Killing Jesus: A History (15 page)

But Jesus does not back down.

Instead, he asserts himself. For the poor and oppressed people of Galilee, the sermon he will soon preach from a mountainside outside Capernaum will define their struggle in a way that will never be forgotten.

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“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus begins. “Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

“Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus is sitting, letting his powerful speaking voice carry his words out to the massive crowd. There are Pharisees among the people. And no doubt they are stunned as Jesus sets forth his own interpretation of religious law. What begins as a message designed to remind the men and women of Galilee that their current circumstances will not last forever soon becomes a lengthy poetic dissertation on adultery, murder, false oaths, alms to the poor, loving one’s enemies, and even, most shockingly, defying the powers that be.

Jesus is telling the crowd that they should defer to God in all matters. And the words he speaks are like an emotional rejuvenation in the hearts of these Galileans, who feel oppressed and hopeless.

“This, then, is how you should pray,” Jesus tells them. No one speaks. The crowd leans forward, straining to listen.

“Our Father, who are in heaven, hallowed be your name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

It’s all there. Everything that a peasant in Galilee can relate to as a part of life under Roman rule: the need to rely on God, the worry about daily nourishment, the constant struggle to stay out of debt, and, finally, a reminder that in the midst of this cruel life, succumbing to the temptation to lie, cheat, steal, or sleep with another man’s wife is a false act that will only lead people farther and farther away from God.

The crowd is stunned as Jesus finishes. The speech is less than two thousand words long. Yet there is great power in its brevity. “The Sermon on the Mount,” as it will come to be known, may be the most important speech in history.

The crowds follow Jesus down the mountain that day, through the tall spring grass and around small limestone boulders, past the fields of new wheat, trailing him all the way back to Capernaum.

There, soon after entering the city, a most amazing thing happens: the Roman military officer in charge of Capernaum declares himself to be a follower of Jesus.

Jesus is astonished. This admission could end the man’s career or even get him killed. But Jesus turns to the centurion. “I tell you the truth,” he says with emotion. “I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

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Three months after the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is in the home of a local Pharisee. He has been invited to dinner to discuss his teachings. The Pharisee, Simon, does not like Jesus. And even though Simon invited Jesus to dinner, he is demonstrating his contempt for him by not playing the role of a good host. Though Jesus walked the four dusty miles from Capernaum to Magdala in sandals to be here, Simon has not provided him with water to wash the dust from his feet, as per custom. Simon did not offer him a respectful kiss of greeting on the cheek or anoint him with olive oil upon his arrival.

The Pharisees number some six thousand members throughout all of Judea, and their name means “separated ones,” in reference to the way they hold themselves apart from other Jews. There is no middle class that falls in between the royalty of the state and the religious teachers. Farmers, artisans, and merchants all constitute the lower class. The Pharisees, who have appointed themselves guardians of Jewish religious law, believe that their interpretations of Scripture are authoritative. Wherever they go to teach in synagogues, this is considered to be true. But now Jesus has chosen to interpret the Scriptures himself. And that is threatening to the establishment, as the people of Galilee are eagerly listening to Jesus. So Simon the Pharisee has invited the Nazarene to a gathering of friends, to see if he can trap him into saying something blasphemous.

A young woman enters the room silently. She is a prostitute who has heard Jesus speak. She has been invited by Simon as part of his elaborate plan to test the Nazarene. The moment is obviously awkward, for rarely does a woman of ill repute enter the home of a holy Pharisee. Nevertheless, Mary of Magdala
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—or Mary Magdalene, as she will go down in history—now stands behind Jesus. In her hands, she holds a very expensive alabaster jar of perfume. Where she got the money to buy it is left unasked.

It is well known how Mary makes her living, for there are few secrets in the small villages and towns of Galilee. But Mary has come to believe in the love and acceptance preached by Jesus. Now, overcome with emotion, she bends down to pour the aromatic perfume on his feet. But she begins to sob before she can open the jar. Mary’s tears flow freely and without shame, and her face is pressed close to the feet of the Nazarene, which are still coated in road dust from his walk to the Pharisee’s house.

Mary’s tears continue, and they mix with the perfume she applies to Jesus. She then dries his feet with her long hair, even as she kisses them as a sign of love and respect.

Jesus does nothing to stop her.

“If this man were a prophet,” thinks Simon the Pharisee, “he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is: a sinner.”

“Simon, I have something to tell you,” Jesus says as Mary opens the alabaster jar and pours more perfume on his feet. The smell is enchanting and powerful, filling the room with its flowery sweetness.

“Tell me, teacher,” Simon replies smoothly.

“Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet,” Jesus tells the Pharisee. “You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little, loves little.”

Jesus looks at Mary. She lifts her eyes to see his face. “Your sins are forgiven,” Jesus tells her.

If Simon was looking for a chance to catch Jesus in a theological trap, now is the moment. Sins can be forgiven only through sacrificial offerings. In the eyes of the Pharisees, even the baptisms performed in the Jordan River do not officially forgive sins. And now Jesus is saying that
he
has the authority to obliterate sin.

Mary Magdalene

The other friends of Simon who have come to dinner this evening are dumbfounded by Jesus’s words, particularly since he has spoken them in the presence of such a prominent Pharisee. “Who is this who even forgives sins?” they ask one another.

“Your faith has saved you,” Jesus tells Mary of Magdala. “Now go in peace.”

She goes, but not for long. Mary isn’t selected by Jesus to serve as one of his twelve disciples, but she follows them as they travel and never returns to the life she once knew. In the end, Mary will be a powerful witness to the last days of Jesus of Nazareth.
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The last days have come for John the Baptist. He has been in the dungeons of Machaerus for two long years. The dank cells are carved into the rocky hillside, and, in fact, some are nothing more than caves. The floors, ceilings, and walls are impenetrable rock. There are no windows in his cell; the only light comes through small slits in the thick wooden door. The rectangular doorjamb is framed by haphazardly chiseled stones stacked atop one another and sealed with mortar. It is a place of solitude and silence, damp and chill, where hope is hard to maintain through month after month of sleeping on the ground and where one’s skin grows pale from never feeling the warmth of sunlight. Now and again it is possible to smell the aromatic bushes that Antipas planted between the castle and the lower city, but the scent is just as quickly swept away on the desert wind, taking with it the brief sensation of beauty. The living hell of the prison has been preying on John’s mind. He is now beginning to doubt his initial faith in Jesus as the Messiah. He desperately wants to get word to Jesus and be reassured by him.

John the Baptist in prison sends his disciples to Jesus

John the Baptist has attracted many disciples of his own, though he has also exhorted men to return to their fields and their farms rather than follow him through the wilderness. But at least two such men have come to see him, and now they listen as John sends them on a mission. “Ask him,” the Baptist says, referring to Jesus, “‘Are you the one who has come, or should we expect someone else?’”

The months in isolation have given John time to reflect on his ministry. He is still a young man, not yet forty. But the longer he remains in prison, the more it appears that he might eventually be executed. His life’s work has been to tell people about the coming of a messiah, and now he wonders if it was all in vain. Perhaps Jesus is just another great teacher, or another man like him, intent on preaching about the coming of God. John’s own disciples have come bringing news of Jesus’s great speeches and the large crowds that seek him no matter when or where he preaches. They’ve told John that Jesus is unafraid to eat and drink with the tax collectors and whores and that some of these sinners change their ways after listening to his words of redemption. These disciples have also told John that Jesus has healed the sick and caused men who were completely deaf their whole lives suddenly to hear.

Still, John is not sure. He has seen firsthand what happens when common people become enthralled with charismatic spiritual men. Their behavior is excited and unreasonable. They attribute all manner of miracles to a leader’s presence, focusing on the man himself rather than on God. And whether these phenomena occur or not, John does not care. What matters most to him is the kingdom of heaven and when the Messiah will come to earth.

So John sends his messengers on their way. It is hard to imagine anyplace more remote or desolate than Machaerus, situated as it is in the middle of a desert, high atop a mountain. The isolation is brutal.

Weeks pass. The journey from Machaerus to Galilee is just four days. John prays as he waits patiently for more word about Jesus.

Finally, he hears the shuffle of sandals outside the dungeon door. His disciples have returned, bringing with them some very specific words from Jesus. “He told us to go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
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John is relieved. This is the affirmation he was hoping to hear. Now he can finally find some semblance of peace as he languishes in prison. Jesus is once again claiming that he is who John publicly proclaimed him to be: the Messiah.

But there’s more. The eager disciples go on to tell John that Jesus not only alluded to his own virgin birth, as foretold by Scripture, but also extended a warm compliment to John as a reminder to stand strong. The moment came as Jesus was teaching to a crowd within earshot of John’s disciples. In fact, they were just about to leave when Jesus made sure they heard these words: “What did you go out into the desert to see?” he asked the crowd in reference to John. “A reed swayed by the winds?
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A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you so, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’