction of the Israeli pu
blic, and yet your half ounce of weight tips the scales into a precarious majority for our prime minister in this land of a dozen political parties. And look at your record! Look at Shas’s record! You’ve managed to keep the orthodox wing of Judaism in charge of our entire religious life here—never mind that the vast majority of American Jews who support us are conservative or reformed.
“You’ve prevented full religious freedom here—just ask Christians in Israel about that. You’ve tried to prevent our great national airline, El Al, from flying on the Sabbath. You’ve protested our hotel swimming pools where—perish the thought—women might show up in bathing suits. Our hotel elevators must work automatically on Saturdays, since pushing a button on the Sabbath is somehow working, according to your tortured definition. And our buses—”
Schornstein pounded the conference table with both fists, stood up, and bellowed, “I will not tolerate these insults to our party and to me personally! Shas herewith withdraws from the government! I will introduce a motion of no-confidence in Premier Cohen at the next meeting of the Knesset on Thursday!”
Brushing aside all attempts to dissuade him, Schornstein furiously stuffed papers into his attaché case and stalked out of the room. Before closing the door, however, he had to endure the most exquisite insult of all: a round of hearty applause. The irrepressible Breitenstein had started it, and the rest of the cabinet quickly joined in.
Kol Israel and Israel Television broke the story later that afternoon, and the world media covered it that night. A stunning reaction followed, an unanticipated minirevolution occurred in world Jewry, which apparently had had enough of the minority domination of Israeli politics by the various religious splinter parties. Communications flooded into Israeli political party headquarters and to members of the Knesset, with variations on the theme: “Support Cohen! Oppose religious bigotry!”