Nineteen

That evening, Matthew came back. David immediately ran up to him and asked something. Andrew saw John wander over in their direction, and stop near Thomas and Ezra, who had apparently been eavesdropping. It was uncanny how so striking a man could remain unnoticed. Andrew decided to hear the news, and went behind a bush beside the path.

"What was that all about?" asked Thomas.

"Interesting," said Ezra. "David--he and I are beginning to become friends, by the way--asked if he had been successful in whatever it was he was doing. 'I know not whether to call it "successful," David,' he answered. 'I am poor now, you see.'

"David, amazed, and, I think, disappointed, said, 'Poor?' And he answered, 'I gave my house to Gideon and gave him his freedom; and the money I had hoarded I asked him to distribute among the farmers and people I had defrauded--because, frankly, I could not bring myself to do it; I could not bear to see myself parting with all that wealth. He is going to keep back enough to live on, but all the rest is going to be given away--except for this, which is for all of us.' And he showed him a heavy sack he was carrying under his cloak.

"The intriguing thing was that David took this as if it were a blow. He looked at Matthew with a very strange expression. Matthew said, 'Be of good cheer, David, as I am trying to be, and trust in the Master. I must do so now, it seems.'

"And David answered, 'I--know not what to say.' It looked as if the purpose of his life had been thwarted, somehow. Was he plotting to steal what Matthew had? Fascinating."

Ah, so the "new Matthew" was the real Matthew now. He had to be. Andrew wondered whether, like Thomas, he had kept a secret cache somewhere, just in case--of course, he had not heard about Simon as Rock, and Jesus's prediction that he would be killed. But one never knew.

Thomas and John were now joined by Matthew, and began to explain what had happened while he was away. Andrew wandered off by himself to think.

Or to feel. A great cloud hovered over him, and he was crushed by its weight, without explicitly knowing what it was; it was just there, and he could barely move under it--or through it--it was like trying to walk under water, except there was no buoying up, as there was with water; it was simply a liquid obstacle that found its way into his lungs, making it all but impossible to breathe.

Suddenly, John's voice broke in, "Oh, incidentally, we are to go to Judea tomorrow, for the festival."

"Ah yes," answered Thomas. "All the excitement over this had driven it out of my head." As it had with Andrew. He now vaguely remembered Jesus's speaking of it; but the tremendous events of the road to Caesarea had overwhelmed it. Well, it would doubtless be a step in Jesus's revelation of who he was, and in the Judeans' likely rejection of it, if his prediction meant anything.

Why could it not have been anyone but Simon? Simon Rock! How absurd! But then, the whole world was absurd!

They arrived in Jerusalem a few days later toward evening, and went again to the garden on the Mount of Olives to sleep, after Jesus had sent word to a friend of his who lived nearby in Bethany, named Lazarus, that he had arrived in the area, and would dine with him and his sister Martha as usual on the morrow.

The next morning, they crossed the Kidron brook and went back into the city, going around the wall for some reason, and entering from the north by the Sheep Gate.

Andrew was a little nonplused at the extended walk, because it was a Sabbath; but Jesus evidently had a purpose. He paused at the Bethesda Pool nearby, walking--briefly--along the five porches that surrounded it, looking with pity on the blind, sick, lame and paralyzed people lying there, but doing nothing for a while. Tradition had it that at irregular intervals, the water would be disturbed--some said by an angel--and the first person to enter the water when this happened would be cured.

Finally, Jesus saw something that looked like the opportunity his Father was providing, since he stroked his beard and stopped by a paralyzed man, who had obviously been lying there a long time. Matthew asked someone how long he had been sick, and was told, "Thirty-eight years, if I recall correctly."

Jesus looked down at him and said, "Would you like to be cured?"

"Master," said the man, who had no idea who the person speaking to him was, "I do not have anyone to put me in the pool when the water churns up; and while I am going there myself, someone else gets in before me." He would have had to drag himself along by his hands; everything below his waist was completely useless.

"Stand up," said Jesus. "Take your mat, and walk."

And the man suddenly became well. He leaped up and picked up the mat he was lying on and began walking about, praising God. He was too excited at first even to turn and thank Jesus, who watched him for a while and withdrew.

Now Andrew saw what was afoot. Jesus had performed a cure on the Sabbath, and a cure that involved a paralyzed man, whom he told to get up and take his mat and walk. The cure was perfectly innocent, because he simply told him to stand up and walk, and there was nothing against telling someone to do something. Nor was there anything against standing up and walking. But carrying the mat would be regarded as work.

The dilemma for the Pharisees was that it would be absurd for the man to leave his mat there until the next day, because it would not be where he left it. But if he carried it, he was working on the Sabbath--at least according to the Pharisees' definition of "work."

John caught what was going on, and said as much to Thomas."What?" answered Thomas. "He did nothing." John noticed that also. He cured by simply telling the man to walk; but the Pharisees would not see it that way. Yet it would make them look foolish to the people if they brought it up.

And, though Jesus had gone on into the Temple, it was not long before the Pharisees saw the man walking about and said to him, "It is a Sabbath. You are not allowed to be carrying your mat."

"But the one who cured me," said the man, "told me to take my mat and walk."

"Who is this man who told you to carry things and walk with them?"

"I know not. He was there at the pool."

"Find him. We have several things to say to him."

The man began looking about, and finally, followed by Thomas and Ezra, went into the Temple, which was not far away.

Andrew was of two minds whether to follow them, as, apparently was John, but shortly, the man came out and met one of the people he had talked to before, and said, "The man who cured me was in there. I was not looking for him, but he found me. He is Jesus of Nazareth, the one people are calling a prophet."

"Prophet indeed! Prophets keep the Sabbath! Is he still there?"

"As far as I know," said the man.

The Pharisee, in great dudgeon, entered, with John and Andrew following, and found Jesus, surrounded by a number of people, and snapped, "What is this that we have been hearing and seeing? You perform cures on the Sabbath and tell a man to carry his mat and walk?"

Jesus looked over calmly at him and replied, "My Father has been working right up until now; and now I am working also." Andrew's ears perked up. Jesus was referring to God as his Father. Would they catch the implication?

They did. "How dare you! You are all but calling yourself God! Beware! People have been stoned to death for less! And if you do such things, you have no right to do them on the Sabbath!"

"Amen amen I tell you," said Jesus, "the Son can do nothing by himself; he only does what he sees the Father doing; what he does, the Son does in the same way. But the fact is that the Father loves the Son, and shows him everything he is doing." Meaning, the Father can do what he pleases on the Sabbath, and if he does it, so do I. Who but the Father could cure a man paralyzed for decades? But I did it. And if it was done on the Sabbath, who are you to say that I must not do it?

And Jesus went on, "And he will show him even greater things than this, and you will be amazed. Just as the Father brings the dead back and gives them life, the Son will give life to anyone he pleases."

So Jesus was using this to introduce the people to the notion that he had to be God in order to be able to do these things, and that as God he would do even more amazing things like bringing people such as David back to life from death. He had revived David, and everyone was amazed; he was now making more explicit that, if he could forgive sins and bring the dead back to life--on his own! Not like Elisha, but on his own! By a mere word!--he had to be one and the same as his Father. He was giving them their chance to accept his true reality--but he knew it would be a waste of time.

Evidently, however, he had to give them the chance. He was saying, "--time is coming--has already arrived--when corpses will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who listen to it will live again. Just as the Father has eternal life in himself, he has given the Son the possession of eternal life in himself; and he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man."

So he called himself the Son of God, and also the Son of Man; and he has the possession of eternal life in himself. Would he give us this eternal life? Even if he is rejected? At least would he give it to those of us who believed in who he really is?

Now the crowd was buzzing. One said, "So this 'Son of Man' is now the 'Son of God,' is he?" Another chimed in, "And we are supposed to hear his voice from the grave and come out and walk around? Ridiculous!" The first said, "He certainly has a low opinion of himself, has he not?" A man standing in front of him turned around, and said, "Well, he did make a crippled man completely well with just a word. I saw it; he simply said, 'Stand up and walk,' and he did!"

"So?" said the first speaker. "Curing a disease is one thing. But this bringing the dead to life and claiming to be the Son of God is something else!"

"Be quiet! He is still speaking!"

"--were simply acting as a witness for myself, my testimony would be worthless. But there is someone else who has testified about me, and I know how solid his evidence about me is. You yourselves sent people to John, and he gave testimony that was true. I have no need of human testimony; I am saying this for you to be rescued. He was a burning, shining lamp, and you people found pleasure for a while in his light."

"Who is this 'John' he speaks of?" asked one. "You remember," was the answer. He was down at the Jordan, bathing everyone. Some thought he was Elijah come to life again, and announcing that the Prince God anointed had arrived." "Ah, and this one is saying he is the Prince!" "Well, he has not exactly said so as yet, but one can see where he is headed.""But of course, you see," said the one who had objected at first, "if he is the Prince, he is the son of David. But this one is calling himself the Son of the Master Himself!"

"--Father himself is a witness on my behalf--though you have never heard his voice or seen his form."

"You see?" said the objector, and then shouted at Jesus, "Neither have you, my friend!"

"--what he says has no home in you is clear from the fact that you do not believe in the one he sent. Search the Scriptures, since you think that there is where you will have eternal life. They are evidence about me. But you refuse to come to me and have life!"

"I find nothing about Nazareth and Galilee in the Scriptures!" said someone. "Why should I come to you?"

"I care nothing about what people think of me; but I know you; you do not have the love of God in you. I came in my Father's name, and you will not accept me. If someone else were to come in his own name, you would accept him. How can you believe me, if you simply take what everyone else thinks about a person and do not try to find out the opinion of the one true God?"

"Well, we certainly are not going to take the opinion of the one who is standing before us!" muttered a man standing next to Matthew and John. "His opinion of himself is a bit too exalted for a lowly Scripture scholar like myself to be able to agree with." Others were voicing similar sentiments, and they drowned out Jesus for a while.

He was going on, "--Moses, the one you set your hopes on. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. But if you will not believe what he wrote, how can you believe what I say?"

No, he knew they would never accept him. To win over the Pharisees was hopeless. At best, they might accept him as Judas was accepting him: as someone who had "God" flowing through him as a kind of power, but not someone who is God, certainly not someone who is God as a person--a person somehow distinct from Jesus, but not distinct in reality: "The Father and I are one and the same thing," John had told Andrew he said.

But Judas had said to Simon, who had raised the possibility that he is God, "You can see how absurd that is, I hope." The Pharisees most apt to be on Jesus's side would probably have something like Judas's attitude. But Jesus was going to have to prove them wrong; he was going to have to make it clearer and clearer that the Father and he were one and the same thing somehow, really one and the same.

But this meant, did it not? that Judas would need to be watched. Either he would "change his way of thinking" and accept that God was utterly beyond his feeble attempts to rationalize him, or he would try to fit him into his theory somehow, and explain what Jesus was saying as a delusion on his part. It would be interesting to see how Judas would manage this. A "delusion"! How laughable!

But as to Jesus and the Judeans, perhaps he could win over the ordinary people, who saw the signs, and saw that they were signs, and saw what the signs so clearly--if one but used one's eyes!--signified.

But then would the ordinary people reject the rejection by their authorities, their wise mentors, and follow Jesus? It was possible, but it would not happen, in the last analysis. He had predicted it would not.

Then why was he doing this? Because he had to give them the chance to accept him. And he was doubtless going to make a more and more convincing case, and make their rejection more absurd than the apparent absurdity they would be asked to accept.

And the same would go for Judas. Would he cling to his "reason," and refuse to accept the evidence of his senses? Or would he change his way of thinking? Evidently, Jesus was giving him the chance also, whether he would be willing to accept him, or whether he would somehow be instrumental in his rejection. Jesus deluded! How absurd! But Andrew was willing to wager that it would not seem absurd to Judas.

Andrew was about to witness the second Fall of Man.

But Jesus's reference to Moses apparently ended what everyone had to say, since no one came up to arrest him. Of course, how could they? On what grounds? For saying something? Still, their hatred was palpable.

The students then went with Jesus down the road to Bethany, about an hour's walk away. The host, a man named Lazarus, a banker Jesus had met a year or two earlier, greeted them all in a friendly, if distant, manner. He was extremely fastidious; his robes were impeccable, and his manners elegant, but Andrew saw immediately that he was a fool, for all his manners. He treated Jesus as one would a clown, for his entertainment-value. His sister Martha, however, was the picture of sincere cordiality and intelligence, and evidently was the main mover behind these invitations.

Martha and Matthew were engaged in a rather extended conversation. Lazarus, when he heard that Matthew had been a tax-collector, almost lost his demeanor as a host, and proceeded, after barely acknowledging his existence, to keep himself to the other side of the room.

"Yes, he is amazing, is he not?" Martha was saying to Matthew. She swelled with pride. "I persuaded Lazarus to invite him to dine whenever he is in Judea, and he comes! And he has told me," she lowered her voice confidentially, "that he will find my sister for me and bring her back, if she is willing; or if not, will give me news of her!"

"Your sister has been lost?"

"These many years. We lost her, I remember, the day our rabbi's house burned down and his poor, dear crippled wife died in the fire. He has not been the same since, poor man. Nor have we, because of our sister. We searched and searched, but never found a trace of her. But I cannot believe that she is dead, and the Master has all but confirmed it!"

"I am sorry for the loss."

"But do not be. The Master will see to it that everything will be explained and turn out well."

"Well I hope for your sake that it happens."

"Oh, it will happen. I am sure of it."

They had a very elaborate dinner, with Lazarus giving all his attention to Jesus and another banker friend beside him, clearly to avoid looking at, and still more conversing with, anyone else. He obviously endured all this for two reasons: because his sister insisted, and because he suspected that Jesus might turn out to be famous, and it might be politic to have him as a friend.

After the dinner, they were seated about, talking, and Jesus said, "This banquet made me think of a story." (He had lately begun speaking more often analogies and stories.) "There once was a rich man who wore richly dyed clothes of the finest linen, and who dined sumptuously every day. A poor man named Lazarus--" he glanced over at Lazarus, in his richly-dyed linen robe, "--with a body full of pustules, used to lie by his gate, hoping to feed off what had been left on the rich man's plates. Even the dogs would come and lick his sores." Lazarus made a face at the image.

"Finally the poor man died and was carried by angels to the place of honor in Abraham's banquet," At this, Lazarus' began to take notice. "And the rich man died too and was buried.

"He looked up from the land of the dead where he was suffering, and saw Abraham a long way off, and Lazarus next to him at the banquet.

"'Father Abraham!' he shouted. 'Be kind to me! Tell Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and come here to cool my tongue; I am in agony in these flames!'

"'Son,' said Abraham, 'remember: you had your good time while you were alive, and Lazarus had as bad a time. Now he is the one who has comfort, and you who suffer. Besides, there is a huge chasm set between all of you and us, and so not even anyone who wanted to go from here to you could manage it, and no one can pass from there to here.'

"'Then please, Father,' he said, 'send someone to my father's house--I have five brothers--and warn them not to let themselves come to this place of torture!'

"'They have Moses and the prophets,' said Abraham. 'They must listen to them.'

"'They will not, father Abraham, but if someone were to come back to them from the grave, they would change heart.'

"He answered, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not believe it if a dead person comes back to life.'"

There it was. He knew that those who "will not listen to Moses and the prophets," whom he had referred to in his controversy about the Sabbath with the Pharisees would not accept him even if he died and brought himself back to life!

But would the rest of us? That was the issue, was it not?

But, as Andrew could have predicted, the whole meaning of the story was completely lost on Lazarus. He was saying to his friend, "You see how he is? He tells these stories that do not have an atom of sense to them, and has everyone enthralled. Fascinating! I was hoping something like this would happen, to show you what he is like!"

"You took no offense that he used your name?" The friend, who obviously had caught the meaning of the story, was struggling to say something polite.

"Offense? I am flattered! I have never heard him use a name in his stories before; and after all, he put me in the place of honor beside Abraham himself!"

"To be sure he did," said the friend. "Yes, I suppose he did. Of course--"

"Oh, now, do not go trying to make sense of it! He simply tells these things to amuse himself. And he amuses me also, since I see everyone racking their brains trying to plumb the profound meaning behind his stories, and there is no meaning; it is all a game of his!"

"If you say so."

"Believe me, it is true. I have known him for quite some time, and he says the most outrageous things to shock people, but he is quite harmless, really. Once one sees this, it is a delight to be with him."

Andrew wondered if this blockhead could be saved. There would be a miracle.

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