King Jesus (Penguin Modern Classics) (61 page)

Judas rose at once and went out, pale with terror. His instructions were clear : he was to buy a sword with which to kill his master. How could he obey? How could he take the life of the man he loved best? And why had Jesus chosen him as the assassin? Why not young John, his favourite? Or James, the strong-hearted? Or Peter, who had first named him the Messiah? Or that obedient twin Thomas? Was it because he was the only one who had realized that the new doctrine was false, the only one who had abstained from wine in the club-house and from violence in the Temple, the only one who had refused the idolatrous eucharist, and thus the only one who had remained faithful to his mission? Yet in the poem Zechariah’s father and mother had been deceived, taking him for a false prophet and running him through in indignation ; whereas he himself had not been deceived, but was convinced in his heart that despite all appearances Jesus was still faithful to his God. Knowing him for what he was, how could he run him through? “Thou shalt do no murder !” To kill Jesus except in righteous indignation would be plain murder : and murder he could not commit.

Stumbling blindly through the moonlit streets he found himself wandering in the direction of Nicodemon’s house. He broke into a run ; he ran like a mountain hare.

When he reached the house, he knocked at the little door and said, gasping : “I am the copyist.” At once he was taken before Nicodemon —plump, pink-faced, short-bearded, affable, near-sighted—who was checking accounts in his study.

Nicodemon jumped from his chair, and asked in anxiety : “Is all well? You have been running. They have not followed you to this house ?”

Judas shook his head sorrowfully, unable to speak, and refused the wine that he was offered. At last he found his voice and said in broken tones : “It is this. He has appointed me his executioner. Yet I cannot kill my dearest friend ; I cannot kill the man whom John anointed : rather, I would take my own life, as the armour-bearer did on Mount Gilboa when ordered by King Saul to run him through.”

Nicodemon asked, in horror and amazement : “Is he then suddenly determined on death? What evil spirit has overtaken him ?”

Judas briefly described the events of the past two days, while Nicodemon stared and listened, shaking his head in commiseration and making clucking noises with his tongue. He had a quick brain and Judas had only to mention Zechariah’s poem for him to understand everything. Before the story was finished Nicodemon’s mind was already made up, and the words came gushing out as soon as it was his turn to speak. “Be comforted, true-hearted Judas ; I know the secret of your Master’s birth, which was communicated to me by Simon son of Boethus. And I also understand your covert reference to King Saul’s armour-bearer, for the secret of Jesus’s coronation was communicated to me by Nicanor the Essene. It is indeed because I know these secrets that I have supported him these many months. No, I will not let you do what he is inciting you to do : for I cannot approve the new course which he is steering, like a navigator who wilfully piles his heavily freighted vessel on the rocks. This is to force the Lord’s hand, to hasten the Hour before the due time. We have a tradition : ‘The Messiah will not come except to a generation either wholly guilty or wholly guiltless’, and that time is not yet, for to-day in Jerusalem great goodness and great evil are near neighbours. Moreover, we are taught in the Academy that the hastening of the Hour is displeasing to the Lord. The Salvation of Israel, we learn, is to be compared to four things : to the Harvest, to the Vintage, to the Gathering of Spices and to Childbirth. To the Harvest : because if the field is harvested before its time, even the straw is not good, but if in due time, the straw and grain are alike good. So the prophet Joel says : ‘Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.’ To the Vintage : because when a vineyard is stripped before its time, even the vinegar is not good, but if in due time, the grapes and wine are alike good. So the prophet Isaiah says : ‘Sing unto her, a vineyard of red wine.’ To the Gathering of Spices : because if spices are gathered when green and tender—”

Judas broke in : “O my lord Nicodemon, forgive me, but there is no time to lose! When he understands that I cannot bring myself to destroy him, he will persuade one of my comrades to take my place.”

Nicodemon reluctantly left his argument unfinished. He agreed : “No, no, we must act at once. He is the one hope of Israel, as Israel is of the world. We must not let him die. He has despaired too soon and so fallen into error ; but error that springs from the love of the Lord is easily repaired. I undertake to save him, and more than this, I undertake to bring about at one stroke all that we most dearly desire. Trust me, man of Kerioth, and I will act ; but I need your assistance, for what I do must be done with subtlety.”

“What is my part to be ?”

“Only this : you must go to the High Priest at once and offer him your help in arresting your master. You had better ask for payment, or else the subterfuge may be suspected. Once he is safely in custody, all will be well. But I will not yet reveal my plan to you, lest it miscarry.”

Judas eyed him doubtfully, but at last yielded to his persuasions. He knew Nicodemon to be honest, pious and loyal—perhaps the best of all God-fearing Pharisees in Jerusalem.

Nicodemon’s plan was based on his observation that Jesus had never preached against Rome—had never, except in his impersonation of the Worthless Shepherd, countenanced any sort of revolutionary activity. “After all,” he argued to himself, “what need is there for conflict between Rome and Israel? In ancient days Israel was subject to Egypt and to Assyria and to Persia, and even the prophets approved of this, so long as the tribute paid to foreign kings in return for their military protection did not conflict with the obligations owed to Jehovah. Look what grand commendation Cyrus of Persia gained from the prophet Isaiah! Now, why may Jesus not show friendship to the Romans, and peacefully put forward his claim to the throne of Herod, at the same time entering upon the Sacred Kingship of the whole Jewish race? The Emperor will be surprised at first at this revival of a claim so long dormant, but he is a reasonable man and will at once see the advantage of having a person of Jesus’s quality at the head of Jewish affairs : a Roman citizen, a quietist, a man of extraordinary personal power and Herod’s heir by the Will deposited with the Vestals.”

His plan was, that when Judas had saved Jesus from the swords of his disciples by helping Caiaphas to arrest him, Nicodemon would approach Pilate, with whom he was on fairly good terms, and inform him that Caiaphas had arrested a Roman citizen, none other than the secret heir to the Herodian throne. Pilate, after asking for proof, for which he would be referred to Jesus himself, would ask : “What sort of a man is he ?” and Nicodemon would then praise Jesus in the most glowing terms. He would say : “Your Excellency, he is the one man who can solve all the outstanding problems of Jewish government for you Romans by guaranteeing peace throughout the land, and vastly increased revenues, with no further need of an expensive army of occupation.”

Then he would explain that Jesus’s self-imposed task during the past two years had been to strengthen the Pharisaic party by the inclusion of the lower orders of Jewish society, with the object of bringing the whole nation, except the Temple priesthood, under the religious control of the central synagogue. That at the same time he had preached the simplification of Temple ritual and the abolition of blood-sacrifice : if Jesus had his way, the twenty thousand priests and Levites whose support was so burdensome to the Province would be reduced to a few score—the able-bodied Levites could be drafted as police to replace the Roman soldiers. Moreover, such ancient local shrines as Shiloh, Tabor and Ain-Kadesh would be re-dedicated, so that the inconvenience of the immense pilgrim traffic to Jerusalem at the three great Feasts would be abated, and even the Samaritan question would be solved ; with Jews and Samaritans reconciled under a Sacred King whom both acknowledged. The whole country would be contented (for the Jews love a
monarchy), and the Imperial tax, in the form of a free donation, would be paid as cheerfully as the Temple-tax, without need of tax-farmers and a corrupt police. Beggary and banditry would be no more. The dispossession of Antipas and Philip from their tetrarchies, and the unification of the whole country into a single state, would end the costly absurdity of frontiers and petty courts. The Romans would, of course, be given full facilities for the passage of troops through the country to their necessary garrisons across the Jordan.

Pilate would surely see the cogency of this argument, and in any case the ultimate decision did not rest with him. He would be obliged to remove Jesus from the custody of the High Priest, who had no right to try a Roman citizen, and then to make a full report to the Emperor Tiberius.

Nicodemon was in high spirits and, strangely enough, never once paused to consider whether Jesus would accept the part assigned to him.

J
ESUS
meanwhile anxiously awaited Judas’s return. Why did he delay? Had he been unable to find anyone who would sell him a sword? Though the civil population was forbidden to carry swords, they were come by easily enough in the Galilean quarter. Or had some accident happened to him? Or had his righteous indignation been smothered by a scruple against bloodshed, so that he had shirked his task and run off? If he did not soon return, a more resolute disciple must strike the blow.

He spoke with greater plainness : “It is written that the Worthless Shepherd shall be smitten and his sheep scattered. Children, in a little while you will see me no more.”

Still they did not understand. Peter asked : “Where are you going, Master? Let me go with you.”

“You cannot follow where I am going.”

“I will follow you wherever you go, and do whatever you command, even if I must die for it.”

Jesus looked about him, and said : “Before this night is out you will all be offended to be called my disciples. You will all be ashamed of your visions and of your prophetic mantles. When you are questioned, you will answer : ‘We are countrymen, we know no trade but cattle-driving.’ ”

Peter protested : “Lord, I will never be offended—everyone else, but not I !”

“Before the second cock-crow you will have thrice denied me !”

“I will never deny you.”

Jesus sighed as he quoted Isaiah :

He has blinded their eyes,
He has hardened their hearts,
That they should not see with their eyes,
Nor understand with their hearts,
And be converted, that I should heal them.

The Paschal lamb had been eaten, every morsel of it, and all the bread. The Third and Fourth Cups had been drained and they had sung their last hymn :
O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good
. John had blown up the fire again and burned the bones of the lamb ; the finger-bowl had gone round, and they had washed their hands and wiped them on the napkins. It was time to leave. Then Jesus rose, took off all his garments except his breech-cloth, tied a large towel round his middle, poured water into a basin and, as if he were a bath-attendant, began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them dry with the towel. They were surprised, and asked : “Master, what is the meaning of this jest? Have you become our servant ?”

“Every man is servant to some other man ; the king is servant to his people ; and all are servants of Heaven. As for me, I am the Servant in whom the iniquity of all Israel meets.”

“You a sinner? There’s a riddle for us !”

“You will solve it in good time.”

At first Peter refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet, but Jesus threatened that, unless he submitted, he would cast him off ; then Peter cried : “Not my feet only, but my hands and head as well !”

“Being baptized by John, you need no further lustration except for your feet : they must be well cleansed, because of the mire into which God’s Adversary has led them, before they stand in a holy place to-night.”

“What place is that ?”

“The Mount of Olives, upon which the Son of Man is destined to alight from Heaven.”

They left the house, and as they went down the street Jesus asked them : “Which of you has obeyed me ?”

Peter answered proudly : “I have obeyed you : while the others were making ready, I bought two swords from the people of the house. I understand at last on whom I am to use it.”

“Not too soon, God-fearing son of Jonah! Keep one sword, entrust the other to John. Two will suffice for the execution of the Lord’s vengeance. Alas, is it not written : ‘As for our iniquities, we know them : transgression and lies against the Lord, the preaching of oppression and revolt, concealing and uttering falsehood from the heart’ ?”

They left the City by the East Gate, descended into the Kidron valley and crossed the brook by a foot-bridge ; then they climbed the Mount of Olives, taking a path which led them to the high-walled olive orchard called Gethsemane, “the oil-press”, which Nicodemon had offered Jesus as a refuge if he were in trouble. They met nobody on their way, found
the orchard without difficulty, unlocked the gate with the key that Judas had fetched two days before, and entered. The olive-trees were very old and fantastically gnarled : four or five were recorded to have been planted in the year that King Solomon dedicated his Temple. Countrymen say : “Buy an ox, buy an ass, they are your servants while they live ; but buy an olive-tree, and you are its servant while you live.” There was an oil-mill in the orchard, a furnace for making brazier-charcoal of the crushed stones, and a hut with rough bunks used by the harvesters in the season.

Jesus led them to the hut, which stood in the furthest corner from the gate, and pushed open the door. “Peter, James and John must remain with me ; they are the strongest-hearted among you all. The others may wait here until they are summoned ; and if they are weary, let them sleep awhile.”

As he walked away with the three chosen disciples, James asked him : “Where is Judas? Why is he not with us ?”