Killing Jesus: A History (21 page)

Jesus enters the Temple courts. Today he ignores the money changers and the men selling doves. He selects a spot in the shaded awnings of Solomon’s Porch and begins to teach. The religious leaders arrive almost immediately, interrupting him.

“By what authority are you doing these things?” a chief priest demands, referring to reported acts of healing that Jesus performed yesterday. The interrogators who stand before the Nazarene are not just common Pharisees or scribes but the most elite of the religious leaders. Their presence is meant to awe those pilgrims who might otherwise be transfixed by Jesus. Their goal is to use their intellectual prowess to make the Nazarene appear stupid.

“And who gave you this authority?” asks a second priest.

“I will ask you one question,” Jesus replies calmly. “If you answer, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” He has thought deeply and anticipated their questions.

The religious leaders have spoken with the Pharisees, who traveled to Galilee last year and are well aware that Jesus is clever. But they think him to be uneducated and unread and hope to lure him into a theological trap. The priests await Jesus’s question.

“John’s baptism,” Jesus asks. “Where did it come from? Was it from heaven or from men?”

The religious leaders do not answer immediately. The crowd looks on apprehensively. On one side stands Jesus, on the other side, the self-proclaimed holy men. Finally the chief priests talk among themselves, debating Jesus’s question from all angles: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ you will ask, ‘Then why did we not believe him?’”

Jesus says nothing. The religious leaders continue with their private conversation.

“But if we say that John’s baptism came from men, we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”

Jesus remains silent. The men haven’t given him an answer yet, and the crowd knows it. It is becoming clear that the chief priests and elders are no different than those Pharisees who tried but failed to trap Jesus in Galilee. Once again the leaders are on the defensive. Their trap for Jesus has failed.

“We don’t know,” a chief priest finally says.

“I’ll tell you the truth,” Jesus replies in full view of his audience. “Tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him. But the tax collectors and prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.”

The crowd is awed. The high priests are stunned into silence.

*   *   *

Word of Jesus’s intellectual victory spreads through the Temple courts. The pilgrims now love Jesus even more. They are speaking of him as a true prophet and hope he will live up to the promise of his celebratory entry into Jerusalem just two short days ago.

The sun climbs higher and higher in the sky, and business in the Temple courts goes on as Jesus holds the crowd in thrall. Rather than back down after their earlier embarrassment, the chief priests and elders continue to look on.

The Nazarene tells a parable about a wealthy landowner and his troublesome tenants. The summation is a line stating that the religious leaders will lose their authority and be replaced by others whose belief is more genuine.

Then Jesus tells a second parable, about heaven, comparing it to a wedding, with God as the father of the groom, preparing a luxurious banquet for his son’s guests. Again the religious leaders are the subject of the final line, a barb about a guest who shows up poorly dressed and is then bound hand and foot and thrown from the ceremony. “For many are invited,” Jesus says of heaven, “but few are chosen.”

This stings badly. The authority of the religious leaders is that
they
are the chosen ones. For Jesus to state publicly that they are not is an enormous defamation of their character. So they finally leave the Temple courts and switch tactics, sending their own disciples out to wage theological battle. These disciples are smart. Rather than attacking Jesus, they try to soften him up with flattery. “Teacher, we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men because you pay no attention to who they are.”

Then the flattery ends. Aware that they’re unlikely to catch Jesus in a theological misstatement, the Pharisees’ disciples now try to frame Jesus by using Rome. “What is your opinion?” they ask. “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”

“Why are you trying to trap me?” Jesus seethes. He asks for someone to hand him a denarius. “Whose portrait is this?” he asks, holding up the coin. “And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they answer.

“Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s,” Jesus tells them. “And to God what is God’s.”

Again the crowd is awed. Although Caesar is a feared name, the Nazarene has marginalized Rome without directly offending it. The brilliance of Jesus’s words will last throughout the ages.

*   *   *

Having failed in their mission, those disciples leave. They are soon replaced by the Sadducees, a wealthy and more liberal Temple sect who count Caiaphas among their number. Once again, they try to pierce the aura of Jesus’s vulnerability with a religious riddle, and once again they fail.

Soon the Pharisees step forward to take their turn. “Teacher,” asks their leader, a man known for being an expert in the law, “what is the greatest commandment in the law?”

Under the teachings of the Pharisees, there are 613 religious statutes. Even though each carries a designation marking it as either great or little, the fact remains that each must be followed. Asking Jesus to select one is a clever way of pushing him into a corner, making him defend his choice.

But Jesus does not choose from one of the established laws. Instead, he articulates a new one: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
⁴

The Pharisees stand silent. How could anyone argue with that? Only, Jesus goes on to add a second law: “Love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Jesus has now defeated the sharpest minds in the Temple. But he does not settle for victory and walk away. Instead, the Nazarene turns and excoriates the priests in front of the pilgrims. “Everything they do is for men to see,” he tells the crowd. “They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long. They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues. They love to be greeted in the marketplace and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’”

Six times, Jesus denounces the Pharisees as hypocrites. He calls them a brood of vipers.
⁵
He tells them they are unclean. He denounces them for focusing on such trivial details of religious life as whether to tithe their allotment of herbs and spices, in the process completely missing the true heart of God’s law.

Worst of all, Jesus predicts that these holy men will be condemned to hell.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,” Jesus laments, knowing his time of teaching is done. The Nazarene departs the Temple and will not be seen in public until the time of his condemnation. In fact, he seals his death sentence by predicting the destruction of the Temple. “Do you see all these great stones?” he asks. “Not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

Jesus says these words to his disciples, but a Pharisee overhears. That statement will become a capital crime.

*   *   *

A short time later, Jesus sits atop the Mount of Olives. A week that began in this very spot with him weeping while astride a donkey now finds him reflective. With the disciples sitting at his side, Jesus summarizes his short life. Darkness is falling as he tells his followers to live their lives to the fullest, speaking in parables so that they will comprehend the magnitude of his words. The disciples listen in rapt fascination but grow concerned as Jesus predicts that after his death they, too, will be persecuted and killed. Perhaps to lessen the impact of this, Jesus shares his thoughts on heaven and promises the disciples that God will reveal himself to them and the world.

“As you know,” Jesus concludes, “the Passover is two days away—and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

*   *   *

Even as Jesus speaks, the chief priests and the elders gather at Caiaphas’s palace. They are now in a frenzy. Killing the Nazarene is the only answer. But time is short. First, Jesus must be arrested. After his arrest, there must be a trial. But the religious laws state that no trials can be held during Passover, and none can be held at night. If they are to kill Jesus, he must be arrested either tomorrow or Thursday and tried before sundown. Making matters even more pressing is the religious stipulation that if a death penalty is ordered, a full night must pass before the sentence can be carried out.

All of these details, Caiaphas knows, can be massaged. The most important thing right now is to take Jesus into custody. The other problems can be addressed once that occurs. None of the people who have listened to Jesus in the Temple courts can be alerted, or there could be a riot. Such a confrontation would mean Pontius Pilate’s getting involved and Caiaphas’s being blamed.

So the arrest must be an act of stealth.

For that, Caiaphas will need some help. Little does he know that one of Jesus’s own disciples is making plans to provide it.

All he wants in return is money.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

JERUSALEM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, A.D. 30
NIGHT

Judas Iscariot travels alone. Jesus has chosen to spend this day in rest, and now he and the other disciples remain behind at the home of Lazarus as Judas walks into Jerusalem by himself. It has been five days since the disciples arrived in Bethany and three since Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey. But Jesus has yet to announce publicly that he is the Christ; nor has he done anything to lead an uprising against Rome. But he has enraged the religious leaders, which has put targets on his back and those of his disciples. “You will be handed over to be persecuted, and put to death, and you will be hated by all the nations because of me,” Jesus predicted yesterday, when they were all sitting atop the Mount of Olives.

Judas did not sign on to be hated or executed. If Jesus just admits that he is the Christ, then he would triumph over the Romans. Surely the religious authorities would then be eager to align themselves with Jesus. All this talk of death and execution might come to an end.

So Judas has decided to force Jesus’s hand.

Judas made his decision moments ago, during dinner, when Jesus and the disciples were eating at the home of a man named Simon the leper. The group lounged on pillows around the banquet table, plucking food from the small plates in the center with their right hand. As had happened so many times before, a woman approached Jesus to anoint him with perfume. It was Mary, sister of Lazarus, who broke off the thick neck of the flask and poured nard, an exotic scent imported from India, on Jesus’s head in a show of devotion.

Judas expressed revulsion at such a waste of money. Passover, in particular, is a time when it is customary to give money to the poor. This time he was not alone in his disgust. Several other disciples joined in before Jesus put an end to the discussion.

“Leave her alone,” Jesus ordered the disciples. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them anytime you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.”

Once again, Jesus’s words were bewildering. He allowed himself to be anointed like the Christ, and yet he was predicting his death.

Now, Judas boldly walks back into Jerusalem. The night air smells of wood smoke from the many campfires. Passover starts on the night of the first full moon after the spring equinox, which will be Friday evening.

Judas picks his way carefully down the bumpy dirt road. His march could be an act of stupidity—he knows this—for he is intent on going directly to the palace of Caiaphas, the most powerful man in the Jewish world. Judas believes that he has an offer of great value that will interest the leader of the Sanhedrin.

Judas is a known disciple of Jesus, however, and this strategy could very well lead to his arrest. Even if nothing like that happens, Judas is uncertain if an exalted religious leader such as Caiaphas will meet with an unwashed follower of Jesus.

Making his way from the valley and through Jerusalem’s gates, Judas navigates the crowded streets to the expensive neighborhoods of the Upper City. He finds the home of Caiaphas and tells the guards his business. Much to his relief, Judas is not arrested. Instead, he is warmly welcomed into the spacious palace and led to a lavish room where the high priest is meeting with the other priests and elders.

The conversation immediately turns to Jesus.

“What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” Judas asks.

If the high priests are surprised by Judas’s behavior, they don’t show it. They have set aside their normal arrogance. Their goal is to manipulate Judas into doing whatever it takes to arrange Jesus’s arrest.

“Thirty silver coins,” comes the reply.

This is 120 denarii, the equivalent of four months’ wages.

Judas has lived the hand-to-mouth existence of Jesus’s disciples for two long years, rarely having more than a few extra coins in his purse, and very little in the way of luxury. Now the chief priest is offering him a lucrative bounty to select a time and place, far from the Temple courts, to arrest Jesus.

Judas is a schemer. He has plotted the odds so that they are in his favor. He knows that if he takes the money, one of two things will happen: Jesus will be arrested and then declare himself to be the Christ. If the Nazarene truly is the Messiah, then he will have no problem saving himself from Caiaphas and the high priests.