Jesus Triumphant (Chronicles of the Nephilim Book 8) (16 page)

A fat, burly Jew and his young helper walked their mounts up the trail a few miles outside of Scythopolis in the hill country. It was the middle of the night. They led a small train of four pack animals carrying a large amount of supplies. The burly one turned back for a view of the city from his vantage point. He looked out upon the rich, fertile Jordan valley to the east with the River flowing south. To the west over the ridge was the more barren Esdralon Valley. He had to catch his breath before they could continue to their destination quite a bit further up the ridge: a series of hidden caves where their comrades were encamped.

His heart nearly stopped when three Roman legionaries stepped out of the bush. He turned to call for his helper to leave, but he ran into three other legionaries right behind him, swords at the throat of the young man. He froze in fear.

A centurion walked up to the burly one, the obvious leader, and asked him, “And where might you two be going in such a hurry, Zealots?”

The centurion was Longinus.

• • • • •

Four Zealot lookouts planted around the mountain ridge surveyed the land around them. It was the last watch of the night as the sun rose over the Jordan valley to the east. They had spotted a century of a hundred legionaries marching south along the foothills beneath them. This was a common occurrence, as Rome rotated forces between Jerusalem and the Decapolis regularly through this very route.

Roman scouts ambushed all the lookouts and slit their throats. This gave the century of soldiers about an hour to make their way up the mountain pass, before they might be discovered by the Zealots.

There were more of the outlaws sleeping in the caves than there were legionaries ascending upon them, one hundred and fifty or so. Though the Romans were not able to completely surprise the Zealots, they surrounded the Jews, so that none could escape and were forced to fight.

The Zealots had awakened with barely enough time to suit up with arms. They had been well-trained by Barabbas and managed to kill a dozen legionaries. But they were not the superior trained and synchronized armed forces of Longinus. The Zealots eventually succumbed to the Romans with a third of their men dead.

Not all the Zealot warriors were there. A small band of fifty, led by their leader Barabbas, had gone on a mission known only to the band for security reasons. A delegated messenger escaped during the fighting to warn the sortie operation not to return.

All this, Longinus had pulled from a handful of the captured Zealots whose backs he had ripped open to the bone with a scourge.

These Jews are amazing fanatics
, thought Longinus as he oversaw the crucifixion of the rest of the hundred surviving Zealots.
Their dedication is quite admirable.
He kept hearing them recite the slogan, “No king but God,” a direct affront to Caesar’s imperial lordship.

The victims were stripped naked and lined up along the path to the mountain hideout as a warning to those who might consider using these caves as another den of thieves. It took the entire day just to cut down trees, create the crosses in “X” and “T” shapes, dig their holes for elevation, and then hang all hundred of the rebels onto their posts. With hands outstretched on the crossbeams, wrists were nailed to the posts with long thin spikes into the wood. To save on nails some were tied tightly with rope. Feet were nailed through the heels or ankles on each side of the vertical post. Again, to save on nails, many had their feet overlapped with bent knees and nailed with one nail through both feet.

Longinus became lost in thought to the rhythmic pounding of hammers on nails, followed by the screams of pain and cries for mercy that filled the mountainside.
All this for the promise of a deliverer
.

Some of the Zealot soldiers had even claimed to believe Barabbas was the Messiah.
What was it with these Jews? They have been slaves most of their history, and finally, they are delivered by a benevolent god, Caesar, and given special privileges to maintain their petty rules and rituals. What more do they want?

The crucified outlaws, once hanged naked on their crosses, were elevated under the hot sun. It would not be the nailing of their wrists and heels that would kill them, or even the dehydration in the boiling hot sun. Rather, it would be the weight of their own weakened bodies that would put pressure on the lungs and suffocate them. Longinus did not have much time. He had an outlaw Zealot leader to hunt down. In order to speed up the suffocation process, soldiers broke the legs of the victims with bone-crunching clubs. The weakened cries from already half-dead lungs followed those assaults. Crucifixion was a cruel punishment used to inspire terror in insurrectionists and dissuade rebellion against Caesar, the god-man.

As an officer in the army, Longinus participated in the imperial cult of Caesar. The great general, Julius Caesar had been divinized after his death through the act of apotheosis, the posthumous declaration of divinity by the state. The divine Julius had been validated by his successor, Augustus, who cited a bright comet in the sky seen by many during the funeral games.

Though Tiberius was the current emperor, it was the previous one, Augustus, who was the first real savior to Rome and to Longinus. Augustus’ mother had claimed his father was the god Apollo who copulated with her in the form of a wise snake. Into a world of turmoil and disarray, Augustus had brought
Pax Romana
, the Peace of Rome. His title was printed on coins, “Emperor Caesar Augustus, Son of God, Savior.”

Longinus walked curiously along the path, looking up at the bleeding, sweating, groaning forms of the Zealots baking in the sun and dying their slow deaths. He mused,
What a waste of lives, pursuing the impossible against all odds.
For millennia, the Jews had been looking for their king, who would bring order from disorder, put an end to war, and restore all things. Did not Caesar perform these feats? These followers of the Nazarene that the Baptizer spoke of claimed the “Good News” of a new age with the birth of their savior, god manifest, who would be the hope of all the world. But was not Caesar all of these things and more? Though the Jews often appealed to ancient prophecies, it seemed to Longinus that they had simply taken all the language about the Roman god-man, Caesar, and applied it to their Messiah as a gesture of defiance.

Longinus had memorized one of the proclamations from the Provincial Assembly of Asia that sounded quite similar to the Jews’ own scriptures:

The most divine Caesar, we should consider equal to the Beginning of all things: for when everything was falling into disorder and tending toward dissolution, he restored it once more and gave to the whole world a new aura; Caesar, the beginning of life and vitality. Augustus, whom Providence filled with strength for the welfare of men, and who being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order; and, having become god manifest, Caesar has fulfilled all the hopes of earlier times in surpassing all the benefactors who preceded him, and whereas, finally, the birthday of the god Augustus has been for the whole world the beginning of the Gospel of Good News concerning him, therefore let a new era begin from his birth
.

Why did these Jews not consider Caesar as the fulfillment of their own prophecies? What did this promised Messiah offer these poor dying fools that Caesar could not? Elysium? A happy heaven in their martyrdom? He was certainly no worthy opponent of Caesar, if these were his warriors
.

Longinus remembered how years earlier, his ruthless troublemaking prefect, Pontius Pilate, had brought the ensigns of Caesar into the holy city of Jerusalem. The Jews were so intolerant of Caesar’s image, that their protest made it to the ears of Tiberius. But when Pilate arranged to have them all surrounded and killed by a legion, he was stopped in his tracks. Instead of rioting or defending themselves, the Jews had all, to a man, bowed low in the dirt and offered their necks for martyrdom. Pilate knew it would not benefit him politically to engage in such wanton slaughter of peaceful citizenry, so he took the ensign standards out of the city. But Pilate was never one to be outmaneuvered, so he continued looking for opportunities to aggravate these “desert rats,” as he called them. Longinus’ assignment was important to providing Pilate with advance knowledge of any plans for revolution.

Still, the tragic absurdity of it all made Longinus wonder if he was missing something. He decided to spare one of the Zealots who was a scribe, in order to learn more about their holy books and therein, their intended strategy. Despite all the social unrest, he did not think the Jews were anywhere near the organized or armed capabilities of true effectual revolution. Was there a piece to this puzzle that was eluding him? He would need to find this Barabbas and the two circus brothers. He would torture it out of them. But where were they?

It came to him that if there was any merit to these claims of Barabbas considering himself to be the Messiah, then a certain predictability would follow. Historically, whenever these Jews congregated with grievances, there was trouble. Their yearly Passover feast was approaching soon. It commemorated their exodus from slavery in Egypt, a perceived analogy of their submission to Rome. With the increasing unrest, it would seem a perfect time to rise up in revolt.

And the perfect place would be Jerusalem. They made their pilgrimage for the feast to Jerusalem, the location of their holy temple, and the “City of David,” their original Messiah king. Would it not make most sense for the “Son of David,” as they called him, to claim his throne and capture first their holy city, from there, to launch a rebellion against Caesar?

He would travel to Jerusalem and wait for this criminal usurper, this serpent, to raise his head, so that Longinus could strike it off before the rebel could make his move.

He knew that wherever he found this pretended Messiah, Barabbas, he would find the escaped outlaw brothers, Demas and Gestas.

On the way to Caesarea Philippi, Simon befriended the day laborers, Demas and Gestas. They asked many questions and seemed interested in Simon’s own reasoning for his change of mind about Jesus. He was pleased with their interest, but could not help but wonder if they had ulterior motives. When the rabbi entertained questions from the larger group, Gestas seemed most focused in his own questions about the armies of the heavenly host and their part in the end of the age. Demas seemed interested in employment as a bodyguard with his fighting skills. But Jesus told him that now was not the time for such needs.

Winter came on, so their traveling had slowed a bit, with cool days and very cold nights around campfires. After Simon saw Jesus meet with the archangels in disguise that one evening, they left immediately the next day. Back on the causeway of Tyre, Jesus had told Simon about the binding and imprisonment of Asherah. Evidently, the archangels had made it into the crevice of the Abyss, moments before the tidal wave had washed over the island of Melqart. The three archons, Remiel, Raguel and Saraqael had bound her and dragged her down to Tartarus.

The trio had met up with the other four and were now on the road, conversing with Jesus about their next plans. What those plans were, Simon had no idea, but he finally understood the larger picture they were all participating in. Jesus was binding the principalities and powers over the land, and his next target was at Caesarea Philippi.

The city was at the mid-point of the highway between Tyre on the coast and Damascus in the northwest. It was nestled in the foothills of Baal-Hermon in a fertile area of trees and lush vegetation, between the waters of the Jordan coming out of Dan to the west and Panias Springs that flowed through the city. Twenty-five miles to the south, the Sea of Galilee and its surrounding cities of Capernaum, Bethsaida and Tiberius were all within reasonable distance for common travel and economic activity. Caesarea Philippi was a multicultural nexus of ethnicity as well, with a thoroughly mixed population of Semites, Greeks and Romans from all over the empire.

As they approached the city, the group of traveling disciples could see the large Augusteum like a shining white beacon on a hill in the center of the city. This Greco-Roman temple had been built by Phillip, the reigning tetrarch of the area for the last twenty-five years. He had it erected years before to honor the imperial cult of Augustus Caesar. Made of bright, white marble and graced with Corinthian style columns, this open-air temple embodied the worship of the emperor in conjunction with Roma, the personification of the Roman state. The rest of the architecture of the city was also Hellenized by Herod’s building programs. The veritable procession of sculpted images of gods like Zeus, Hermes, Apollo, Echo and Nemesis made Simon sick to his stomach. He detested images. He tried to envision himself as part of an army occupying this spiritual stronghold of demonic habitation.

Jesus held up his hands and stopped the traveling company. “I am taking the twelve with me into the city. But I want the rest of you to pitch camp further up the river outside Panias. We will meet you later.”

The traveling group of Jesus’ followers continued on toward Panias, while Jesus turned up the road with his twelve disciples. Demas and Gestas stayed behind as the larger group headed toward the sacred grotto. The brothers looked at each other. They didn’t have to say anything. They knew they were going to spy on the twelve to see what happened. They waited until the disciples had disappeared up the pathway into the city, and returned to follow Jesus at a safe distance.

As the twelve entered the large marketplace, Simon discovered they had arrived in the middle of the city’s yearly pagan festival, Lupercalia. The city had originally been named Panias in honor of the satyr goat god of nature, Pan. The festival remained from ancient days. It consisted of celebration and ritual, one of which was currently in progress. The disciples had to move aside with the crowds that lined the street.

A sacrifice of goats had been made at the sanctuary of Pan, near where the disciples were setting up camp. Two young men, called
luperci
, stripped naked like the faun Pan, took strips of skin from the sacrifice, and smeared their foreheads with the blood of the victim. They then ran down the hill into the city and used the bloody strips of skin to slap women who lined the streets. The women had offered themselves for fertility to the god. Later, there would be games and competitions, as well as music and drama, all part of the celebration. But the religious rites of this festival had an additional purpose: to ward off evil spirits.

Simon knew that such pagan activities produced the opposite effect, they opened the entire city up to evil spirits. He now understood Jesus’s timing for their arrival. This was a spiritual war, and he was invading the enemy’s territory to call them out and face them down.

And the enemy discovered Messiah’s presence in their midst.

Behind the corner of an alleyway, Demas and Gestas watched Jesus and the disciples. The brothers saw residents of the city that were standing around or near the visitors begin to tremble violently. The people could not control themselves. They fell to the ground howling and screaming as if in torment. But the voices were not their own, for the cries had an eerie, otherworldly presence to them. Evil spirits possessed the people. There were a dozen or more of the spirits, all belching out blasphemies and curses.

The young man closest to Jesus flapped on the ground so violently that he appeared to be a blur to those around him. Jesus laid his hand on the poor soul. The young man stopped moving. A terrible wail filled the air as the demon left his body.

Jesus turned to his disciples. “Join me, now! Cast them out.”

Simon took a deep breath. Earlier in their journeys, Jesus had given authority to the twelve to heal sicknesses and cast out demons. They had split up for a while to visit towns separately and exercise their new gift. It had amazed them all, and they had come back together to share their experiences. That practice had prepared them for this. Simon suspected there was more to come.

All twelve of the disciples began casting out demons from those near them, in the power and authority of Jesus. The crowds moved away in fright. The celebration had been interrupted.

The crowd ran away in droves. Hundreds of them. They seemed frightened to death by what they saw.

Simon knew where they were running to: Pan’s cave on the outskirts of the city. He knelt beside a young girl on the ground spitting up foam and speaking what sounded like magical incantations in foreign tongues.

Demas and Gestas watched it all from their shadowed corner near the disciples. It was pandemonium all around them. They didn’t know what to do. They had never seen anything like it before. No amount of monstrous beasts, real or play-acted, could prepare the brothers for what they were seeing. What bothered Gestas most was that he felt strangely attracted to the afflicted girl that Simon was attending to.

Simon laid his hands on the babbling girl. Suddenly, she stopped and looked past Simon with her black-orbed eyes. He followed her gaze to see Demas and Gestas hiding by the alleyway. Her head tilted at an unnatural angle. With a diabolical grin, she spoke out in an unearthly voice to Demas and Gestas in the distance, “You want to lick me, don’t you, actor? And you, bestiarius, you want to thrust your sword through my belly. Do it! Come, set me free! Slit my throat and pierce my dead body. Sssssssssss!”

Demas and Gestas froze in fear. How did this spirit know their hearts? How did it know that Gestas was in bondage to his lust and Demas to his violence? This—thing—was more frightening than any animal Demas had faced in the arena.

They stepped back into the shadows, but could not hide from the penetrating blackened gaze of the demon-possessed little girl.

She writhed on the ground like a serpent, trying to move toward the two of them in the alley.

She hissed to Simon, “Let me enter into them.”

“No!” commanded Simon.

The brothers turned and ran as fast as they could to get away from there.

Simon yelled at the girl, “I cast you out in the name of Jesus the Messiah. Be gone, wicked spirit!” The demon left her quivering body with a howl, and she went limp.

Peter, James, John, and the other disciples moved about casting out the evil spirits as they were taught to do.

There must have been twenty to thirty demons. By the time the disciples finished exorcising them, the entire square had cleared out.

Jesus looked outside the city just to the east where a cliff was visible, rising up a couple hundred feet in the air. It was the destination of the fleeing demoniacs: the sacred grotto of Pan.

Jesus turned to the disciples and said, “Men, it is time to storm the Gates of Hades.” He brushed himself off and walked out of the marketplace toward the eastern outskirts of town. The twelve followed.

The rest of the townspeople were happy to be rid of the strangers. The visitors had caused such a commotion with their arrival in the square that they had ruined the festivities for that day. The people just wanted to forget what they saw, get back to their celebration, and then go home to finish their daily chores.

• • • • •

Simon followed Jesus with the rest of the twelve, walking straight through the Cardo Maximus, the main thoroughfare that stretched through the city end to end, lined with Greek columns. Their progress felt like a victorious triumphal march with everyone watching fearfully from the sidelines. But Simon knew it was more like a gauntlet, for they were about to enter the stronghold of the enemy.

Panias, the sacred grotto of Pan, lay just two hundred yards up the low incline at the base of the red rock bluffs. Across the river, a short distance from the grotto, Simon could see the traveling disciples setting up camp and the staring faces of Demas and Gestas, watching from their safe distance. He smiled to himself. He would have to explain to the brothers later the bizarre occurrence they had just run away from.

The twelve with Jesus arrived at the sacred pool, about a hundred yards wide. At its origin, another fifty yards ahead of them, the Springs of Panias gushed out of the Cave of Pan, a large mouth in the red cliff towering a hundred feet over the temple district. A temple of Pan, altars, tombs, and other architecture carved into the very rock, housed a thousand eyes watching Jesus approach them. Inhuman eyes.

Jesus held his hand up to the disciples. “Wait here.”

They stopped.

Jesus walked on. From his position, Simon saw what looked like a high priestess step out of the temple. He could barely see in the waning light, but she wore an elaborate headdress and flowing purple robes.

She saw Jesus, turned, and led her entourage of nymphs back into the cave. She was not going to face down her challenger.

The sun was already setting and the long shadows played over the grounds like phantoms. A chill grew in the air.

Simon wrapped his cloak tighter. He couldn’t tell if the shiver that went down his spine was from the temperature or the eerie, developing scene before him.

The priestess stopped at the mouth of the cave. She raised her arms, and an ugly unearthly howl came out of her, as if from the very depths of Sheol. The acoustics of the grotto were astounding. Every sound was amplified.

Then she disappeared inside the cave.

Jesus walked up to the temple area.

Simon saw people appear from inside buildings and tombs, from behind trees, rocks and architecture. They were the local residents, but they were not acting normally. They walked with slight jerks and twitches, stumbling toward Jesus. Some could be heard squealing like swine and making guttural animal sounds. Demoniacs. Hundreds of them. Descending the slope like slow, crouching predators upon their prey, the Son of God.

Peter yelled out, “Jesus!” He and the disciples moved to help.

Jesus snapped his palm back at them to stop.

He was fifty yards away from the disciples, right inside the temple district of the ravine.

The demoniacs staggered out of their hiding places toward Jesus.

He now looked up into heaven with hands held out in vulnerability.

Simon could feel, if not hear, the sounds of a thousand spirits whispering foul words and vile thoughts in the air.

The possessed drew nearer and nearer to Jesus, hundreds of them encircling him.

In all his experience with exorcism, Simon had never seen so many demoniacs in one location. He remembered the legion of spirits in the two men of the Gadarenes. But this was a significant segment of the population of an entire city. Jesus had warned them of this location. It was called the Gates of Hades for a reason. It had some kind of access to the underworld. Equally significant was the fact that this sacred space stood at the foot of the mountain range of Hermon, the cosmic mount of assembly of the gods. Simon had read the Book of Enoch, and the Book of Giants at Qumran. He knew of the fall of the Watcher gods at this very mountain before the Flood. This was the heart of evil in the land of Bashan, the place of the Serpent.

As their ranks closed in, Simon could see that the solid crowd of hundreds of possessed creatures had stopped its advance within a few yards of Jesus. Those behind tried to push forward, but the line would not move. It was as if an invisible barrier held them from advancing upon him. There was no way out for Jesus, and no way in for them.