Jesus God

A Five Act Light-hearted Rendition of the Gospels

Explaining Why the Jewish Rulers Hated Jesus to Death

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It has been extracted in full from Smith&Smith at
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Build-Up
The Cast

The first person who ever swore

“Jesus Christ!”
was, in rough order:

God the Creator Who lives forever

Who said “Jesus Christ. Drop dead.

Go to Hell my belovèd son.”
And “Don’t come back until you’ve paid
For every sin under the sun.”

Second in order,
All the Old Testament prophets, visionaries and see-ers
who saw Jesus before he was born,
and swore to it.
Especially those called
Joshua, Hosea, Hoshea and Isaiah
which all translate or transliterate into:
Jesus, ‘God saves’ i.e. Messiah.

Third in contention,
The archangel Gabriel
(the one who announced to Mary, the famous line
that God wanted her as His personal concubine*)

*A concubine was a slave-girl

promoted to mistress or bought to be a wife.

Yes, as he gave his advice, Gabe swore to Mary

That her babe should be called
Jesus, the Christ.

Followed by,
The righteous old prophetess, Elizabeth,
Of high-priestly descent
Who couldn’t have children until,
To her old husband, Zachariah
That same archangel Gabriel had been sent,
With news for Zac’s old lady
That she also would have a miracle baby.
 She likewise swore “Mother of God!”
When she saw Mary, pregnant.

And of course,
The most blessèd of women, Mary
(also a prophetess),
a virgin
Who gave birth, in Bethlehem, to Jesus,
None-the-less.

Next by rights,
Blameless old Zac the priest,
Also a prophet of the Christ, and husband to Elizabeth.
They were both, as we said, really getting on
But still he became the father of the first Baptist, John.
But he couldn’t boast of it,
Until he became a prophet of it,
As soon as it had happened
Exactly as Gabriel had said of it.

Soon after, these also swore, turn by turn…

Righteous Joseph, of King David’s line,
Mary’s husband sworn
Who guarded Mary’s virginity,
Until Jesus was born,
And who not only rescued
from King Herod’s sword, his wife
But also saved our Lord and Saviour’s life.

Then
All the hosts of the angels of heaven,
In A.D. one point zero, zero,
Who sang
‘Happy Birthday’
To J.G.*, our hero. [ * “Jesus God” ]
Then
All the shepherds whom the angels sent off
To worship a newborn fetus
in a backyard feeding trough.

Later, at the temple

The devout Simeon, prophet to Our Lady,
Who died when he caught sight of Jesus
As a baby.
And
Old Anna, the widowed prophetess
Who went on a 60 year hunger strike, no less
Until she could see Jesus.
Also
The wise Magi from the East
Who told Herod where to go
When he wanted to kill Christ.

About 30 years later, these others also swore about Jesus…

..The Devil,
 lord of all the demons dread,
Who was always trying to see Jesus dead.
..The prophet, John the Baptist,
Greatest among men
Who was dying to see Jesus
And was waiting to see him
Spiritually sat upon by God.
..Jesus himself,
who lived as some body
From Nazareth in Galilee
And who died as immortal Messiah
From Heaven, on a tree
After swearing quite solemnly
To his own transcendency.
Dutifully followed by
Andrew,
Brother of Peter and disciple to John
Of whom it is recorded…
“John instructed Andrew
That Jesus had to be slaughtered”.
Philip.
Then Nathanael.
Jesus said of the latter
“You are a true Jacobite
And you will see Jacob’s ladder”.

And Jesus’ other disciples, especially Saint Peter —

Who was their chief spokesman,
and their star feature.
He went to Christ for psychotherapy
After he had left Jesus to be hung on a tree
And had sworn against him three times three.
Jesus gently took him back three times
To confront all these sad events
So that Pete could reinterpret life with joy,
Despite such raw facts and bad precedents,
Even to the extent of Jesus recommending
Crucifixion to him personally.
Nicodemus:
who embalmed Jesus’ corpse
And helped Joseph entomb it,
And of course
Who swore “Jesus Christ!”
But only in private
— at least at first of course.
Mary,
(sister to Martha) who sat at Jesus’ feet,
Expecting to be fed.
Mary was the devotee who broke a jar
over J.G.’s head.
And their brother Laz
— the one who was sick in bed.
He died some time after he saw himself dead.
Next in order came…
Moses and Elijah,
After they died,
 In their special guest re-appearance
on the mountain,
Where they saw Jesus glow,
Full of spark and quite live.
Being hotly pursued by…
Legions of screaming demons (and other fallen spirits)
Who swore at the tops of their voices
“Jesus Christ! Don’t kill us!”
And offered him other choices,
For example:
“Turn us into pigs!”
Also,
Half of Galilee, Samaria, Judea and Jerusalem
who saw Jesus alive and well and working, and then,
Saw him make history of them.
Later, just before the execution, four more swore
— that Jesus was the Christ:
The wife of the Roman governor there
Who saw who Jesus was, in a night-mare
And fairly swore to it, in fear.
Don’t forget…
The Roman soldiers who crowned him,
And bowed down to him, in the Roman palace.
And
Governor Pontius Pilate himself
Who swore it in three different languages,
And who, by the way,
Washed his hands of the crucifixion blood,
Despite what we say,
And then made sure Jesus was dead before nightfall
That same day.

Plus…
The Roman centurion and soldiers
Who saw Jesus crucified
Who swore to him being
‘Son of God’
When they oversaw how Jesus died.
There was…
..Judas the betrayer,
Who later swore to Jesus’ innocence,
In full gutsy repentance.
He died
When he saw that his Messiah was dead.
..The spirits of the dead, in Hades,
Who were seen by the living, in Jerusalem,
To enter the Holy City un-dead,
Because they came to Life
After they saw Jesus alive,
In the Dread World of the Dead.
..Mary Magdalene,
By whom Jesus was first seen
Alive, after he died.
Other followers of Jesus then followed Mary.
Among these was Doubting Thomas
for whom seeing meant believing.
 And 500-plus eye-witnesses at one time
for whom, believing meant seeing.

And all the eye-witnesses

who saw him rise into heaven, alive.

This bulk testimony should, without a wrong,

give any judge sufficient evidence to rule upon.

But let me now continue on

with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John;
with Saint Jude, Saint James, and so on
who each swore in public
and likewise on record later on.

Then we see Saint Paul.

He couldn’t see anything — at all
— after he saw Jesus —
(He lost his sight when he saw the Light)
yet he tried to tell the whole world wide
that they will all see Jesus after they’ve died.

Then half the world for ever and ever

after Jesus was gone.

Then me.

The Plot

All this long list of publicly convicted swearers,

Most of whom were eye-witnesses,
Is what is called
“The Messianic Secret”
— by those learnèd theologians
Who meditate upon it
Who can’t see for looking,
Even when they’re bidden
Because they try to teach us that:
Jesus tried
To keep his divine identity
Hidden!
This blinkered denial
Only fuels a self-repeating drama,
Eternal, never-ending
Giving courage to the other “half of the world”
— the half which didn’t believe then,
Never bending
— which is also the half which doesn’t believe now,
Never comprehending
That this always was the true debate
— that this peasant Messiah, Jesus, openly,
Claimed to be God —
For which —
They spat in his face,
And hung him.
This untold drama has its roots in fire
In the turbid gospel story
— of Man calling Man
“liar”,
And of man denying his own glory
— of how they sneered, in the public auditory
“What on Earth would inspire
Our Old Testament God,
To translate Himself into this:
A grown up baby Messiah!”
This open public conflict
Is what the real story, of this “New Testimony”
Is all about;
And this as yet under-translated confrontation
Is there in Scripture, surely,
Waiting to be brought out,
But the over-literal interpretations so far,
Don’t have the necessary clout
So now it’s time for me to…
..Let The Secret Out!
You will see
The apparent blind effrontery
Of one half of the chosen country
When they see
Their chosen Messiah arrive, alive,
On foot
But can’t believe
what they themselves see and hear
In clarity
And then try to prove their case
To the other half,
Of their conscience.
They knew that prophetically
— undeniably —
They stood waiting
At the hub of History.
They actually heard Jesus claim,
And prove,
Divinity,
— undeniably —
And saw him
Perform cures and miracles and deliverances
Ad infinity
— undeniably —
but not recognising then,
Someone
They were supposed already to believe in
They are still waiting,
now.

But what for?

Judgment?
Or another miracle of forgiveness??
Deliverance from their unbelief?
Or a different cure for their blindness?
This story may have started
with the Jewish religious sorts at the time
Not believing their own eyes and ears

But it continues still

In the Christian hierarchies today
Half of whom still
Don’t believe in
Or welcome
Their own God,
Jesus.

—The Unbelief of the Religious Hierarchy—

Jesus still speaks…

Woe to you
Who stand in the gates of Truth.
You have shut off
The entry to Heaven from men.
You have hidden
The keys of knowledge and of revelation.
You have not been willing yourselves,
To enter in.
Neither do you allow those who are willing,
To enter
But hinder them,
————————from getting in.————————————————

The Principal Characters Three

Jesus
Was the most famous of the famous three
Because he, the hero,
Was murdered
— and quite officially— as you know — in Jerusalem
By the guilty parties which were two,
Namely
The Pharisee and the Sadducee.

Let me introduce them, the villains.

The Pharisee was always right.

The Sadducee was never wrong.

The essence of the first — the Pharisee —

Is that he must be “ortho-dox”
— a Greek word in the dictionary
Meaning (if you had to put it in a box)
“right doctrinally”.

So he who is “orthodox” by persuasion

Cannot by definition,
Be “un-”.
You can see that his position
Is very very strong.
The alternative doctrines — those of the Sadducee —
Pose something of a paradox.
For, being of the anti-supernatural school
He admits of no high infallible rule
For ‘good’ or ‘true’ or ‘right’
So how can he ever be truly ruled
As ‘bad’ or ‘false’ or ‘wrong’?!

These two parties

— the Pharisee and Sadducee —
Were the religious leaders and teachers of the Jewry,
Therefore also,
They were lawyers and judges and arbiters of morality.

But, their doctrines being contradictory

They had no mutual love, you see
Except in their chasing victory
Over Jesus, their common enemy.

And so we have a sort of

Lovers’ Triangle.
I say “Lovers’ Triangle”
Because Jesus used a powerful potion
Against all their hate and wrangle…
He simply loved them both.

Here is his message

For self-appointed religious leaders (and followers)…

——————Entitle No Man “Master”————

Jesus directed…
“Do not exalt yourself
Under the title of Master
(or Leader or Teacher or Shepherd or Pastor)
For you have only one who is your Master
— Christ.

If you wish to be called great

In the church, after the grave,
Then humble yourself here,
And serve the believers now,
— as — a — slave.”
———————————————————————————————

The Character Of Jesus

Now, we know, that Jesus was

Meek and mild, gentle as a dove,
And nicely to his enemies,
In sweet and kindly love,
he spoke…
From some gleaned examples let me quote…
 “Blood and Thunder!
By God, I’ll split this town asunder!
You murderers! Thieves! Liars!
You sons of Hell!
You’ll rot, and weep & wail,
And gnash your teeth as well,
You’ll ache in pain
And have only sulphur smoke to smell.
Unless you confess and turn,
I tell you on the level,
You’ll share in the Eternal Burn
The one kept for the Devil.”

And did you know that

In the name of heavenly friendship
Jesus even took to sinners with a whip!

Now if this seems a little too gentle, meek and mild

Perhaps even a little strong and bold
You must remember, my child of God,
Delicate child, sensitive child…
It’s not the first time that they’ve been told.

And Jesus is just carrying on

A long tradition
In accusing the Chosen Jews
Of sedition.
And “Treachery!” is no light thing,
To any king.

But when it is God Himself

Who is betrayed,
The rightful sentence to be paid,
I’m afraid,
Is, well…
Unashamed traitors set on heavenly sedition
Simply deserve,
Unashamedly…
What is called
“eternal perdition”.

So who exactly were those in such rebellion?

..As always seems to be the way

It was the religious types who went astray.
They smugly called themselves
“sons of the Father”
(even as many Christians do today).
They proudly placed themselves above their fellows
And deafened their ears to all God’s bellows.

That “long tradition”

(of prophets with divine gripes)
had recently had added to its number
John the Baptist — who was heard to thunder
To these religious types,
 “You poisoned fruit! You fodder for Hell!
You brood of vipers! You workers of Evil!
God holds you so-called “Sons of Abraham”
On a level with the gravel.
Or perhaps a little under.”

And you must believe, gentle reader,

That from aloft
Come warnings
far from soft.

Such hard warnings come

From the Righteous God above,
For such hot anger,
Is the product of hot love,
Of high stakes
And deaf ears…

since angry fathers love their children, do they not,

and tell them off,
and jealous husbands want their wives,
and so get wroth,
and wrathful Creators
tell their sinful creatures off!
and so did Jesus.

———For “the Sons of the Father”———

Jesus spoke…
“Entitle no man on Earth
‘Father’ ‘Papa’ or ‘Pope’
For only in Heaven will you find
The genuine Abba — your true Father”
——————————-Your Infallible Hope———————————

—But is God my Father Angry? with Me?—

Peter said…
“It is a fearful thing to call Him
“Father”
Who will punish us all
Without favoritism.”
———————————————————————————————

Yes, God’s love for his enemies

Is to be angry at them
— in order to try to save them —
While also being grief-stricken for them.

This is clearly shown, when the Holy Spirit

— God’s own heart and soul —
comes upon the prophets of old,
When they cried out bitterly, in anger,
And howled,
In grief.
And so
(didn’t you know?)
Did Jesus.

Q? But my ‘little baby Jesus’

— Isn’t he soft and as cuddly as a lamb?
Answer: Little baby Jesus
Was born to be
A sacrificial lamb.
Such lambs in Jewish culture
Were born to be
slain, skinned, butchered, devoured
and burnt completely!
And were symbolic of receiving
God’s wrath from above,
Not seen as objects of childish, maternal,
Or sentimental love.

And Jesus did grow up.

To become a strong champion
— a spiritual warrior.
Until his enemies murdered him.

The Jews often murdered-cum-sacrificed

any prophet-cum-Saviour.
And so they did — to Jesus.

So let me now describe to you

those selfish men
those murderers of Jerusalem
their legalism; their unbelief and idolatry;
their hate and greed and hypocrisy.

And what was their cornucopia

— that is, their “horn of plenty”—
their supply and endless source, of sin?

..Selfishness.
Because, as you see
‘Self’ dwells always within “I” “myself” and “me”
(and isn’t absent in “thou” “thyself” and “thee”).

So bear in mind, that in the faces you will see

Of the Pharisee and the Sadducee
It is your “self” you see
which is yourself, you see,
I think you would agree,
Whenever you act like them: The holy villains!

—Religious Sorts and Missionaries—

Jesus taught…

“Woe, woe, woe

To you Scribes*, Lawyers and Pharisees.
 You send missionaries across lands and seas
To make a single convert
And when he converts,
You make him twice as much a Son of Hell
As yourselves!”
———————————————————————————————
* teachers of Scripture — soon-to-be introduced

2. The Character Pharisaical

On divine matters of divine doctrine

There was divine and theological agreement
Between the Pharisees’ orthodox theoretical treatment
Of God, and Jesus.

Being pro-supernatural,
Pharisees had no disputation
With the hypothetical ideal
Of a “promised visitation”
— of a Jewish, miracle-working prophet
Of the God of their salvation —
A Messiah who preached the resurrection.
..As long as he wasn’t this unknown young upstart
— Jesus.

And to whomever the title might one day belong

(of long expected “Messiah”)
The Pharisees couldn’t disagree with Jesus for long
On one point:
This young esquire
Said…
The Sadducees were “wrong”.

But in practical matters

— of works and deeds —
And of how to teach godliness with good effect
— and things like these —
There was a noticeable gap…

By “practice” the Pharisees meant... “courts of law”

But Jesus offered: “to do deeds of love”.

By “power” the Pharisees held:

“political holds over the people”
But Jesus replied with: “miraculous works of God”
— for deliverance.
“Example” the Pharisees would say, “consisted of self-display”
But Jesus, speaking as the living Christ,
Proffered to them: “self-sacrifice”.

[In other words,

Jesus did unselfish works of Good
So the common people loved him
And noticed that the Pharisees, did not;
And did not.]
By “wisdom in teaching”
The Pharisees’ imputations
Were: “Rabbinical interpretations,
In seventy-seven variations”.
But Jesus meant:
“Telling the Truth from Heaven
By way of Revelations”.

The Pharisees were learnèd men

And made quite a “show and tell”
But Jesus was a common man,
And called them “Two-faced sons of Hell”.

For Jesus pin-pointed that: what they did preach

This they did not do
But that they did not do
What God did want them to
And that: what they did teach
God did not want them to.
And God was fed up with that, you see.

But why?

Because
The Pharisees made cookery their speciality.
Cookery in this sense at least…
..to the solid meal of God’s commands,
They promptly added yeast.
To puff up His demands.

For example; where God had said

“Rest upon the Sabbath Day”
They argued thus:
That He had meant to say…
“A tailor shall not carry his needle”
— that’s ‘carrying a commercial burden’.
“A hungry traveller shall not pluck at wheat”
— that’s ‘harvesting work’ for certain.

And if a doctor was called to ply his trade

On the day when work was meant to cease,
They thought it was best for him to persuade
The patient to “lie down in bed and so…

REST IN PEACE

They made it such a burden, to rest upon the Day of Rest

That from God and from His Law
(now in the Expanded Version)
Many people simply stayed away, or headed West.

Furthermore; Where God had judged

“Wash, for holiness’ sake, before you enter My presence”
They executed upon themselves
A fetish of cleanliness, almost as a sentence.
They added on, how many times to bathe,
each day,
before you pray,
And how many times to rinse your hands,
And in what way,
Before you eat
And many things like these.

So, to one command, they’d add,

At least ten more to “tradition”
Which they would then teach as law,
And still call it “God’s religion”
By which religious ritual
A most religious Jew could expect,
To enter Heaven direct.

And since they sat in Moses’ seat

And stood in Heaven’s door
And since they added so much more
Than God had done, to the law
They’d demand so much more respect.

In fact,
So fastidiously and self-righteously,
Themselves they did acquit,
The people gave them respect as due,
Any religious hypocrite.
So…
Some of the fools,
Who believed them all of the time
And all of the fools,
Who had believed them some of the time,
That Jesus wasn’t the Christ,
Soon became confused.

————If the Mitre Fits, Wear It———

Jesus warned…

“Beware of those hypocrites!

They do all their deeds with such an air
So as to be noticed by men.
It is for appearances’ sake
That they broaden their bands
(the Jewish head- and arm-bands of prayer)
And lengthen their Jewish tassels
(on the hem of the robes they wear).

It is in order to be seen
And to be noticed
And to be regarded well, by men.
At a banquet, they love the place of honour;
In the synagogue, they want the chief chair;
In the market-place, they love the greetings fair
— being called by men “Rabbi” (my teacher).
 But as for you,
Don’t take the title “Teacher” from others
For God alone is your teacher.
Rather you yourselves are all only brothers.”

———————————————————————————————

3. The Character of the Sadducee

The caricature of the Sadducee

Is that never wrong is he
Plus; He has no heavenly hope,
And so he is very ‘sad, you see’.

He has No resurrection Day

Nor judgment unto Hell
No spirit, angel, miracle;
No prophet, prophecy or oracle.

In fact, I don’t think he believed in God.

To him it was just a job.

But Sadducees did have wealth and power,

Since they were user-friendly
To the Roman conquerors
(In this they beat the Pharisee),

And because the Romans appointed the high priests

— the top-most of the hierarchy —
The Sadducees therefore counted in their number,
The entire mob high-priestly.

It was costly yet rewarding,

To pay to be a member
Of this most exclusive guild
(which should now be re-spelt “hire-archy”).

Yes, top jobs were up for gold

— and what a sad reminder
That this gilt-edged job of temple-minder,
The one with all the glory,
Fell to the guilt-edged Sadducee.

Thus they held the ears of kings.

Also they held — and held most dearly
All of the sacred temple things.
Especially the ones covered in GOLD.

Now, for this job as priests — for this temple service

They needed only the Mosaic Law.
“That’s quite enough of God” they thought.
“Beyond these scriptures, we will hear no more”.

They had no time for extra prophecy,

Nor messianic oracle, nor
For added-on traditions, nor,
For Pharisaic lore.

And so they didn’t like the Pharisees;

Nor Jesus doing miracles,
Nor resurrection fantasies,
Nor Jesus quoting Moses’ oracles
To prove that they were
— “wrong”.

———————What Price a Swap?——————

While we are talking about gold & power & glory in this world
— and whether or not to swap it all
for the glory of the world to come…

Once, the Devil tempted Jesus

with the singular panoramic sight
Of all the glory,
Of all the kingdoms,
Of all the world…… “This is mine!”
Then said he… (was he on bended knee?)
“I will give it all over to you to keep
If you will fall down and worship me.”

Jesus replied… No deal, Satan!

“Begone, Enemy!
For it is written…
‘You shall bow down to worship only the
“I AM” — your God’.”

———————————————————————————————
[Author to Reader:]
Well: the cast is mostly met;
The plot briefly told;
The hero, bold;
The villains, a nasty lot.
Indeed, our appetite is whet.
But the centre-stage — the temple —
Is, as yet, unset.
And we must, before the main story-line unfolds,
Not let the extraordinary backdrop of the times remain untold.
So firstly, let us put on a pilgrim’s robe, for a bit,
and attend a dress-rehearsal in Jerusalem
— to get the feel of it —
So that you, a 21st century reader, can get in on the act,
And understudy the leads.
You can also eavesdrop
On a 1st century session of worship,
At the holy temple of God…

The Temple Worship

Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees were expert players

(and for this reason I should include them both)
In worship in the temple theatre
And in all its ‘acts’ of service and soliloquies of prayers:
For instance, in the taking of a sacred oath;
For example, in the holding of feasts and festivals,
And in the detailed priestly rituals
In holding sacrifices of beasts
In making offerings of peace
In holding courts of religious law
And collecting money for from the poor
In expensive decorations,
By way of “vows and offerings”
In magnificent laminations,
Upon huge and costly buildings
With panels of cedar and platters of silver,
With treasures of old and vessels of GOLD.
And in all this, they really did find their God,
Before whom they could bow
— a God who could conquer fears, remove tears,
excuse deeds, answer needs;
And this is how…
They would face their shrine
And remind themselves with chants
“But this is GOD’s temple;
This IS God’s temple;
THIS is God’s temple”
And the more they chanted their expiation
(which means ‘the satisfactory payment for wrongs’
by translation)
The more it gradually changed in pronunciation
From “This is GOD’s temple
(wonderful house, worthy of gold)
To “This is God’s TEMPLE
(wonderful stones, plated with gold)
To “This is god: “STEMPLE”
(idol of stone covered with GOLD).
So this linguistic process of putting an ell into God
While leaving the gee, oh, dee out of his temple
Is sometimes called “Stemple worship”
But they preferred to call it more simply:
“Temple worship”.

————Concerning Temple Donations————

Jesus noted…
“This poor widow in her poverty
Who put in two half-cents altogether
Contributed more treasure to the temple
Than all these rich people put together!
For they, in their richness, gave large sums
But only what they considered spare
But she put in all she owned
— all she had to live on.
Woe to you religious hypocrites
Who devour the livings of widows
All the while covering yourselves with long prayers
And pretending to be religious.
You shall receive worse damnation.”
____________________________________
 Spotlight on the Temple

Everything in this most exalted Temple

was assigned degrees and shades of holiness.
And temple offerings had of course
To be of high degree of sacredness.
This required special ‘temple money’
(at special rates of exchange, as you may guess).
and special doves and beasts for sacrifice,
for God to bless.
All this was sold within the temple, at a price,
Which was a shame,
For anybody to confess.
Now,
To break sacred temple law was sacrilege,
Akin to blasphemy —
All such irreligious impiety, for simplicity
Going under the collective term of “temple robbery”
(and “temple robber” was, among other labels,
The accusation later pinned on Jesus).
So when Jesus angrily turned the tables
And spilled the coins and upset the seats
Of those official money cheats
And made a whip
To show the beasts to the stables
And to drive out these “horse-traders”
At quite a clip
He stated to the Jews, who were filling up the space
“You’ve turned your Father’s house
Into a common market place”.
And to the Pharisees,
He gave this bitter but undeniable quip
— the vilest insult anyone could use to clobber
The temple guardians and their cobbers —
“You fill the courts of your God
With regulation ‘temple robbers’!
_________________________________

Since it was this Religious Culture which murdered

religious Jesus
I want to give you some more examples
of their sacrilegious reasons
— via two snippets of Jesus’ teachings
about their “shades of holiness” —
Which ought to give you a feel for their times,
and for ours…
And after that, a profile of the Roman Empire out East
— their languages and histories, at least —
Before we join Jesus.

——Concerning Degrees of Holy Vows———

Jesus taught…
“Woe, woe, woe to you
Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes!
 Blind you are
And yet you presume to become guides
Teaching that in your estimation
and determination
and stipulation
“When anyone invokes ‘the holy temple’ in an oath,
He is under no obligation
But whoever swears instead
‘by the sacred GOLD’ of the temple
He must carry his promise through
As a “most holy resolution”.”

Foolishness and Blindness!

Which has more importantness?
The gold?
Or the temple which lends the gold its holiness!

Similarly you huff…

“When anyone invokes ‘the holy altar’,
That is not holy enough
But whoever swears by the expensive gift
Laid upon that altar hearth
He is obligated to God
— his vow becomes a “solemn binding oath”.”
What blindness!
Which has more weightiness?
The gift?
Or the altar which gives to the gift its sacredness!
I declare to you
That anyone who swears ‘by the altar’
Swears both by the altar
And by everything on that altar.
And anyone who vows ‘by the temple’
Vows both by the temple
and by God who dwells in His temple!
And whoever invokes ‘Heaven’,
Invokes the throne of God in Heaven
And so is calling upon God himself,
For He sits upon that throne in Heaven.”
———————————————————————————————

So Jesus preached
Against what the lawyers teached,
As if he himself had automatic higher authority.
He didn’t even, like a mere prophet, say
“Thus says the I AM your God…”
But said unadorned
“I AM [ God ] telling you the truth…”
For example, here He takes it upon Himself to revise
One of His top ten commandments:
“Thou shalt not take the Name of
the I AM, your God,
In vain”…

————-? Swear to Tell the Truth,—————

the Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
“Make sure you treat God as holy
By doing what you promised
(so sanctimoniously) in His name.

Do not invoke His Name emptily

Or despise His authority,
By calling Him to witness — lightly.

So I teach to you all, to invoke no higher authority.

Neither swear ‘by Heaven’ the throne of God most holy
Nor ‘by Earth’ the footstool of God most heavenly
Nor ‘by Jerusalem’ His royal holy city
Nor ‘by your head’
for you cannot turn one hair black or white
Don’t you agree?
[Nor with your right hand upon the Bible,
so seriously
Taking the oath of truth “So help me God”]
But let your promise be
“Yes, I will” or “No, I won’t”
And anything else you invoke
So impressively,
Will count, let me tell you,
As evil on your account,
———When you welch upon your empty promises.”———

And now for…

A Concise Profile of
The Roman Empire (Out East):
————————————————
Iτ’ς αλλ Gρεεκ το με
————————————————

The Language Mix (-up)

There were six main lingoes you could hope,

To meet in the street.

LATIN is what the Romans spoke

— ancient Italian so to speak

But most everyone else still used and wrote,

Common (or garden) GREEK.
(This was the pigeon mode
Of the beautiful classical Greek
In which Homer wrote.)

Now, this state of affairs followed the defeat

of the previous empire of note
— That of Alexander the Greek —
Well known for its scope.

So Jesus must have spoken common Greek,

When appealing to the motley masses
of public servants and pilgrims and proselytes.
In fact he used Greek as a lever with which to teach,
About who he was
And to expound things mysterious
Because often did his parables speak,
Of a common legend in classical Greek
— of Homer’s royal Odysseus.
(This was compulsory reading and ‘common speak’
Certainly not just for classicists.)

Jesus used to compare himself

With this well-known hero of old
— a bold and popular god-descended king,
Master of a big household,

Who being delayed on a trip,

Was a very long time returning
But re-appearing suddenly,
Made an awful day of reckoning.

He killed all his wicked servants

And slew all his enemies with fire
— all those who hated him,
Who didn’t want him for their Sire,

And then he lives on happily,

For ever after, prosperously
With his faithful and long-suffering,
Ever-waiting, wife.

..which explained his own case transparently,

Against his Jewish enemies.

Anyway,
Common Greek was the language of choice
Of the New Testament writers
Like the ‘more modern’ Hebrew was
(together with the Aramaic voice)
Of the Old Testament reciters.

Yes, as you by now might have guessed

HEBREW had two written alphabets:

One was the ancient alphabet

Of the old Old Testament scrolls
Which also left out all the vowels!

And then there was… (some with vowels, some with not)
..The more ‘modern’ lot
Which many “Hebrews” (the local-born Jews)
none-the-less forgot.
Because, you must realise,
Hebrew was only the learnèd language
— that of the Jewish Rabbis
Used in all the commentaries
And literature of all the wise.
Now, since twelve ‘disciples’ or ‘followers’
Form a minimum crew
Jesus was counted as among the Rabbis
— not as an ordinary Jew.
So, in speaking as a Jewish Rabbi,
To the Jewish Rabbis
He probably was conversing in,
The proper religious Hebrew.

ARAMAIC (the Babylonian tongue) however,

Was spoken in the gate
Ever since the Babylonian Empire,
Had squashed the Jewish state.

The Babylonians had put Jerusalem to fire,

And had deported all the Jews,
Forcing them to relocate.
This had meant that they would surely lose,
Their own language — that of the famous Hebrews.
Thus, during this ‘Babylonian Exile’
As they say it
Some of Jewish History and Prophecy
Was, of course,
Written in Aramaic.

Now such a multi-lingual upbringing for Jesus

Could become very funny
With “Run hither, Yeshua”
Or “Come here, Josh dear”
Or “Here-to, Yey-soo”
..It was all very punny.

Which leads us into an important point of critique…

Both Hebrew and Aramaic scriptures,

Had long been translated into Greek
Giving rise to many, subtle linguistic distinctions
To say nothing of, manuscriptural variations.
And since Jesus often fulfilled prophecy
And since he himself often spoke
By the Spirit of God
And since he quoted scriptures
Quite a lot
(or rather lived and talked
And taught them on the hop)
He found it rather easy,
To do so in polyglot.

The Gospel writers therefore had to seek

To render Jesus’ conversations
Or write down his quotations
Into Greek — an impossible feat,
Requiring simplifications
And even then, they didn’t use
Any lower case variations,
or even any spaces
Or punctuations!

WHATWITHNOWORDBREAKSVOWELSORPUNCTUATIONS
WITHMULTIPLIEDCOPIESANDINTERPRETATIONSACRO
ss two to six millenniums!
And East/West cultural mutation
And only via an English translation!
With many transliterations…
..we often miss the point.

As an example…
Take the name of God, the great “I AM”
It’s what you get back when you ask “Who’s there?”

God called to Moses “Moses!”

And Moses said “Here I am”
Then Moses asked God His name
and God said likewise
“Only Me here”
— “There’s nobody else besides ME”
“It’s me. I AM who I AM.
Me alone, only I, I AM”
When Jesus walked up to the boat they screamed
“Who’s that!”
And Jesus answered
“It’s ‘ONLY ME HERE’ ”
By saying “I AM”
..which helps to explain why they then worshipped him.

But what is the upshot;

Of all this “mixed-up” explanation?
Well, with such ambiguity,
And troubles in interpretation too
I “often miss the point”,
But I will do the best I can for you
And offer my best rendition,
Of Jesus’ original intention;

For even a child knows better

Than many Bible scholars today
That The intended meaning of words
Must be more important than the words.

But we need to study up a tad more of history

— like true Biblical experts
(who can at last explain “what God had meant to say”).
So let us now continue to meet the people
Of a long-lost century, so far away — Guess who —
The Bible scholars of the day!

Who Were the Scribes and Lawyers and Levites?

You may well think that in this language mix-up

Even the original players
Could get a bit… err…
Let us say “tongue-” tied.
But they had their literary experts then,
Called ‘Scribes’
Whose job it was,
Throughout their lives
To copy the copies of God’s law
(no matter how imperfect now)
Without a flaw.
Other experts, called ‘law-yers’, played their part
Which was that of knowing it all by heart!

Such ultra-important bit-parts were supposed, by rights,

To be filled by the ‘Levites’
That is, by members of the tribe of Levi
(pronounced variously Levvy, Leyvee, Leevigh
Or thereabouts).
And these para-priestly players felt sure
That they could sort all the variations out, in the Law.
For instance…
These experts knew, as everyone,
All the scriptural variations on the “Messianic” theme
— That God’s “Anointed One”
Who is God’s own promised “Son”
— his “chosen King and Priest” —
Came out in Greek as “Christ”
But in Hebrew as “Messiah”
And in scripture as “Son of David”;
And also in Daniel, the prophesier, this “Promised Prince”
Came out as “One like a “SON OF MAN”,
Appearing as a most glorious one
Coming with all the powers of Heaven”
This last prophecy Jesus quoted in full at his trial
When asked to swear on oath
“Tell us who you are!”
So when Jesus told them
“I AM
The ‘SON OF MAN’
As often I have said”,
They didn’t miss the point.
He might just as well have sworn instead…
“I AM
— JESUS —
CHRIST of GOD”
——————————————————————————————————-

Now it was these various religious law experts

— Levites, lawyers and scribes —
Who lent their hands in drafting religious stipulations
Of incredible detail for religious observations,
So, about these…

———So-called “Experts” of Religion———

Jesus said to his crew…

“The Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes

have taken the view…”
 (all the multitude were listening too)
“..that they should sit themselves in Moses’ pew.

But by abusing that place of authority,

they have forced you
To observe and do, all that they say to.

But do not act like they do!

For they preach but do not do. So Beware!
— of ‘them with the faces two’.”

“Woe, woe, woe to you

Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes.
You tie up heavy loads on a man’s shoulder,
And weigh men down with legal burdens hard to bear
But you yourselves are unwilling to lift one finger
To help.”
———————————————————————————————

Resetting your Watch

What else would it mean to live in A.D.30?

Well,
To a Jew, the then present Roman authority
Recalls their Babylonian captivity.
That is, it recalls their defeat of old, and their shame
But also their heroes bold, and men of fame…
..such as Daniel who wouldn’t stop,
Bowing to his God
And who, for this defiance,
Was thrown unto the lions.

And there were those three friends of Dan’s

Who wouldn’t bow on knees and hands
To these foreign gods
— these dumb idols of Babylonia’s lands —
So they — were burnt alive.

And Mordecai, who wouldn’t make his bows

Before Persia’s great Prime Minister.
So the P.M. erected enormous gallows,
For him,
And planned total Jewish genocide,
Quite sinister.

All this was for the want of a bow!

But the Jewish God proved to be no goose.
He turned that king into a cow.
He hung that P.M. in his own noose.
He saved the Jewish nation
AND gave them the political power,
and by the way, saved our five heroes
— alive —
To boot!

Which just goes to show

that the Jewish people didn’t think it Kosher*
*Religiously clean i.e. acceptable to God
To bow before the Roman gods
To bow before a Roman Caesar,
either
Or to join in calling this Caesar
a god
Or to bow before the Roman yoke
Or even to pay his taxes!

Another open sore was this:

That the Romans swore by all their gods,
That the Jewish law, and the Jewish God
Were conquered.
And though the Romans let them keep,
The unimportant regulations
they wouldn’t let them kill a soul,
For instance for any religious transgressions.
Consequently,
Jewish prosecutors had to go through Roman, civil law.
But since most of the important Jewish, sacred laws
Carried only the death penalty…
— for sacrilege and adultery
— for Sabbath breaking and blasphemy
— for back-sliding and idolatry
..it became no longer possible
For Jews to obey All of God’s demands
By enforcing His commands.

This dilemma was quite impossible.

Now, it was the Galileans,
The men of Jesus’ own county
Who, rejecting Rome’s
Religious authority
Rebelled, you might say,
as ancient Protestants,
Under the catch-cry
“No Taxes to Caesar!
No Unlawful Bounty!”
All this, not long before
The gospel incidents.
The efficient Romans put down the insurrection
The punishment for which, was crucifixion.
And so two thousand naked dying men
Lined the main road to Jerusalem.
Next, Jesus the Galilean arises, with a popular following
Of thousands of,
You guessed it,
Galileans
And though he didn’t call himself “King”
He looked mighty suspicious.

___________________________

This is the history, then, of Jesus the Man…

 ACT 1
9 Scenes Sacrilegious

——————Act 1 Scene 1——————

The Setting of the Scene and the Rising of the Son

We go back to where this story of The Man starts.

First, when Jesus was about thirty

(which was the age for priestly service)
John didn’t want to, but was forced to
Dunk him in the River Jordan.

Then, no sooner was Jesus escaping from the water, than

He looked up
And saw the heavens spread wide open overhead,
Whereupon
The Holy Spirit turned himself into a pigeon
And sat upon him from a great height,
Upon which
A voice from Heaven said
“You’re ‘He’ my boy,
In which I find joy”

And Jesus received this message:

Dear Son,
Get lost
— off with you into the wilds
And let the Devil take you in trial.
Go and live with the beasts.
Go hungry — don’t eat.
Do as I say, son, and don’t give in to temptation
Or… risk a mighty awful damnation.
Yours faithfully,
Dad.

(And if you want to know how the Devil tests righteous people,
Read about the boils, of Job.)

So Jesus, drunk with the Holy Spirit, obeyed,

And at the end of forty days of hunger,
He was..
..he was hungry.

Then the Devil said:

“Since you are the Son of God,
Command these stones to become bread”

But Jesus answered instead:

 It is written:
“Man shall not gain Life by bread alone,
But by obeying every command of God.”

The Tempter then led him into the Holy City Jerusalem
And up to the very pinnacle of the temple,
And suggested moreover
“Since you are the Son of God;
Prove it — throw yourself over.
For “it is written”:
“He will command His angels to carry you in their hands
So that you don’t even stub your toe”.”

Jesus replied:
Rather, “it is written”,
in clear contra-dictation..
“You shall not put the I AM, your God,
To the test or proof
or demonstration.”

And when the Devil had finished

Every trial, test and temptation,
He said
“Just you wait ‘til later. You’ll keep.”

and he deserted Jesus, hungry.

And, marvellous to behold,

The angels did come to rescue him.

———————Meanwhile, back at the Jordan River..——————

Scene 2 — The Mad Prophet

The whole country was in a state of revival..

..because of the message from God against evil
Which had come to John to preach
And which he had, all this while, continued to teach
(for no-one had seen Jesus for six weeks)
“Repent.
And be baptised
For the forgiveness of sin,
For the Kingdom of God is here —
If you want to get in.”
So the people began to think and desire
that John himself might be the Messiah
Especially when he detailed the inventory
Of the current King Herod’s evil and adultery.
So Herod began to fear another popular insurrection
And indeed there was a general air of anticipation.
Plus, after John had so rudely despised
The Pharisees and Sadducees
Who, without repenting of their hypocrisies
Had come to be baptised,
They wasted no time in biting back
Sending an official delegation, dressed in black.
Imagine the scene — many a Levite and priest
Sweating in the desert sun
Marching out to John the Baptiste
Who was dressed like “the madman”
— Elijah —
In camel hair shirt and leather belt
And with a honeyed grasshopper leg
which dwelt
In his beard,
And them, demanding,
“Who do you think you are!
Do you imagine yourself to be the Messiah?”
“I am not the Christ” John confessed.
“What then? Are you saying you really are Elijah?”
(as prophesied by Malachi (“my messenger”)..
‘Behold I send my messenger to prepare my way;
I will send Elijah before the coming of my Day’)
“I am not” said John the prophet.
“Do you suppose yourself to be THE prophet?”
(The one of whom Moses did foresay..
‘One like me; One of your own race;
The One whom you surely must obey’)
“No!”
“So tell us who you think you are, we insist.
You must give us your own witness
For the Jews in Jerusalem who sent us.
What do you claim for your own greatness?”
“I am Isaiah’s “voice in the wilderness”
‘the voice of one shouting in a desert place:
Make way for the Lord. Clear him a space.
Give him a straight runway.
Back-fill every washaway.
Cut out the sharp corners.
Level out each hump.
Re-route the dog’s legs.
Remove each and every bump.
Grade the rough patches smooth
and spare no labour,
To speed Him on His way,
So that all of us, united, may
See and welcome God’s Saviour.’
So I am not the Christ, but have been sent before him
— like the best man
preparing for the more important bridegroom.”

Now, these priests had been wised up by the Pharisees

To meet any denial with a challenge to John’s authority..
“Why then — since you are not the Christ,
Nor Elijah, nor the Prophet
Why then, do you baptise?”
“Me?
Oh I’m only baptising, with water,
For repentance.
But he who is coming after me,
Is before me in importance.
I’m not even fit to bend down low, before him,
To untie the laces of his shoe!
But he — someone who is already here among you —
Someone whom you don’t yet know —
He will baptise you by the Holy Spirit!
He will veritably drop you in it.
He is the one who, as I told you earlier
will baptise you unbelieving lot with fire!
He will separate all the wheat from all the chaff
And will gather every good grain of wheat to himself
But will burn up every useless bit of chaff
In the Unquenchable Pyre.”
(Exit the Pharisees’ delegation in a hot huff, and in ire.)

Next: Jesus returns

(Now, there’s a sight to set the tone:
The Christ — looking maybe
Like an unfattened scrawny bag of skin and bones)
Stage-direction to Reader…
Put yourself alongside Andrew, John’s disciple
When John turns, to the two of you, with this recital…]
“Look. Here is God’s great sacrificial Lamb
— the one sent as a sin-offering ram
Who will take away the sins of the world.
This is the man. Of him I foretold
‘He comes after me in sequence
But he comes before me in importance’
Because ‘HE IS’ before I was.
That is why I came baptising in water
for I was sent before him in order
To point out his appearance to Israel
And I couldn’t firmly pick who he was until
I saw the Spirit from Heaven sent from above
Descend and remain on him, as a dove
Which was exactly the counter-sign given to me by Mr. Big
By which I could recognise and confirm my contact, you dig?
And so I can tell you on the highest authority
That he is:
The Son of God.”
[More stage directions…
Now to you and I
he would perhaps look more like a dead dog.
But anyway. It’s a good time for you to play
The role of..
STEPHEN
Steven is a fisherman,
In Philip and Nathanael’s fishing-boat crew
But quite a serious type — like Andrew —
Seriously expecting the Messiah anon
(after waiting an exact millennium
— since the prophecy about “David’s Son”)
Serious enough to be a disciple of John..]
Now, this happens not once, but twice
— that John pointedly shows you the Christ
With “See;
He is the Lamb of God!”
So you turn and track after Jesus as he walks away
But unexpectedly he turns back to you to say..
“What are you two after?”
Andrew pipes up with “My Master!
Where are you going to stay?
May I be your follower today?”
And Jesus says to you both..
“Come and see for yourselves”
As Andrew spurts onward, he urges you so..
“Come on Steve! Let’s go
Leave John behind — He won’t mind”
[Exit Andrew, following Jesus.
Author to Reader: Go for it, Steph!
Here’s your big chance for glory..
..then you can help me dictate
The next part of the story —
To Luke.
Exit Steven, following Jesus, destined for stardom.
Exit John, to Herod’s prison, destined for the chopping block.]

Scene 3 — Label #1 — The Blasphemer!

(Scene: Cousin Luke has just come back

From medical graduation
And corners you again, with pen and paper in hand,
In expectation
— because you’ve been telling him
Of healed diseases
And other miracles you’ve seen,
Since following Jesus.
Luke: “Tell me what happened today!
Forget medical school, I say
It’s all happening outside;
This is medical history, man!
I want to keep a journal
And all the case notes I can.”
So you start telling Luke by easy degrees…
Well, today there was a state-wide conference
With lawyers and teachers, scribes and Pharisees
And crowds as well. Indeed quite a confluence.
But Jesus held the floor, teaching all the teachers
Showing them their stuff
Healing the sick as well, before their very eyes
— no-one could get close enough.
And sometimes he said,
As if he knew the causes too,
“Go and sin no more.
That nothing worse may fall to you.”
It’s as if he agreed, but perhaps only sometimes,
With the general consent
That it was sin that caused their sicknesses,
Which God Himself had sent.
But it was one case in particular,
Which caused the biggest stir,
And this is how
I saw it occur…
Someone tried to push past us,
Carrying some poor sick soul
But through crowded door and aisle,
A stretcher and four men don’t quite fit.
So they took to the roof! and made a hole!
And lowered down the paralytic;
Down,
Down;
Right to Jesus’ feet!
At first he didn’t simply heal,
But perhaps to make a point
Hailed their faith and said
“Be of good cheer.
My son, your sins you are forgiven here”
And this it was
That made the teachers feel Cross.
I could overhear the Pharisees in front of me mumbling
“Since only God can forgive our sinning
Surely this evil fellow is blaspheming!”
But this they were grumbling to themselves,
and didn’t make it public
But Jesus knew it
within himself
Better than any psychic.
He read our minds to us and said
(for I was half-persuaded, I confess)
“I know your unbelieving thoughts
And double-mindedness
Why hide your doubts?
Why murmur of blasphemy?
Why reason against me in your head!
I ask you then to judge between:
forgiving sins by word
— which you have just now heard
Or healing them by deed
— which very soon you will have see-d
Which is harder!? Answer if you can!
Now look. See here:
I want to prove that the Son of Man
Has the authority of God
To forgive on Earth the sins of men
By the healing of the bod.”
And on a word from Jesus
The man got up,
With praises,
And all the crowd
extolled their God,
And the “Son of Man”
With very flattering phrases;
Afraid,
Dumbfounded.. ..We were all agog.
Andrew swore
At what he saw.
He nudged me and simply said
“Jesus Christ!”
..and the happy man himself
— as he left, carrying his paralytic’s bed
To put the stretcher on the shelf —
He said..
“My sins have been forgiven me
By… by… by God — Himself!”

[Since you like the part of Stephen

You may as well keep it, and even
Let me play the part of Thomas’s twin,
So you and I can go together.
You can call me ‘Arthur’
But sometimes I would rather
Pronounce it ‘author’
And so together we can tell
The stories to our readers
About the opposition
Of the unbelievers..]

Festival Mood

Author: With “Messiah maybe?” in town,

with “Revival, at last!” in the air,
with “Healing for bods” up for grabs,
it’s not hard to sense the joy
in the hearts among the plebs
and among the recipients.
With miracles in abundance
— like turning a wedding feast
into an all night session
by turning abundant water into abundant wine
for consummation —
it’s not easy to fully describe
in words, the extent of joy, throughout the provinces.

Let’s simply say, that, recognising the Jewish Jubilee, or not,

the common people were in Jubilation mode
eagerly drinking it all in.
But somehow, the Jewish aristocracy and Pharisees
kept their own spirits down, in doubt
and managed always,
to find something to grumble about…

Scene 4
— Libel #2 — Drunken Carouser

Arthur: (So let’s pretend we are explaining,

Some time after the next event,
To some enquirers on hand,
How Jesus continued to offend the Pharisees,
Up and down the land…)

“Soon there was a fresh kerfuffle

As Jesus ‘ate at a sinner’s table’
(for to go to a tax-collector’s for dinner
Was to eat at the table of a ‘sinner’…
..A Jewish tax-collector
has bowed to what the Romans asked
Plus extorted money from the poor
Which makes him religiously an out-cast
And treated like a downright out-law).

You could easily imagine religious Jews

calling them “Pigs!” (unclean)
and refusing to enter into their “dirty!” digs
(to “feed with the pigs”).

So when one day Matthew Leyvee

Answered Jesus’ call of “Follow me!”
And left his tax-collecting toll-booth
And spread a feast for Jesus,
And for all his troop
There were not a few dirty “sinners” invited,
Forsooth.

In fact sinners came to Jesus

To hear him more and more
And no matter where he was,
He welcomed them indoors
— which was strictly against
The Jewish religious laws.

The general celebrations were indeed quite hearty

since it is the “irreligious sinners”
who seem best to recognise any proper excuse
for a proper party.

Later Jesus even invited himself

To Zaccheus’s wealthy villa
(Zac was a big-boss tax-collector
Called “Shorty”)
And Zac renounced half his wealth,
To the poor, in a fit of generosity
(this was over dinner)
And all he had defrauded
He restored quadruple,
For being naughty!
(Yet the Pharisees still called him a “sinner”!).

Steven (to readers):

Now what say you? Is a repentant thief, a thief?
Is a changed sinner, still a sinner?
Is a follower of Christ, a follower of Evil?
So can it be well said of Jesus Christ
— in his socialising with so-called “sinners” —
That he was “dining with the Devil”?
Arthur:
But none-the-less the Pharisees,
left standing outside,
(by refusing to go in to eat
with “gluttonous, drunken, dirty, pigs”),
grumbled at the snub
 And plagued us disciples with
“Why does this social draw-card, prefer to eat his grub
And drink his drink, with social drop-outs?
Instead of coming to tea,
At the house of, say…
..somebody like me?”
So Jesus asked
“Do healthy bodies need a doctor!
Do upright souls need any Saviour?
[as in… he meant, I guess, in response
to the self-satisfied Pharisees:
“Do the fat fish need any further feeding?”
I think…
To seek where the sinful souls are sinkin’
I oughter…
Fish where the hungry fish are bitin’.]

Here, have this lesson, both in crazy humanity,

and also about divinity:
Won’t a shepherd leave ninety-nine sheep at pasture
to look for just one lost and hungry lamb?
And if he finds him safe and sound,
Throw a party? With hilarity!
And even celebrate... ..with a slain lamb

And won’t a housewife turn the house

Upside-down and inside-out
And work all day
At cleaning every nook and cranny
To search for just one
Lost
Silver penny?
And when she finds it,
Still count it joy?
And celebrate with her neighbours,
with apparently “foolish prodigality!”
by sacrificing her born-again silver penny!

And so I say to you

That Heaven likewise turns on with joy
To see the repentance of just one
Poor
Lost
Sinner-boy.
[He doesn’t normally feast, on God, it’s true,
but at least he now recognises the right time
to turn to Him, and give Him His due, with joy.]
But how can Heaven rejoice,
Over the self-contented
Other ninety-nine goody-goodies
who normally feast unconcerned,
among themselves, at home.
[But, now, at this obviously special ‘religious’ time,
they remember their very Jewish duty, before God,
and abstain!?]
Luke (to reader):
By the way, do you notice the pairs
Of illustrations
— pairs set in parallel
Or trios set in triplets? —
(like my last sentence.)
Because this is the divine law
Of proper attestations
Of any matter whatsoever
— by means of several “concordant witnesses” —
(to Arthur):
So, did he give you, as I expect,
yet one more reaffirmation
that to seek out sinners was no sinful association…?

Arthur: Yes indeed he did, and it went like this…

“Or what about the ‘Prodigal Son’
— that no-good wasteful bum—
Who deserted his loving father
And squandered his share
Of the family income?
Partying hard, with harlots.
Finally, of course, he reached a very low, lonely,
Hungry
Lost ebb,
In a faraway land,

where he was slowly reduced, to feeding only with,

a herd of pigs!
But there at least, he found his head…
“In this place, and at this rate” he said
“I’ll soon be dead
— as far as any rich man here cares for me!
But I will raise myself up and go back
to my rich father’s prosperous paradise”
So when he turned, at last, back toward God the Father,
And returned, poor and humble, contritely, to his father,
The father loved him.
And killed the fatted calf, and did other joyous things.
He treated him like the King,
complete with scarlet robe and signet ring!
‘For this Son of Mine was dead’
The Father said
‘but has come back’
— to life.

But here now is the point

— about his older, very Jewish, brother —
Who up to now had appeared
To be a good and faithful son
But who turned to sour-grapes,
and hummed,
In his father’s ears and nose,
When he saw this sinner
Saved and won:
 he refused, unlike his father,
to go in to eat with: “that pig, the sinner”
and complained, about how poorly
His own father had treated him,
“by comparison”!”
[“Which one then”
It should be asked
“was found to God?”
“And which son
Was ‘lost in sin’?”]

“So how can I help self-righteous souls,

Who don’t think they need
the cure I give?
But the soul of him who comes to me in need,
He will live.
So.
Answer now:
Which of the two sons obeyed his father’s will…
..The one who mouths to him “Yes I will work for you”
But then doesn’t apply his hands or heart thereto.
..or the one who at first refuses him
But later has a change of heart
regretting his refusal
And applying his strength to the task?”
The Pharisees replied
“the one who worked, for sure”
Jesus said
“Likewise, Heaven’s Gates will open to a whore
Who listens to the Father.
God will welcome home a tax-collector
Or any other sorry sinner
Before you!”

——————Sorry Sinners——————

To self-righteous souls who complacently

viewed sinners as contemptible
Jesus directed this parable…

“Two men both went up to pray in the temple

One a Pharisee One a tax-collectable

The Pharisee stood close, looked upwards,

said with a hushèd air
“Thankyou my God that I am not like other people
— swindling, unjust, adulterous, or even…
Like that there tax-collectair!
Instead I dutifully fast, twice every week
And duly donate a tenth, of all income I meet.”

The tax-collector by contrast… stood far back from the rest

Dared not lift his eyes to God
But cried. He prayed in distress, beating his breast
“God forgive me; a sinner!”
I tell you, the Pharisee who lifted himself high
Left, viewed by God, as a low sinner;

The sinner who held himself low

went away, in God’s sight, high,
Forgiven.
So shall it be.”
———————————————————————————————

“Unfair!” They Shouted

“The king of Heaven is like an employer”

Said Jesus, looking at the incorrigible
Blameable grumblers
“who went at sunup to hire some labour…”
And he began another
of his incomparable, wonderful parables
“to hire some laborers for the harvesting of his vintage
(like the spiritual work which, evidently,
You Jews choose to refuse)
And they agreed on a fair day’s wage.

Coming back to the market place

— the local labour exchange —
Three hours later, he finds some unemployed people
And offers them some work, and,
With some fair pay arranged, they accept.

And again at midday and at 3 p.m. that day

this generous owner goes and finds
More workers in need of pay
And even to an hour before knock-off-time
This vineyard owner, by now apparently foolish
But certainly kind
Who seemingly will hire just about anybody he can find
Found still more idlers just hanging around in town
Whom no-one else wanted to hire for feed
Or place in employment or save from need
So he also gives them a chance that day
Until sunset.
And they too accept.

At sunset, the owner, who was rather wise actually,

Tells the foreman, and quite shrewdly,
(since he wishes to know, very sensibly,
The hearts of his first-engaged workers) tells the foreman
To pay the last group first
And the first group last.”

Jesus continues, with the Pharisees looking on…

“The normal workers looking on
See the cum-latelies being given,
By this outrageously generous owner,
A full day’s wage!
And thought that they too
Ought to receive more than their due
 and more due than was given to the…
“others”,
“by comparison”.
But no more they got.
So they grumbled at Go…,
I mean, at the owner
“Oh how hard it has been working for you!
All day!
Oh how hot the sun has been too!
All day!
And oh how little you are paying us
per day
Compared to these one-hour-wonders
& no-good lazy bludgers!
And the owner listens,
Very calmly,
Until they had tied their own hangman’s noose,
And quite nicely,
Then he asks those grumblers,
Rather seriously…
[Here Jesus aims the “owner’s” words
At each self-righteous Pharisee]

“Haven’t I just now proven your bad heart

and ingenerosity
Simply by demonstrating to you
my own generosity?
What is it to you, if I welcome grateful rejects so?
— on equal terms with you,
Just as I wish to
— and quite legally,
With my own money,
Not yours
— something which you yourselves also ought to do.
So take your agreed one day’s wage and go
..elsewhere.

Jesus now continues, without missing a beat…

“and so I tell you that indeed
Many of the first invited into the kingdom
Will not at all last in the kingdom.
But many of the last invited
Will receive their lasting joy
First,
And ahead of you grumblers!”

Scene 5 — Scandal#3
The Ungodly Glutton

Steven, next day

(you are halfway through a discussion with Luke):
“Call yourselves religious?” they asked
“You followers of Jesus
don’t even bother with the Fast!”
Other Readers:
Is there anybody in the cast, maybe,
 Who can tell us what we need to grasp?
What is this “Fast”?
Luke:
Well, all good religious Jewish creatures
Mark their calendar with many such features.
Besides their thrice-yearly feasts
With plenty of meat from the slaughter of beasts
They hold all-night vigils and regular fasts
And practise many a prescribed abstention
Ostensibly, while they wait
And watch and pray
And fast
For God to come to restore the Jewish nation
To its promised kingdom
In long-awaited prosperous freedom.
This problem
— of waiting for God to come —
Is called
“The Jewish Consolation”.
And these hungry disconsolate religious fasting Jews
Were letting their stomachs grumble…
Steven:
Jesus overheard this squabble,
About buns,
And responded with a parable,
Like John’s
“You know how a hungry wedding guest
Waiting to begin the wedding feast
Longs for the groom to arrive…?
And you know how also the groom is
Single-mindedly expected by the best man…?
Well, when he, at last, arrives, and announces:
‘Here I AM’
Do the happy wedding guests then put on long faces?
And does the best-man of the bridegroom,
go about in gloom?
How can they mourn,
As if the groom were gorn?
For, He, their consolation,
Is right there,
On location!
And the wedding guests can’t go hungry,
Once the wedding feast is served!
But the time will come when I am kidnapped
From these now happy wedding guests.
So when this feast is past
Then, there will be time enough to fast.
But now that I AM here, for your consolation,
It’s complete upside-down-ness
To suggest we should fast!
By way of comparison, let me surmise…
Would you tear a strip off a brand-new cloak?
(no-one would, I advise)
In order to patch up a hole in an old thread-bare coat!
(no-one should, I would advise)
That would neither leave the good cloak intact,
 Nor fix the hole, I say
Because the new strong cloth
Will pull the old weak cloth away
And leave a bigger hole!
So let’s keep these brand new clothes intact
And celebrate this as it is
— a brand New wedding contract —
And as for the Old, well, let me reflect…
Would you expect anything madder
Than to fill an Old, dry, dead, parched
wine-skin of a bladder
With a freshly frothing ferment alcoholic
Of a strong New living effervescent tonic?
Clamp and cramp it as you may
It must burst out without delay.
It will split and spoil the Old weak skin
And spill all the Living Wine within. No, No!
That will never do!
Tame old wine stays only in tame Old skins.
And no-one of the tame Old school
Used to dried up dead Old ways
Likes the taste or the aroma
Of these latter, Newer days.
They prefer fasting, and praying ‘for revival’. ”

——About Rejecting God’s Purposes——

(Talking about John and Weddings, Fastings and Feastings…)

When all the ordinary people and tax-collectors

Heard John the Baptist’s preaching
They soberly accepted God’s just demands
For them to stop their sinning.
And then welcomed the water baptism;
Forgiven, rejoicing;
Eager for their coming Saviour; expectant,
Hoping, waiting.

But the Pharisees and Lawyers,

By rejecting John’s baptism
Rejected God’s wish to save them…

Jesus therefore taught the crowds…

To what shall I compare then,

this especial kind of men?
What are they like?

Like a group of stand-off-ish, clean-thinking,

snobbish children!
— who churlishly don’t want to play
with all the other children in the street.

The street kids invite them to play

but end up having to say…
 “We said
‘Let’s play funeral’
and piped a dirge,
for you to weep
— but you wouldn’t join in.
So we changed our tune,
And tried perchance
‘Let’s play festival’
And played the flute,
For you to dance
— but still you wouldn’t join in!”

For when John the Baptist appeared to you

And ate no bread and drank no wine
you said
“Just another madman, we find,
Sitting in the desert”
“Playacting the part of a religious prophet” —
Well, so you thunk,
But now the Son of Man comes to you
Eating and drinking in festive mood
You say
“A friend of tax-collectors
And of a sinful brood.
Look, he’s just a glutton
And a drunk!”

Yet God’s Wisdom and purposes

Will ultimately prove,
And show up

————————Which lot are His true children————————

Scene 6 — Slander!

“Dirty Lawbreakers”

[To earn this grubby label

Recall that being a disciple,
At Jesus’ heel,
Sometimes meant
That you weren’t as clean
As you might have been,
Being on the road.]

Andrew (to Luke, mockingly imitating the Pharisees…)

“Our traditions” they frowned at Jesus
“You don’t seem to understand.
See how your disciples don’t even wash their hands
The way our fathers taught us before eating from the basket
The way our mothers tell us after returning from the market
The way we wash our pots and all our pans and dishes.
In very many ways like these you dismiss our legal wishes!”

Jesus responded to them, but.

“Are we, indeed, breaking your fathers’ traditions?
 Tut, tut.
And why do you break your Father’s admonitions…
“Thou shalt honour thy parents”?
(And for your non-adherence, He also saith…)
“You should be put to death”
Because your own paternal tradition
Amounts to very great transgression
When you say, of dedicated money…
“You shall not honour
Your father or your mother
By giving them some bread
Whenever you decide, to honour,
A sacrifice instead”!

How piously then you thumb your nose

At God!
By “dedicating your money, by vows,
To God”
And how nicely you turn His words aside
Like that,
And dismiss His legal wishes.

This is not just an oversight,

An isolated example
But merely a single sample
Of the twisted rules you preach.
Long ago, God said the same
to Isaiah, in a premonition
About your hand-me-down,
cooked-up religious tradition…
“Only with their lips do these people honour me
Their hearts are far away;
Their “worship” of me is quite empty
They chant my Law like doggerel,
But then they observe it not at all!
But instead, follow only their tradition.
And what they accept as doctrine,
And what they prefer to preach,
Is only, after all, WHAT MERE MEN TEACH”

Luke interrupts:
In that scripture which he quoted there’s more…
..Isaiah goes on to describe these very times!
For example
How ‘the blind shall see’
And ‘the deaf shall hear’
And then if you read the following lines
He pointedly abhors the religious system
Of quibbling lawyers condemning innocent men!

Andrew continues:

(Jesus) “And to wash my hands of your traditions,

I shout:
Let everyone come near and hear
God does not command you
 “Keep the outside dirt from getting in”
What He does demand of you, is:
“Drop the inside smut which cometh out”
Stephen:
Stupid us!
We then began to tell our leader off,
Thus: “Don’t you realise
That by speaking irreligiously about them
You have offended our religious leaders.
Is that wise?”
So Jesus added
Don’t side with them.
Watch out!
You mind!
They are weeds in my Father’s garden.

And noxious weeds are consigned

To burn.
If you want to be one of their kind
You will be rooted out for the fire-pit as well.
They don’t see. They are blind guides: blind
That they are headed for the Fire-Pit of Hell
And so anyone who is so blind
As to follow in their steps, will find
That,
He must tumble in behind,
In turn,
To burn.”
Then Peter spoke up
“Please enlighten us very clearly
as to what your dirty saying meant”
Jesus:
“Are you still so dull and in the dark?…
The food goes in. The food goes out.
It goes in fish. It comes out foul.
But through all its winding journey — from end to end
Through your heart or mind or soul — it does not wend.

God is not annoyed at the foulness coming out down South.

What He wants cleaned up is the filthiness from your mouth.

It is the impure mind which spews out lies and slanders.

It harbours unclean thoughts — of thefts and of murders.
A dirty heart holds lust and wickedness.
A soiled soul has envy, pride and foolishness.

It is the smut within, which cometh out

Which makes a man unclean.
God does not count as sin, the dirt which getteth in.

So as far as God’s concerned

It is not unwashed hands He’s looking to.
And there is no “unclean food”.
But that which He forbids you to do —
To do it; that is impurity in you.”
—————Cleanliness and appearance————

Jesus warned…

“Woe, woe, woe to you

Pharisees, Lawyers, and Scribes
who nicely clean up your cups’
And plates’ and dishes’ outsides
But are full of robbery,
Wickedness and self-indulgence inside.

You fools!
Your purity is purely
on the outside.
But your Creator surely
Knows you inside out.

If you want to be seen by Him

To be clean from the outside in
First share the contents of your cups
With the poor and needy
— cups of luxury and platters of self-indulgence
— don’t be greedy
And then all things to you
Will be inherently pure

—————— the outsides as well.”—————————

A Change of Mood

[turn on the red foot-lights]

At this stage —
With talk like that
Stirring up enmity, all around the country,
You can feel how
Things must be hotting up — politically.

Remember that
There is a fundamentalist revival,
Which John the popular hero
Headed
And John had made himself doubly obnoxious
To the obnoxious half-Jewish king
— Herod —
Firstly: because the whole revival situation
Begged a popular revolt from the provinces,
And, secondly: because John had listed Herod’s sins
And adultery, pointedly.
So Herod
Arrests John (and later has him
Beheaded).

Therefore, Herod becomes even more obnoxious

To the popular whiff.
But Jesus takes the hero’s place
 (putting up his head where John had been headed off)
By similarly conducting himself obnoxiously
In the eyes of the political-religious hierarchy
by exposing their sins most publicly,
As you see,
And calling them obnoxious in God’s nostrils.
And also
By proving his commission from God
with many healing miracles,
Which undermines every argument of his enemies-in-law
And needles all their angry jealousy
And makes their souls feel sore
And looking for REVENGE…
..until
Being disciples of Jesus
[How would you feel about joining his cause?]
Feels more like being outer rings in a darts target…
(thoughtful pause)
And for Jesus & Co. to go from the provinces
To Jerusalem, for a feast, is like…
(dramatic pause)
Mice hiding under the cat’s blanket…
(cat’s paws!)

Yet Jerusalem is exactly where Jesus takes us all next…

Blasphemy Plus

— Scene 7 —

A change of pace

Author:
Not even God can get much done, in Jerusalem
On a Jewish day of rest
And Jesus found that things slow down, on Sabbath
When he went there, to keep a Jewish holy-Fest.
So for something to do, Jesus picks out some body, to cure
And picks a hard case too
— thirty-eight years a cripple!
Enough to raise a test-case, or two.
“Pick up your mat and go home”
He says
And what he says
Is done.
Ho-hum?
Well, as you know, it was
Day seven
And you can’t even lift your eyes to Heaven
Without the Jews calling it
“work”
To which everyone is quite alert.
So when this cheerful man was caught
Carrying his own cripple’s mat,
or bed
They sourly booked him on the spot,
And said
“It’s Sabbath Day.
That makes you a sinner, we say
Why do you carry your mat today?”
And he compliantly replies thereto
“The man who healed me,
He told me to”
“And who was that!”
“I can’t rightly say”…
To be sure, the Pharisees could guess,
Which healer broke this day of rest.
But a single solitary witness,
who could hardly tell who’s who
Is not a great scoop
To a scrupulous legal Jew,
Whose law requires at least two,
Witnesses.
There the matter stood.
Thomas:
This is where I can fill you in…
Jesus next undertook,
To turn himself in!
So he fronts up at the temple
And finds the happy ex-cripple
And reveals himself to him
warning him solemnly of sin
—he needs a cover line, of course —
“From now on…
No more sin,
Or suffer worse”
The man goes off to the Pharisees and promptly squealed
(So finally the full story gets about)
That it was
Jesus who had healed
And so the truth got out
Whodunnit.
They hunt him down to make him pay
for this dire deed of ungodliness
But as yet they have only one witness
To his working on the Sabbath day.

But Jesus replied obligingly,

with what they imagined was blasphemy…
“My Father also is still working right through
Will you please go and book Him too.
We have not ceased right up to now
To toil for you in works of pow
-er,
And in love”
They replied with glee
“ B-b-both for Sabbath-breaking
And now for b-b-blasphemy
You deserve
The d-d-death penalty
Because you are now claiming
Equality
 with G-G-God !”
[Perhaps, cooperative reader,
You could now explain
How he counter-tackled,
To their public shame
And raised the stakes,
By pressing home his claim…]
Steven:
I saw a crowd around him,
Getting angry.
I got there just in time to see
Jesus start his plea.
I heard him quite calmly thrice claim divinity
“What I am doing is only, what He Himself shows me.
What I speak to you is merely, what I hear spoken clearly
By Him above.”
And “You cannot claim to honour the Loving Father
If you reject the belovèd Son.”
And “He has honoured me by appointing me Judge over
The Resurrection Day to come
Which makes it a matter, rather,
Of life or death for you,
Now!”

“You are face to face with your Judge,

Right now.
Receive me now, and receive life eternal
Reject me now, and deserve death infernal.”
[..picture him looking at you long,
And catching your eyes square on]

“I will raise the dead from the dust

As I see my loving Father do.
I must judge the dead, for that is just
— and just
What He wants me to
Do.
Life and Death is up to me.
I call the dead to live
And to all who listen to me,
I will give
Them
life.
And because it is the Father’s works
Which you see in me
— works which only He could do,
I will now call you to book
With my witnesses,
More than two, or three…
First… there is John the Baptist
Whose testimony about me
You took to be the flight of fancy,
Of a fundamentalist.
Plus… my works of course
Not one of which, is not a Godly deed.
Also then… the Father’s voice
 Which you heard but did not heed,
The thundrous baptismal noise,
Testifying
“This is my belovèd seed”
And if you care to look,
You’ll find, in that very book,
Moses too
Who talked of
The-Prophet-yet-to-be,
And many more
Who swore their seal to me.
Yes, I accuse you.
Of unbelief
In Moses and the prophets
Of rejecting
John and God and Truth
and Me.
You hypocrites.
You seek the praises of men,
In the name of Man
And welcome any other
whom you deem to be a brother

But you despise praise from Heaven,

From The Father,
And reject whoever comes,
in the name of God.

You cannot find the Truth,

Which you are seeking in your Book
Because you stay in deafness,
Darkness and in death
Rather than
Take a good look,
At whom Moses describes.
So…
It is Moses
Who will bring you lot to book
Because it’s HIS Book!
You quote him as the Source of Life,
But he will tell you that he points to
Me!
But how can you find belief?
If you believe neither him,
Nor what you see,
Nor
Me.”

Scene 8
Sacrilegious Robbing-Hood

Author:
Sabbaths happen quite regularly
And there’s not a lot to do
Unless you go Pharisee-baiting
To teach them a thing or two.
 So, one jolly day of rest
(and just when they were hungriest)
Jesus leads his merrie men
(imagine that you and I are there again)
Through a grainfield.
Arthur:
And sure enough,
Craning their necks after this bait,
The Pharisees follow
Closely,
Every grain of wheat
which we disciples swallow
whether we try to hide it or not.
Finally,
They inevitably make the challenge
“Look!
You have law-breakers for followers!”
Well, Jesus laid this double-barrelled counter-challenge…
“Haven’t you ever read the story
(Did the Pharisees not know the scriptures backwards!)
About King David eating unlawfully
When he also was awfully
Hungry?”
This was the time that had just begun
When David was not yet royal
But was ruler of an outcast rabble
— an outlaw, on the run —
(all much like us and Jesus, for the while)
Chief among a motley mob
Of lawbreakers and odd discontents
(Robin Hood style).
“And not just a head of wheat,
Did he eat,
but
The holy temple bread!
— The dedicated loaves of God,
Upon which only priests were fed.

And not just he himself alone,

But also, he gave it to his men.
And all of this wilful breaching of commandment,
Occurred,
With that blessèd priest’s consent!
Or (for the second testament in my favour)
Don’t you know how to run a Sabbath in the temple?”
(Could there be anything new about that to tell!)
“The priest:
Doesn’t he work and toil and labour?
But who dares call him
An infidel!
And so I tell you:
The Sabbath day was made for Man
— to worship.
But you would have it said, that
‘The Sabbath day was —
 — made for man to worship’!
Man was not made for Sabbath,
But Sabbath was made for man.

And furthermore I tell you

That greater than Man
And greater than priest
And greater than king
And greater than temple
And greater than law
And greater than your precious blessèd Sabbath
Is the LORD OF ALL Sabbaths,
The Son of Man: the One you see.”
Jesus: aside to listener:
The Hebrew: LORD “OF SABBATOT”
Sounds mighty like: The LORD “OF SABA-OT” which boasts:
“I AM the ALMIGHTY, the LORD: GOD of All HEAVENLY HOSTS”

Jesus: You accuse us of Sabbath-breaking,

But it is you yourselves who are forsaking,
The Law of God.
Because you are wrong.
You condemn the innocent.
..Such is not the will of God.

Fulfil His will and go teach yourselves what He meant

When He spoke His law in this fashion…
“I desire not sacrifices,
But I desire compassion”.

——————Concerning Compassion—————

Jesus taught…

“Woe, woe, woe to you

Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes!
You donate the tenth part
— even of the smallest of your harvest —
Of all your garden herbs
(according to the law of tithes)
— of mint and dill,
Of cumin, rue and chives —

But of other provisions mentioned in God’s Laws

— indeed the greatest and the weightiest —
You have held back in giving from your stores
— in giving of the Love of God
and of Faithfulness
of Justice
and Mercy
and Loyalty
and of Compassion towards one another.
You should rightly pay the one
— the harvest laws —
But do not neglect and overlook the rest
— the Other —
 The other ninety percent
Also due to the Father!

In fact,
This is just where
You purists are at…

..Of all “unclean” creatures in your diet,

You insist on straining out the smallest
— the gnat —
But then you go,
And happily ignoring the largest,
You gulp down intact
— a whole camel —
For all that!”
———————————————————————————————

Sabbath Breaker

Steven (You are talking to Luke who is writing it down):

The Pharisees now tried Jesus-baiting!
It was Saturday again,
The day of religious law-abiding.
So, as usual,
Off to the synagogue Rabbi Jesus proceeded.

They made sure,

A man with a crippled hand was waiting.
This way…
They would have all the witnesses they needed
To accuse him of Sabbath-breaking.

Scene 9 — Capital Offence!

Quietly they dropped their bait, to wait, with bated breath:

“Teacher; Is it lawful to heal upon the Sabbath?”…

..To which Jesus saith:

“Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?
or would you rather command:
to do harm?

(They held their peace without a qualm.)

And, is it lawful to save a life on the Sabbath?
or would you rather say:
To slay?

(They bit their lips rather than say.)

And, is it lawful to pull a sheep
from a deadly pit, on the Sabbath?
or would you rather leave him in it?

(They held their breath for the minute.)

Surely then, since

 any honest, decent, kind-hearted,
God-fearing, law-abiding,
sincere fellow among you
would do good
by saving a poor fallen lamb,
even on a Sabbath
then,
even on a Sabbath, it is lawful for me
to restore and heal,
a crippled human being,
to full health,
(How could anyone not see?)
Since surely you too
Would vote
People and humanity,
To be of far more note
Than rams and goats?”
(To this, and to this reference to their sacrifices, you see,
They did not visibly agree.)

Their hard-heartedness by now obviously had,

Made Jesus grievously sad
And glaring around at them in anger
He bade
— to the cripple still in the pit
Whose hand had become somewhat
Of a bargaining chip…

—————————————————
“Stretch out your hand”
—————————————————

And it was no longer bad.

Author:
Jesus had once again put the Jews to public shame,
And they hated him for it,
Bitterly.
So they now bit back in secret anger
And in guilty pain
— and…
Determined on his execution.

The rest is history.

The awful history of the crucifixion.
Carefully carried out on the day before the Sabbath
Because…
“It was not lawful to crucify the Son of God
On the Sabbath”!

Act 2
 Outcast

The tragedy of Jesus is that

He was born to be rejected
So,
He came in the power of the Spirit
(having raised the dead — unexpected)
Into Galilee, to his own mother’s household,
Certainly not dejected.

But, he had to leave the family home,

Neglected,
And settled in Capernaum instead,
And reflected
“By his own family and relatives
A prophet is not respected”
As it is written
“He came to his own, and his own received him not”.

Later again he returns —

To Nazareth,
The town of his adolescence
— prophesying that,
‘at him they would undoubtedly take offence’
— predicting,
(and then waiting for it in suspense)
That:
‘In his own home-town,
A prophet receives no deference’
At which they did take offence!

Indeed they were so incensed

That they tried to throw him off
A cliff!
And this is why…
He stood up in the synagogue,
to read Isaiah line by line
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…”
Then he let it be known
“This prophecy is mine.
I am living the scripture into life
In real-time”
“..I AM COME, as God
— to deliver the possessed,
To give sight back to the blind,
And to free the oppressed,
To announce God’s favourable bequest,
Of grace.”
But they thought it an astonishing dis-grace
To think that this home-town kid
Could teach them anything of God.
“He comes from right here,
This very spot,
Not from God.
He is Joseph-the-Carpenter’s son,
Is he not!
 His mother’s name is Mary
And if you want to be contrary
We can also name his brothers
“James, Joseph, Simon and Judas”
And if you want some others
We can point out all his sisters.”
(He came to his own relatives,
and his own relatives knew him not)
“We have heard indeed of him
Doing miracles in Capernaum
and we hear many stories
Of his supposèd wisdom
But we haven’t seen it here,
Where we all know him well
And well,
We can’t see where those things could come from.”
(He came to his own town, and his home-town knew him not)
In fact, the comparison between,
Capernaum, where he had been,
and here,
Could not be more clear.
There, when the Sabbath and its meeting
Were ceasing
The whole city had gathered at his door,
Begging for more.
There,
He healed all kinds of demoniacs
And diseases
Since so many mobbed him.
Here,
He could lay hands on
Only a few sick people,
Since so few approached him.
And so
His miracles here,
But not there,
Were rare.

———Doom for Spectators of Miracles———

..But even where Jesus had done most of his miracles

— in the lakeside cities of Galilee —
Those ‘lucky’ spectators of his ministry
Still missed the point of those spectacles.

So Jesus had to be rejected by,

And therefore had to reject,
Those places too…

“Woe to you Chorazin!

Woe to you Bethsaïda!
For if the miracles which occurred in you
Had occurred in Tyre and Sidon
(in Phoenician Syria)
Those foreigners would have repented long ago.
They’d’ve begged God to put off
His promise of wrath,
Would have sat in ashes
And dressed in sackcloth
And humbled themselves in sorrow.
Furthermore,
You would be better off
Therefore,
If you had been faraway pagans
And never seen the miracles I do for you.
For the Day of Judgment will sit easier on
Tyre and Sidon
Than on you.

And to Hell with you

Capernaüm,
too!
(who imagine yourselves Heaven-bound
For having had me live
And work among you)
Because even the Sodomites would have found repentance
— yes, even those sinful Gentiles —
And their city would still exist here among us —
If they had seen my miracles in their town.
So you’ll be judged worse than those Sods!

He who rejects my miracles,

————————Rejects God’s.”————————————————

(Author: The sermon in Nazareth continues…)

Outlaw!

Such great disbelief from his own home-town

Vexed him greatly
So he prophesied this prophecy
“You skeptics will surely quote
This proverb to me
‘Physician, heal thyself’ ”
(which was indeed spat at him later
As he hung upon the tree…
..“Saviour of others,
Save yourself.
Come down from the cross,
So that we may see
And believe in thee.”)
Next Jesus lectured them about the unbelief and distrust

Of the many widows in Israel, so long before,

Who had rejected the prophet Elijah
And who wouldn’t harbour this wanted outlaw
(much like what was happening here,
To be sure).

Elijah had caused a famine,

And was hiding from King Ahab
With the help of God
(because, the famine was causing the widows,
And this had caused King Ahab
To want Elijah’s blood).

Elijah had to find refuge with…

a foreigner!
— a widow in Sidon!
She was willing to share with him
Her very last meal
— all she had relied on —
And then
Snuff out!
So instead Elijah fed her
With miraculous oil and flour,
All through the drought
— something she had not counted on!
And later…
Even raised her dead son
— a miracle at her request
But
the so-called ‘faithful’ widows in Israel
Died
— for not making the local prophet their guest.
[That was one slap in the locals’ face, I suggest]
Jesus then advised them of
[Now watch out for the next…]
..Elisha, the prophet (and one of the best)
(who, like Elijah,
Also raised a boy at the mother’s behest
And who healed a Syrian — named Na’aman by name
— notice:
Another foreigner
— of leprosy,
No less).
This leper from enemy Syria came,
In recognition of the prophet’s fame
But Elisha merely…
sent off a message
— he didn’t even see him —
To “wash the leprosy off
In the local River Jordan”
And this Syrian army general trusted,
And without even seeing the prophet’s face,
Saw his leprosy busted.

Whereas (Jesus pointed out)

Out of all of Israel’s stay-at-home lepers
Who refused to seek out
The prophet sent from God,
Not a single chosen leper
Got better!
At this
The synagogue rose up in a rage
(of guilt, of miff)
And brought him…
 To the brow of the cliff
Upon which the city was built
Intending to throw him off
For he had claimed:
You who reject me,
Reject God.
The “suspense” was cliff-hanging.
But the irony of Jesus was that
even though the Jews would now accept
That he had to die in disgracement
He had to even now (especially now!) reject
Their timing and their placement
And so,
Borrowing another favourite — a disappearing trick
— from Elijah
“passing through the midst of them,
he went his way”
Reflecting
“Surely no prophet should perish outside Jerusalem
The city which rejects and kills the prophets sent them”
And so
He left Galilee
For Tyre and Sidon
Where he healed a foreign woman’s child,
Elijah and Elisha style
Philosophising
“Surely,
In his own home country,
A prophet is not welcomed”
(He came to his own country,
And his own country received him not)

Traitor!

When Jesus re-entered Capernaüm,

A certain foreigner welcomed the news
And so Jesus was met by a delegation
Who came — on behalf of that local centurion
Who had heard about Jesus, and,
In clear recognition of this prophet’s fame,
Had sent to him some Jews.
Now, centurions are not Jewish, but Roman.
They may be “God Fearing” but,
Being uncircumcised, are held to be ‘unclean’.
Indeed they are normally heathen,
And legally pagan, like Na’aman.
And circumcised Jews like Jesus
Weren’t meant to enter their houses.
So the elders were to act as go-betweens
Bringing Jesus this message of woe:
“Master, my belovèd slave is sick at home
Lying paralysed in bed
And in great pain,
And trouble, and strife.
He’ll soon be dead!
Please come
 And save the boy’s life.”
And so the Jewish elders earnestly begged…
“This Roman loves our nation
And is a Fearer of God.
It is he who built us our synagogue.
He is worthy of your consideration…
Please grant him this favour.”
Jesus says:
“I will go and be his saviour.”
And so he agreed and was going along
Which was immediately reported to the centurion.
Again the centurion sent another deputation,
Of friendly appeasers
Before Jesus came close to the house,
To say to Jesus
“Lord do not further trouble yourself
For I am not a worthy person myself
For you to come into my residence
— which is why I deem it unworthy
Even to speak to you personally
Or for me to come into your presence.
Rather;
Just give the command,
Using the authority you wield
And my boy shall be healed.
For as I understand authority,
I just have to say
To the Roman soldiers under me
“Go!”
And things get going.
When I say
“Come!”
They all come running.
And if I tell my slave
“Do!”
He jumps to get it done.
So that’s how it must be for you.
You do not need to come personally.
I need not see you face to face.”
Jesus listened to this discourse,
Then hailed his faith as “marvellous”
And turning to the multitude
Of mainly Jewish followers
In eloquent prophetic style waxed he…
“How does such an astonishing sign come to be?
Truly I declare to you that
Not even one Jewish leader in Israel
Has shown such great faith in me
As this Roman certainly has!
I prophesy truly that many foreigners
shall enter the kingdom
To eat with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob in Heaven
But that the apparent heirs of that kingdom
— expecting bright joyfulness —
Will be tossed out into the outer utter darkness
 Whereinwhich will be wailing,
And such woeful weeping!
And of teeth, much genashing!”
So Jesus sent the delegated deputation home to say thus:
“Be at peace! As your faith is; So let it come to pass!”
And with that, Jesus turns and departs!
(having merely pronounced a word on it, Elisha-style).
To the worried skeptics in this Jewish delegation
The slave’s sad fate now seemed sealed
But they arrive back later to find the boy
Already well and truly healed!
Indeed the servant had received his cure
Precisely at the spoken hour!
Everyone marvelled that it so clearly revealed
Divinely delegated power.

(The Author’s explanation continues…)

But it was the tragedy of Jesus

— that he was born to be rejected
And to be rejected by his own
And so he had to die,
And had to die alone…
You see, his death was sacrificial,
To take away all Man’s sins
— to deal with the universal sin of Man:
that of rejecting God.
Let me explain.
When put on the spot,
Face to face with the Son of Man
Some fell on their knees in fear, like Peter,
admitting they were sinners
— that God is right and they had been wrong,
All along.
Others treated Jesus’ claims with a sneer,
Proving they were sinners
— saying
“If this is God, then I know better than God”
Yet this was simply part of God’s plan
— to disguise Himself thinly and
Present Himself as a man —
“The world was made by him,
But the world knew him not”
So yes,
He came as God the Creator,
Giver of Light and Life.
He came to his very own creatures,
As husband to a wife
But had to die as “God:
Rejected by Mankind”
And to show how all His creatures rejected Him…
..He had to die alone.

Consequences of Rejecting the Chosen Prince

The invitation into God’s kingdom

Jesus pictured with this comparison…
[..redolent of the bitter, jealous days
when David’s son Solomon
— a fore-type of the Christ — was finally chosen
Over and above his elder brothers — Adonijah and Absalom.
..redolent also of Caesar’s specially adopted ‘son’
And heir — the last Caesar — one Octavian.
So this was no fairy story,
But quite a serious one,
..redolent of the intense political rivalries,
Vote-buying and rent-a-crowd, Roman style,
Which always come, with the question:
Who really will, by Imperial decree,
be fully recognised as “The Chosen Son”?]
Jesus: The king announces, to his subjects,
The big event
— a huge banquet
For everybody of first standing
And of high calling
In the royal establishment…

“There will be a wedding feast

For my belovèd son
— the heir to my realm
— the one whom I, have, chosen”.
[in other words:
Come and pay your respects
And tributes to “my son”
And acclaim him
As your rightful king
(or else become “Traitor!”, and
be known as my enemy
— if you, reject, him).]
“The right time has come”
He announces in jubilant expectation
Through his heralds, in eager anticipation,
To all those invited to the festal celebration,
“Everything is ready
and the king desires your presence.”
But in conspiracy
They secretly decide not to comply,
Instead sending mere excuses for their absence,
Not truly telling why.
One sends this message
“I am required
To go and take formal possession
Of a farm recently acquired.
May Your Majesty live forever
And long live your son
But please excuse me,
Since
I cannot come.”
Another:
“I would much prefer to come
To such auspicious festivity
Than to perform the miserable duty
 That has fallen to me…
For my expensive equipment
Is just now at its critical stage — the trial run.
So do please excuse me,
I am unable to come.”
A third:
“As you know, our law requires me to abstain
From state obligations
During this, the first year of my own recent marriage
— a Mosaic instigation.
Thus, though your generous invitation
Is most kind,
I must decline.”
When the envoys report this initial rejection
To their master, the king,
He orders other servants to reinforce the invitation,
Saying:
Please inform the chosen ones…
“Look. The most Royal wedding feast is afoot.
The best of meats are now prepared for eating.
All is at the perfect point of readiness, waiting.
Don’t allow the happiest day of my life to spoil.
The king requires your presence.
Come!”
But these chosen people
Are now openly snubbing the king’s commandments
— indeed they grab the messengers
and abuse
And murder them!
And each simply
Carries on with his own commitments
— farming
Or business
Or personal affairs again.

The furiously angry king now declares,

In his ire
“Let them die hungry, then!”
And orders his armies to go and raze their rebel city
with fire
And to destroy those assassins.
[Note: within 100 years of John the Baptist
— Jesus’ ‘best man’ and ‘Messenger’ —
Being beheaded in just this sort of Orthodox style,
By the godless Jewish elite,
And of this dire statement being given in the parable,
By Jesus
Jerusalem, the city of the chosen people
Was razed,
Burned
And ploughed level]

Meanwhile, the king decrees…

“My son’s wedding reception shall go ahead as planned.
I am determined to make this a most happy occasion.
 But since, as we all now clearly understand,
The first-invited guests were not worthy
of the distinction,
Quickly go into the city streets to invite all you can find
to join us in our blissful wedding celebration
— even the poor or lame, the crippled and the blind!”
“No sooner said than it was done,
Your Highness,
Yet still they report empty seats
None-the-less.”
“Go further abroad then” said the king “out of the town
— into the highways and country lanes —
And make them offers they can’t turn down.
So that it may never be said of my banquet, that
“few attended”
Or of my son, that
“he is not well-received.”.”
So they gathered abroad all they could
From near and far, both bad and good
— all they came across, serendipitously —
until the banquetting hall was filled with guests.
And now the king comes and inspects
— to make sure that all is as it should be.
One evil fellow among the guests,
Not dressed for the occasion, he addressed…
“Friend, how did you dare to come in here
Without suitable wedding gear??”
But that guest
Couldn’t offer a convincing word in his own defence.
So the king
Orders him
To be bounced
“Grab this fellow, one to each hand and foot
And swing and swing and swing, and fling him good,
And make him sorely sorry, among the outsiders
That he ever presumed upon my favours!”
Jesus concluded:
Though there are many who may call themselves
“the chosen and favoured few”
How few of them will actually be chosen to stay!
— to eat at the king’s table.
(..‘He had to die alone, rejected’… continued)

Criminal!

But Jesus had to be very, very fussy

About how and where and when,
To die alone.
To make this sacrifice at all properly,
prophetically,
And legally,
It had to take place in Jerusalem.

It had to be the day before, the highest Sabbath in the land

— the day of slaughter for, the sacrificial Passover Lamb.
The meaning of this “Passover” festival is prophetic.
It is to ask God’s angel Death
To “pass over” Jewish households
— to deliver their lives as in the days of Egypt
Where One live lamb was slain per household
In the place of One dead, oldest son per family.

So Jesus next left the backblocks and headed for Jerusalem

To be sacrificed by the Jews.

That is, he left life in Judea of the Jews

For death by criminal crucifixion
Knowing that…
“A prophet is not honoured,
even by his own countrymen”
(He came to his own, and his own countrymen knew him not)

It had to be a crucifixion,
which was Roman death, for treachery
For the God of all nations,
who chose the Jews, to bless all nations
(by Imperial decree, to produce the Messiah
— the Anointed one — his “Chosen Son”)
Is God, not to the Jews alone, but for all nations universally.

And to show how the rulers of the world

Would betray their God to damnation
He was handed over, by the Jews,
To a Gentile (that is: ‘non-Jewish’) nation
And so… to their many execrations.

Thus for this Jew,

The World’s ‘Final Solution’
Would be his execution.
(Indeed, in sad irony, quite ‘criminal’ crucifixion.)

So He finally left Earth for Heaven, proving, tragically

“A Creator is not honoured, by any of His own creation”
(He came to his own, and his own creatures knew Him not.)

Bloodthirsty Tyrant or Server of Justice?

But this is not

The end of our story
For he promised
To come back in glory
Which is our next story’s
Point.

You see he would finally receive his due honour in Heaven,

As King of Kings
(after humbly serving his own creatures
so honourably on Earth,
As loyal servant of runaway slaves)

But firstly here, he had to pay, by himself,

 The penalty due to us (traitorous Earthlings)
Which was rejection and dishonourable death,
For treason.
Thus, by paying for Man’s treachery,
He would open the way for forgiveness of all men
— that is to say,
Make Heavenly amnesty for them.
So later He must return in power and glory,
as their King
And in vengeance
For the unrepentance of his hardened enemies
— finally executing
Their rightful sentence.
But first he had to
Die as a self-sacrificing High Priest
Not reign as a self-appointed Earthly king.

So the frustration for Jesus

And his following
Is that even when they now accepted
Him as their king,
As we shall now read — this is before his dying in abasement
He still had to reject
Their timing and their placement…

ACT 3
“I’m with you J.G.!”

— the peasant Messiah gathers a following

“Sedition!”

Author:
John the Baptist had lost his head.
The Jews by now wanted Jesus dead.
His own home town had sent him away
But still the crowd wanted him every day.

He healed the sick and restored the lame.

He raised some corpses and cured the insane
(and to spread the good news, which was his aim
He empowered the twelve to do the same,
Sending them everywhere, in his own name).

He taught the truth with parables of charm

And promised salvation from the coming harm.
He won their souls and set them free
Since they were blind, but now could see.

They saw their hope in John chopped off

But saw instead “the Lamb” whom John said oft,
To seek.
 So when Jesus called
“Come unto me,
You meek”
he and his disciples couldn’t snatch a bite
To eat.

So, it was off to the hills for some respite

But they followed him through day and night.
In open fields and in mountain camps
He had an army of 5000 hungry tramps.

He offered them two dried fish,

Along with five flat rolls
(Quite an e-fish-ent dish,
Among so many souls)
The rolls were ones without any yeast,
Or ham
Since this was his version
of the Jewish religious Passover feast,
Of lamb.

But soon their bellies filled with food

And their hearts with awe
Because there was enough left over
For very many more.

Then he walked on water, as a sort of encore

And saved Peter too.
He calmed two storms
and did sundry other pleasing things.
The people fell at his feet
and wanted to make him king.

They would raise a revolt under this prophet of God

Against the Roman sting
— these Galilean discontents being quite used
To this sort of thing.
Indeed they were the champions
In seeking political freedom
And all they were intent upon,
Was wresting back their Davidic kingdom.
But this fish-multiplying Messiah had higher purposes
Which didn’t yet include multiplying human corpseses.

So the shortest way to escape,

In order to disown the mob,
Was to foot it across the lake!
By which he beats them
Back to the synagogue.

[Scene 2]

This only impresses them even more

“King of the Jews, we do implore…
How, tell us,
Not for Caesar’s sake,
 did you ever get around the lake?”
[Steven, would you like to write for us the text,
Of what it was Jesus said next?…]
Steven:
“Right” said Jesus
“This has gone far enough
Listen here to my rebuff:
Leave your cupboard-love of loaves
— your earthbound running after bread —
In the dust, as it behoves
And lift your eyes to Heaven instead.
And if you come to me on bended knee
Seek not mere present gain, but eternity.
Interpret the miracles and the times
And understand the meaning of the signs:
I have the signet seal of Father God
The sovereign authority to give you the nod
For entering eternal life!”
From the synagogue, came this orthodox response
(from the knee-jerk theologians)
Which was a question well-rehearsed
(in all its many Rabbinic variations)
“To inherit eternal life,
We must do what?
Do what good work?
Obey what command of God?”
(It’s as if
They hadn’t just now heard the answer.)
So he replied patiently
“You must believe
In me,
That I AM
He
That God has come from Heaven
To visit ye
My love implores you:
Knit your souls
To Me.”
Author, aside to reader:
Now,
before we listen to their rejection of “his Heavenly fantasy”,
we need to look a bit more at the history of the Pharisee,
because I need to explain a bit of a mystery
— How could they reject so many miracles
when Jesus was giving them such a feast? —
Well,
being pro-God, in theory at least,
the Pharisees did believe in miracles, in theory at least
that is in “true miracles” (which seemed to have ceased)
not in this “healing miracle rot” — But why not?
Because true miracles had to clearly come
from the hand of God
not from man, who could not, by definition
(their own surmised definition) be God.
They had to arise clearly not from earth, but fall from Heaven
like stones —
like stone tablets coming down the mountain,
handwritten by God
or angels falling, down electrified ladders,
between earth and heaven
or fire falling out of the blue
— to consume men, or their sacrifices, as in scripture, true
or angel cakes raining from the sky
— to feed the hungry people at Sinai
or Heaven opening down
you get the picture — do you?
Thus they “believed in miracles”, but not in every miracle.

Indeed, by definition,
their very own, very narrowed definitions,
they hadn’t seen “a true miracle from Heaven”
for quite a while!
And had made it quite hard for “a miracle from God”,
not from earth below, to come from a man, like Jesus.

Unless, perhaps, that man claimed to have

“come down from Heaven,
as Son of God, like Jesus.
So anyone who claimed to be from God
— like another ‘Messiah’ or ‘Son’ or ‘Saviour’, like Jesus,
needed to be tested,
with a demand for “a true miracle, come from Heaven”,
(like... Jesus),
just like their fathers tested the God of miracles for 40 years
— in the wilderness, when God was testing them —
and they failed the test.
They were about to be allowed to have another go,
at Jesus...

Egomaniac

From the synagogue, now alarmed,

To this probably false Messiah
Comes this orthodox demand,
To this self-appointed Saviour
Which was a challenge well-rehearsed
By the tick-list theologians
(in all its many Rabbinical variations)
Because this situation was already stained with the blood
Of many popular revolutions…
“Give us then, a sign from God,
For our credulity
Perform a miracle of the sort,
To prove your credibility —
At least as great as Moses gave
To our fathers in the desert
When for 40 years to millions,
He fed them a dessert
Of sweet angelic manna flakes,
The lovely “bread of heaven”.”
(Jesus:)
“In answer to your hesitation,
 Let me draw you this comparison…
There, you have God’s servant, called Moses.
Here, you have God’s son, called Jesus.
What they got was earthly food and drink.
Here I bring Heaven’s Spirit, don’t you think?
After 40 years of daily hunger, still they died.
But come to me for eternal life
and ever be fully satisfied.
Moses brought manna out of the heavens
— the skies so near above.
I bring you eternal good out of the truer Heaven
— the very throne of love.”
“Oh yes, that’s the stuff we seek.
Eternal life, that’s for sure!
So give us now this bread
So that we may live for evermore.”
“I AM the bread come from Heaven,
The very Staff of Life.
I myself am the Eau-de-Vie,
The Tonic of Eternity
I AM the Eternal Life-saver.
Don’t you recognise your own Saviour?

Just you wait for that Last Day

He who comes to Me won’t then be cast away
And I will raise him up thereafter
According to the will of the Father.

Let me, for you, this Psalm fulfil…

“He has prepared a body for me
And behold I come
Here I AM to do His will”
All this means, at the very least
That
I AM
Your Passover Feast
And my body is your meat.
I AM
The very sign you seek.”
“Son of Heaven, so he claims to be
Son of Joseph, as is plainer to see.”
“Is not a ‘good son’
The perfect image of his father, in heart??
— one who acts in like spirit.
Can you not see it?
— one who holds nothing dearer.
I cannot be any clearer.

See that I AM
— of the very lineage of the Spirit —
Of the Father.

So look and understand:

Believe in me you must
And if you do, I’ll raise you up,
Even from the dust.
 Though earth and heaven pass away,
You’ll be sure to last.”
Still they grumbled very much, and again he says to
Stop.
He repeats it all again, plus…
“If you come to me, you come to God” And,
“Can anyone see the invisible God, the Father and Creator?
No, they can only see me,
His image, His Son, His perfect imitator.”
Stop they did not.
[Before Jesus replies,
Let me advise
That religious law deems it strictly unwise
For any good Jew, to eat any human flesh,
Or to drink any blood, of any kind.
So…]

Cannibalist??

“Well, try this on for size:

I’ll put off my body
And leave it behind,
For you to dine upon
I’ll give up all my blood,
And pour it in a cup
For you to drink as wine

And drink you must

Or else be lost
And eat my flesh,
Lest you rot.”

At which… they took offence

And turned; and took their leave
(these myriads of loyal subjects)
And left him; to his own defence.

[Exit crowd, muttering “Infidel!”]

Arthur:
“Well, Steve, this is all going bad, man.
I’m off too.
You’re on your own,
To work out your own lot —
I’m not going to listen to a madman!
I can’t stomach all this invisible, symbolic rot.”
Steven:
“Hold on. I’m revolting too:
I think I’ll abandon this ‘heavenly roll’,
I can’t swallow it.
I think I’ll resign my religious part
And get lost.
[Exit Arthur, Steven also.

Jesus is left alone with his 12 disciples.]

The other readers:
But
Where does this leave us?
How can we fit in from here on?
Who will tell us what happened next?

Andrew, you’re there,

What’s going on?

Act 3 Scene 3

Andrew:
Gently to his own chosen twelve
He turns and sighs
and asks them

“If you please…

Leave
For not all of you believe.

The Spirit is the ‘good leaven’

Which I have, to give
And you shall see me rise,
And go to God in Heaven,
Again to live.

What will you say then!”

But Peter said to Jesus, much to everyone’s relief

“We have come, and seen, and heard,
and we believe
These, your words, are the teachings
Of Eternal Life.
They come from Holy God Himself.
We’d rather not go anywhere else.”

Act 3 and a half

J.G. Regathers His Following

Various open air crowd scenes will now follow
In an extended journey by foot, through the provinces.

Devious Demagogue?

Author:
Now, the popular throng, couldn’t stay away for long…
[Enter Steven, far off, coughing badly, and
Enter Arthur, also looking lost, limping along.]
..because Jesus could cure any
Body that was wrong.

And when he did, it often came about then

That Jesus said, to some cured grateful cripple
“Go home.”
and “Don’t tell anyone about your leg!”
 And his orders were strict…
And it never seemed to work.

Now, I don’t know about you, but…

I don’t think Jesus was dull.

Did he imagine the whole matter finished?

..The whole family would be astonished!
Soon, a whole circle of friends has heard
But, bursting, he can’t say a word
About what has occurred.

There’s nothing like a secret, in focus,

In the absence of verbosity
To arouse guesswork and gossip
And positive curiosity.

The more the news,

Of the mystery,
Is refused
The more indignantly
The demands
Are renewed
To find out every
Detail of the history.
Yes?

Well, the upshot of this ruse, is on the gospel record

That so effectively did the news get noised abroad
That
“Trampling over each other,
The crowds came
Bringing the crippled, the blind, the dumb,
And the lame
And many others for Jesus to heal,
Because of his fame
And they laid them down at Jesus’ feet
(He didn’t even have time to eat)
And he healed them all.”
It made him so well known that
He couldn’t even enter populated places
But stayed out in open, isolated spaces.

So, imagine yourself, out there for a while

[nursing your hurts —
On the outer — straining to see and hear,
from the outskirts] among
The myriads of followers come
Into the lonely places of Galilee
Upon a mountain peak, over the Sea…
Here, a demon-possessed man
who is blind and dumb
Is brought, and,
to the amazement of the throng,
He heals him.
Steven:
 But how!? From back here I can’t see clearly.
Can’t someone unblock this mystery?
Author:
Well, here’s yet another case we meet…
Which
(if only we could hear, this time, the inside story)
Should open our eyes
To make us wise
And free to tell clearly,
To anyone and everybody, all over the countryside,
The secret of these cures, so complete…
..A man who speaks only with difficulty
And whose ears are deaf,
Is laid at his feet.
[The Other Readers are taken in
For a closer peek]
“Please lay your hands,
We pray,
Upon this man”
They say.

“He cannot hear at all.

Plus, he cannot speak,
Unless
With much uneasiness
And indistinctiveness.”

Jesus takes the man alone and apart

And puts his fingers in his ears, for a start!
To follow this he spits
and touches the bung tongue
With the saliva!
Next he looks up to Heaven,
And with a deep sigh
Says
“Ephphatha!”

His deaf ears must have heard,

For immediately they
“Be Opened!”
(which is the meaning of that word)
His tongue also — it lost its impediment,
And he began to speak plainly
Without any hinderment!

Lastly Jesus issues orders not to tell

But they were utterly astonished
And the more he ordered it, well…
..The more they spread the news.

A sample of their unhidden views…

“What a marvel!
To see the lame walking”
“Miraculous!
To see the cripples healed”
“How wonderful!
 To see the blind seeing”
“Glory to God!
The mighty God of Israel”
“Nothing like this was ever seen here before!”
“This Jesus performs every good work!
And more!
He even makes the deaf to hear!
He even made the dumb to speak!”
..until, at last…
“Isn’t he the Son of David,
Whom we seek!”
“Is he not…
The Christ!”

Shirker!

Picture then the situation:

After 3 days in isolation
You are hungry as anything,
But at least you have found
the king…

Then, as soon as his popularity rebounces

Jesus, Son of David, the King, announces
“I hope you don’t mind,
But I must leave you all behind.
It is time for me to move along…”
(the crowd by now is 4000 strong
Plus women and children besides)
“..I intend to sail to the other side.
But since it is food that you lack
— I don’t want you to faint on your way back —
So, sit down for a meal, in rows.”

And he says grace over seven loaves

(with a few small fish to come)
and shares them out to everyone!
And they ate up,
And filled up
And moreover
Had seven large baskets-full left over!

When the people ran back around the shore

It only spread the news much more.
It wasn’t long before the throng
Had regathered, with this song…
“He shared miraculous bread and fish about.
He puts all our wrongs to rights.
He even casts the demons out.
Is he not the Christ!”

Unholy Devil or Holy Spirit?

Not everyone in the crowd is fully converted however.

So what did it feel like to be on the other side

 Of the divide?
Can you imagine?
[Author to Steven:
Since you are now searching
For a more central role,
Aren’t you,
Are you game to switch, and take on the spotlight role,
Of a Pharisee,
For this next part?

Yes? Well here is the scene:

You know the crowd
Is acclaiming Jesus as the Christ, but
Among yourselves
It is being said…]
Pharisees:
“He’s not the Christ,
But the Devil instead!
For who has authority over the demons?
Who else should the unclean spirits obey?
Who, but their own leader, Beelzebul!
So there! That’s how it is, we say.”

Knowing your slant, Jesus challenges you Pharisees

“Any kingdom is easily conquered,
once it begins destroying itself!
Even a walled city will fall, will it not,
through a civil war?
and infighting is what splits
homes, families and households
Don’t you think,
As the inevitable result unfolds?
Dividing against oneself
Is only a recipe for annihilating yourself!
So Satan would soon be finished,
If he started fighting his own minions!
He’d simply lose his own kingdom.

But in your so well-reasoned opinions

you have me

“casting out demons by Beelzebul,

Lord of the demons”

Obviously, that can’t be how it is, I say.

[That’s witness number one. Now…]

What about your own sons,

The exorcists?
Would you say they
Were Satanists!
They prove you to be wrong.
But nay,
It is by
The finger of God
 and the power of the Heavens
That I cast out the demons.
So it is
The Spirit of God
Which you see working
— the Kingdom of Heaven,
In action —
In other words:
You are seeing the Heavenly King.”

[That was the required second witness.

But Jesus hasn’t exhausted his defence yet.
Three is better…]

“What Delusions of Grandeur!”

Look.
Would you tackle the Devil your “Opponent”
(as Satan is translated)?
Is he not a very strong Enemy
Always on the alert
And armed to the teeth, and with hatred,
Guarding his own things, jealously?
So no-one weaker can touch him
And get away with anything, can they?
But look,
Here AM I,
Come as one who is stronger
Attacking him with stronger weapons
And I have overpowered him;
I have neutralised his weapons.
He has no armour any longer,
Anything left, which he once relied on.
I have tied him up,
With pleasure
I will plunder his house,
At leisure
I will distribute his treasure,
By measure, at will
To whomever I choose.
Now you choose!
[Your turn: Feel what it would be like
To be a religious leader and face this…]
Are you on my side in this,
Or will you be against me?
If you do not join my army,
You will become my enemy!
And if you do not recruit with me,
You will be treated like a deserter.
But as for this nonsense
of me being possessed by the Devil…
Stop blaspheming the Holy Spirit!
— calling the power of God in me
“unclean” and
“Satanic” —
It is an unforgiveable sin.
You can be forgiven for sinning
 Against one another.
You can be forgiven for blaspheming a man,
Even me.
But you can’t expect and won’t get,
Forgiveness
For blaspheming against
God’s Holy Spirit!
— Not now, in this world, nor ever in the world to come
This will forever be the eternal sin of sins!
And as for this business of keeping it to yourself…
Stop disguising your thoughts!
Every tree must show,
And be judged by,
Its true fruit in the End.
The good and bad sorts will be easily divided
On that coming Day:
The Great Dividend.
Your inner thoughts won’t remain in the dark forever
So stop saying one thing while thinking another.

You yourselves are the brood of devils

Harbouring evils inside,
But speaking so nice
As if your hearts had no vice.
But the Day of Judgment will bring it to light
— every word of hypocrisy.
You’ll be called to account for every word of duplicity.
You’ll be convicted by your own preaching,
for not practising your own teaching.
You’ll be condemned because of
These self-same words of yours
(not matching your deeds)
While the deeds of the truthful
(matching the words of the truthful)
Will declare the truthful to be right.”
[Now I will leave it up to you,
Whether or not you think it nice
to stay on side with the Pharisees,
In which case…]
..listening carefully to all this advice
You keep on putting it around,
Out loud
That Jesus is
Satan casting out Satan
[..Or you can try again the part of
One of Jesus’ family of followers,
In which case Jesus warns you of something awful…
How will you handle being judged ‘unlawful’,
And wearing this label?…]
————————————————
| HERETIC! |
| WORKMAN FOR THE DEVIL |
————————————————

“You Blackguards!”
 “They are now calling me
— the head of the household of God —
“Beelzebul”
(by calling demon-deliverance
“Satanic”)
So what will they call you
— the members of the family of God —
(since you are the ones
Who,
Like true sons,
Do obey the Father’s commandment)?
You should only ever expect
From the religious establishment
To be thoroughly tarred and denigrated —
With the same
Black name.”

[Or, if you prefer something nicer

And cleaner, and purer,
Would you like, to play the part of
One of Jesus’ real family…
..Jesus mother?
The ‘most blessèd of women’.
But bear in mind,
That it had been prophesied to you,
By Simeon
That your very own heart
Would be cut to the quick
And this by the verdict
Of your very own son…]

Mother-Hater

Some members of Jesus’ family set out,

To take custody of their madman.
This situation obviously came about
Because they had preferred to listen
To the teaching the Pharisees had given,
That
Jesus was a man badly possessed.
So, Jesus’ mother and brothers arrive
But have to, however, stand waiting outside
Because of all the crowd
Pressing around
Who obviously preferred listening to the sound
Reasoning, of this man who had lost his senses.

So they send word through the crowd

“Teacher,
Your mother says she wants you;
Now!”
On hearing this mention of Jesus’ mother
A Jewish mother in the crowd
Cries aloud
“Ah!
Your mother!
 Blessèd be the womb that bore you!
Blessèd be the breasts that fed you!”
But Jesus says to the woman
“No.
On the contrary.
Nay.
The blessing belongs, I say,
To those who prefer to listen to, and obey
The teachings of God.”
Then turning to the messenger, he spoke in public
And cuts you to the quick…
..he asks… “Who is my mother?
Who are my brothers?”
Then he points to the disciples and others
Who were sitting and listening to Jesus
And looking at them he says…
“Look, here are my mother
Here are my brothers
Because, obviously,
Whoever prefers to heed
The teaching of God, and
whoever prefers to obey
The will of Father God,
He is my brother
And sister
And mother.”
Thus he leaves you, his own mother,
Standing,
Out in the cold;
But the end of this story has not yet been told.
Eventually, we can read,
That among the family of those who believed,
“Jesus’ brothers and mother”
Were voluntarily enrolled.

[For this one page, where we explore

What was demanded of a follower of Jesus,
as we slowly ramble towards Jerusalem,
You should simply follow your natural drift.
But I warn you:
(especially if you have a familial personality rift)
You may write yourself out of the script!]

Paranoid Schitzophrenic or Simply Right?

Meanwhile,
Jesus kept on teaching more of this unwelcome slant
The closer to death in Jerusalem he got…
“Do you suppose that I came to grant
Peace on Earth and harmony to men?
Do not.
I tell you no,
Not peace,
but rather a sword
Of division.
Henceforth I bring an end to peace
 And put families into schism.
Three against two and two against three
Father against son and son against father
Mother against daughter and daughter against mother
Mother-in-law agin daughter-in-law;
Daughter-in-law agin mother-in-law
And it will be
That a man’s enemy
Will be one of
His own family!
A brother will betray to death, even his own brother
And a father will betray to death, even his own child
And children will deliver to death,
even their own father and mother.
He who loves a father
Or mother
More than me
And he who loves a son
Or a daughter
More than me
Is not worthy of me.

If anyone comes to me,

He cannot my disciple be
Unless
He hates his father and mother;
Hates his children and wife;
Hates his sisters and brothers;
And yes,
Even his own life.”
_________________________________

[Well, there’s your call to glory!

Can you survive that
(and those out to get you!)
to fight on for another page?
Or perhaps you are “in two minds” about
What the will of God should mean for you?
— Well, no, err…
Yes, ummm, err… —
O.K. let’s read on…]

Father-Hater!

When God called “exalted father” Abra-ham

To leave his father’s household in Mesopotamia, for Canaan,
Abraham took his father and settled half-way in Haran
And there he waited and buried his father Terah
Before going on to the promised land of Canaan.

So to a Jew, what they called “burying your father”

(which was the family obligation
to wait till dad was dead)
Became more important than the call of GOD!
Accordingly…
When Jesus said to a disciple “Follow me”,
He replied
“Yes Lord, but first let me, wait until dad has died.”

But Jesus to him said

“Follow me instead
And let the living dead bury their own dead dead
Because you need to go and proclaim the kingdom of
GOD!”

“I will follow you Lord” another disciple also said

“But first let me say goodbye to those at home, I beg”
But Jesus said:
“A plowman once started should point dead ahead
And not swerve from the dead straight line
by turning round his head.
Any workman who at all looks back instead
Is not worthy of the Kingdom of GOD!”

Scene 5

Pretender to His Own Throne

To appreciate this theme

— of how Jesus might be seen —
You need to either/or
: just fit into the scene
— of onlookers, disciples and followers — or
: belong to the Pharisees’ team,
And be a central speaking actor
As they once again confront Jesus’ authority.
It depends on how you see him, actually.
For example, you could be
: Mary Magdalene,
Someone grateful for healing and deliverance
— having been made clean
— who therefore follows Jesus with reverence
but has no action in this scene,
Or her neighbor
: Simon, a Pharisee,
Who holds Jesus
‘not so much in favour’
— call him ‘unaligned’,
For at least, he has an open mind.
Or maybe try a listening role…
: any maniac needing deliverance;
Or a lawyer;
Or someone else who is practically blind…
Or since you are now a well-practised actor,
Why not…
..try on each role as the story unbends,
To see if it fits, because it rather depends…
..on how you have so far “interpreted”
The whole atmosphere…
[Let’s very briefly run through here,
At this stage in the narrative,
The point of view, now becoming clear,
 Which the common people give…]
You: The blasted Satanic theory can’t have long to live,
Leaving us, the well-fed, healthy grateful crowd
[i.e. Mary’s mob]
Only one alternative…

..Jesus is still the Son of David

In our popular thinking
By which we mean, of course,
We want him as our king.
[Role-over: Here you need to swap masks,
Swap sides And turn around…]
You Pharisees and Sadducees are now face to face
With another potential Messiah
[..now you take over…]
And if there is another one of them
The Romans will take away our state
(and our jobs)
And so it is very much our desire
To trot out our orthodox response
once again…
Simon and his colleagues:
“Since you claim
To be from God,
We demand
A sign from Heaven!”
[to readers:
In these languages
“sign, from heaven”
might signify a “clue” or “mnemonic”, “from the skies”
And so he duly prophesies…]
“Red sky in the morning, shepherds’ warning.
Red sky at night, shepherds’ delight.”
From Simon’s lot:
“No, No.
We had in mind something else,
To wit,
We meant to say
‘from the Spirit’.
[Here you gaze solemnly into capital H Heaven] ”
[to readers:
In this polyglot
“from the spirit”
Might signify “about the wind”
To which he gave this reply,
Also gazing reverently into the sky…]
“I foresee… Wait,
Wisdom is coming nearer…
..Yes, I forecast…
..I feel it coming clearer…
———————————————
| ..Desert winds are hot. |
| Sea breezes are not.” |
———————————————
(Rather cheeky wot!)
[Let’s play “Simon says: stand up on your high horse”
So here you must be indignant, of course…]
Simon:
This even a child can well enough see.
Why did you deliberately misinterpret me!
We wanted the stronger stuff from thee!

We didn’t mean the ‘winds’ which blow.

We intended to refer, as you well know,
Not to winds but to higher ‘spirits’!
And, Heavens above!
Don’t play dumb with us!
Now Jesus pounces
“Yes indeed.
Your own words condemn you,
You hypocrites!
For easily can you analyse your climatology
— your ‘clues’ ‘from the winds’ and ‘skies’
And what it means on the Earth, for meteorology…”
[Notice that in these languages,
“on the Earth” or “in the world”
May also be interpreted as “about the eras, times or epochs”]
“..But you refuse to interpret your eschatology
— the ‘signs’ ‘from Heaven’ and ‘from the Spirit’
And what it means ‘about these times’!

So it is really you who are playing dumb,

About your End-time-atology.”
Simon’s mob:
Prove yourself. We insist;
Not with quibble,
But with miracle!
And sighing deeply in his spirit, Jesus deplores…
“Why does this God-forsaking mob demand a sign!
I tell you:
You are a wicked lot,
Adulterers and sons of whores!
Wickedly do you seek a sign.
But none will be given you,
Except the sign of Jonah.
Just as Jonah became a wonder,
To the people of foreign Nineveh
By spending three days
In the gullet of the great fish!
so too will the Son of Man
Become a stumbler
To this people here, whom I myself
Will greatly astonish
By spending three days
In the bowels of the Earth!
And so I tell you that on Judgment Day, a Gentile,
the Queen of Sheba will rise to condemn
you, the ‘chosen race’, for this day.
“I crossed half the Earth” she will say
“to chase the wisdom
of Israel’s anointed of the day
 — the great King Solomon.”
And let me also pronounce hereupon
that I AM
your anointed King
greater by far than was King Solomon!
Likewise too,
traditional enemy Nineveh, will rise to condemn you
— as a wicked, adulterous, evil race
and generation
who would not repent at my preaching
in dust and ashes, in sackcloth, in weeping,
in lamentation
— as did the Ninevites, upon heeding Jonah.
Plus let me add to this, one more thing:
that I AM far greater
than was the prophet Jonah!
[Simon, I think you had better depart.
Now reader, did you want that partially blind man’s part?
Here it is…
(For a while now, squint hard
through thin slits of eyes
as you read these next seven lines…) ]
1 So, since all of you have eyes to see how things stand
2 I say to you, take care of how
you interpret the state of things
3 Don’t blindfold yourselves
to these signs of the times, head in sand
4 Look at Me
[no, no, keep your eyelids closed — even darker now —
three more lines yet]
5 If you choose to view me dimly, with darkened eyes
6 your whole body and soul will likewise
ever dwell in darkness.
7 But if you choose to see the Light with opened eyes
[open up now]
YOUR ETERNAL LOT WILL BE CAST IN BRIGHT GLORY
to endure in blessèdness.”

The King’s Counsel

[Here’s the part for a lawyer,

Perhaps religious, certainly well-clued…]

Jesus: [to you — a clever dude]

There is no law against being shrewd
So why not interpret your own situation
— you would soon revise your mood!

Here you are, threatened with the thought

of being dragged into the eternal court,
Of facing The Heavenly Judge, the Sheriff and the Jailer.

So while there is time:

Negotiate with your Accuser!
Take your chance! Settle out of court!
Because…
 ..If you are cast into the darkest cell
Until you pay, you, yes you,
may never again
see the pleasant light of day!
[Exit lawyer, resisting, forcefully escorted off the stage!

Now here comes another turn of the page

— a listening part
— for the demoniac

— imagine having just received a deliverance,

You lucky chap,
But what might it mean for you
— a recently cleaned up Jew?
Listen carefully now — that’s your role
— but I advise you furthermore
That you had better clasp your hands over your ears
..just… in… case… ]
Jesus:
Surely for this wicked race,
It is in store
To end up worse than
Ever it was before!

For having had its evil spirit evicted,

What then?

The evil spirit wanders about

As in a wilderness
But it doesn’t much like
The thirst and the homelessness
And would very much prefer,
To return to home again.
[in your case — you!]
Now should it find its old house still EMPTY!
— all nicely purged and cleaned,
But not yet put to any good use
Well, it not only moves back in promptly
But invites seven more!
— other evil beasts, in recluse —
To come and share and most fully possess
That unfortunate house
Which,
To a destruction much the worse,
It is now,
Most certainly doomed.
[A dark curtain closes on you
— that’s the end of your scene — for the while]

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Beast?

— Scene 6

“I tell you to beware of and discard…”

Said Jesus on the boat
To his disciples, as they left the crowd
 Once more behind
“..the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees”

“A-ah” sank they down

“He tells us that we have left the bread behind”
(for they had forgotten to pack provisions in the boat).
“He must be grumpy
At feeling hungry.”

“How little is your faith! O foolish men!

Did I not feed the five thousand men
Along with their women and children?
And besides, with twelve baskets-full left over!

And did I not repeat this on another

Four thousand, with seven large baskets over?

How can you quail for lack of bread?

Have you no eyes to see, in your head?
Are your ears as well, also so blocked!”

“Ah-ha!” rose they up

“He cannot be speaking
Of not eating
Of their bread!”
They said,
And all at once the penny dropped
“He must be talking,
about their teaching!”

“Yes indeed. I would have you purge yourself

Of their hypocrisy, which is an evil yeast.*

[* Purging your home & hearth of all old yeast

Is what Jews must do before their Passover feast.]

Such Jews will condemn you to death as “evil beasts”

Believing that in this, they will be serving God
As they drag you before the synagogue.
But don’t be afraid of speaking up for me,
Let the Holy Spirit Himself supply your plea.

Then don’t be afraid of death itself,

But only fear God instead,
Who can raise the dead
Unharmed!
Yes, rather fear God, who can consign to Hell,
Not only the body, but the soul, as well.”

Lame-duck Weaklings! — Scene 7

The Pharisees and Scribes often gunned craftily

For Jesus’ disciples, as easier targets, separately,
By cowardly arguing Mosaic theology
With these back-country fishermen
— arguing about Elijah’s reincarnation,
 Or about fasting
Or modes of baptism!

(It’s as if several professors took you aside

And began criticising your acting,
Or took to attacking me — for bad rithim.

None-the-less, could you please now

Gather your wits
And muster your talents
And play…
Jesus…)
Author:
Once, while Jesus was up the holy heavenly mount
Talking with Moses, with Elijah
And with a voice from the cloud,
And with his three closest disciples at heel,
The Jews took advantage of those left behind
By bringing them the hardest case they could find
For them to try and heal…
..a deaf and dumb
Demon-possessed
Suicidal lunatic,
Continually from childhood, a convulsing epileptic…

..so the Scribes’ argumentative sport

Was happily fuelled hot
When the disciples could not,
Cure him on the spot,
Because, as you (Jesus) later taught,
A case of this sort
Requires prayer, and fasting a lot.

The scene is chaotic, with angry Scribes

And desperate disciples — arguing;
With Jesus unexpectedly returning;
With astonished mobs converging,
On the run;
With the boy’s father pleading;
With Jesus ordering
The spirit to flit;
With the boy convulsing —
In a terrible foaming, rolling,
Screaming fit,
Until finally the boy, with all spirit gone,
Drops down
Dead.
[If I was there then,
I wonder what I would have said — about you!]
But you (Jesus) lift the boy up!
Restore him to life!
Completely healed in mind!
The comment you make being…
[now deliver your line with vehemence]

“Oh you disbelieving and wicked

 And perverted faithless kind!
How long shall you test my patience!”
_______________________

[Small break, while the author considers his options…]

[Result: Well, if you are going to talk to me like that,
I’ll demote you to the all-expenses-paid star role
— Simon Peter, the fisherman promoted by Jesus.]

Scene 8 — “Tax Cheat!”

Another time they cornered Peter, behind Jesus’ back,

With
“Doesn’t your teacher pay the temple tax!”
[Well, how would you act?]
And Peter blurted out, defensively
“Of course he will;
Yes;
He won’t be lax”
But Jesus knew in his spirit about this latest attack,
And spoke to Peter first, when Peter came back…
“What do you think Simon, you rock:
From whom do emperors of Earthly stock
Their revenue or excise or poll-tax collect?
From their own sons,
Or from foreign subjects?”
And when Peter answered
“From the aliens obviously”
Jesus said
“So then, the sons are exempt;
Tax-free.
Do you see?
And this tax is in the name of God’s temple,
No less
And for the King of Heavenly sway.
I do not wish anyone to stumble,
None-the-less,
So the tax
I AM to pay
— anyway.
Now go to the lake and throw in a line
And hook the first fish that comes by
And when you open its mouth you will find
A gold coin
Enough for you and I
— to pay both our temple tributes.

This way they cannot fabricate another excuse

Not to believe in
The Son of God.”
[Author to reader:
Well done; thank you;
You deserve a break sometimes
So enjoy yourself, sit back
And watch the next action from the sidelines.
 As you see,
Not even out in the Provinces
Can you escape the powers that be,
Or the central place that the Temple has
In the whole Jewish psyche.
So it is time for J.G. to revisit
The centre of the Jewish universe
— temple territory —
Sadducees & priests,
Lawyers and all that;

And for Jesus, the Nazarene, that must be…

..tiger-country!…]

ACT 4
The Theme: is keen.
Support behind Jesus is building
despite the Pharisees deliberately
counter-acting Jesus’ teachings.
The crowd now accept Jesus
not as a political Saviour,
as if the enemy were Roman,
but as the Jewish spiritual Leader
who is denouncing their real enemy
— the Jewish religious leaders.

Set 1

Phoney!

Our hero now takes on

a no-holds-barred, open public debate
With the best rhetoricians
And political, legal and religious minds of the state.
These were experts in swaying the crowd,
in thinking on their feet
And in slanging their opponents…

Scene: The crowded temple, in Jerusalem

For the Feast of Tabernacles, in Autumn.

Remember that Jesus had come

to Jerusalem’s previous festival
And, on the Sabbath, healed an old cripple
— which had first caused the Jews to make up their minds
To condemn Jesus to death,
When he next could be found
— if he dared show up in town.

(Right stage…)
Tom:
You still harbouring the outlaw, Jaz?
He’s here isn’t he?
Jesus’ brother, James:
Nah. He ain’t comin’, the phoney.
Dick:
Don’t call him phoney.
He’s a good man,
And holy.
Harry:
Sshhh! If anybody hears you putting that about…
..you’re out!
Haven’t you heard the latest proclamation
And their threat about excommunication?
James:
We tried to bait him to come out
— to make a show of himself
As “The Great Miracle Worker”
But he said:
He didn’t want to die yet!
The shirker!
Tom:
Well, I reckon he deserves to die,
If you want my word on it,
As Moses said:
“Stone the false prophets”
And be done with it!
He’s whipping the whole country
Into another rebellion
He’s leading us head-on into trouble with the Romans
— and then…
We’re all dead ducks.
It’s like the high priest said:
“Sacrifice this one Jew to the cause
— for the survival of our whole nation.”
Harry:
Stop preaching, and listen to the new preacher.
James:
Never trust freshly-shaven preachers, Harry!
But haven’t we seen this fellow somewhere lately??

[Is everyone ready for the sport?

Enter Jesus, centre-temple-court.
Jesus now preaches an eloquent message,
Which gives Game 1 to Jesus.
Pharisees now to serve.]
(Left stage…)

Lawyer (to Scribe):

We don’t recognise this creature
But he obviously knows his Scriptures
He’s quite a teacher!
But he’s not from our school.
Yours maybe?
Scribe:
Not ours. That’s not what we teach.
(calls out:)
Hey preach!
Who taught you all this rot about “the kingdom”
Where did you get these unorthodox ideas from?
Or did you make them up yourself out of thin air
 To make yourself a name?
Jesus:
No. It’s not my own teaching
I am serving for Him
Whose preaching is True.
If you were willing to practise what I preach
You’d soon see and recognise that what I teach
Is from God
— that I’m not coming from any human authority
Of my own.
Anyone bringing his own teaching
Wants to bask in his own glory
But since I want only to glorify
The One whom I serve,
I cannot be a ‘phoney’
So I’m not unorthodox,
Nor unrighteous,
Nor self-serving,
Can’t you agree.
[Game two to Jesus.
Jesus to serve]
But you practising lawyers —
You’re quite another story!
Aren’t you the ones with a full grasp
Of the Law of Moses?
Yet not a single one of you actually practises,
The law itself.
On what grounds, for instance,
Are you trying to kill me!
Lawyers:
Who on Earth is trying to kill you?
You must be mad
— out of your mind!
Jesus:
You can’t even fathom a single good deed of mine!
You yourselves circumcise boys’ tips
On the eighth day after birth
As a token cleansing ceremony
Even when this conflicts
With the seventh day or Sabbath
And so you’ve given circumcision priority
Since
“Circumcision, from our father comes”
(via the highly esteemed patriarchs —
Abe, Zac, Jake and sons).
But both commands come via Moses.
Thus you yourselves break the Sabbath.
So now if I
Clean up an entire man on the Sabbath
— why get upset and condemn me?
Should one not heal a whole man on the Sabbath?
[Loud murmurs of recognition flow through the crowd.]
Stop judging superficially,
With legal verdicts based on human sight.
Instead you should decide properly
And discern what is really right.
[Several of the crowd call out…]

Harry (to the lawyers):

Look! There is the man you were wanting to sacrifice.
Tom:
Why are you letting him speak so openly?
Dick:
Maybe you know too —
That he really is the Christ!
[Game three to Jesus of Nazareth;
Pharisees to serve…]
Lawyer to crowd:
This unknown from the provinces
Can’t be the Messiah
Who will bring us our salvation.
Voice from the crowd:
If he’s not, he’s a jolly good imitation!
[Crowd laughs loudly]

Lawyer to crowd:
But we would know the Christ when we saw him
— from the signs of his coming.
Voice from the crowd:
You can’t see for looking!
How much more
Are you searching for?
Lawyer:
The Scripture says he’s got to be a local,
From Bethlehem
We’ve got to know where the bloke’ll
come from.
[Crowd rumbles with vehement private discussion
— drowning out the Pharisees —
Until Jesus ‘of Nazareth’, from Bethlehem,
Motions for silence and attention.
So Game four flows with the crowd to Jesus — Four love.
Jesus serves]
Jesus:
But, you do know me.
And, should recognise clearly
Where I’m coming from.
Have you no eyes to see
That on my own human authority
I have not come
But I am here on behalf of the One
Unknown to you,
Who is True,
Whom I know.
I AM from Him,
And come on His service.
[The crowd again erupts in discussion]

Harry to Dick, aside:

Look. He’s saying it again —
That he’s come from Heaven!
Pharisee (left stage) to a chief priest:
 The crowd is looking ugly.
Don’t you detect
What they are saying to us?
“What more miracles could you expect!
If he’s not the Messiah, who is?”
Chief Priest:
Send officers to arrest him.
That ought to silence them.
Pharisee:
They’ll stone us!
Chief Priest:
We must put a stop to him.
This is our most holy onus.
[Melodramatically…]
Send them in!
[Enter Roman soldiers — the Temple Guard.
At this the crowd starts to hiss,
And they pick up stones from the temple court.
So the soldiers smartly withdraw
— and consequently score
— a miss.
Game five to Jesus.
Jesus again motions for a hearing.]

Jesus (serving for the set):

Not yet I say!
I must stay
A little longer among you here
Before I go to Him whom I serve
Whom you do not know.
Then you will want to find me
But I simply won’t be found here
And you won’t be able to go there, where I go.
Pharisee 1:
Where!
How can he escape from our network!
Pharisee 2:
Maybe he’ll take refuge in the Diaspora
And teach the dispersed Jews
In the Greek nations?
Pharisee 3:
Then what did he mean by these clues:
“We will want him but won’t be able to find him
And won’t be able to go where he goes”?
[Exit Jesus unharmed through the crowd,
Which protectively closes around him.

First set,
Six-love,
To Jesus]

Act 4 Set 2

Now, at this stage, if, with Jesus,

You had a personal interview
What, if anything,
Could you expect him to say to you
When you, as a teacher of teachers,
Humbly ask him to teach you
(here, try to act sincere!)
“What else do I need to know?”
[The Pharisees have to open the second set, so
Yes, why don’t you
Sit in Professor Nicodemus’ seat
For a minute or two??
In this way you can live through
A bit of world-famous history, quite true.
Nicodemus was a highly respected Jew
— a leader in Israel
In this, the first century.
Just for you
I’ll make sure the pace is quite slow
And spell the meaning out
So that you can feel at home, you know.
And all that you really need to know
For this part,
(just keep this in mind
All the way through
— it’s not hard)
Is that hope For avoiding Hell And finding God
is Buried deeply Somewhere, Within your heart…
I don’t want you to feel at all uncomfortable
About this role
So just relax
With an easy evening stroll
And ignore me
While I advise the other readers…
(..to picture you
In the hottest seat of history
Ever,
Under intense professional pressure
To manage this tricky religious predicament
Of an imminent national riot
Fuelled by religious fervour,
Since you
— as a leader of leaders, remember —
Might be called upon to deliver
Your considered theological pronouncement
Upon this supposedly divine Messiah…
..Jesus.
Secondly…
..Your political responsibility is demanding to
— and the internal party pressure is screaming to
— deny him,
And to deliver him to condemnation
And to not inflame
The already throbbing air
Of anticipation.
You see,
About 500 years prior,
Gabriel had told Daniel
To expect the Messiah,
 After 500 years!
— right about now,
Give or take a few
— very nearly overdue!*
*(Since, in saying “10 lots of 49 years”,
Gabriel had actually meant “10 Jubilees”
(each 49 years, plus 1),
which is, as one sees, actually 500 years…)
And into this time-bomb of a time-slot
Several false Messiahs had already popped
Causing deep disturbance,
By way of false anticipation
And cruel disappointment,
To the expectant chosen nation.
Then up popped John.
Then out popped Jesus.
Is he the long expected Messiah, well-nigh overdue?
Gabriel and Daniel and History
Have all been rising to their feet
To call forth the Christ of God.
This is a focal point in capital ‘T’ Time.
This is the time for a mighty prophecy
to be fulfilled…)
And here waits Jesus, and, he’s waiting for you.
Now is the time, Professor, for your interview…]
Setting:
By the flickering firelight
Of a slowly boiling billy,
Quite late
Under the canopy of a coolibah tree,
That night
— well an olive tree,
That’s right —
On the Jericho Road,
Somewhere outside the city gate…

But HOW!

“Rabbi Jesus, we know,

That you come, as a teacher, for us,
From God in Heaven, with Truth, and Light”
(Says Teacher Nicodemus,
Who comes, as a Pharisee, to Jesus,
From the Rulers, in the dark, of night)
“..For no-one could perform such miracles as yours
Without God.
And I would like to hear for myself
What you have got,
To say.”

(Now, this, was the form of deceit

Conceived by the Jewish leaders
To catch Jesus in some slip he might concede
When, by pretending to be “sincere believers”
They tested him with such brain-teasers, as…)
“..But Rabbi, HOW does one enter the kingdom of God?
 What good must I do?
What command needs to be obeyed?
What is really necessary?
What more do I lack?”
Now, Jesus delighted in answering
This standard narrow enquiry
Each time it was put to him,
With a quite different
(but still all-embracing!)
Formula or recipe…
Jesus:
OK. Right. Pin your ears back…
“Unless one is born from above
He cannot enter the Kingdom of God”
Now, he actually said ‘conceived’
As in ‘begot’
But to preserve the multiple ambiguity,
As Nicodemus would hear it all intuitively,
We must loosely translate it ‘born’
And not ‘begot’,
Or perhaps ‘borne’, as in ‘carried’;
Although, as Nicodemus will soon show,
Jesus also carried,
An emphasis upon being “entered into”
The Kingdom of God.

Furthermore, in this polyglot “from above”

Can mean also “once more
— from the top
— once again please
— ‘al capo’ ”
Like when a musical conductor
Re- rehearses his orchestra.
Idiomatically, ‘from above’ holds the meaning,
To be ‘among the living’,
Hinting that Nicodemus
Was still among the dead.
Because where we say “the living and the dead”
They said: “those ‘from above’ and those ‘from below’ ”
As if Nicodemus and Co.
Belonged in the Pit.

[Nick’s face thus contorts,

Deep in lofty thoughts,
Trying to decide upon the meaning,
probing into spiritual considerations
Of the various lowly interpretations
Which were above his head,
And below the belt.
You see, what Nicodemus said,
— to ‘come from’ God, with power —
Is polite for: to be ‘begotten by’ Love,
By the potency of the Spirit — from above.
And the big Question had been, up to this hour:
Was he a true ‘son of’ the Father?
Or was he ‘sprung from’ the Seducer?
Was he ‘sent forth from’ Him above,
Or was he ‘born of’ sin — from below?
His mouth drops open,
And he muses
— out loud —
To probe, as it were,
Jesus’ leaning
(but let me also supply some bracketed explanations
For the other readers
To work out his meditations) ]

Nicodemus:
But HOW, when he is as old as Nick
Can a man be “borne again”?
That would be an impossible trick
— he cannot enter “a second time”
Into his mother’s womb, to be re-implanted,
To be re-borne, to be born again, can he?
..So… you must mean… maybe…
“conceived”, “from above”?
Jesus:
Yes. Too right! But listen…
I’ll say it both ways for you
“A man is firstly born, into life,
from water
[for readers:] (this is a euphemistic term — for sperm
— i.e. conceived out of the flesh
— born to this world below,
— born through “the waters beneath”)
But unless he also, or secondly, is born of spirit
(that is: from the life-giving spiritual waters of God
— from Heaven — from “the waters above”)
He cannot enter the Kingdom, of God,
In Heaven, above”
[In other words,
What Nicodemus heard,
Was the less polite word: “You lot: Go and Get Begot!”]

(In order to receive the life of the Living,

To enter the Kingdom of God,
Nic. ought-ter have the Water, of God,
Entered into him.)

[Nick’s jaw drops two notches more.

It is not an answer he has heard before.]
(Jesus:)
The flesh (of men’s bodies here beneath)
Can only seed more bodies (of flesh here on the Earth)
Only the Spirit (of God in Heaven ‘above’
the Earth beneath)
Can ever implant a spiritual birth.
[Nick looks astonished, but is quickly admonished…]
(Jesus:)
Do not marvel simply because I give it
That
“You lot need to be born of the Spirit”
[Nick raises up his hands imploringly,
In exasperation
And takes in a deep breath, quite audibly
In mystification.
Now, remember that, in translation,
Without any brackets for explanation,
Besides meaning life-giving implantation,
‘Spirit’ can also be ‘wind’ or ‘air’ or ‘breath’…
So it could now all sound like
“You must be reborn, of respiration”!]
(Jesus:)
Take for example your breath — listen to it —
(your ‘breath of life’ — your ‘spirit’)
You only hear it as it draws in and out,
To and fro.
You feel the force of it,
But cannot know
Where it comes from,
Or tell, where it will blow, or go.
Anyone borne of the Breath (of Life) is like that.
[A gust of wind sweeps the smoke aback,
And then, reverting to a physical track,
Nick is seen emphatically closing
His ten tensed fingers.
He grasps at the air, and over these words,
He lingers…]
Nicodemus:
..But HOW,
On Earth,
Can anyone,
Be borne,
Out of thin air!
[Now that Jesus has Nicodemus himself
Vehemently, and quite properly, excluding physical meanings,
He stings…]
Jesus:
..but how is it, that you,
The spiritual leader of the holy nation of Israel
Will not understand,
The things of the spirit! of God!
If any one of you could, should it not be you?
[Nic. flinches as these worrying truths hit home…
Remember, Professor, your part — that hope,
For avoiding Hell and finding God,
is buried deeply
Somewhere within your heart]
(Jesus:)
Now get ready for this answer…
[Jesus then adopts the prophetic divine plural
Which has the effect on the Jewish listener
That he is listening to God’s loud-speaker]
“We report what we know
(to wit, of Spirit)
We bear witness of what we have seen
(We mean, of Heaven)
You lot do not receive our witness
 (You do not believe, in Us)”
[At this Nicodemus — who cannot disagree —
Slightly teeters backwards in his seat
And,
Not trusting what he might meet,
Puts one hand behind him
While bracing himself with his feet]
(Jesus:)
..When I tell you in Earthly terms (using adult themes)
You do not even then
trust in me.
So now
When I tell you of Heavenly things (in spiritual terms)
HOW can you ever
Believe
Me!
HOW will you ever,
Hear,
God?
[At this — a cleanly served ace —
Pain of an empty heart
— recollect now your part —
Shows clearly on Nicodemus’ face.
But having opened the deaf man’s ears,
Jesus says, in gentler explanation,
And now, it appears,
Nicodemus hears, the higher revelation]
..But no-one has ever been up in Heaven
To know these Heavenly Truths
[Nick looks up to Heaven
In doubt
Or wonder.
Will he himself indeed, ever
Hear from God,
And
How?]
(Jesus:)
..No-one else that is, except Me.
..Yes, I do come from God
..And I, the Son of Man
(Daniel’s code for glorious judging ‘Messiah’)
Have come down from Heaven above…
[Nick looks down again at Jesus in questioning realisation —
After all, this is what he himself had told Jesus to start with]
..Yes, I have come down especially to tell you…
[Jesus next points up, and Nicodemus looks up, in surprise]
..tell you of these needful Heavenly revelations.
..You have no-one else but me down here to tell you!
[So Nicodemus looks down again and meets Jesus’ eyes]
..And the Son of Man must be lifted up high…
[Jesus, talking earnestly now of how he will die,
With uplifted, outstretched hands,
Signifies
— all eyes rise —
A crucifixion.]
Yes ..I must be lifted up high,
 Just as Moses down in the desert…
[eyes down]
..raised up, and crucified,
The bronze serpent on a pole up high.
[all eyes once again rise]
..So likewise must I be crucified.
In this way
Whoever believes in the Son of Man,
May have,
Eternal life.
[Nicodemus, still with uplifted gaze, closes his eyes,
As if to say to God,
“Yes, please!”
Have you kept in mind your part?
— that hope,
For finding God,
Is buried deeply
Somewhere
Within your heart.]
..he will have eternal life.
Just as whoever obediently looked
Up
To the brass serpent then,
With faith
Saved his own life
From the otherwise
Fatal snakebite
Down in the desert.
[Nicodemus’ head droops back down,
And he shivers
As he recalls the Old Testament writings
Of the dreadful plague
Of deadly vipers
And how Moses’ crucified bronze image
Delivered
The repentant, obedient and faithful men
Then,
From God’s fiery judgment…]
[After this pause,
Jesus continues imploringly…]
..for so much did God love His world,
Rather than judge it all with fire
(at the coming of Messiah)
He was first willing to sacrifice for it
His own
Firstborn Son
And heir…
[Nick’s eyes and mouth open, breath suspended in the air
Think of it! ..God’s own sacrifice!]
So that whoever trusts in this sacrifice
Should not
Die in judgment…
[Jesus slightly shakes his head in intense sincerity.
Nicodemus shakes his own head,
Shuddering at the thought
Of his own spirit hung, in the balance
 — the balances of eternity.]
..he will not die,
But rather,
Save
His eternal life.
[Nicodemus gasps
— here you breathe in —
Trying to draw the meaning in,
And gazes intently at him,
Searching]
..For I,
the very image of God
— I, His Son —
Do not…
[Nicodemus holds his breath]
..do not yet come into the world
To judge the world,
But…
[Jesus’ eyes moisten]
..I have appeared first to the world
So that the world should instead
Be saved,
Through my death.
[Nicodemus’ eyes moisten,
As he listens to how sinners of the world, and Jews alike,
Can be put right.
A tear glistens
In the firelight.
Recall now your hope
— for finding
God buried deeply
Somewhere in your heart —
and
“for avoiding Hell”
(the point of this next part)…]
..He who believes
That I AM,
The Son of God
Will not be judged…
[Nicodemus breathes
— out —]
But he who does not believe
— he has already been judged
Because he has rejected
The first-born Son and heir
Of God.
[Nic. begins to nod
— up, down, up, down —
In understanding]
If there is a judgment now,
It is this…
..that the Light has appeared in this world
And
Men shun it!
— for it shows up their evil deeds —
They hate it!
 — and love the Darkness instead
— to avoid being seen
[Nicodemus looks ashamed
— head down —
Had he not come by night?]
— to avoid being seen to be evildoers.
But anybody who does what is right,
In God’s sight
Does come
— come to the Light.
[Nic. looks more hopeful,
But only his eyes rise.
Perhaps he was coming around to the Light]
— he comes to be seen
— he wants it to be seen
That how he acts before God,
And what he has done,
Is right.
[From deep within his soul, Nicodemus’ hope rises.
Could it really be as it seems?
— that his spirit needs to hear no more from Jesus?
The tear still gleams, as Nic. himself arises.]

[At this, the end of the interview, Nicodemus leaves,

Groping back into the darkness, and recedes,
Shaking his head, which is in a spin of high unease,
But nodding his heart,
Which is in the growing,
Glowing
Grip,

Of peace]
[Second set to Jesus]

Act 4 Set 3

IMMANUEL

The man we call “Jesus”

Often claimed, in effect,
“I AM Isaiah”
As both names imply, in translation,
“I AM God’s Salvation”
Which is another way to claim, in other words,
“I AM Messiah”

Indeed, what Isaiah foretold prophetically

Jesus fulfilled practically.

For instance, Jesus’ life, so to speak,

brought Isaiah to life, since
Isaiah spoke, among many other matters
Of John, the Saviour’s forerunner
— “the voice announcing the Saviour [Here He Comes!]”
Also of the
“belovèd vineyard” [soon to come]
 And of that
‘Final Solution’ [“It is done!”]
plus, of
“the Spirit of God upon me
to announce the good news of Salvation…
..and to heal the blind…”
Which Jesus lived in real-time
Also of
The temple cleansing (of temple robbers)
And of
Quibbling lawyers
And
Hypocritical worshippers
Plus, of
The “Light of the World” appearing in Galilee
Which Jesus has just now quoted
To Nicodemus the Pharisee
And, as you soon will see, is about to use again.

In particular, Jesus’ life, so to speak,

brought Isaiah’s son to life,
since Isaiah had a son
Designated by God, in the meaning of his name
As a foretype of the Messiah
Whose name — Immanuel — meant to a Jew
God has visited us
— God is among us
God is with us
— God has come to us
Or better
(to more properly render
The original Hebrew):
God is against us
— God is contending with us
He — has come to judge us
— has set Himself to prove us
— to acquit us or to condemn us
That is, Jesus claimed
“I AM Immanuel,
Here to contend with you,
Right now.”

Nicodemus had said to Jesus

In phrases more true to his words
“We know that you
Have come to us from God
Because:
God is with you
He might say, just as well
“You are
Immanuel”
And we were in a debate, you recall (of which, more anon)
about where the Christ was “coming from”, and returning to—
that the flesh of man, from earth,
will return to the dust, of the earth
but that the Man of Spirit,
must return to the God of spirits, in Heaven
(and so, that the man of flesh, not of spirit,
must needs “become” a child of the Spirit).

But about this Feast of “Tabernacles”

(or “shelters in the desert journey”)
Isaiah also had many double-meaninged oracles
To tell of water-cum-spirit poured out freely
Upon any repentant and returning Israeli.
So…
[Jesus to open the serve for the third set
Perhaps after a reading of Isaiah’s fifty-fifth chapter
Which says…
“Repent,
Because God has drawn near!
Come close and drink,
For the Living Water is here!”]

At the climax of the Tabernacles Feast

Jesus stood and loudly press-released…

“Anyone who is thirsty,

Come to me to drink.
Believe in me so that within your soul,
Isaiah’s promised torrent shall spring up
— the rivers of Living waters of Life.”

And by this it was the ‘spirit’

Which he meant
— the power of the Spirit,
Which had not yet been sent,
But promised
— to be given to the believers in Christ
After Jesus had gone back up into Heaven
To be glorified.

These words persuaded some of the crowd

To say
“This is truly The Prophet” quite out loud
To which others, quite against the law, spliced
“This is
The Christ”.
[One nil]
Others, intending to provoke a schism
Amongst the mob, introduced this skepticism…

“How can the Christ ever come out of Galilee?

Isn’t the scripture quite clear that the Christ will be
‘David’s Son’, and so ‘must come
From David’s village’ of Bethlehem!”

And every time the chief priests and Pharisees,

Fearing mayhem
Sent soldiers to Jesus
To arrest him
The officers didn’t carry out their orders
To seize him…

[Two nil]
On the third such occasion,
The empty-handed soldiers had no obvious excuse…
Pharisees to soldiers:
Why didn’t you bring him in?
Officers:
I know we are here to enforce the law
But this man speaks like no other ever before!

[Three nil, courtesy of the reluctant guard]

Pharisees:
You haven’t been taken in too,
Have you?
Along with this accursèd crowd
Who don’t know the law
Like we
The blessèd, lucky, chosen ones do.
Not one of the rulers
has believed in him
nor will one of the Pharisees
Stand up for him;
Will they?
Nicodemus stands up,
Coughs,
Swallows
And clears his throat.
Choosing his words carefully,
He comes out with this quote…
“Without a proper hearing and investigation
Our law doesn’t allow us to jump to any conclusion
Of fact, about him
— One for instance,
Like that.”
[Four nil, courtesy of Nicodemus]

They to him:
You’re not a stupid half-caste rebellious
Galilean too,
Are you!
Go and search the scriptures.
It is quite plain to see
That no prophet ever arises
From Galilee!

But Jesus will stand up

For those who stand up for Jesus.
So Jesus now pointedly makes mention
(to the entire assembled theological profession)
Of the disproving exception,
i.e. Isaiah’s prophecy
Of a prophet arising
“out of Galilee”…
“A Saviour of the Jewish people, and as well
A glorious light to the whole Gentile world”
 By saying…
Jesus:

I AM Light
To the world.
I AM the Light
Of Life.
Anyone who follows me,
Will certainly
Not lack life,
Nor lack light
To see.
[Nicodemus breathes easy, and coughing,
Covers a smile with his fist.
Five nil to the Allies.
The Pharisees therefore resort
To this cheap political hit…]
(to Jesus)
To quote your own declamation
You are
“bringing your own recommendation”
By this, you clearly prove yourself to be
Just a self-serving, glory-seeking,
Wind-bagging phoney.
Jesus:
But this is not a case of my witness alone
For He who is True is with me
Because I know where I come from
And where I am going to
[=“I AM Immanuel”
=I WILL BE your Judge]

So my witness is indeed true

Even though
I have to say so
Myself
(because you won’t).
Know Him, you don’t
And you won’t,
Acknowledge that I come from Him;
And you can’t
Go where I will go.

You are judging and condemning me

From a human point of view — falsely —
On mere physical appearances…

[He means three things:

‘self-righteously judging others’;
And ‘thinking in terms of Earthly fathers’
And ‘speaking of which home-town he came from’
All of which Nicodemus could by now have told them]

..But the Son of Man

Has not come among you
 As Judge of others

However: Even if I were to judge you

My judgment would not be
Unspiritual and untrustworthy,
But true,
Because: He is with me,
He who is True
— which confronts you with the two
Trustworthy and proven legal witnesses
As required…
I; who have come among you
Plus; the Father who is with me,
He who is True.
[Third set six-love to Jesus. But the Pharisees aren’t done yet:
Pharisees to serve in the fourth]
[Now in these languages, to mean “my father”
as we would say,
You may either say “the father of me”
Or, if you rather, simply say, rather ambiguously
“the father” as Jesus just now said
Which could also mean “The Father” that is, the Creator.
Similarly, you could mean, by saying
“the father, the true one”
Either “the True Father” or “my true father” i.e. the real one.

Set 4

So, turning to the crowd,

With raised eyebrows
And with sportive tone, they say…]
I suppose you,
Know
Who your real father is,
Then?
and where he is?
(nudge, nudge; wink, wink; say no more;
when talking of fathers,
Joseph is not his.)

Tom: laughs long

Until Dick: hits him in the ribs
While James: looks ashamed

And so now, the game-plan has changed to

Fathers and sons…

So; Because they would not acknowledge

That he had been speaking to them
about the Heavenly Father,
Jesus spoke to them again…

If you do not acknowledge me,

you do not acknowledge the Father.
To know me
Is to know the Father.
So they tried to arrest this ‘blasphemer’ again
Who put himself level with God;
(what a nut!)
But, the crowd hisses the soldiermen
As, nervously of course,
In they strut
And though he taught so openly
Right there in the temple treasury
No-one arrested him, but.
[One nil]

For Jesus was very particular about

Exactly when he should die
And he repeated to them the line…

I will leave to where I go,

Later.
You will envy where I am,
Then.
But you will die still looking;
Die in this sin of yours.
For where I am going,
You cannot come at all.
[The crowd grins broadly at this damning of the hierarchy]

You are from below.

I AM from above.
[Nicodemus’ head goes down, then goes up]

You are from this world.

I AM not of this world.

As I have spoken,
So shall you die in this your sin:
Unless you believe that
I AM
[crowd rumbles loudly at his now also calling himself,
unequivocally, GOD]
[Two-nil]
Pharisees:
Who ARE you!
Jesus:
The one whom I told you I was from the start.
I could indeed say a thing or three about who you are,
And could condemn you many times over.
[Wait for it; he will!]
But I only tell the world what I have heard
From Him who is True — the one for whom I serve.

When you crucify the Son of Man

Then you will acknowledge that
I AM
And that what I do is not human,
But what I teach is from the Father.
For all that I do is exactly the same
 As what He wants done.
[This speech converted many,

— three-nil; Jesus serving —

So Jesus explained to those Jews who had believed him…]

To be my true disciples,
You should practise what I preach
and then you will acknowledge the truth
— that
I AM
Who I AM
And this truth…
[ME!]
..will set you truly free.
[Everyone hushes for a while and offers little resistance
— 4-nil —
Until…]
Jews: What do you mean
“free”
How shall we
Become “free”
— We, who have never been the slaves of anyone
But are all free-born sons of Abrahum?
Jesus:
Listen to me!
You, who are indeed sinners,
Are truly slaves,
To Sin.

But at least a slave, doesn’t need

To forever remain enslaved
In that household, as indeed
Does a son of Sin.

So that, if the Son of Him who is True

Shall pay for and obtain your freedom for you,
You can, you see,
yet indeed become
“truly free”.
[5-nil, Jesus to serve for the set]
Author:
Jesus now turns the tables
On those who are proud of labels
Jesus:
You so-called
“children of Abraham”
Don’t know who your own father is,
Don’t you see,
Because you are intent upon
Killing me
Merely because you don’t find
My teaching welcome.
Just as I speak and do
Only what I have heard and seen
 The Father speak and do;
So you also are only doing
What you have learnt
From the father of you
— since by your deeds
You prove who it is
Whom you obey and serve.

[“Who then is your father?” — that is his riddle

To test their wits — which are not so little…]

Pharisees:
Our Abba Father is indeed
Our father Abba-raham
Jesus:
If you were “in deed”
His children
You would do the deeds
He did
But as it is, you are intent
On killing me instead.

And why?
Because I have told you the truth!
Which I have heard from God!

To your intent,
Abraham never would give his consent!
You are doing the deeds of
Your father.

[They had better guess a little farther.

[Fourth set to love to Jesus.

Pharisees to serve.] ]
Bastard! (5th Set)
Pharisees:
Well,
What we can say about our descent
Is that
We
Weren’t born out of consent
— like someone else we know.

[Crowd hisses them loudly]

Pharisees (shouting):
And,
That we are all just as much “from God”
As you claim for yourself
Since God is the same Father
For all of us.

[Crowd quietens]
Jesus:
No.
If God were your father
 You would love me as a brother
For I have been born of God the Father.
I do not come as a human teacher
But am serving
Him who is True.
And I’ll tell you why
You
Won’t acknowledge me:
Because you cannot bear
To hear the Truth,
From me!
[1-nil]
[Jesus (turning half to the crowd)
will now have to expound aloud,
The riddle…]

Your father, whom you serve,

Is not God,
But the Devil
(by which is meant
The “Mis-leader”,
The “Slanderer”,
The “False Accuser”)
Because you are fully Hell-bent
On following the Devil’s own intent.
His way has always been to murder.
He is in constant opposition to the truth
— a liar
Because there is no truth in him,
By nature.
He lies because
It is in his very essence
He is the quintessential liar,
And…
[turning face-to-face with the rulers present]
..He it is,
Who is the father of all you liars.
Accordingly you disbelieve in me
Because it is the truth you perceive in me.
Not one of you convicts me of sin, does he?

Yet, because I speak the truth,

By purely opposite nature
You must oppose me.

He who is by nature of God,

Would welcome the words of God.
But because you are not of God,
You automatically reject
The elect
Teacher of God.
[2-nil to Jesus.
Pharisees serving,
Apparently for the Slanderer.]

Pharisees:
 We have a nice saying about you too
“A split-race, half-caste,
Bastard Samaritan
With a hard-case, two-faced,
Schizoid demon.”
[Crowd angrily roars at the rulers]
Jesus:
I have no unholy demon in me,
Because I am honouring my Holy Father
Am I not?
But that is exactly why you now
Treat me with such dishonour.
[Crowd claps solidly — 3-nil.

Jesus to serve…]
But I don’t have to defend
My honour and name
For He who knows the truth
Will uphold my fame
By judging you with almighty correction
— you who reject my divine instruction.

Yes indeed. Hear me!

“They who are my disciples
They shall never see death.”

[4-nil by loud acclamation.

But the Pharisees serve a sizzler…]

Pharisees:
Now we know
That you are mad
Because we all die
and then go bad.
Abraham and the prophets are all dead
And yet you have just now said
“He who keeps my teaching
Will not taste death” !?

What delusions of grandeur!

Surely you don’t imagine yourself
Greater than all these?
Words from your own mouth
Come with ease.
Who do you think you are!
Jesus:
The Father God Himself.

He is the One who is in me

Glorifying Himself.
The God,
Whom you claim to be children of.
 Yet obviously here
You are disowning
Your True Father.

But I AM one with Him.

To say otherwise would be a lie.
And I will not join with you liars
I disown you.
[5-nil.
Jesus serves for the match]
I AM
He.
As you can see,
I practise His will and do His deeds.
Abraham actually rejoiced to see my day,
Unlike you.
Yes. He saw it
And it gladdened the cockles
Of his old heart
Because he saw and recognised me
From the start.
Pharisees:
How can you
Have seen Abraham!
You are not even now,
Half his age then!
Jesus:
Well. Well.
Listen to me again…
“Before Abraham existed,

I AM”

This made them pick up stones to throw at him.

But the crowd roars and boos
And picks up stones to throw at them.
But Lo!
Where did he go?
Elijah-style he had
“hidden himself” again
And simply
“went out of the temple”.

Game, fifth set, and match to Jesus.

6-love 6-love 6-love
6-love 6-love
_________________________________

ACT 5
The Good Shepherd

— risks his life for you. The Cost of Seeing

[Author to Reader]
The time has now fully come
For you to be fully blind.
You’ll like this role.
I’m trying to be kind.
O.K. I admit that you’re a poor blind beggar
And that your blindness from birth is due maybe
To some venereal blight
From paternal or maternal immorality
But then… ..you have a sense of humour
And… ..you are certainly not in the dark
As to all that is going on
And three… ..the first real person you see is Jesus
And four… ..the first place of any note
Upon which you ever set eyes
Is the magnificent temple of God
— the gold-plated one
— the one which glows all afire
At every sunrise
And five… ..you have a keen sense of judgment.
But listen! They’re talking about your morals again
(You do get sick of hearing
That you were “born in sin”…)
“Rabbi; Who sinned:
This man or his parents
That he was born blind?”
If you think about it
you can see the tricky problem
But then you do get tired of being treated
As a theological conundrum,
As Rabbis pass you by
On their way into the temple
— their blind blanket rules hold that
“a son shouldn’t be lumbered
with his parents’ guiltiness”
Indeed that
“an unborn baby should be held
morally blameless”
Rabbi: He is blind
Not because he is a sinner.
Nor is he blind
Because his parents sinned.
But he is blind in order for him to show
The good and righteous deeds of God.
You think:
Oh!
Now that’s a change of tune
I could listen to!
I wonder who…
Other readers (to you, the blind man):
Don’t you know who the Rabbi is?
You:
It’s been a couple of months since Jesus
Showed his face in Jerusalem,
But, yes!
This is the lead-up to the next major feast
 And what day of the week is it?
As if I couldn’t have guessed!
Of course;
An official national day of rest!
I think we’re in for some drama
— well I’ll be blest!
Jesus:
..And we must work today
To perform the deeds of Him whom I serve.
You to yourself:
Ooh! This could be, I do observe,
My lucky day of rest!
Jesus:
We must work
As long as the light of day lets us.
For night will soon come
And put an end to such service.
But while I AM in the world
Let me be Light for the World.
“Ptuhh!”
You (in the dark): Someone spat near me!
“Ptuhh!”
Again. But he missed me!
Next (Jesus to you):
Listen: Open your eyes and close your mouth.
I’m going to put some mud over your eyes
And then send you to wash it off
In the pool of the Sent One
— that is, the Pool of Siloam.
You (saluting imperially):
My Caesar, Kaiser and Czar:
I go, I wash;
I shall see;
And I, shall, return!
[Exit you, led by the hand of a disciple.
Curtain. Lights out. Short interval.]
Curtain opens to a brightly lit scene… [Scene 2]

Neighbour 1:
Look! Isn’t that blind Joe a-gazin’ at the clouds!
Neighbour 2:
You mean beggar Joe who sits at the temple gate?
Friend 3:
Yes it is!
[and he calls aloud…] Hey Joe, me old mate!
Neighbour 2:
Nay — just a look-alike, a double,
But a spittin’ image!
You (the no longer blind man):
Is that you Jake?
You never told me you had a big fat face!
Jacob:
Are you really blind Joseph the beggarman?
You:
Not any more!
But I sure was this mornin’!
Jacob:
How in Heaven’s name did you get your sight!
You:
The man called Jesus set me right
— rubbed some spit into clay
And put it on my eyes earlier today
And sent me to wash in Siloam Pool
And when I washed it away…
..I saw!
Neighbour 1 (aside):
Jesus?!
Aren’t they offering a reward
For anyone to track him down?
Neighbour 2 (to you):
Where is he now?
You (looking hurt and smelling trouble):
I don’t know
— otherwise I would go, and follow —
(muttering) but I wouldn’t tell you where
Even if I did know, so there!

Curtain briefly closes.

Jesus or the Church, but Not Both

[Scene 3]

Curtain opens onto an inquisition scene

— the official board of inquiry
With you, now seeing,
But only to be looking down the barrel…

Pharisees:
How is it that you can now see?
You:
He put mud over my eyes.
And I washed.
And now I see.
Pharisees to each other:
This… this… err… person
(they couldn’t even bear to mention Jesus by name)
Can’t be from God in Heaven
Since he desecrates our Sabbath Day of Rest.
Sympathetic Pharisee:
But how can a sinner
Ever do such miracles!

And so even the Pharisees,

Among themselves,
couldn’t agree.

Sympathetic Pharisee (to you):

What is your own conclusion
About his godliness,
Seeing that he healed
Your blindness?
You (still delighted at being healed, and
 Volunteering your own excommunication,
if you had to bet on it):
He,
Is a prophet!
Unsympathetic Pharisee:
Hold on. Not so fast. Let’s go back a stage.
We’re not even sure that he ever was blind.
After all, it’s biologically impossible
For anyone born blind to be capable
Of seeing normally
Or even having his eyes aligned
Since at a formative age
He never did learn how
To focus, perceive, interpret, integrate…
Oh. It’s all too improbable…
In all medical history,
You will never find…
There simply never has been a recorded case
In all Mankind…
..He just can’t be who he says he is!
Sympathetic Pharisee:
To settle any of these arguments
I suggest we must call his parents.
Only they will be able
To bring the truth to light.

[Enter parents]
Pharisees:
Is this really your son??
He was born blind, you say??
Well how come,
And by whom,
Can he now see??
Parents:
He certainly is our son.
He certainly was born blind.
But…

[They hesitate, look at each other, then…]

..but we can’t offer legal testimony
As to how he can now see
Or swear as to who opened his eyes.
[Sensing that excommunication threatened…]
He’s old enough to talk for himself, legally.
Let him give his own sworn testimony.

[..because no-one was allowed to acknowledge

Jesus as the Christ —
Since the priests and Pharisees
Thought it more politically correct and precise,
To appease the Romans,
Than to please or feed the flock,
Or to give glory to God.]

Pharisees (to you):

Give Glory to God!
(That is: Swear on oath, before God, to tell the truth!
Remember this phrase:
“Give Glory to God!”
Or in English
“Gawds-trewth”
For Jesus will quote it back at them later
When establishing a proof.)

Give Glory to God!

We are persuaded fully
That this… err… person
Is a sinner.

You:
Whether or not he is a sinner,
I cannot for certain give legal testimony.
But what I do know for certain, is that
Once I was blind,
But now I see.

Pharisees:
Were you truly blind?
What did he do to you?
How did he heal your eyes?
Do you really call him a prophet?

You
(mimicking their voice and tone back to them, hiding a grin):

Are you truly deaf?

What did I say to you?
How come you didn’t hear my first replies?
Or do you, like a real convert
Just enjoy hearing the stories over and over again!

Pharisee:
You
May be a devotee of Jesus!
But as for us,
We follow Moses.
For we certainly know that through Moses,
God has spoken
But as for this… err… nobody,
We don’t know where he,
Comes from.

You (exasperated that they can’t see the Light):

Now that is amazing!
That you ministers of the Light,
Can’t even see,
Where someone who could give me sight,
Would have to come from!

Because…
[and adopting your best preacher imitation, you proceed,
With a more or less straight face…]
“..If I can summarise the proceedings so far,
Of what has been established in this place.
We know, firstly,
That God cannot listen,
to the prayers of anyone evil
But only listens to those who fear Him
And who do His will.
Plus, secondly,
We certainly find,
That nobody has ever heard
of anyone able to heal
A man born blind.
Therefore, the only way that this man could
Accomplish anything of the kind is…

[now, with a dismissive tone, as witness for Immanuel,

the Judge,
You thump the verdict home,
Like gavel to wood]
..is if he cáme from Gód and Gód is wíth him

The Pharisees, temporarily winded, snort this retort:

You
Were thoroughly born in sin,
And you
Presume to enlighten
Us!

[and they revile you,

And then, right on target,
Excommunicate you…
At least, you reflect,
You win your bet.
Curtain closes briefly.]

The Good Shepherd

[Scene 4]

Jesus heard that they,

The pastors appointed by God,
Had thrown you out of the synagogues
As a “sinner”
— excluded from their flocks —
And so Jesus went, like a good shepherd,
Braving the Pharisees’ hounds
To find this unrepentant grinner,
By walking straight into the temple grounds,
fearlessly through the temple gate…

Jesus (to you):

Will you follow
The Son of Man?
You:
Just tell me who he is,
 So that I can!
Jesus:
You are seeing and hearing the very man
Right now.
I AM.
You (falling at his feet):
Lord,
I believe!
[Pharisees nearby murmured and disagreed.]
Jesus:
I came into the world to separate
— the blind from the seeing —
Like a good shepherd separating
His own sheep from another’s
And…
[turning to you]
..to make the blind to see
And…
[turning to the Pharisees]
..to turn the see-ers blind.
Pharisees:
You surely can’t mean that we are blind!
[By now they have cold-shouldered you,
And excluded you from the circle.
So, drawing back,
You, behind their backs,
Throw your hands up into the air
In mock shock of “utter disbelief”
As if to say “Surely not!
Us?
Blind!
Us??”
But Jesus addresses them, face-to-face…]
Jesus:
If you acknowledged your blindness
you would be blameless.
But since you insist that you see
You remain still guilty.
Now let me tell you straight:
(Jesus says,
As he stands in the Temple Gate
And looking straight,
At the assembled pastors, he states…)
Only thieves and robbers,
Don’t come straight
To the gate, or door,
But they try to get into the sheepfold
By climbing up over the wall…
[Picture now a walled enclosure — a safe-haven for sheep —
Where many shepherds will daily bring together
their flocks to keep.
Here was such a walled enclosure
in the Temple courts
And here was Jesus in Jerusalem, the Holy City
— The walled city, and sheepfold of God
— The Gateway to Eden
 (both city and temple supposedly
For harbouring and nurturing
The flocks of God).
And here he was standing right in the gate
And talking straight
To the religious sorts,
Saying…]
The Chief Shepherd and Gate-keeper
Will only allow
The real shepherds in through the door.
The True shepherd
Calls to his sheep by name
And they recognise his voice.
[he turns to you]
They come to him
And he leads them out
He leads.
They follow.
For they will follow him,
Having recognised the call.
But…

[he turns to the Pharisees]

..From a stranger’s voice
They flee
And certainly will not follow.
[But they didn’t follow,
The meaning
Nor recognise his call.
So, Jesus…]
I AM the Door for the sheep.
But apart from me
Only thieves and robbers have so far come.
But the sheep just didn’t listen.
[Background music gradually swells.
Jesus, adopting a dramatic and noble pose,
Lifts his gaze high,
With a steadily more emphatic delivery throughout…]
I AM the Door
To Salvation
And through me,
If anyone enters
He will find safety,
And I will lead him out hereafter
To green pasture and safe water.
But the thief,
When he comes
Only wants to steal and kill
For slaughter.
Whereas I came to give them life,
Yes,
The Life Beyond.
[Some Pharisees yawn,
Others shake their heads,
But Jesus carries on]
I AM the Good Shepherd
 Who will willingly
Give up his life
For the flock
Not a mere workman
— who is only looking after himself,
Instead of the sheep —
And who
(like each of you)
Because he doesn’t himself own the flock
Flees at the first sight
Of the wolf,
In fright
And leaves
The sheep to be seized,
And put to flight.
I AM the Good Shepherd.
I know mine
And mine know me,
Just as the Father knows me
And I know the Father.
And, take stock;
I will
Give up my life
For the flock.
Other sheep have I,
Outside of this fold
Which I must also bring in
And call to follow
Until all will join into One Flock
With the One Shepherd
[Snores fill in the pause]
I will
Lay down my life,
Then I will
Take it up again.
No-one will take my life,
But I will myself lay it down
And I have the right,
To take it up again
As commanded to me,
By my Father, who loves me.
At these sayings, the Jews,
Into two minds, were split
Some exclaiming:
“Why listen to the ravings
Of this schizophrenic lunatic?”
Others observing:
“Lunatics neither talk like that
Nor act like that.
They can’t cure blind men;
Can they?!”
[..and so Jesus, having rescued his sheep,
By bravely entering the lions’ den
— the enemy’s fold —
leaves, Unscathed]
Act 5 Scene 5
— The Wisdom Of Solomon

The “raving lunatic” next showed up

Walking in ‘Solomon’s Porches’
This is in the temple area.
It was during Jerusalem’s
Winter Temple Dedication ‘Feast of Torches’
The Jews immediately backed him into a corner of defence
and bowled:
“How long will you keep us in suspense?”
[shiver, shiver from the cold]
“Tell us plainly if you are the Messiah
Or not!”
[i.e.“give us grounds to stone you on the spot”]

Jesus obliges them by going even a little farther…

“I told you.
You didn’t believe me.
I worked miracles which told you.
You didn’t believe them either.
My good works tell you
Who I AM
Because I do them
“in the name of my Father”.
You don’t believe that
I AM
Because
You are not my sheep.
My sheep would recognise my call.
I know my own to call them by name
And they follow me one and all.
I lead them out to eternal Life
And they who follow me
Shall never die.
No-one can steal them away from my grasp
Because they are in the hands of the Father
Who is stronger than all His enemies.

No-one is able to steal them away from the Father’s grasp

And they are in my hands,
Given to me by the Father.
I and the Father
Are One.
The Jews once again,
Picked up stones and were on the point of stoning him.
But Jesus began his defence by inquiring
“Many good works of Father God
I have been performing
Show me one, please,
Worthy of a stoning”.

“You don’t deserve a stoning

For any good deed;
But for blasphemy instead”
They said.
 “You, a mere man, are pretending
To be
God!”
So, to being called
“blasphemous”
Jesus brings forth three witnesses…

#1 But your own law states, doesn’t it,

‘You are all Gods’
Now
Since the inspired infallible word of God
Says so,
To you,
Why do you contradict God?
#2 It is therefore no blasphemy, to say so myself
‘I AM the Son of God’
‘I AM the Chosen One,
In order for the Father Himself
To be sent into this world.’
And #3 You don’t have to believe only me
That I AM
He
Unless I also show you the deeds
Of the I AM
But since I do,
Even if you don’t believe me telling it to you,
You should believe
On account of the miracles, yelling it at you.
Therefore you may consider the matter established
And remain hereafter quite convinced:
That the Father is with me,
And that I AM with the Father.
So the Jews had tried again to arrest him.
But Jesus had “slipped through their grasp” again!
And he headed for the country, beyond the River Jordan.

ENDING OF PART ONE…

Jesus now slipped back easily to retire

Into the daily grind of being Messiah.
But really he was waiting
For that “final” resolution
At the grand final
Sacrificial Passover feast of salvation.

Meanwhile, it was more of the same; never-ending;

You know the run-of-the-mill sort of thing…
— healing on a Sabbath Day,
Right there in the synagogue anyway
— Eating in Pharisees’ homes,
With deliberately unwashed hands
— converting tax collectors,
And eating with sinners
— healing blind Israelis
And denouncing blind Pharisees
With ‘Light of the World’ style discourses
 And with ‘Rejecting the Son’ type parables
— hiding himself from murderous plots,
Etc., etc.

BEGINNING OF PART TWO

There was the occasional highlight

Of Isaiah coming to life
‘larger than normal’
So to speak

For instance when Jesus raised a four-day-old corpse

Called Lazarus;
And then there was the ground-shaking reception
By half of Jerusalem
For “King Jesus”
At his triumphal re-entry
Plus the earth-shaking prophecies
Against the whole Jerusalem city
And The thundering from Heaven
“Glory be!
Keep it up, Son!”
And of course the outpouring of the Power
By which men cast Satan
To ground…

But I don’t want to bore you

With the details
(which you can read elsewhere for yourself,
If curiosity prevails)

And since this story is only that part of his

-tory
Which aims to trace
The hateful resistance
Religious people had in the face
Of their own loving God,
Well,
We need to pick up on and explain
The bombardment which he sustained
Upon coming back within range,
of Jerusalem.

The real play is about to begin.

The stage is crowded.

The Battle-lines are set.

The Mood: is huge.

Again and again the crowd has been brought to the brink
of stoning their corrupt high priesthood.
The common people feel robbed
of their own spiritual inheritance.
 They are in no mood for tolerance.
But their bitter resentment is mixed
with joy at watching Jesus
executing their will for them...

Lighting the Fuse for THE FINAL YEAR

Before the Opposition unleash their bombardment,

I want to pause for breath
To give you a taste of some other reasons
Why the rulers
Hated Jesus to death.
(I hope you don’t object,
that Jesus does some moralising…)

“Sinning Deserves Death”

Being intensely legalistic,

The Pharisees hated to be called
“lawbreakers”
And being scrupulously moral,
The Sadducees hated being labelled
“immoral”
And Jesus had been doing both,
Publicly,
By what he had been teaching,
about
Divorce and adultery…
“The Law of Moses against sin
And the witness of the prophets
Were the only preaching,
and were binding,
Until John the Baptist’s announcing
The era of God’s forgiveness of sin
For entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.
Since this Good News has been announced
Everyone presses close to get in.

However, forgiveness does not mean

That
Sin is no longer sin!
Or that
Sinning no longer deserves stoning!
No.
Easier it is for Heaven and Earth
To cease existing
Than for the smallest sin in the law
To be
No longer sin
Or for God to change His mind about
What is SIN!
For instance Everyone who lightly
Divorces his wife and marries another,
Commits adultery
And he who marries one who is so divorced
Commits adultery.”
So the Pharisees (not wanting to own a death penalty,
And being up to their necks in easy divorce
By sanctioning it,
Practising it,
And administering it, of course)
Confronted Jesus on this ever-relevant question
“May a man divorce his wife
For any of many other reasons?”
I.e. apart from the reason accepted generally
— of sexual immorality.
The popular opinion had, up to now,
Sided with the liberal school
And so, at the time, so-called ‘easy divorce’
Was the common rule,
And commonly abused.

Jesus would lose his popular accreditation

By siding strictly with the more rigid interpretation
And the Pharisees, of course, had no sincere intention
Whatever might be Jesus’ determination
Of accepting anything other than
What Moses’ Law had already mentioned…
“..When a man discovers
Some ‘sexual immorality’
In his wife…
(and in these ambiguous words lay all the strife
— some ‘dishonor by nakedness in a matter’ —
As its says, literarily)
..And he writes her
A certificate of divorce…”
Well now, did this original source
“legalise easy divorce”??
— by allowing wide interpretation
Of ‘sexual dishonour or immorality’
— or by sanctioning unmentioned,
but possible “other reasons”
By analogy,
For instance,
Incompatibility,
Or any other ground.
So…
It was time for the opening round…

Divorce

Pharisees:
Teacher.
Didn’t Moses himself legalise divorce!
Jesus:
But haven’t you read
the original ‘original source’?
[Pharisees looked puzzled]
None other than God’s own original
Sex and genetics manual
Of course!
‘He who created them, in the beginning
 Made them of two different sexes:
Male and female
And thus made it necessary that a man
Could only be brought forth out of two parents:
His father and his mother
And also he must himself in turn cleave to another:
Body to body: husband to wife
So joining two bodies into one body
— producing yet one more body, yet one more life
Out of two.’
So it pleased God.

[Now, for this debate,

the important word is ‘cleave’
— ‘glue together with’,
Or ‘remain faithfully attached to’,
That is ‘never leave’]
“So the point is:
Since it is God
Who ‘glued them together’ in marriage,
Do not let Man
Allow the marriage to become unstuck.
Or in Greek:
What God has ‘yoked together’
Let not man cause to be unscrambled!”
The Pharisees, quite unbamboozled,
Once more struck…
“Then why did Moses permit divorce!”
Jesus:
What exactly did Moses command?
Quote me your source.
Pharisees:
Well, didn’t he say
‘Give her a certificate of divorce
And send her away’
And so
Moses himself
Permits a man
To divorce his wife.
[Now, in those days, Roman law permitted
A wife to divorce her husband,
So for the Jews,
The question was also one of male social domination
— for ‘easy’ divorce was actually very hard on Jewish women
Who, except by being accepted under a male’s dominion
e.g. as daughter or concubine or wife
Really couldn’t live any independent life.

So Jesus now hits the nail squarely on the head

Merely by mentioning how some men can be
‘hard’…]
“Moses gave you this command” he said
“only because you lot are,
In your heart, so hard”
[You should read this command as:
“Do not let a man divorce his wife, other than for adultery,
 For the woman’s sake.
But when you do forsake, your wife, write her out a certificáte”
Again, for the woman’s sake,
you see — as proof.
In other words; this command is a case of;
“Don’t sin;
But when you do, at least do this…”]
“And I tell you that this Mosaic provision,
Is not and never has been God’s plan or provision
For ‘divorce outside of adultery’

And so whoever divorces his wife

For some excuse other than adulterous infidelity
One: He himself commits adultery
(against his wife whenever he takes another woman)
Two: He forces her into adultery
(when she has to marry a different man)
Three: He whom she marries after being sent away
Also commits adultery.”

..Which dropped the self-righteous Pharisees right in it,

Publicly,
And left them there.

An Unaccredited Story about Adultery

“Teacher;
Shouldn’t this adulterous woman be stoned dead?
She’s just now been caught in the bed,
Of adultery
— in the very deed.”
Now, I won’t ask you to fill any role for this
— not that I can stop you filling the lady’s shoes, if you wish.
But consider instead
Whether you should be stoned or not…
Meanwhile,
If Jesus answered ‘No’
The Scribes and Pharisees would accuse him
Of subverting Moses’ Law code

But to answer ‘Yes’

Would be subversion of the Roman law
Not to stone
And, by the way,
Would kill an adulteress.

“Moses commands that she should be stoned.

WHAT DO YOU SAY!”
But this familiar dilemma
— about whether to condemn her —
Jesus threw straight back onto them
“He who has broken no commandments,
Let him throw the first stone”
He said
(by which the woman’s life was now suspended
On a rapidly thinning thread
With her heart as heavy as lead
— seeing that she could soon be dead).

But what exactly had Jesus invited them to do?

Either: break the Roman Law, by her execution

— not likely
Or: break the Mosaic Law, by their abstention
— from duty
And, by extension,
declare their own death penalty
— as lawbreakers
Which,
in case you miss it,
soon emerges as the boomerang in this story.

Jesus stooped down to the ground, scratching

With his finger,
So that by his not watching,
They each had quite a prolonged opportunity,
To think away quietly,
And then to slink away quietly,
Which they did, one by one,
In order of seniority,

Which, if you think about it…

..gives us all something to think about
— whether or not
you should be stoned.
(see footnote to help you think)*
And what you in their shoes,
would choose.

“Woman, have they all left?

Did no-one condemn you to death!”

“No, Lord. No-one”

“Then neither do I. You may go.

But
Sin no more !”

Such is the account

Given by the old,
But not the oldest manuscripts
But usually included
Because of its obvious consistency
To Jesus’ ministry.

He humbly triumphs, you see,

Over arrogant, unfair, unjust, unmerciful enemies;
With justice (by preaching
“Sin is Damnable”)
And with fairness (by teaching
“Forgive, to be Forgiven”)
And with compassion (by saying
 “I do forgive you”).

Let’s call it round two.

*Here’s a tick-list of some of the Jewish death penalties.

Please fill in. []
[ ] Not Worshipping God, the Only God, only
[ ] spiritism; witchcraft; idolatry; paganism; cursing God
[ ] illicit sex
[ ] adultery; bestiality; incest; rape
[ ] murder
[ ]accepting money to murder or condemn; lying in court
[ ] dishonouring your parents
[ ] cursing or striking them
[ ] rebelliousness
[ ] intransigent stubborn drunkenness and prodigality
[ ] false prophecy
[ ] misleading the blind
[ ] oppression
[ ] taking advantage of aliens, widows and orphans;
[ ] moving property lines
[ ] cheating on the Day of Rest; not joining in the Passover;
[ ] not sacrificing properly
..in fact…
[ ] not keeping ALL the teaching.

“You are ALL Sinners!”

Scene:
In response to being labelled “sinners” just now
by a Galilean from the provinces,
some theologians tell Jesus
about the Galilean traitors
whose blood
the Roman Governor Pilate
had “mixed with their sacrifices”.
That is, in the very act of worshipping
— at the very altar of God —
and, while seeking but not getting
divine protection and favour from God
in a crisis.
So these city Pharisees trying in turn
to label “Galilean zealots and troublemakers”
(like Jesus)
as “sinners”,
seems to be round three.
But Jesus “the Galilean”
simply called all men sinners.
The difference lay,
in what people did about it.
Jesus:
Are you wondering whether their shocking lot
— catastrophic
— unpitied by God —
proves that they were more sinful citizens
than all other Galileans?
 Do not.
But listen to me.
All of you
from Jerusalem too,
are sinners against God
and will come, likewise,
to a horrific end
unless you yourselves repent.
Or, to use your own excellent argument:
what about those eighteen unwary victims
from Jerusalem
in the collapse of the Tower of Siloam!
Why would God do that
to you in Jerusalem
if you are indeed better than Galileans?
Oh but perhaps it was your reasoned supposition
that these apparently innocent victims
were not “innocent” at all
but were singled out as sinners
— worse than all other men who live in
holy Jerusalem?
Not so, I say.
Drop the finger of accusation
and look to yourselves and repent.
Or a sudden and terrible destruction
will prove that you yourselves,
yes, you of Jerusalem
are not wholly holy,
nor innocent.

Speaking FIG-uratively, as it were

Jesus continues:
“Don’t think of yourselves as “innocent” victims
since such sudden stark destroyings
will not overtake you
without the ‘adequate legal warnings’…

Oh unholy holy city!

Compare yourselves rather, to a fruit tree,
say, to a properly cultivated fig tree,
which, after much waiting,
and despite everything being done to encourage it,
and after many tries to redeem it,
over several years,
still doesn’t yield
the good fruit it was planted for.
Despite even the gardener pleading
for the owner to give it
‘just one last chance’
of digging and mulching and feeding
— yet it still doesn’t respond!
This is just what John the Baptist
made clear in his pleadings
to you lot,
did he not,
 some few years ago?

Let me repeat
— and also add as a final legal witness…

“that God’s sharp axe is

already at the root of this bad crop.
You will all simply get the eternal chop
and be thrown into the fiery furnace
unless you bear fruits in keeping with repentance.”

Later Jesus will give them this direct object lesson:

(In an act full of meaning
— directed squarely at this “City of Kings”
during the last days of his own pleadings
with the people of Jerusalem —
on his way into that very city…)
Hungry,
he finds a particular fig tree
— all healthy looking,
full of promise and in leaf
but lacking the fruit he expected it to give him.

He cursed it.
“May no-one ever eat fruit from you again.”

Within a day it had withered

and from the roots up,
had died.

— Oh Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem —
Within a century Jerusalem was twice dead.
Within a week Jesus himself
was taken,
tried,
condemned
and crucified,
and their
‘one last chance’
— of pruning and goading and teaching
for healing and hearing and repenting —
was also
dead.

How Not to Get into the Kingdom

So by round four, this war gaming

was warming up again
and this next attacking move seemed
to be triggered by this innocent bit
of Jesus’ doctrine…
“Whoever does not receive the kingdom
like a baby,
shall not at all enter it.”
(which is much like Nicodemus being told
“You must firstly be born
 Of God’s Spirit”)

And what ho!

But at this mention of the kingdom
in automatic reaction,
out of pre-meditation,
a certain ruler, young and rich
straightway rushes up to him,
kneels and calls him “Rabbi”
— to pass himself off as another genuine enquirer
was his pitch —
then slips in the old line…
“Teacher.
What good thing must I do
to inherit and obtain eternal life?”

And so it was just a matter of time

before the inevitable “So Who Needs You!”
comes out in opposition to
Jesus’ egomaniacal teaching of “Believe me. I AM the Door”
type preaching.

Jesus:
Why are you asking,
questioning,
doubting
and testing me?
There is only one “good”
by which a man may enter life
[which is acknowledged by all the other various Rabbis]
as you well know
— to obey the commandments.

[That makes the tick-list recipe quite narrow

— only six hundred and thirteen requirements!]

Exasperated ruler (pushing against the rebuff):

Which ones!
Jesus:
You know them:
You shall not commit adultery
[Now there’s a theme
that should strike a familiar chord]
Nor steal nor defraud
Nor give false legal witness
[Did Jesus, for emphasis, pause
as he quoted these laws,
about truthfulness?]
You shall honour your father and mother
and love your neighbour
as yourself.
Now, only a super self-righteous legalistic Pharisee
would still keep coming on, and stick to his plan,
after having been told to be impossibly
perfect, but…
Ruler:
 All these have I kept, from my youth up.
[Wait for it, here it comes…]
So what else could possibly be lacking in me!

Now — all-wise and perfect reader — let me ask you.

How would you
react to and view
an insincere spoilt young arrogant upstart ruler
who had just publicly, proudly proclaimed
before God as it were
to be completely
and perfectly
faultless!

When Jesus heard this…

[Imagine a pause,
pregnant with the force of silence,
while all eyes began to speak volumes]
Jesus “looked at” him…
[Imagine being stared down
into uneasiness
if not even to shame,
until finally…]
Jesus “pitied him”,
and says…
“Since you so obviously wish for perfection
there is something you do still lack…
Firstly, go and sell all your possessions

and give it all back

to the poor
— in order to re-store
your riches in Heaven.”

Now when the young man heard this word

he became very much sad
simply because he was very rich
and owned much property.

“..And then” continued Jesus relentlessly

“Come. And Follow Me!”

At this too, his face was peeved

and he went away very grieved
for I don’t think Jesus could have proffered
to him any course at all less preferred.

And Jesus turned to his real disciples

and his face ‘said it all’.
But he added for the log
“How hard it will be
for those who are wealthy
to enter the Kingdom of God!”
[You and I, after two thousand years of such dogma,
would, of course, not hesitate to give this the nod.]
 But this astonished his (poor) disciples (back then)
who thought “prosperity” translated to
“blessèd by God”
which in turn meant
“favoured by God”
while “poverty” held oppositely…
Jesus:
“It is impossible for the riches of a man
to pave for him an entrance into God’s Kingdom.”

[Yes, but would you and I give this next half also, the nod?]

“In fact, it is impossible for any mortal man

to enter the realms of God.”
which further astonished
his merely mortal, hopeful hangers-on.

They prayed,
on behalf of all mankind, and you and I
“Who then can be saved?!”
[be saved…be saved… Who then?…who then?… can be saved…
— Reverberate the question down through the Ages]
Jesus:
“Ah, but it is possible for God’s riches
— in power, in service, and in generosity —
to open the way
into the promised glorious eternity
for a mere man.”
[O.K. so it is perfectly possible.
BUT HOW!?
What good thing must I do
to make it personally probable?]
“In fact
He is willing
to open the way for anyone
who makes himself poor
for the sake of the King.”
That man, God will reward,
and superabundantly
for all the losses and persecutions
accepted willingly
for the sake of the Gospel
both in the present age
— with needed welcome
and in the age to come
— with life eternal.

Peter pipes up:

Look then
— What’s in it for us — your crew?
Since we left everything
to follow you!
Jesus:
Twelve thrones in Heaven are waiting for you.
You shall lead the twelve tribes of Israel
in the coming glorious age of renewal.
 But you must firstly receive,
among other things due,
abundant Earthly persecutions.

The Messiah Returns Fire:

What’s Waiting for the Rich in the Resurrection

This is what Jesus told,

to those Pharisees overly fond of gold.
It was just before Lazarus was raised,
and about a week before Jesus was killed and also rose,
which, since it was Jesus, mentioning Lazarus,
and describing a rising,
made it very short-delay fused.
“Now there was a certain rich man
[a bit like a Pharisee, you see]
and habitually he dressed splendidly
and daily lived in luxury and gaiety…
..while at his gate was laid,
covered in sores,
a certain man named Lazarus,
Who was very very poor.
And while Lazarus longed to be able
to be fed with the crumbs
from the rich man’s table,
even the dogs used to come
and lick his sorry sores.
The poor man died
and was carried away by the angels.
The rich man died
and was buried, on his way to Haydees.
In torment,
the rich man had a vision
of Lazarus, in Abraham’s bosom
“Abba father Abraham!
I am over here in flame!
Have mercy on my pain and agony,
and send Lazarus to come to me
to cool off my tongue,
with just one drop of water hung
from his finger-tip.”
Abraham replied instead
“Remember child” he said
“that you have received
all your rewards in life
just like Lazarus has received
only bad things in life.
So now that you are dead,
you must there endure agony
while he is here instead,
and receives comfort welcomely.
As well as this
there is besides, betwixt
us here and you there,
a great chasm fixed,
 so that none may cross,
from there to us
no matter how much,
they wished.”
“I beg you, then”
said the once rich man
“Oh Father Abraham!
Raise up Lazarus to life again
and send him back
to warn
my father’s household,
where I was born,
to warn my five brothers to repent
while still up there
and not to end up in this place of torment
down here!”
“They have Moses”
said Abraham to the man
“Let them hear him.
They have the prophets’ teaching too
— Let them give ear to them.
Let them take heed, if they can,
to what is already preached to Man”
“Ah No! But Father Abraham!”
begged the poor rich man
“If… If someone should go to them
back from the dead…
Surely then
they will repent!”
“But No!” said Father Abraham.
“If they give no ear to Moses;
If they will not hear the prophets;
Then they will not heed either
if someone else even rises
from the dead!”
The next thing to happen
was that Lazarus was raised.
The next thing to happen
was that Jesus was killed and did rise.
The next thing to happen
was that the Pharisees didn’t believe.

Be As Shrewd As Serpents

but As Innocent As Doves

The Pharisees preferred learning and power

and loving wealth and gaining reputation.
And couldn’t listen to or bear
Jesus’ speaking truth or giving castigation,
like this…
“What is highly esteemed in human understanding
God considers detestable”
[which is freely translated into…
“Humanism stinks to high Heaven;
Wealth will turn to rotten-ness;
 and Reputation-building is abominable”]

“You Pharisees try to seem righteous

for appearances in men’s sight
But God knows and considers
the abominations in your heart.”

In particular the Pharisees scoffed

all the time
at Jesus teaching
all the time
against their love of…
MONEY.

Jesus:
You cannot serve God
while ever you are serving Money.
No servant can serve
two different masters at the same time.
Either he will hate and despise the one
and love and serve the other
Or, he will hate and despise the other
while loving and serving the one.

And so,
since you have not been found faithful to God
in handling Earthly wealth,
how can you expect God
to trust you with true wealth?
You can only be expected to prove yourselves
unrighteous
with what is truly
important,
Since you have already shown yourselves
unrighteous
with what is, by comparison,
unimportant.

But if only you showed yourselves

trustworthy in the lesser,
— in any Earthly money matter
— by serving the God of love
— by being
“as selfless as a dove”,
You could also be held
trustworthy in the greater.

But who would be stupid enough

to entrust you with an Estate Eternal
if with a mere worldly economic matter,
you have proven to be unreliable?

..and I have a lesson for you in a parable…

“There was once a wealthy magnate

[They would, by now, easily take that to mean ‘God’]
 whose manager was accused
of mismanaging the estate
[as Jesus was right now accusing
the religious stewards of the state]
So he called him to account,
investigated,
And gave him notice of dismissal.
[which, speaking “fig”-uratively, Jesus will soon be executing]

“Aaah, I’m surely falling now”

the manager stated
[read ‘You Pharisees are in big trouble’]
“I’m not fit enough for a labourer’s job.
I’m too ashamed to beg
I need to make friends, and quickly
— friends who will welcome and support me
after I lose my manager’s job,
and no longer have a living,
perhaps…
..not even a bed.

Ahah! I know what I must do…”

[Oh? Is there hope and still time for me too?]
and he called each of his master’s debtors
[In this language-mix, they would hear
“invited in the ‘sinners’ ”]

and substantially wrote-down each of their debts.

[They would understand and hear
“forgave them each their ‘sins’ ”
as in the prayer ‘Heavenly Father, forgive us our debts…’]

Yes, he colluded with them

to alter both of the written records
— the manager’s own copy,
and also the debtor’s.

The rich master, smiling,

couldn’t help himself admiring
the cunning manager’s shrewdness
and his sensible prudence
in looking after his own interests.
So he praised him.”

Jesus concluded:
Oh that these sons of the Light
would show as much common sense
and be as shrewd as serpents
with the wealth given to them on Earth
to manage for another,
as the double-dealers of this world manage to
when dealing with each other!
Oh that they would at least
make friends for themselves
amongst the other sinners
with their wealth and generosity,
 while they still have the opportunity and can
— so that they may have eternal friends and a welcome,
and a home in Heaven!

But the Pharisees listening,

simply sneered at him, again, saying…

“He mismanages the divine estates”

He himself calls sinners into forgiveness
and “forgives” those who come
— so he states;

and now he further imagines God’s foolishness

(perish the very thought!)
that God could “praise and admire”
someone of this sort
— any of His managers
who sets sins at nought!

How absurd his silly story gets!

How could anyone,
be fool enough, anyway,
to want to cancel debts!

Target Practice

How would you like a part of the ongoing action,

dear reader?
..to trigger off round five
— by being
“as harmless as a dove
and as cunning as a cobra”
Well, for the pigeon part,
you start
by being a bit angry
and pained
with having to battle your enemies,
yet again,
whom you are trying to save.

Then you work yourself up

to your best fig-tree curse
which’ll make your point,
as a sort of rehears-
al — for Jerusalem.

Next, with a steadily more determined

and angry grip
you doggedly plait yourself
a strong and many-corded bullwhip.

(You know how to do it,

’coz it’s part of the carpenter’s apprenticeship
— making wagon drays,
and all that bit)
Finally you explode in an indignation of fury
against all the merchandisers
and widow-robbers
and all the temple-defiling Jewry
Remember?
You upturned all their tables and chairs and coin
— not even the temple security guards dared intervene
— I suspect they were clapping inside
at all these entertaining things —

So, having vented your raging zeal

and flapped your docile gentle wings
you calm down,
look innocent
and in deed sinless,
even smile,
and retire
to prepare your best shrewdness,
cobra-style;
and turn up on the morrow
to meet the coming counter-attacks
from those outraged at your rudeness.

The soldiers have orders to arrest you

and all they need is a pretext to.
— After all’s said and done,
within their temple walls,
you are trapped…

..Chief priests and elders:

[round five]
What have you done!
Who do you think you are!
What right do you have to do all this!
Your turn.
Go for it.
Turn the tables on them…
______________________________________

(fill in this blank) “_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________________
____________________
___________________ ”

______________________________________

Well? How’d you go? Come up with a good sermon?

I’ll give you the original version…

Do you remember how they played this same card

on John the Baptist earlier on?
‘Who do you think you are?’
‘Why are you (baptis-) ing then?’
or here…
 ‘Why are you (taking the Law into your own hands)?’
‘Who told you that you could do all this?’

____________________________________________

You: Hold on. Fair go! Fair’s fair you know.

Give equal times!
Let’s not have a biased debate
along one-sided lines.
But let me propose this fair deal to you
— I’ll ask you a question too
And if you answer me nicely
then I also will answer you.
[The crowd shouts their approval, sealing the plan]
Tell us all.
Who told John he could baptise?
What right did he have, in your eyes?
Was it from human motives only?
Or was it with divine authority
direct from God?
Out with it! Speak up publicly!
____________________________________________

Temple rulers,
in a muddle,
huddle:
Ooooh!
We can’t say “from Heaven”
‘coz then he will say
“Well why didn’t you believe him then
— that I AM who I AM”

But we can’t say aloud

that John wasn’t a prophet
in front of this crowd,
who are quite convinced of it,
‘coz they’ll stone us — their religious leaders!
For being infidels and blasphemers

Let’s cover ourselves

with agnostic equivocation…

“We don’t know.

We are ignoramuses”
You:
“Well neither will I answer you your question”

[You’ve done very well!

But there’s one more challenge to settle…]

Round Five-point-Five

Rulers:
Well, if you claim to be doing this
from God’s authority
Perform a miracle from Heaven for us,
 to prove it undeniably!
You:
[Now, consider your body
and think of your upcoming crucifixion.
You must privately imagine your body of flesh
(which is about to be sacrificed to assassination)
— as being the ‘temple’ for the Holy Spirit
— for God to dwell in while you live on Earth —

and so you puzzle them with…]

“You will destroy this temple

within three days
and within three days
I will raise it up again.”

By this mention of the destruction of their temple

you have touched their gold-plated idol
and they will not forget it
but they will raise it up again
in the legal goings-on
within the three days’ time.

Rulers:
A 46 year building enterprise is not so easily destroyed!
[The Roman soldiers managed it! 40 years later in A.D. 70]
But certainly not rebuilt within 3 days!

Nevertheless, both temples were destroyed,

and yours alone came back within the 3 days
— as advertised.

Meanwhile, Jesus has a counter-blast before round six…

Jesus:
“Now;
Since you are self-professed
agnostic
prophet ignorers,
perhaps you would like to try to wilfully ignore this…”

What Good is a Mirror to a Blind Man?

With this mirror, or parable

— a variation on Isaiah’s “Vineyard” theme
Jesus next pictured Israel’s religious rulers’ destiny,
to Israel’s religious elect…
but it was like holding up a mirror
for a blind man to inspect…
“A rich and generous landowner
[with, as it turned out, some enemies
who harboured hostility]
planted a vineyard
of first-class quality,
and of unlimited prospect…
sparing no expense
— with good site,
 soil and vines,
with press and vat,
tower and fence
And, planning to be absent
for a long time
leased it out to local growers
of wine
[who evidently didn’t like him much].
Later, to collect his rent at harvest time,
from the tenant farmers
[a share of the good wine,
amounting to such and such],
he sent someone, but they grabbed him
and beat him hard and much,
and sent him away,
refusing to pay.
So he sent another,
but they gave him a clout,
humiliated him,
and threw him out.
They killed another.
Another they stoned.
[To this sort of fate,
Israel’s prophets were prone.]
Another larger lot of servants,
which the owner owned, he sent
who likewise received
the same bad treatment.
And many others, pleading,
expecting to see their master’s desire fulfilled,
those caretakers ambushed
and set upon or killed.

[still fresh on their memory was the blood of John]

Finally the angry, but very patient owner asked
“What’s to be done?
The only one left to send
is my own belovèd son!”
So…
[Yes, dear reader,
with seeming stupidity and excessive forbearance
and with foolish generosity, at least in appearance…]
..So… last of all,
he sends them just one more chance
— Yes, exhausting his last option
— he sent his very own son,
saying
“Won’t they respect
my belovèd one?”.
But, recognising the son at once, of course,
the farmers conspired together
and plotted and reasoned thus…
“Come on. If we kill the only son and heir
this vineyard will soon belong to us!”
[This proves a snare they couldn’t resist
— a choice they couldn’t refuse.]
 So they grabbed him too,
abused him, through and through,
dragged him outside
and killed him there.
[a decided reference to how the Jews were about to decide,
on how to kill Jesus, and where]
“What then” Jesus asks his listeners
[hinting of the end of the Ages, one discerns]
“will the furious owner, when he returns,
with full and certain knowledge now,
do?”.

“Bring those wretches” the people answered,

right on cue,
“to a miserable end.
And give his vineyard over
to others to tend
— to those who surely will pay
their proper due.”
When the Scribes, Chief Priests and Pharisees heard it
they understood that Jesus spoke this parable against them
and they exclaimed
“May God forbid it!”
[did it not threaten their own eternal damnation
instead of assigning to them a glorious resurrection?]

But Jesus, born tragically for this planned rejection,

to their very faces, said to them
“What does this scripture point to then…
‘Something which God has planned
Something which we cannot fathom
— that the builders rejected the very stone
which was designed to be the most important one.’?

I tell you then, that God’s kingdom

will indeed be wrenched from you and given
to more obedient people to govern
And all who reject that essential, crucial keystone
will do so to their own utter, utter ruin.”
The religious rulers had indeed
listened very carefully
to this soon-to-be-fulfilled
self-fulfilling prophecy.

They had listened carefully

to the parable’s plot
which had shown up
their short-sighted greed a lot,
and so they would have
arrested him on the spot
except that they feared
that the crowd would riot
because the mob truly believed
that Jesus was a prophet
(besides, Roman reprisals would sorely harm
their own political lot).
They had listened especially to the farmers’
short-sighted, greedy seditious under-plot,
And in their zeal to foil the parable’s upshot
they…
went off to conspire
and to counterplot
on how to arrest this ‘Master’s Son’
— the Messiah —
and condemn him to his fated slot.
By this they couldn’t avoid mirroring and fulfilling
the parable’s overall plot!
Hook,
line
and sinker!

“Shoot to Kill!”

Immediately they set up surveillance, spies, more ‘plants’

and deadly traps — he might incriminate himself perhaps
in some seditious statement or other
which they could then report to the Roman Governor.

“Only in this way, as it stands,

will our belovèd city of Jerusalem be once again
secure and in our own sway and hands.

Otherwise, our religious edifice

and our God-given heritage
threatens to topple down around us
like an arch lacking a keystone
— standing unfinished, swaying unsteadily —
unless we succeed in toppling,
just this one man alone.

We would then be rid of this

so-called ‘only belovèd Son’
whose death, after all, is,
to this whole unfathomable,
unstable,
critical situation —
the only key.”

Just Answer Evil According to Its Evil

Since death was the all-around-agreed-upon response

and strategy,
the Pharisees and Herodians,
in an alliance most unholy
got together and plotted
this piece of deadly treachery
— to hand him over
to the Roman Governor’s authority, no less
by sending spies
who pretended to come sincerely, in righteousness
to set him up real nice,
 like this…

Round Six

“My Teacher,
we know that you are truthful,
fearlessly
teaching the true way of God,
correctly.
You rightly defer to no-one
and truly show no partiality (not even to Caesar);
Tell us therefore
what do you really think…
“Is it lawful for us to pay poll-tax to Caesar,
or not?”
[A hush fell over the crowd…
The issue was not a little hot.
They might just as well have said
“Do you want to lose your head?
or hang yourself?”

Their first commandment from God said

“Hold no authority higher than Me”
And with the people hanging on his every word,
would he dare lose their sympathy
on this most unpopular decree,
by saying
“Yes. Pay homage to Caesar”?
And risk a stoning akin to blasphemy?
But to answer
“No!
No taxes to Caesar”
would require instead,
a Roman death penalty
for a Galilean seditionist
giving revolutionist calls,
like that.

[So how would you feel

with a sword at your throat,
a noose around your neck,
and a dagger at your back?]

But Jesus perceived their clever trickery,

malice and hypocrisy,
and said…
“Why are you testing me?

Hypocrites are ye!

[By this he alerts all the crowd to the treachery
which is akin to ‘false testimony’
and carries the death penalty]
Bring me a denarius to look at
— a single day’s pay packet
— the coin used for the poll-tax…
Show it to me!”
The crowd had a moment’s dramatic pause for thought…
What for??

“Whose likeness and inscription is this?”

he asks, still dramatically drawing focus,
while undermining any prejudice…

“Caesar’s, of course”
they say, warily, thinking…
What next??

“Then give to Caesar what is rightly due to Caesar.

(By this he answers ‘Yes’!)
And give to God what is rightly due to God!”
(By this he calls them ‘Liars!’)

“Give Glory to God!”

the crowd thought aloud a lot.
[Do you remember this oath?]
He told the truth,
which they did not!
This counter-attack rocked his opponents into silence,
while the crowd picked up stones, aiming at the evil alliance
“You dishonour our God!
You deserve the stoning!”
[The enemy beats a quick retreat]

A Comprehensive Rebuttal

The unlikely alliance was,

that same day, broken
after the Sadducees came separately
to test him on the resurrection.

There had always been a healthy public debate

— between humanism and fundamentalism —
as to which of the two parties was right
— Sadduceeism or Pharisaism —
(or to label it in the modern schism
— Liberalism v. Evangelical-ism)
You recall that the Sadducees controlled
the temple and the High Priesthood
and the influential positions,
for instance, around King Herod;
and they deny the existence of
prophets, spirits, angels and miracles
and so don’t believe in prophetic oracles
but acknowledge only the Law of Moses
and don’t credit the resurrection of all souls
to face judgment by God;

While the rival party — the Pharisees — acknowledge all

— miracles, spirits, angels,
resurrection, judgment and prophecy —
and even make a show of their ortho-doxy
— their fundamentally ‘right dogma’.
Jesus seizes the opportunity
to fight the Sadducees in their own territory,
but is subtle
— he answers them
from their own scripture
— choosing a Mosaic section
which, of an angel and a miracle,
it pointedly makes mention
and which also offers an allusion
to God and the resurrection.

To make this a comprehensive rebuttal

he starts with a comment
on the inspiration of scriptural dialogue
and makes a pinpoint point
about the spiritual Power of God
then, again making mention of angels
and resurrection
and Judgment Day
gives them an oracle
in the form of a prophecy!
as to what it will be like
in angelic array…

Ready then?
Round Seven: the Resurrection & Heaven

Sadducees:
“Teacher,
Moses wrote for us that if a man dies childless,
his next of kin
should marry his wife
and, to his brother’s estate,
raise up an offspring.

Now there were among us seven brothers,

and the first married and died — childless,
so he left his wife to his brother,
but so also the second,
and the third
and indeed all,
down to number seven,
and last of all, childless,
the woman died.

So in the “Resurrection”,
how can she be any one’s wife?
— It’s absurd;
for all seven had her!
You must surely be wrong
about the rising of the dead!”

Jesus replied in verse

like a prophet inspired of course
“It is you yourselves who are most certainly in error
 And why?
Simply because you won’t acknowledge
the inspiration of scripture.
It is you yourselves who are indeed greatly mistaken.
And why?
Simply because you won’t acknowledge
the power of God in Heaven.

[“Spiritless” “faithless” “powerless”

— yes, he really does label them “Godless!”]

For there will be a resurrection,

and they of the resurrection will be like
the angels of Heaven,
because the sons of the resurrection
who are judged
to be worthy of Heaven
are the righteous ones
— the sons of God
— considered worthy of
the Age to Come

..and so, like the angels of God

and as God’s sons in the resurrection,
they will neither marry nor in marriage be given.

But even Moses teaches you

of the resurrection of the dead
in the passage spoken by God
from the (miraculously) burning bush,
where he said…

“I Be the I AM,
the Living One,
the God of your father Abraham
I AM the God of Isaac
and the God of Jacob
— of the Patriarchs, in fact”

Have you really never read…

that He is not the God of the dead!
For all ‘beings’
are alive to Him, the God of Life

[the name of God being an interesting cross between

“Living” and “Being”…
“I AM, I Be, I exist
or I cause to exist — I Father and I Create —
I give life and I Live ”
— so ‘The Name’, of God,
comes across with more meaning
in the Semitic leaning and tongue]

So you see,
it is you Sadducees
who are the ones
 who are in error yourselves.”

The crowds, the lawyers, the scribes

and especially the Pharisees
(not so strange to tell)
all acknowledged
that he had butted them
miraculously well!
__________________________

Beyond Orthodoxy — To the Spirit of the Law

It was now the Pharisees’ turn

to plot separately and try
to publicly test and stretch
his mettle as a Rabbi,
to either trip him in his orthodoxy
or to trap him — lawyer-wise — in his own testimony
or use it advantageously.

They brought a lawyer forward

— a scribe and expert in the Law —
to ask Jesus his peculiar slant
on this well-worn standard saw…

Round Eight

“Teacher, Teacher, which of all

the many commandments in our law
— which is the foremost of them all?”
[which by interpretation,
in this
my much expanded and interpreted version,
reads…
“Now that you have silenced the Sadducees’ claim
please put them to further public shame
by siding with our Pharisaical orthodoxy once again.
And by the way
please give to us grounds for public comment
to make you look so much the more less important
alongside The Most Exalted Commandment.”]
Jesus:
I thought I had answered you before
or perhaps
it must have been your brother
that fulfilling all the commandments
was the path to Life given in the Law.

But yes,
perhaps there is one which is above another
since now you are asking furthermore
“Which is the most ‘most necessary’
necessary requirement of the Father?”

The most necessary acts of worship

 to our God above are three:
Firstly, to LOVE.
Secondly, to LOVE.
And third, to LOVE.

The first, and most important law

in the Torah
is what is called the Great Shema…

“Hear, O Israel: The ‘I AM’ is our God —

The ‘I AM’ is The One — the One True God —
And you shall LOVE the ‘I AM’ your God
with all your heart
all your soul and mind
all your strength and might”

The second verse is much like the first…

“You shall LOVE your neighbour as yourself”
[Stage direction: Jesus noticeably closes the gap
between the lawyer and himself ]

There is no other commandment

greater than these two
upon which all the law depends
and all the prophetic writings too.

The third is only for my disciples true

so I will not tell it yet to you
as it tells them how to LOVE one another
but for that you would need to be a brother.

So there you have it

“Thou shalt LOVE”
one, two and three
or, in translating the Hebrew word for ‘love’
— or commitment to a friendly alliance
— more fulsomely,
the commands might be…
“Learn from and Give back to God
faithful loving kindness loyally
and for pity’s sake
show compassion to fellow man
with mercy too and with charity.
So let it be. Amen.”

[Lawyer (to himself):

“So far, so good; all according to plan
He’s publicly agreeing
with our orthodoxy

once again”]
Jesus:
But how does what is written in the law read to you?
[“even better”, you can have your say too,
even though this “trap-you-into-agreeing” game
is now reversed onto you.
At least you have prepared for this particular turning
by listening to Jesus often saying…
“Go and learn that this suffices
‘I desire LOVE
MERCY
and COMPASSION
not sacrifices’ ” ]
Lawyer:
I agree Rabbi.
You have spoken well!
“He Is One and besides Him there is no-one else”
and to “LOVE Him with all the heart
all the understanding
and all your strength”
and to “LOVE your neighbour as yourself”
is much more obedience and worth in God’s sight
than all the burnt offerings and sacrifice
[and thus the Sadducees, whose forté is stemple service
are only serving the Way of lesser importance].

When Jesus saw that he had answered

from his understanding
albeit well,
he says…
Oh,
And one thing I forgot to tell.
And this is written so many times as well
expressly for the wise man
— as I’m sure you should be
since you and I so agreeably agree;
and as I see that you are standing
right in the Way of God
— with the keys of knowledge,
to the gates of Truth
blocking,
oops I mean standing
right in the very thresh-hold
of the Kingdom of Heaven and of God…

The law also says:

‘Don’t just be able to quote it as right
and say it is right
See to it
that you in deed obey it!’ Right?
and if you do love,
you will live.
(for man cannot live on hypocrisy alone)

“Ah, well, umm…” says he

backing away from his neighbour Jesus
(the ‘Samaritan’ ‘with a demon’
according to their unloving slight),
and, still wishing to appear to be proven “right”,
he strategically covers his withdrawal,
by putting up one last fight…
 “Pray tell to me…” says he,
closing ranks with his brother lawyers
and firing in round nine
“Please give me
your expert, professional, legal, definitive opinion:
Who exactly is my neighbour?”
(Perhaps, thinks he,
I can force him to agree, at least
that he disagrees with me
on my terms.)
“Let me tell a tale”
Jesus says, to this pedantic lawyer
“of a very holy male
and his very holy neighbour
— people much like you —
and of a certain unfortunate
rejected Jew
— a person much like me —
who,
being outside the city
on the road to Jericho…
[This is where Jesus used to go
— to stay and pray at nights
for although he entered via the Jericho gate
triumphantly — as Jewish king by rights —
being next rejected and persecuted
by the priests, in hate
he could only take refuge
outside the City of God’s gate.]
..there this unhappy fellow fell,
among bandits…
[For this was an uneasy, lonely, dangerous place
— a place of bandits and dark gardens

— a place of tombs, and notably,

of crucifixions]
..fell among bandits
who beat him and stripped him
and abandoned him half dead…
[Jesus was, within days, in this same place
— outside Jerusalem’s gate —
beaten, stripped naked
and was left dying]
..A certain priest passed by quite circumstantially
and seeing the sorry scene,
bypassed him quite widely…
[treating him like an untouchable pariah —
Is this how they treated their looked-for Messiah!]
..Likewise a Levite — one of para-priestly birth —
gave him a deliberately wide and coldly berth…
[? not wishing to become religiously defiled and unclean]

..Next there was a man

from a neighbouring town…

[Now, when they kill a pig by sticking in the knife

they need to aim at the “sticking point” to take its life
and quickly then it falls down dead
“like a pig that’s stuck” as it’s aptly said.
So choosing the neighbours most in question,
which the Jews have; Jesus,
the “Samaritan with a demon”
says…]

..Yes, this man was a Samaritan…

[— the ones you Jews despise as ‘mongrel dogs’!

— a neighbour]

..and right neighbourly was he,

and was moved almightily,
in his heart and spirit to pity…
[the important command in question
being to ‘love’ or to ‘pity’]
..moved at seeing this unfortunate Jew,
his neighbour.
[Jesus takes a step closer]
..And he came close to him,
and with much sympathy
and sparing no labour,
and very carefully
bandaged him,
pouring oil and wine on each injury…
[that is, he poured out his compassion on him,
most unreservedly]
..and put him on his own animal
and brought him to the safety
of a hostel,
and took care of him that day
and to the innkeeper, gave a further day’s pay
to take care of him while he went his own way
but promising to repay,
any further expense!”

[And, dear reader,

well may you ask this soft-headed Samaritan
Why do you act so?
Reader to Samaritan:
Why write a blank cheque at a wayside inn?
Why save a penniless fellow?
who can’t repay!
or trust Jewish innkeepers,
rather than kith and kin??
Samaritan:
Don’t ask me, ask Balaam’s mule.
For even that ass had his golden rule.
But for your sake, if you don’t know that story
let me state it anew…
“As you do unto others
More so will God do unto you.”
So if you live in love,
and in faith in God,
 and in hope
you’ll see that living in Love
faithfully
holds out quite a hope
for you and me
and so I treated him
as I would like to be treated myself.]
Jesus:
So…
..which of these three
— the priest so righteous
— the Levite so holy
— or the despised Samaritan dog
do you think proved to be a neighbour
to the man who fell among bandits?
Lawyer
(crest-fallen

— trapped —
into agreeing):
The merciful one.
Jesus:
You go
and you do the same…
[By now
the lawyer’s pride and reputation,
so big,
has dropped down dead,
“like a stuck pig”
and Jesus continues…]
..for instance,
stop planning to crucify me!
but if I may,
to your question say,
in sum:
having said
(1) to ‘LOVE and obey the I AM your God
who is One’
and having directed you
(2) to help the helpless on the way,
too
and having said
(3) to ‘go and do what I decree,
to you’
I can put the three together in this way…
The single most important thing for you to do, is…
“Do,
just as I AM commanding you” *

*Exercises for students

(I) Write an essay,

complete with references,
footnotes and teaching exercises
as to the meaning of that last statement.
Who was he talking about?
 What exactly was he teaching?
What did he mean earlier, when he said
“I AM One, with the Father”?

(II) Argue from the opposite point of view

by listing any good reasons the Pharisee had,
not to do
what Jesus taught.

(III) If you were there, how would you silence Jesus?

‘Be Silent in the Presence of the LORD’

“Now” said Jesus, son of David, born in Bethlehem,

“to complete my day to perfection will you Pharisees
please answer me one question
seeing you are all gathered here against me,
as my public enemies
and since I have answered all your enquiries,
and quite properly…
Question:
Whose son is the Christ?”
“The Son of David” they replied.
“But how is it that you Scribes
can insist on naming David
as his true father?
Whose son is he really
— Is he not God’s son rather?
Since David himself
— in the power of the Spirit,
in the sacred book of Psalms —
calls him “Lord”!…
..The “I AM” said to my “Lord”
Stay here at my right hand
Until I put your enemies beneath your feet
for you to tread upon.”
And no-one dared answer him a word
All his enemies did indeed lie scattered around
“beaten into dust beneath his feet
trodden into the ground”
Jesus besting them by the help of God
who always stayed with him,
especially during such testing.
Nor did anyone dare,
from that day on
to question him again
and the great crowd
he was teaching in the temple
“enjoyed listening to him”
not wanting to miss a single syllable…

..And Listen to His Accusation against You

Our gentle Jesus didn’t hold back

on treading the unrepentant down
 but took this last opportunity
— to warn the leaders,
and to warn the vulnerable crowd —
about their leaders.

Here is the much shortened version

of a quite lengthy diatribe
which you readers will recognise,
but which was spoken with tears in his eyes…

Woe! Woe! Woe! to you Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes!

You claim Moses’ legal authority
but then play
the sophist quibbling attorney
and only practise
adultery and hypocrisy!
You burden men under your detailed ‘law’
and then offer them no help at all!
You love the respect of men
and the titles they give you on Earth
and you do everything to be noticed by them
most especially on the
Sabbath.
You make proselytes into sons of Hell
and teach them how to wash so well!
You stand in the gates of Heaven
and cast aside “sinners” without compassion
— repentant sinners
more worthy than you for saving
while you yourselves
even devour a widow’s living!
You swear by Gold
and not by God!
Sacrilegious temple robbers!
It is my Father’s temple
which you rob!
[I hope that you remember these negative vibes,
so let us not stop to revise…]
Woe! Woe! Woe to you Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes!
You are like unmarked graves
which people walk over heedless
— heedless that they are so near
bodies full of rotten-ness!
full of putridness!
Worms and smelliness!
Maggots and filthiness!
You are like nicely whitewashed tombs in semblance
— the only nice thing about them
is their outside appearance!
Behind your facade
you stink like a corpse.
Outwardly
you display your righteousness
Inwardly
you are full of godless hypocrisy
and wicked lawlessness.
You proclaim, on the surface
“We would never have killed the righteous
and the prophets,
like our fathers did”
and you build nice-looking tombs
and nice-looking lids
and erect decorated monuments for them
but if you strip away all that pretence
you see what is really happening
— first your fathers kill them
then you, the sons, bury them!
showing yourselves
to be full accomplices
but declaring yourselves
innocent bystanders.
But you certainly are sons of murderers
sons of the Devil
— a brood of snakes and vipers —
and will follow full in your fathers’ footsteps
in murdering the righteous.

How shall you escape the punishment of Hell?

Woe! Woe! Woe to you Pharisees, Lawyers and Scribes!

God in His Wisdom prescribes

“I AM will send you
prophets and wise men
apostles and scribes”
— some to be killed, some to be crucified
— some to be whipped and beaten and flogged
— some to be chased and hunted from city to city
— some to be persecuted by Council and synagogue
so that upon you may fall
all the blood
-guiltiness of all
the righteous men executed

and of all the prophets

that have been murdered
in all the land
since the fall of the world
from the first recorded murder — of Abel —
to the last recorded slaughter
— here in the temple —
of the prophet Zechariah,
son of Berechiah
whom you murdered
right next to this altar!

Let me prophesy to you,

straight to your face
All these murders
will be blamed upon and held against you
— you murderous race!
 Yes, against you!
City of murderers.

Oh Jerusalem! Oh Jerusalem!
You kill the prophets.
Those sent to you, you stone.

I have been willing to call your children,

so often, into my salvation
the way a mother hen
tries to gather her chicks under her wings
for their protection
but I have always only ever
met with your rejection.
Therefore behold
— Your destruction is upon you!

And oh how long it will be now

before you see your Saviour again
before you repent of rejecting Him
Who comes to you in the Father’s name
and you say instead
“Welcome
him who comes
in the name of the I AM”.

[Curtain closes for a long time]

By the way,
this is also where Jesus
told that parable about those invited guests
who,
shunned the King’s Wedding Feast
who,
despised the Son
and who,
came to a woeful end.

How indeed shall they escape their punishment??

But
nothing is impossible for God.
Could you imagine something possibly like this?…

—Application Form for Amnesty from Woes-

Note: Everyone is invited and encouraged to apply

Both parts of this form must be completed

Part I
Confession to High Treason

I hereby confess to being guilty

of the worst sin in the Universe,
of wishing Your Highness, Jesus God, to drop dead
of mistrusting your promise
of proudly disobeying you
 of being insincere
unfaithful,
etc., etc.

and to be deserving of the worst punishments

devisable in your Universe.

Signed, Yours faithfully,

__ __ __ __ __ __

Witnessed by God

Part II
Petition for Forgiveness

I humbly and sincerely beg for Your Highness’s pardon

in full and undoubting trust and belief
that you will not break your promise
and will not sentence me
to my ever well-deserved death
and will rather instead give me more goodness
than I can believe in.

I declare furthermore
that I will no longer break faith with you
and will hereinafter obey you
upon pain of such well-deserved punishment
for further highest treason
as Your Majesty wills.

Signed, Yours hopefully,

__ __ __ __ __ __

Witnessed by The Eternal Judge

__________________________________________________

Curtain closes again

— this time for a seeming eternity.

Now, A Role for You

I know you haven’t had a role of late,

and I want to put that right.
Perhaps though,
you’d better leave Jesus to suffer alone
as his fate in life
is not very pretty from now on.

So I suggest you play a supporting role

— there is no shortage to choose from,
of famous personalities
since this is a semi-final scene
— a sort of crowded finalé.

Let’s see…
Would you like to be
 a cold-hearted Pharisee?
— who doesn’t like touching
or being touched
since he used to be
a leper?
No
— it’s hard to warm
to that role much.

Well…
Here’s a famous name
— Lazarus —
whom Jesus raised from the dead
— but alas
he has no lines and no action.
So
I don’t think so.

Or…
Martha?
— with no lines
and only back-stage action
and famous for
being told off by Jesus?
No.

Well, what about…

— a disciple who is plunged into bitter grief
who hangs himself
and his guts spill out
who has an eternal curse without relief?
Hmmm…
maybe not.

Ah! Here it is
— the Star!
in a very touching role
— famous for her acting
— a warm-hearted devotee of Jesus
— who doesn’t mind touching
— famous for her not being told off by Jesus,
three times
— and with an eternal blessing
— with a part impossible to over-dramatise
but with no hard lines to learn off pat.
Surely you can’t refuse a part like that!

There are just one or two troubles…

Firstly, all the roles from now on are gut-wrenchingly sad…

(How good are you for instance,

at sweating blood?

Or watching your son being crucified,

naked they say
 or watching your mother
watching you die slowly?

Or at carrying a dead body

into a tomb?)

and this role especially is pure sadness

— do you think you could carry that?

I may not be able to handle it alone.

It’s all too heavy for me to lift
— and we need your help.
You may even have to carry on,
and finish the story for us all,
if I leave you too soon
— because it’s time for me to stop —
being flippant about the death of God.
Yes.
Death.
Your last hope is about to die.
Jesus will soon be murdered!
And your sad, sober role here

is simply
to be… crying about it
— and to keep it up.

So try to imagine your sadness

seriously
— gratefully in fact —
because after all,
here is a man
who raised your brother to life!
and who healed yourself!
(who, if he forgives your sins,
has promised to raise you
to Eternal Life.

He loves you
and you love him,
earnestly,
not physically,

and his life is nearly done

and gone
— you are about the only person
who realises…

he is about to be crucified.

And here’s the second trouble:

You need his forgiveness.

Because, he has healed you of seven demons
— which means you were up to your neck in sins.
 And you used to be a harlot
and so you are beyond your neck in adultery.

And so your eternal life is on the line.

And nobody likes who you were.

Your name is Mary

— Mary Magdalene
[a hairy claim, but justifiable,
as will soon be seen]

So you are about to begin your role

— by transferring your love
and life
and heart
to the feet of Jesus
— a man who is about to die…

At Jesus’ Feet

A Pharisee in Bethany, called Simon the Leper

asked Jesus into his house to eat
(‘tempted’ or ‘dared’ him would be better).

Bethany was a village near the Jericho side of Jerusalem

where Mary, Martha and Lazarus,
and Jesus,
used to meet.

Mary was the one who would always rather

sit listening at Jesus’ FEET
and once left all the hard serving to Martha
who thereupon got all in a fluster.
Martha told Mary off
but
Jesus told Martha off
and
they all loved happily ever after.
[point one to Mary, rather than to Martha]

Lazarus was there, at the table, for supper

(This was after he died
— at least four days after
because that’s how long he wasn’t alive.)
Martha was there also, again as server.

[You now enter]

Mary, when she heard,
also came
to wash Jesus’ FEET
[You are a devotee, remember]
bringing with her
some expensive ointment,
pure and sweet.
[Your most precious belonging
is now laid at his FEET]
 Now this Mary,
as I promised to explain,
and as will be clearly seen,
was most probably that Mary
called Magdalene,
because of what we can,
from the Gospels glean,
of Mary Magdalene:
..She was a sinner
— a woman of the town —
unclean
— the one in whom
seven demons had once been
— the one who was a regular
Jesus follower and supporter
— the one who brought the left-over
embalming ointment later
after he died
— for his body and FEET
— the one who, after he rose,
was again weeping
and again kept clinging
to his FEET.
[Get ready now, to start showing your grief]
So likewise,
Mary now brought her ointment
and came to weep…
[Feel now, the sadness beginning, in your guts]
..to weep over…
where?
over Jesus’ FEET
She stood behind Jesus,
who was reclining
for such was the custom of the day
for dining…
[Now start to play your heart-felt role.
Let the feelings come up and out
in gentle tears, from your soul]
..and she wept
over his FEET…
[Visualise your part now;
through a blur of freely flowing tears,
right up close — close to the very hairs]

..and she wet

his FEET
with her tears
[Now, once again, with even more feeling…]

and she kept

kissing them

[Close your eyes. Feel now the love.

Your soul is pulled with care.]

and she wiped

 his FEET
with her hair

[No, No, please don’t faint!

The whole world needs your desperate, caring touch…
..it needs your imploring, loving tears]

Next, she took the sealed jar of perfume

— an alabaster vial
— a whole pound of genuine spikenard oil
— a very pure and costly ointment
and broke it over his head

[Break it;
then pour it over his head]

and with it,

also anointed his FEET
and wiped them
with her hair
[Feel the smooth gentle oil with your fingers.
Finally, smell the role into life]
until the whole house did reek
with that fragrance most sweet.
And so,
that’s how a once scandalous woman
achieves a doubly scandalous feat…

Scandal #1

Firstly, you see,

to be legally ‘unclean’
especially to Simon ‘the leper’
would mean
‘do not touch, or be touched by,
anyone clean’.

Seeing Jesus being touched by Mary Magdalene

Simon thought:
How can this fellow be a prophet?
A sinful woman is touching him,
and if he were a prophet,
surely he would know it!

“Simon”
said Jesus, the mind-reading prophet,
“I have something to say to you.”

Simon said to Jesus

“Teacher,
do say it.
Have I something to learn from you?
After all,
we should always respect our betters”
[and so he casts another meanly disapproving look toward you
little knowing that Jesus is about to award you
point number two]

“A certain creditor”
began Jesus
“had two debtors.
One owed two years’ wages’ worth.
The other only two months’ worth;
but neither was able,
as it turned out, to pay.
So he, very graciously,
cancelled both their debts away.

Which of these two debtors, therefore

do you think, will love him the more?”

Simon in reply, scored four out of four…

“I suppose;
the one who was forgiven more.”

“Well, compare yourself alongside this woman.

When I came into your house, Simon
you gave me no water
to wash my FEET
but she, with her tears,
has lovingly bathed my FEET
and with her own hair,
has wiped my FEET.

You gave me no kiss, on entering,

as if to greet
but she has not ceased, since I came,
to kiss my FEET.

With oil you did not anoint my head,

like she
but with perfume she has anointed
even my FEET!

which proves that her sins,

though many, are indeed forgiven
since much love is shown
by those to whom much love is given.

But you love little

because little love have you been given.
By which I mean, Simon,
this proves that your sins
are not yet forgiven.

But Jesus told Mary:

Go in peace,
saved by faith.
Your sins I have forgiven.

[Your tears of hope now mingle with tears of joy,

but this joy you realise, with humbly saddened gratitude,
will be won at the heavy price
of his own life.]

Scandal #2

Now, secondly,
while the other Pharisees were grumbling
(that he claimed, again, to forgive sins by himself)
some of his own disciples were also scandalised
and indignantly mumbling
“Why this waste!
What is the point?
Why does she have to anoint?
Even his FEET!”

One disciple — the twelfth — Judas

(who was meaning to betray Jesus)
pointed at Mary, by way of a scold

“Why wasn’t this ointment sold?

It’s a whole year’s wages’ wealth!
Which could have been given to the poor.”

Now Judas had no concern for the poor

but said this because he himself was a thief
— pilfering from their own money purse
which had been given to him to nurse.

But Jesus scored the point to Mary

(that makes three out of three)

“Leave her alone

— Don’t bother her —
for she has honoured me well.

You always have the poor with you,

to benefit them whenever you wish to.
But you do not always have me with you.
She has done what she could do.
Let her keep the ointment
for the day of my burial
— since that is her very point
— to wash, then anoint, my corpse
— to prepare me ahead of time,
for my appointment with the tomb.
She has pointedly poured out this perfume
for the anointment
of my body
(and FEET).

She has done a truly remarkable feat

and a memorable good deed
And wherever this Gospel is preached
all the world will take heed.”

The Two Big Deals

Well!
Didn’t this firmly disjoint
the nose of Judas!
He then firmly appointed
his way to betray Jesus
for the blood MONEY
which the chief priests
had offered after Jesus
had raised Lazarus.

And so
Judas went away and settled the price of the contract,
on Jesus:

“Public Enemy Number One”

You see,
as soon as they heard that Jesus was back
the crowds had flocked out to Bethany
to see Jesus the wonder worker
and to see Lazarus the wonder man,
Mary’s brother.

So the frightened Chief Priests

out of pure jealousy,
had early on put out a contract,
advertising blood-money
and to this first blood-money contract
[which had sorely disturbed you]
they had added another:

“Public Enemy Number Two”

..they also planned

to kill the once dead Lazarus [your brother!]
— who was the source
of this latest and greatest news.
For because of him,
so many of the Jews
now disbelieved…
— disbelieved the teachings of the High Priests —
and concluded…
— concluded,
like Mary, that
Jesus
was indeed
the real Christ.

[Mary remains on stage

to witness and describe to all the other readers,
the awful betrayal,
arrest
and sentencing
and the crucial excruciating
criminal crucifixion
and burial of Jesus.

As for me, I’ll soon be gone.

I just can’t, from here on,
do rightful justice to all the emotion.
So I’m going to have to leave it to you]

End of Part Two:

The “cruc”-ial part is about to begin

..“Jesus, living as the Christ, offered to them self-sacrifice”…

Curtain closes;
but expectant background music carries on,
while you work on your immortal lines,
along the lines
of Matthew,
Mark,
Luke and John.

________________________________

PART THREE

— Self-Sacrifice —
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(You fill in the void, yes, you ‘flesh out’ his part
playing it your own way, putting into it, your own heart.
And so please ‘bring to life’, all that happened from here on
and attach meaning to his sacrifice, by carrying on…)
__________________________________________________

I can’t help you with this bit this time,

or ‘self-sacrifice’ for you,
so
‘So long’.

I suppose that the knack would be to ask for,

and expect
God’s Holy Spirit,
as promised,
to work His heart, through you.

And don’t worry — just trust —

that
— The Producer —
will get back to you, anon.

Post-script to the final scene:

The Jews had first tried to ignore and marginalise Jesus

and accuse him of trifling offences
— against culture
and religion
and tradition
and sanity

Then
with steadily increasing penalty
they had tried to slander him as a sinner
outlaw him as a Sabbath breaker
sentence him to stoning as a blasphemer
denounce him as a traitor

but finally had to settle with

crucifying him
“for being their king”.

Post-mortem:

So the only campaign

they won against Jesus
was this deadly war game:
saying
“When in danger of losing the argument,
kill your opponent.
You’ve got to be alive to reign
supreme”
This time they won.
(So they thunk)

But just when they had

“achieved their aim”
he once more controls the very end-game
(and comes up trumps)
 as you well can ascertain
— it is after all, his main claim to fame —
He simply broke all their rules, (again!),
and…

..rose to life.

_________________________
_________________________

CONTENTS & SOURCES IN FULL

Title page — Contents in Brief
BUILD-UP
The Cast
#Ge 28
The Plot
#Mt 27 #Mr 14
The Unbelief of the Religious Hierarchy
#Mt 23 #Lu 11
The Principal Characters Three
Entitle No Man “Master”
#Mt 23
The Character of Jesus
#Mt 3 #Lu 3 Revelaton
For the Sons of the Father
#Mt 23
But Is God My Father Angry with Me?
#1Pe 1
Religious Sorts and Missionaries
#Mt 23
2.The Character Pharisaical
#Ac 23
If the Mitre Fits, Wear It — Hypocrisy
#Mt 6, #Mt 23 #Mr 12 #Lu 11, #Lu 20
3.The Character of the Sadducee
#Mt 22 #Mr 12 #Lu 20 2Maccabees 4, #Ac 23
What Price a Swap? Satan Tempts Jesus
#Mt 4 #Mr 1 #Lu 4
The Temple Worship
2 Maccabees 5
Concerning Temple Donations
#Mt 23 #Mr 12 #Lu 21
Spotlight on the Temple (including temple cleansing)
#Mt 21 #Mr 11 #Lu 19 #Joh 2
Concerning Degrees of Holy Vows
#Mt 5, #Mt 23
? Swear to Tell the Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth?
#Mt 5
The Language Mix (-up)
#Mt 14 #Mr 6 #Lu 12 #Joh 6 #Ex 3
Who Were the Scribes and Lawyers and Levites?
#Num 18
So-Called “Experts” of Religion — Heavy legal burdens
#Mt 23 #Lu 11
Resetting Your Watch — to A.D. 30
#Lu 2 #Joh 18 Esther Daniel
PART ONE Act 1 9 Scenes Sacrilegious
Scene 1 The Setting of the Scene and the Rising of the Son
— Baptism & temptation
#Mt 3, #Mt 4 #Mr 1 #Lu 3, #Lu 4
Scene 2 The Mad Prophet — John the Baptist
#Mt 3, #Mt 14 #Mr 1, #Mr 6 #Lu 3, #Lu 9 #Joh 1, #Joh 3
Scene 3 Label#1— The Blasphemer! — Forgiving sins on Earth
#Mt 9 #Mr 2 #Lu 5
Festival Mood
#Joh 2
Scene 4 Libel#2— Drunken Carouser — Dining with tax collectors
#Mt 9 #Mr 2 #Lu 5, #Lu 15, #Lu 19
— The Prodigal Son
#Lu 15
Sorry Sinners — the Pharisee’s ‘Prayer’
#Lu 18
“Unfair!” They Shouted — The Generous Vineyard Owner
#Mt 20
Scene 5 Scandal#3 —The Ungodly Glutton —Fasting, Feasting & Wineskins
#Mt 9 #Mr 2 #Lu 5
About Rejecting God’s Purposes — Children in the Market place
#Mt 11 #Lu 7
Scene 6 Slander! — “Dirty Lawbreakers” — Washing and tradition
#Mt 15 #Mr 7
Cleanliness and Appearance
#Mt 23 #Lu 11
A Change of Mood
#Mt 8
Scene 7 Blasphemy Plus — A Change of Pace — Crippled for 38 Years
#Joh 5
Scene 8 Sacrilegious Robbing Hood — Eating holy bread
#Mt 12 #Mr 2 #Lu 6 #1Sa 21
Concerning Compassion — Tithing vs. Justice
#Mt 23 #Lu 11
Sabbath Breaker — Is healing lawful on the Sabbath?
#Mt 12 #Mr 3 #Lu 6, #Lu 13, #Lu 14
Scene 9 Capital Offence
#Mt 12 #Mr 3 #Lu 6
ACT 2
Scene 1 Outcast — Nazareth Sermon
#Mt 4, #Mt 8, #Mt 13 #Mr 6 #Lu 4 #Joh 1:11 #Isa 61
Doom for Spectators of Miracles — Denouncing Galilee
#Mt 11
Outlaw! — Elijah and Elisha
#Mt 15 #Mr 7 #Kings 2Chron
Scene 2 Traitor! — Roman Centurion’s slave
#Mt 8 #Lu 7
Consequences of Rejecting the Chosen Prince
— The Son’s Wedding Banquet
#Mt 22 #Lu 14
Criminal!
#Ex 12
Bloodthirsty Tyrant or Server of Justice?
#Heb 5-9
ACT 3 “I’m with you J.G.!” — the peasant Messiah gathers a following
Scene 1 “Sedition!” — Feeding 5000
#Mt 8, #Mt 14 #Mr 4, #Mr 6 #Lu 8, #Lu 9 #Joh 6
Scene 2 Egomaniac — Bread of Heaven
#Joh 6
Cannibalist??
#Joh 6
Scene 3 Peter’s Confession
#Joh 6
ACT 3 and a half — Various crowd scenes — Scene 4
#Lu 13
Devious Demagogue? Healing blind, dumb, deaf & lame
#Mt 12, #Mt 9
Shirker! — Feeding 4000
#Mt 15
Unholy Devil or Holy Spirit? — Beelzebul
#Mt 12 #Mr 3 #Lu 11
“What Delusions of Grandeur!” — Defeating Satan
#Mt 12 #Lu 12
“You Blackguards!” — Warning the Disciples
#Mt 10
Mother-Hater — Rejecting Mary
#Mt 12 #Mr 3 #Lu 8
Paranoid Schizophrenic or Simply Right? — Family Responsibilities
#Lu 12
Father-Hater! — Abraham
#Mt 8 #Lu 9 #Ge 11, #Ge 12 #Ac 7
Scene 5 Pretender to His Own Throne — Signs of the Times
#Mt 12, #Mt 16 #Mr 8 #Lu 11, #Lu 12
The King’s Counsel — Settling with Your Accuser
#Mt 5 #Lu 12
Scene 6 Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Beast? — Teaching of the Pharisees
#Mt 16 #Mr 8 #Lu 12
Scene 7 Lame-Duck Weaklings! — Epileptic delivered
#Mt 17 #Mr 9 #Lu 9
Scene 8 “Tax Cheat!” — Temple tax
#Mt 17
ACT 4
Set 1 Phoney!—Feast of Tabernacles Debate I—Where Christ Comes From
#Joh 7
Set 2 But HOW! — Nicodemus — Light of the World I
#Joh 3
Set 3 IMMANUEL — Feast of Tabernacles Debate II
#Joh 7 #Isa 7, #Isa 55
— Light of the World II
#Joh 8
Set 4 — Fathers and Sons
#Joh 8
Set 5 Bastard! — I AM
#Joh 8
ACT 5 The Good Shepherd — risks his life for you
Scene 1 The Cost of Seeing — Blind Man
#Joh 9
Scene 2 Neighbours
#Joh 9
Scene 3 Jesus or the Church, but Not Both — Excommunication
 #Joh 9
Scene 4 The Good Shepherd
#Joh 9, #Joh 10
Scene 5 The Wisdom of Solomon — I and the Father are One
#Joh 10
Ending of Part One…
#Mt 22, #Mt 26 #Lu 11, #Lu 14, #Lu 18, #Lu 19 #Joh 8
PART TWO
Beginning of Part Two
#Mt 21 #Lu 10 #Joh 11
Lighting the Fuse for THE FINAL YEAR
#Mt 24, #Mt 25 #Mr 13 #Lu 10, #Lu 21 #Joh 10, #Joh 12
“Sinning Deserves Death” — since John
#Mt 5 #Lu 16
Round 1 Divorce
#Mt 5, #Mt 19 #Mr 10 #Lu 16
Round 2 An Unaccredited Story about Adultery
#Joh 8
A Tick-List of Jewish Death Penalties
#De 27
Round 3 “You are ALL Sinners!” — Catastrophes
#Lu 13
Speaking FIG-uratively, as it were — the Fig tree
#Mt 7, #Mt 21 #Mr 11 #Lu 19
Round 4 How Not to Get into the Kingdom — What must I do?
#Mt 19 #Mr 10 #Lu 18
The Messiah Returns Fire
— What’s Waiting for the Rich in the Resurrection? — Poor Lazarus
#Lu 16
Be As Shrewd As Serpents But As Innocent As Doves
— Shrewd Manager
#Lu 16
Target Practice — Temple Cleansing
#Mt 21 #Mr 11 #Lu 19 #Joh 2
Round 5 The Authority of John The Baptist
#Mt 21 #Lu 20
Round 5.5 Destroy This Temple
#Mr 11:11, #Mr 19, #Mr 28 #Joh 2, #Joh 12:1
What Good Is a Mirror to a Blind Man? — Vineyard Parable
#Mt 21 #Mr 12 #Lu 20
“Shoot to Kill!”
#Lu 20
Just Answer Evil According to Its Evil —
#Lu 20
Round 6 Taxes to Caesar
#Mt 22 #Mr 12 #Lu 20
A Comprehensive Rebuttal
Round 7 The Resurrection and Heaven
#Mt 22 #Mr 12 #Lu 20
Round 8 Beyond Orthodoxy — to the Spirit of the Law
#Lu 20
The Greatest Commandments
#Mt 7, #Mt 22 #Mr 12 #De 6
Round 9
The Good Samaritan
#Mt 7 #Lu 10, #Lu 21:37 #Nu 22
 Exercises for Students
‘Be Silent in the Presence of the LORD’ — Whose Son Is the Christ?
#Mt 22 #Mr 12 #Lu 20
..And Listen to His Accusation against You — Woe, Woe, Woe
#Mt 23 #Mr 12 #Lu 11, #Lu 13, #Lu 20 #Joh 5
Application Form for Amnesty from Woes
Now, a Role for You — Mary Magdalene
#Mt 27f #Mr 15 #Lu 8, #Lu 10, #Lu 23 #Joh 11, #Joh 20
At Jesus’ Feet — Anointing with Oil
#Mt 26 #Mr 14, #Mr 16 #Lu 7, #Lu 24 #Joh 12
Scandal #1 — Simon Loves Little
#Lu 7
Scandal#2 — Mary Commended
#Mt 26 #Mr 14 #Joh 12
The Two Big Deals — Betrayal Public Enemy Number One
#Lu 22
— Blood money Public Enemy Number Two
#Joh 12
End of Part Two
PART 3 — Self-Sacrifice —
Arrest, Trial and Crucifixion
#Mt 26, #Mt 27 #Mr 14, #Mr 15 #Lu 22, #Lu 23 #Joh 18, #Joh 19
Post-script to the final scene
#Mt 27 #Mr 15 #Lu 23 #Joh 19
Post-mortem — Resurrection
#Mt 28 #Mr 16 #Lu 24 #Joh 20 #1Co 15