Nineteen

That evening, Matthew came back, with an expression of resignation, dread, and relief on his face. David immediately ran up to him and asked something. Nathanael noticed Ezra hovering nearby, though neither David nor Matthew did. He was about to go over afterwards and ask Ezra about what happened, when he noticed Thomas evidently had the same idea. He sauntered by slowly, close enough to eavesdrop.

"'--not whether to call it "successful," David,' he answered," Ezra was saying, evidently quoting Matthew. "'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--" And here Nathanael passed beyond earshot. So there was something between David and Matthew, but what it was was anything but obvious.

They kept on talking, and a little later, when John had joined Thomas and Matthew, Nathanael walked by again as if returning from where he had been, and he heard Thomas tell Matthew, "--was quite clear. John did not finish. He went on to say, 'And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you lock on earth will be locked in heaven'--whatever that meant--'and whatever you unlock on earth will be unlocked in heaven.'"

"And he used the singular? He was not referring to all of us?"

"He did," said John. "None of us can understand what he meant--except that it has something to do with the Reign of God that he is always speaking of. What I found interesting is that he agreed with Simon, because he said that the one who revealed it was 'my Father in heaven.'"

The prospect of having Simon as the head of the Emissaries was not something that Nathanael greeted with any enthusiasm. But if God had picked him, who was he to complain? God had, for some unaccountable reason, chosen him and even Philip to be part of the Twelve who were to be on twelve thrones with him. What on earth--or perhaps, what in heaven--would he do sitting on a throne? He felt as competent to judge as to cast out demons.

"--Oh, incidentally," John was saying, "we are to go to Judea tomorrow, for the festival."

"Ah yes," said Thomas. "All the excitement over this had driven it out of my head."

At least they would all be together then, with Jesus among them, and the prospect of confronting another demon was minimal.

They arrived in Jerusalem two 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.

Jesus paused at the Bethesda Pool nearby, walking 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 what seemed to remind him of something, 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.

It was a Sabbath, and carrying one's mat would be considered doing work, even if curing someone by telling him to stand up was not. Jesus was deliberately provoking a confrontation. Now, of course, all of Galilee and two-thirds of Judea had heard of the marvelous things he had done, and so he was in a considerably stronger position than he had been last Passover when he drove the buyers and sellers out of the Temple.

It was a fascinating gambit. Here was a command that anyone with a mind could see made perfect sense. What was the man to do? Leave his mat to be stolen? And yet it violated the rules by which the authorities had interpreted the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy.

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."

Nathanael knew that Jesus had gone into the Temple, and went there after him. Soon the man entered, and Jesus met him, and said, "Now you have been cured. Do not commit any more sins, or something worse might happen to you." The man went down on his knees and thanked Jesus, and then asked Nathanael, who was standing nearby, who he was. On finding out, he went out, presumably to the waiting authorities to inform them that the one who cured him was Jesus of Nazareth.

Shortly afterward, as Jesus was standing in prayer, a Pharisee came up to him 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."

"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!" The Pharisee had caught the implication--correctly, thought Nathanael.

"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." So there is a distinction between the Father and the Son, but still they both do the same thing, and the Father "shows him everything he is doing." What to make of this?

Jesus looked around at the people who had quickly gathered about him, sensing a controversy. "And he will show him even greater things than this," he continued, "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." There was more to this than simply raising the dead; the Son was "giving life" to anyone. That is certainly what God does.

He was continuing, "--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 it is eternal life that is the Son has--the life of God? And he gives life. Is it eternal life that he gives also? Never dying? Is he even giving the life of God? Perhaps that is a stretch.

Of course, if death came by Adam's sin, then erasing the effects of Adam's sin would mean no one would ever die in the Reign of God. So it might be eternal human life.

Comments flew around the crowd. "So this 'Son of Man' is now the 'Son of God,' is he?" "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?"

Jesus looked over the hostile faces. "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. "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?"

That seemed to end it. Everyone continued discussing it among themselves, but Jesus had finished what he had to say, and so they dispersed, some disappointed that there had been no arrest. Of course, thought Nathanael, they could do nothing, because first of all Jesus had done nothing, and secondly, what the man had done was obviously the equivalent of pulling one's donkey out of the ditch on the Sabbath, which everyone agreed was licit.

Jesus then led them out of town to the village of Bethany, about an hour's walk away, where Jesus's friend Lazarus--or rather, Lazarus's sister Martha, lived. Nathanael had met Lazarus at his bank on the previous Passover, though they did not stay at his house for the meal. It was Nathanael's opinion, from the little that he saw of him, that Lazarus was a pompous ass. The contrast between Lazarus and Philip was stark; Philip did not think highly of himself or his intellect, while Lazarus was convinced that what he knew was the truth and little things like facts were not to get in the way of it. But what Nathanael absolutely could not abide was that he "tolerated" Jesus in a superior, amused way, as one would look upon a dancing bear. Jesus, however, evidently found him and his attitude amusing, much as Nathanael found Philip refreshing.

As soon as Nathanael was introduced to Martha, he understood why Jesus was a friend of the family. She admired and revered Jesus, and was clearly the one who controlled what went on in the family, in the way of many women.

Nathanael, who had only been on the periphery in the last Passover, Thomas, and Ezra (causing a bit of eye-widening) were introduced to Martha and Lazarus; and when he heard that Matthew had been a tax-collector, he almost lost his demeanor as a host, and proceeded, after barely acknowledging his existence, to keep himself to the other side of the room. It was as well that no one mentioned that Thomas had been a drunk, and Ezra a slave.

"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, and Matthew noticed that Lazarus gave all his attention to Jesus, more to avoid looking at 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 in 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.'"

It was a rebuke, of course, but it was completely lost on him. He said to a friend who had also been at the dinner, "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 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."

But there was something that Nathanael caught that no one was mentioning: "'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not believe it if a dead person comes back to life.'" What was that about? Based on what he said earlier about the Pharisees' not listening to Moses, he was equivalently saying that they would not listen to him even if he died and came back to life. And he had said that they were going to kill him and he would come back to life! And now he was saying that it would make no difference to these people!

Was he literally going to die? What would Nathanael do? What would any of them do?