Andrew the Friend – part 4

Thursday
On 15th Nissan, Mary and Martha came with Lazarus to celebrate Passover with us. Martha got busy organising the buying of a lamb, big enough to feed all of us, and small enough to make sure it would all be eaten before dawn. Lazarus and Judas took the beast to the Temple and waited in line to see it slaughtered by the Priests. We live in a very special time. For generations we have not had a Temple where we have been able to perform our rituals, and now we do. Truly we are a blessed people.

Mary, Martha and the servant working for the follower who had offered his house for our use, had the job of making enough unleavened bread for our Passover meal. The making of the unleavened bread is a skilled job, at least that is what mother always used to say. You have to mix flour and water together and cook it as soon as it is properly mixed. You can’t let it rise at all. If bubbles start to appear as it is cooking, then you have to quickly prick it all over with the tip of a knife. In the story of the Exodus from Egypt we had to eat unleavened bread as we knew we were going to be leaving in a hurry and didn’t have time for the bread to rise. So we eat it now in remembrance of that night. It also has the advantage of being a very light bread, and as it is flat, easy to pack in your bag. We have often eaten it as we have travelled around. It lasts for days, but it does lack taste. In Jerusalem where there is little fuel, men and women from the local villages spend weeks before the festival making matzos for those who come without their own supplies. Still, at the end of the cooking marathon, Martha bought in more to supplement what had already been made, which she didn’t think would be enough for all of us, for the whole seven days of the festival.

The Seder meal took place in the large room of the house where we were all staying. When we began to gather from our errands around the city, Jesus was already there waiting for us. He had a cloth over his arm, and a bowl of water ready. He motioned to Peter to sit, so that he could wash his feet. Peter refused outright, saying that it was the job of a servant to wash our feet as a welcome, as we entered the house. Jesus told him that he was making the point, yet again, that the Kingdom of Yahweh was not like earthly kingdoms. In Yahweh’s kingdom it is those who are the least, that are the most respected, and we could not expect to take our places in the kingdom if we did not learn that lesson. At that Peter, as usual, went over the top and told Jesus that he should wash not only his feet, but his face and hands as well. Jesus laughed and clapped him on the back, and told him that washing just his feet would be fine. It was odd having my feet washed by Jesus. He took them into his hands so carefully and gently. He washed them making sure that all the dirt and dust of the road was removed and that they were completely clean. His touch and his care moved me beyond anything else he has done or said. It is good to be a servant in the Kingdom of Yahweh.

I think the Seder meal itself is like a dance, we take story and food, prayer and wine and we weave them together. We share and we join, we laugh and we cry, and sometimes we dance as well. We enter into the meal wholeheartedly, completely, fully. The Seder meal is something we have shared all our lives, so no matter who we are we all know the parts we have to play. After the first blessing and the first cup of wine, John as the youngest that night asked the four questions a child present would ask. ‘Why is tonight different from all other nights? Why do we…’ And Jesus wove the narrative of the Haggadah to tell the story of our escape from Egypt. I looked properly for the first time at the Matza, the unleavened bread as one was broken and the small piece put back on the pile, and the large piece put safely away to be eaten later. We heard again of the urgency of the situation; that we had no time. John then asked why we ate no vegetables, only the bitter herbs, such as romaine lettuce or endive. It is eaten dipped in a sauce which is supposed to represent the mortar with which the Israelites bound the bricks together as they built for the Egyptians. It certainly looks like mortar, and some samples I have seen could be used to build houses. It tastes no better either. We also dipped parsley in the salt water and ate it, and were reminded of the tears of the slaves kept in captivity in a strange land. Not one dipping, but two, something we would never usually do, and so the child has to ask why? Then the final part of the story. Why is the meat exclusively roasted? The story here dips into the strange way in which we left Egypt; that Yahweh sent a great sickness over the land, and all of the firstborn were killed, from the son of Pharaoh, to the last sheep in the field. Only those who had smeared the blood of their sacrificial lambs on the posts of their doors, were saved. The passover lamb had to be roasted and eaten, and nothing was to be left over. The people had to eat with their cloaks and staffs at the ready, with all their belongings packed and ready to leave when the call came. With dawn and the discovery of death, with the confusion of the Egyptians, the Israelites slipped away to begin their long adventurous journey home.

Our Seder that night was like all other Seders across the land, in any places where Israelites meet together, until Jesus took again the afikoman, the large part of the broken Matza that he had put to one side. This night he blessed it and broke it into the olive size pieces required. His blessing was personal;
‘This is my body broken for you. Whenever you meet together break bread and remember me.’
The room fell silent as we all took in the words which Jesus had just said. Peter opened his mouth to say something, but Jesus silenced him with a look, put his piece of the afikoman into his hands and moved around the table giving us all our piece.
‘Now eat’, he said. And we all did.
He picked up the third cup of wine of the meal and blessed it and gave it to each of us in turn
‘This is my blood of the new covenant between me and you, between Yahweh and his people. When you meet together take wine and bless it and share it as you remember me.’
Then he picked up the fourth and final cup and began the words of the Hallel beginning with psalm 113

“Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, you his servants; praise the name of the Lord. Let the name of the Lord be praised, both now and for evermore. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised. The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high, who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth? He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of his people. He settles the childless woman in her home as a happy mother of children. Praise the Lord.”
Then we moved on the Psalm 114. When we reached to traditional end of Psalm 118 Jesus stood and stretched.
‘I would like to go and pray now. Who will come with me? There was a lot of groaning around the room as it was late. We had been busy all day, and eaten and drunk well, but we reluctantly gathered our cloaks and headed towards the door. As we were letting ourselves out of the door someone suddenly asked ‘Where is Judas, he was here not so long ago?’ Everyone turned to look at Jesus. ‘He has gone to do what he must do. Let us go.’
And at that moment he looked unbearably tired and sad.

Andrew the Friend – part 3

Wednesday
Preparations for Passover begin on the 14th day of Nissan. No matter where you are, it is a special time of year, but we were in Jerusalem that year. Everyone who can, comes to the city at the centre of the world, and the world is there to greet them. Passover is one of our three pilgrimage festivals together with Shavuot and Sukkot, and we are expected to travel, leaving behind only those needed to watch and guard or who are too infirm to make the journey. In Jerusalem Israelites gather from the four corners of the earth, drawn by the Temple and its Holy of Holies built for us by Herod.

But it is not just the ceremonies that draw us in. The markets flourish when there are so many people to buy. Merchants come from all over the place to hawk their wares, from Arabia to China and by ship from all around the Great Sea. You can buy everything from the vegetables, matzos and bitter herbs for the feast, through to cloth and metal work, pots and pans, wooden items of all kinds, in fact anything saleable can be found somewhere in the city. The colours; red and yellow woven into carpets and exotic fabrics, stacks of oranges, lemons and pomegranates raise the spirits and are such a change from the white of the rocks, the dull green of the olive trees and the blue of the sky. The smells are particular to a city. So many bodies living close to each other in the hot temperatures. The excrement, human and animal. Offal from the slaughter of the animals required to feed so many people. Rotting vegetables left over from the markets. The stray animals eating what they can scrounge from the streets. The smells of exotic herbs and spices layered over the other less pleasant smells, and around every corner food for sale, being prepared in doorways and on street corners, fresh fruit and olives, bread and fish, wine and fresh clean water from the city well.

Added to the other smells on this day in particular is the smell of burning. Moses was commanded by Yahweh that we should eat lamb and unleavened bread before the escape from Egypt, so to make sure the ritual cannot be contaminated, all leaven is burnt. Every uneaten bit of bread or anything made from flour that can possibly have risen, even just a little bit, is burnt. We keep bits of bread specially to make sure we have burnt all leaven. This day is also the Fast of the Firstborn. Jesus as a first born, and a son always observed this as a Fast day. I am not, so I didn’t need to, but somehow we all usually ended up fasting until sunset, no matter where we were at the time. It would have been difficult moving around the food markets, but Jesus was insistent that we join him in the portico of the Temple. He seemed possessed by an energy that we had never seen before. It felt as if he was somehow running out of time, to teach us, to teach the people. And he was, though we still did not see it, we still could not read the situation around us.

Andrew the Friend – part 1

For the first time I have no congregation to try out my stories on, so here goes:

Palm Sunday
He kept on telling us that all would be clear on the third day. We had no idea at all what he meant. We should have done he told us in different ways at different times repeatedly, but still we did not understand. How could we, what was to happen was so far beyond our experience of life that we could not make sense of it. Even in the middle of what was going on, nothing made sense.

The last day anything made sense was the day we spent with Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany. We ate and drank slept and talked just as we had always done, and if Jesus was a little distracted, we did not notice. I did not notice. When we got up that morning Jesus sent James and I to a field just outside the village. He told us that we would find a donkey and a colt there. We were to bring them back to the house. James asked the sensible question,
‘Does the owner know we are coming for his donkey or are we stealing it?’
Jesus turned a stern eye on him,
‘I have taught you that you should love your neighbour. If you love your neighbour you do not steal his donkey. If he says anything to you, just say
“The Master has need of it”, he will understand and let you take the animal.’

And he was right. The owner came storming out of his house when he saw us inexpertly trying to put a rope around the neck of the donkey – why did Jesus send two fishermen to do a farmer’s work! – but as we yelled the words Jesus had told us, the man lowered the club he was waving at us, said “Alright” and went back into his house. When we finally got the rope around its neck, the donkey came willingly, and its colt trotted by its side without us needing to put a rope on it as well.

When we got back to Lazarus’ house, the others had had a good laugh at our difficulties with the donkey. We stood around looking at the animal and began to realise that if Jesus were going to want to ride in this beast we should have borrowed a blanket to put on the animal’s back to make the ride more comfortable. Peter, as usual was the first to offer a solution. He stripped off his cloak, folded it and put it over the animal’s back, then turned and looked challengingly at the rest of us. I took my cloak of as well, and so did Matthew, and by that time the animal was well padded. But we were rather bothered. Why did Jesus want to ride into Jerusalem? Jesus walked everywhere. There was the long impatient stride when something needed doing or saying quickly or an amble as he talked and taught, but he always walked. He was occasionally offered a beast to ride by a supporter, but always turned the offer down. Why now on this short walk did he want to arrive in Jerusalem on a donkey?

Judas had long and often told us that he was waiting for Jesus to mount a big horse, wave a sword and gallop through the streets of the villages and towns raising an army to challenge the Romans. Most of the rest of us could not imagine that happening. Oh there is no doubt that Jesus could have raised an army. He was charismatic enough. He was well enough liked. People may well have laid down their lives for his cause, but his cause had never appeared to be rousting the Romans. His cause was the relationship between Yahweh and his people, and to the Romans he was supremely indifferent, it was people he was interested in, and if on occasions they were Romans or Samaritans, then that didn’t seem to matter. For all there was the possibility of a relationship with Yahweh, if they just turned to him

So we set off down the road to Jerusalem in silence, wondering what was going to happen, if anything. When we got to the bottom Jesus stopped the donkey and turned to us,
‘Go on ahead and let the people sitting at the gate know that I am coming.’
So we went on ahead, and told the people at the gate that the prophet Jesus of Nazareth was on his way. Much to our surprise the conversations stopped and the able bodied got up. Some went to tell their friends that Jesus was coming, some started to climb nearby trees, and break into gardens, and strip the palm trees of their branches, these they threw down onto the road. Children picked some of the branches up and began to wave them experimentally. Some of the less able stood and removed their cloaks and laid them down in the road, then as Jesus approached the gate the cry went up from one old man, quoting from the Psalms;
‘Hosannah to the Son of David, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’
The cry was picked up by people next to him, and the next, until in the narrow confines of the street, the echoes were bouncing off the walls, repeating ‘Hosannah’ again and again. People came out of their houses and stood, some just watched, others joined in. In one place the noise dropped for just one moment and a clear voice could be heard complaining at the noise. Jesus, who had been looking steadfastly forward and onward, turned his head and said softly, though all around heard,
‘Even if these people did not shout for me now, the very stones of these houses would shout out.’

We headed resolutely upwards through the streets until we reached the Temple Mount, there Jesus got off the donkey, and handing the reins to a nearby man, asked him to return it to its owner in Bethany. He then walked though into the Temple, sat down in the Portico, and began to teach, as if nothing different had happened.

At our meal that evening, in the house of one of our followers, the question was raised as to why Jesus had wanted to come into Jerusalem on a donkey. Jesus himself said nothing for quite a while, letting us argue about the custom of throwing things in the path of an important visitor. Then someone said that Romans liked to wave palm branches when they had great triumphal processions welcoming their heroes home from battle. Jesus had not been in a battle, so that was dismissed quickly. When we had argued ourselves out, we all turned to him.
‘Who is right,?’ we asked.
‘None of you are.’ he replied ‘In the writings of the prophet Zechariah, he prophecies that Zion’s king will come victorious, riding on a donkey. Today I have fulfilled that prophecy.’
We were all silenced. We had fought no battle, won no victory, so how could he be victorious? Jesus looked at us each one by one, and seeing no spark of understanding in any of us, sighed, and turning, wrapped himself in his cloak and settled himself to sleep. We looked at each other in silence, knowing that yet again we had failed him, somehow.

The Grumpy Gardener makes a decision – part 2

A few days after the ascension story broke over Jerusalem, I was walking through the streets towards one of the meeting places of the Apostles, Rabbi Jesus’ closest followers, to sit and listen to the stories they were to tell of him to those who gathered, when I heard to cry of ‘fire’. I began to run towards the cries to see whether I could help. In a place where houses are built so close together a fire could kill many many people. As I skidded round the corner into the open area I was heading for, a door slammed open and a group of men dashed out from one of the houses. Just for an instance it looked as if they had tongues of flame licking at their hair. I looked away from them to see if I could see some water anywhere, but when I looked back, the fire had gone. I stopped in astonishment. I blinked and looked again. I must have imagined what I had just thought I had seen. The men who had exited so precipitately milled around for a few minutes talking and laughing, and a man next to me turned to go muttering that he wasn’t going to stand around watching a whole lot of drunk men make fools of themselves at this hour of the morning.

One of the men, whom I recognised as Peter, must have had the ears of a cat, for he turned sharply and said ‘We are not drunk, at least,’ he amended, ‘we have had nothing alcoholic to drink. We have just been touched by the Holy Spirit of Yahweh, we have been filled to overflowing with words to speak and stories to tell.’ Then the men began to flow out into the crowd that was gathering, and began to talk to small groups of the people standing and watching open mouthed at what was happening. One of the men, Andrew I think it was, came to where I was standing and began to talk. For the first time I heard my own language on the lips of a man from Galilee. I stood astonished as he praised and glorified Yahweh in my tongue. After a while I looked around at the faces of the other people milling around. There were many people there swarming in to the area to find out what was happening. As well as natives of Jerusalem there were merchants, travellers and soldiers from all corners of the Roman Empire gathered in that small square of land in Jerusalem, an insignificant city on the outskirts of the Roman Empire. Moving among us were a group of men who were, as I realised with a shock, talking to each one of us in our own language. I recognised odd words floating up into the air from a number of tongues I have tried to learn. I turned away from what Andrew was saying, and listened to other men talking, both Apostles and hearers. All were astonished at what was happening.

Eventually as one might expect, a large contingent of soldiers arrived in full military uniform. They took aggressive positions around the perimeter of the area, but one of the soldiers who had been off duty and had found himself in the square as things began to happen, went to the commanding officer and gave an explanation to him. I have no idea what he can have said to explain what was happening before our eyes, but after looking suspiciously at us all, he shouted at us to move along and go back to our homes. The soldiers moved aside to let us all disperse back to where we had all come from.

No matter what the soldiers had wanted, a few hours later a crowd, bigger than this mornings gathered in the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple, where once again Rabbi Jesus followers had gathered. As well as praising God, the Apostles were now preaching and teaching, and moving among the crowd laying hands on the sick, and healing them in the name of Jesus. They called on the crowd to repent and to be baptised in the name of Jesus. So the crowds moved to the pool of Siloam, and thousands of them came to believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus and were baptised by the Apostles. Including me.

Jerusalem was in a ferment for weeks. Peter and John were arrested by the Sanhedrin for healing a crippled beggar. They preached Jesus message to the Sanhedrin, with such fluency that those learned men were astonished that simple men from Galilee could talk in such an authoritative way about Yahweh. As the crippled beggar was also standing before them complete and whole, and giving thanks to Yahweh in Jesus name, there wasn’t a lot they could do, so they released them all.

Many of those who had first heard the Good News on the day of Pentecost returned to their own lives and their own countries. For the last few months I have spent as much time as I could in the Temple and privately sitting at the feet of the Apostles, along with many others, who like me were utterly captivated by the message of Jesus. I know that I have neglected my garden, and my master is now questioning my commitment to him and it. I am torn about what I must do next. I know that Rabbi Jesus thought my garden to be a piece of heaven on earth, and I feel that I should preserve it in his memory. But the Apostles believe that he will be returning to earth again, soon, to establish Yahweh’s kingdom here on earth. Believers here are now living and sharing all things together. I have little enough to share, but what I have is shared with all. The Apostles have commissioned from among our number believers to help look after the growing number of believers in Jerusalem and further afield. Some of the Apostles have already left to travel as the spirit wills to preach the Good News. I feel now that I must return to my own country. I believe that the Spirit is leading me to go and preach and teach, but I am a gardener. My words are in the beauty of my plants and the arrangement of them in my garden. Peter tells me that he is only a simple fisherman from Galilee, but when he wants words he calls upon the power of the Holy Spirit to help him say what is in his heart. If the spirit is moving me to return home, then the spirit will give me the words to say. So I have a decision to make, to stay or to go. Help me Lord Jesus to do what you want me to do. Amen. So be it.

The Grumpy Gardener – part 2

“You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”Psalm 139:5&6

The day after the raid on the garden when I was still clearing up the broken leaves and trying to shape the plants again to my satisfaction, my Master came walking in the garden bringing with him a kindly faced man, who came up to me and introduced himself as Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth. He then apologised for the incursion by his followers and the damage they had wrought in the garden. He looked around in some wonder, and asked me to give him a guided tour. I looked around for my Master, but he had gone, so I led Rabbi Jesus to in turn to each of the beds in the four quarters of the garden. I had had to build raised beds for the plants, as the whole city is on a rocky promontory and its soil poor and thin. The raise beds mean that the smaller plants are nearer eye and nose level, and the trees for a dappled canopy above, so I was really happy with the results. I got really enthusiastic when I talked about ‘fine sandy soil’ and ‘manure from camels and donkeys’. I showed him the fragrant citrus plants; oranges and lemons, planted at intervals along the edges of the beds, with the poor date palms at the four corners of the garden. Under trees of almond, cherry and peach, the beds are planted with fragrant roses and lavender, with blue grey artemisia to set off the pinks of the roses, and through the mounds of lavender, in their seasons, are hyacinths and scilla, their blue flowers enhancing the blue of the little lavender flowers. In their season, lilies grow in the shade of the pomegranate and red poppies wave in the gentle winds beneath the old olive trees.

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:7-12

At the end of the tour, Rabbi Jesus sat down on a seat near to the water fountain and motioned me to sit with him. He sat and contemplated the water for a while before saying,

“This is a place of paradise, a heaven on earth, and I am so sorry that it has been violated. What happened here yesterday was my fault. I came to Jerusalem riding on a donkey and my followers greeted me with palm branches and threw their cloaks before me. They see me as their king and messiah. The palm branches for us are a sign of a king, but I am not a king as this world knows it. Although my followers don’t yet know it, this was my final entrance into this beloved city. If my followers had not shouted their greeting, had not strewn palm branches before me, laid their own cloaks on the ground for the donkey I rode to tread on, then the very stones of the city would have shouted out a greeting to me.”

I looked at him in astonishment, wondering whether he was mad or deluded. He continued,

“I will not leave this city again. The Sanhedrin are preparing something for me, a trial and then my death, I believe.”

I looked at him shocked.

“If that is the case, then you must run away. You must escape.”

He looked at me, rather sadly, I thought,

“I cannot escape the task that I was born for. I have known all my life that Yahweh would ask much of me. It is only very recently that I have come to be certain that it is my life he requires.”

“But why are you prepared to give it?” I asked

“For you.” he answered simply, looking me straight in the face, “For you and for the rest of humankind. So that each of you will know and understand that Yahweh forgives each of you your sins, that he has provided me, his son to be an acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, both now and in the future. Your sins will be wiped clean with my death, and then all you will have to do is turn to Yahweh and love him.”

“But what about all the rules?” I asked

“The only rules I ask of you are, that you love Yahweh with all your heart, mind and strength and that you love your neighbours as you love yourself. These rules sum up everything the Priests of the Temple, the Rabbi’s and Teachers want you to do as a follower of Yahweh.”

With that he kept silence for a few minutes, while I tried to frame just one question out of the many that were bubbling around in my mind. He got up before I could say anything, rested his hand momentarily on my shoulder, and said,

“Any questions you have, wait a week, then ask my friends. They will be able to help you. Thank you for this vision of paradise. I will hold it in my mind as I face these next few days.”

He then released me, turned and quickly walked from the garden.

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” Psalm 139:13-16

Rabbi Jesus was right. On the Friday morning when I went to the market the place was buzzing with the news that overnight Rabbi Jesus had been arrested and tried and today he was going to be crucified. I rushed back to tell my Master, and together we went to Golgotha, the place of the Skull, where cruel Roman justice was meted out. There on a cross, between two thieves, was the man who had sat with me in my garden only a few days earlier, and opened my eyes to all the possibilities of loving Yahweh. I almost wanted to reject everything that he had taught me about the love Yahweh has for me, but he had told me that this was going to happen, and that in the end everything would be alright. Standing at the foot of the cross looking up at Rabbi Jesus hanging there wanting desperately to believe in and love Yahweh, and have his love in return, at that moment I didn’t see how it was possible.

“Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23&24

The Grumpy Gardener – part 1

AN HISTORIC PARADISE GARDEN

“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.”Psalm 139:1-4

The first time I heard these words I was standing in the portico around the Court of the Women, in the Temple in Jerusalem, and was listening in the distance to the Priests chant from their sacred scriptures. I had accompanied my Master to the Temple, as I regularly did, as I was fascinated by his god Yahweh. He had gone on through the Nicanor gate into the Court of the Israelites, to which he was entitled as an Israelite. I was and am a Gentile, a stranger in this land of Israel. On that day hearing those words I longed with all my heart to be able to be an Israelite, to be known by and to know such a powerful and loving God. But in order to be one, one has to be born of an Israelite mother. If you want to learn to become one, there are rules, lots and lots of rules, and the primary duty of an Israelite is to obey God’s rules. I am not good with rules. On that day I was unutterably sad.

“If only you, God, would slay the wicked! Away from me, you who are bloodthirsty!” Psalm 139:19

I am the least violent man that I know, but on this particular day I didn’t know whether to cry or to take my sharpest pruning hook, and go after the men who had clambered over the wall into my Master’s garden, the garden I have spent half my life creating for him. There had been a lot of chanting and shouting in the passageway outside the garden wall. The crowd, which judging by the volume seemed to grow with every new shout, seemed to be crying ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’. I had no idea what they were on about, so I just carried on tending my plants.

Then these men appeared at the top of the wall. They must have been pushed up on to the wall from the passageway below. They jumped down into the soft earth of the beds below, took their knives from their belts and hacked at the branches from the palm trees set in the corners of the garden. They took them and threw them back over the wall to friends outside who shouted for more. These were trees which I had carefully tended from seeds. They had not reached anything like the 100 feet or so that they should do when they are fully mature. It was not as if there was a lack of palm trees around the place, the Kidron Valley just outside the city wall was studded with hundreds of palm trees. Mine must have just been more convenient. When I ran towards the men to try and stop them killing my precious trees and trampling the plants in the beds, one large man wrapped his arms around me and held me kicking and shouting until they had taken all they wanted. When they had finished he dropped me back on the ground, and following his companions hopped nimbly back over the wall. I looked around numbly at date palm trees with no branches, with beds of flattened hyacinths and scilla, and I fell to my knees and wept. A life times work ruined in the matter of minutes, and for what?

“I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies. Psalm 139:22

My master was very forgiving when he came to walk in the garden in the cool of the evening. The garden is everything to him. For much of his long life he had been a merchant, travelling from China to Turkey, to Rome and the lands of the Franks and Britons. He found me in Persia working in a garden of such beauty and age that he was staggered. My teacher assured him that I was learned and strong, and that if he wished me to, I could create a garden such as his in his own country. So I came here, and with the help of local labourers, I have fashioned a garden here in Jerusalem.

All gardens in my country have water at the heart of them. It bubbles and runs and soothes the restless spirit. Building the rills and waterways, stepping them down the slope was easy, getting water to the top of the rills was much more of a problem. The water supply for Jerusalem comes from the Gihon Spring, but unlike any spring I have ever come across before, it only produces water intermittently, changing the number of times it flows each day depending on the season of the year. Back in antiquity the Israelites overcame the difficulties this brought to them trying to live in this barren place, by building a tunnel. In the days of King Hezekiah, the Tunnel of Siloam was built from the spring to a great reservoir known as the Pool of Siloam. My Master was given permission to build a small reservoir at the top of his garden with piping from the Pool of Siloam. Any water that we did not need was directed out into stone troughs outside the walls of our garden, from which local people could collect their water. I arranged the water so that it flowed down and across the garden, and bubbled up through a fountain that I had had carved for the centre of the garden. 

Nicodemus the Politician – part 2

 

I very quickly realised that although I had been dismissed by Pilate, he had not entirely let me go. Everywhere I went I would see someone following me, from the market to the Temple. I suppose they hoped I would lead them to Jesus, but they got no joy out of me. I tried to attend the Sanhedrin, but was barred by the Temple Guards. Joseph was also barred, so we would spend time together sitting in the portico talking, with our eaves droppers listening to our every words. By unspoken consent we did not speak about Jesus, nor did we try to contact his followers. Whatever was going on, they would be in a lot more danger than us if the authorities found them.

This went on for a couple of weeks, and we began to hear rumours around the city that Jesus of Nazareth had come back from the dead, and had been seen by a number of his followers. We heard that Roman soldiers had arrested and flogged a few people caught telling these stories, but it didn’t seem to stop them spreading. Then I had a visit from one of my kinsmen living in the town which I represented in the Sanhedrin. He told me that the council of the elders had been called together the following week to elect a representative for the Sanhedrin. I was not due to retire yet, so I was absolutely bewildered as to who had called for an election. My kinsman said that he didn’t know for sure, but the rumours were that the order had come from the top. I had a long talk with my wife, and then, despite what Pilate had said to me, I set off to return to the place of my birth to defend my position on the Sanhedrin.

On the day of the debate I arrived at the town Synagogue with my kinsman to debate with whoever had been chosen to challenge me. To my complete astonishment it was not a local man, as it should be, but Ananus ben Ananus the youngest son of Ananus ben Seth, and the only one of his five sons not already in the Sanhedrin. So this was going to be a Sadducee takeover of my seat on the Sanhedrin. Sat next to him was his oldest brother Eleazar, who had already served a one year term as High Priest. This was going to be no easy debate, not that I had expected it to be, but something was in the air. The senior Elder asked Ananus to begin. Perhaps I should have been prepared for it, but I had not expected to have to listen to a run down of my interactions with the ‘rebel Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth’; from going to listen to hear him speak when he was near to Jerusalem, to going to visit him at night. I was accused of defending him at his trial in the Sanhedrin, (I was moved to protest at this point, that I had only backed up Joseph when he pointed out that the law was not being fulfilled, but this was just swept over). The Elders were told that I had then gone to the Roman Governor to get his body, which I had buried, and then finally I had stolen it away in the night, leading to the most ridiculous claims that he had risen from the dead, which his followers were now trumpeting over Jerusalem and beyond. All this was said with a look of great sorrow on his face, as his words made me out to be, at best a foolish old man led through the nose by a charismatic rebel leader or at worse an old man who had decided to have one last throw at power, who threw his lot in with a man raising an army to try and defeat the Romans at great cost to the people. When he had finished I was fairly open mouthed. I had not realised how close a watch this lad’s father kept on members of the Sanhedrin. I mentally reviewed all the accusations against me. Well, most of the actions he had outlined were true, what was not true was the interpretation of what I had done, or his view of Rabbi Jesus as a rebel leader. I looked at the disproving faces of the elders, and decided that this was one verbal battle I was not going to win.

I stood up and gathered my cloak around me.

“Many of the actions that you have had laid before you are true, I did go to hear Rabbi Jesus speak, as I suspect many of you did, and so I suspect have both Ananus ben Ananus and his brother, since they are so well informed about what Rabbi Jesus has been teaching. I did go and speak to Rabbi Jesus at night, to have a personal conversation with him. I did raise a point of law during his trial, but every man is entitled to a fair trial. I did go to ask Pontius Pilate for his body to bury it, otherwise it would have been thrown into a pit dug by the Romans, which would have been sacreligious for any Israelite. I did not remove his body from the tomb, nor cause any other man to remove his body, nor have any knowledge of how his body came to be removed from the tomb. I assure you that, on my honour, and you have known me to be an honourable man for these many years that I have served you. Where I accept many of the accusations Ananus has laid on me, what I disagree with is his interpretation of them.”

Here Ananus leapt to his feet and began to talk over me. I stopped, and he stopped. He sat and I continued, with him glaring at me all the while.

“But I do not propose to give you my view of these events. I have at all times acted with honour, for the people of this town, and for Israel and its people, for Torah which I love and have loved from the moment my father whispered the first words in my ear as a baby, and for Yahweh who I love with all my heart. If you do not know this, and believe it, then I am a man without honour among you, and it is time for me to resign and return to my village.”

I looked at the faces around me, and read in them a mixture of disbelief of the innocence of my actions and pride in being singled out by such a well connected young man who wished to represent them now in the Sanhedrin. I knew there was nothing more I could do or say to change their minds, so I went up to Ananus and shook his hand, then turned and left the Synagogue. Moments later I was joined by my kinsman, and we walked out of the town, and in the direction of my village, and the house I still have there.

I returned to Jerusalem the day after the trial – Oh I know it wasn’t really a trial, but it felt like it. I had been found guilty by a gathering of the Elders, on the evidence of two witnesses who agreed, Eleazar and Ananus ben Ananus, and sentenced, to exile from Jerusalem and from all that I am. Yahweh gave me a brain and a heart for Torah. He enabled me to become a member of the Sanhedrin, and I served him faithfully there until now. Now I must return to my village, and be, what?

My wife knew by my face that something had happened to me. We sat down and talked late into the night. The following morning she set the servants packing up and cleaning the house. I went to the gate of the city and sat and chatted with the Elders there. One suggested someone who might like to buy our house, and someone else had suggested a woman he knew who was looking for some good servants. Our servants had been given the choice as to whether they would go into exile with us. One wanted to, but the others had families in the city and did not want to leave them. So we packed our possessions onto some hired donkeys and set off to the village where I had been born and grew up. Before I left I managed to see Joseph. He had been forced to resign, and like me was selling up and moving back to the village of his birth. We had been found guilty of the crime of disagreeing with Ananus ben Seth. His retribution was swift, but thankfully we were both spared our lives. I left Jerusalem never to return.

Nicodemus the Politician – part 1

The knock on my door came a couple of hours after dawn, and after I had only been asleep for a little while. I had not slept properly since participating in Jesus’ trial. Witnessing his crucifixion had been giving me nightmares every time I closed my eyes. The weather was also really warm, even at night, so I had divested myself of as much clothing as I could before finally falling into a fitful sleep. My wife opened the door to find six Roman soldiers standing outside. They demanded to know whether I was within, and on being told I was, they came in, and seeing me, hauled me out of bed. They would have dragged me out of doors with them as I was, but my wife protested so much that they at least allowed me to throw a robe over my head and hold it in place with a belt. She threw me a pair of sandles as I was hustled out of the door.

With a burly soldier on either side, I was walked rapidly up the hill towards the Temple complex. I tried to ask what was going on, but they just told me to shut up and walk. We passed by the entrance to the Temple, and I was marched through the gateway to the Antonia Fortress. As I was hustled across the courtyard, I heard some screams of pain, and turned to see two soldiers being given a lashing by their centurion. I was hustled on and quickly led into the presence of Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, who was there with Ciaiphas the High Priest and Ananus ben Seth the former High Priest, father-in-law to Ciaiphas, and the prime political mover behind the Sanhedrin. I could understand Ananus and Ciaiphas being together, but why were they here with Pontius Pilate? Before I had time to gather my thoughts together, Pilate stepped forward until he was almost nose to nose with me and aggressively demanded

“Where is he?”

“Where is who?” I asked, bewildered

“You know perfectly well who. Jesus of Nazareth.”

“But Jesus of Nazareth is dead, your soldiers crucified him. I was there, I saw it. They crucified him, and when he was dead they plunged a spear into his side to really make sure he was dead.”

“You took his body.”

“You gave Joseph of Arimathea and I permission to take his body and give it a decent burial. We had your soldiers with us from the moment his body was taken down from the cross, to the moment they sealed his body in Joseph’s tomb. The last I saw of the tomb was just as the sun was beginning to set at the beginning of the Sabbath. Joseph and I walked away back to Jerusalem to get home in time for the evening meal, leaving soldiers standing guarding the tomb, as you had ordered. What has happened, why am I here?”

Pilate stepped back from me and went to sit down, while he obviously calculated what to say to me next.

“You are here because the body of Jesus has been removed from the tomb. The guards say they were knocked unconscious, and two men wearing white robes took the body of Jesus away. Were these men your servants? If they were, you had better get them to bring the body back, or else.”

I did not know what to think at this announcement, I just looked at Pilate bewildered.

“I didn’t send my servants anywhere. We have been keeping Passover, so we did not leave the house until you came and fetched me from my bed. I expect the servants went out to the market at first light, but they have been with us all the time, until then.”

Ananus looked at me.

“I would like to believe you Nicodemus. You and I have known each other for many years, With the body gone, the followers of Jesus will begin to talk about him having come back to life, like that man Lazarus. They will rise up, and lead a rebellion against the Romans. I do not want any more of our people killed for following a misguided preacher from the countryside who has no knowledge about how this country is ruled and managed. I have worked hard with the Sanhedrin to keep us treading a difficult path with Rome. We have been allowed to keep our laws and our God with as little interference as possible. I want to keep it that way.”

Pilate spoke up again

“If the people rebel again I will give the order to kill them. I will arrest those who do not die fighting, and there will be crosses on every road leading out of this city, do I make myself clear Nicodemus?”

“You make yourself very clear, both of you. You wanted Jesus of Nazareth dead because you were afraid he would lead a rebellion against you, and challenge your authority. Now his body has gone you are afraid that his followers will take up his mantle, and his death will not have stopped a rebellion after all.”

“You are right. It was better that one man die than many be led to death by him.”

“And you three loose your positions and authority.” I said angrily. “You Ciaiphas trumped up charges against him to keep your position as High Priest, and you Ananus conspired with him. And you Pilate, did you already know that you would be asked to confirm the death penalty?”

Pilate didn’t answer my question. He stood up and stepped forwards towards me again.

“All of that is irrelevant. What matters now is that you hand over Jesus’ body so that it can be taken and buried where it will never be found.”

I stood up straight in front of Pilate and looked him straight in the eye.

“I am sorry, but even if I knew where the body of Jesus was, I wouldn’t tell you, but on my honour, I have no idea.”

I turned to look at Ananus again.

“I don’t suppose that it has occurred to you that he has actually come back to life? I was there when he brought Lazarus back from the grave. He told us in the Hall of the Hewn Stones that he was the son of Yahweh, so why should Yahweh not have brought him back to life as well?”

Ciaiphas spoke for the first time,

“You are an old fool. Of course he has not come back from the dead. That can’t happen. You have been hoodwinked by a man with magical powers given to him by Satan.”

I looked at Ciaiphas, and opened my mouth to challenge what he had just said, but one look at his face told me that his mind was completely closed to anything I might say. So I closed my mouth again. Ciaiphas looked contemptuously at me.

“You know in your heart you have been hoodwinked, but you are not going to admit it, are you?”

Pilate spoke again.

“You had better tell me the truth now, as there are men questioning your wife, children and servants. If they hear one little thing that they think is false, they will arrest them, and bring them here for further questioning. I might not be as gentle with them as I am with you.”

I shuddered at what that might mean for my family, but reiterated again that I had not taken the body of Jesus of Nazareth, and had no idea who might have done so. The three of them kept at me for a couple of hours, but there was nothing I could tell them. Eventually the door opened and a soldier came in and whispered to Pilate, who looked at Ciaiphas and Ananus, and nodded. He looked at me.

“You can go now. But do not leave Jerusalem.”

I headed thankfully towards the door. I had not thought that they would let me go. I left the Antonia Fortress, and almost ran back down the hill towards my house. My wife fell in my arms as soon as I was through the door. She had not known whether she would ever see me again.

Nicodemus the lawgiver – part 3

I can’t say that I slept. Early morning found me praying, and reading Torah. I then left the house to go to the market to get some food to eat. Much to my surprise the usually quiet streets were bustling with people, and many of them on seeing me, turned their backs on me. I had no idea what was happening. When one stall holder refused to serve me, and another looked as if he was going to do the same, I took his arm and turned him to face me

‘What have I done that you are treating me like this?’

‘Your clothes proclaim you a member of the Sanhedrin, so know what you have done. You have condemned Rabbi Jesus to death. Even now the Roman soldiers are putting up the uprights of their crosses at Golgotha, and before the sun is much higher in the sky, Rabbi Jesus, carrying his own cross beam will be walking past here to Golgotha where the Romans will nail him to the cross and hang him until he is dead. And you don’t know why everyone is angry with you? Rabbi Jesus is the Messiah who was going to lead us out of this Roman rule. What hope is there for us now?’

I felt the blood leave my face. I dropped the man’s arm, and turned and almost ran to the Temple complex. I hurried through to the High Priest’s house, where my way was barred by members of the Temple Guard. Nothing I said would make them let me through. Ciaiphas was not receiving visitors today. I tried a number of rooms around the temple, but could find no one who could or would tell me anything. I became conscious of an angry noise coming from the city around the Temple, as if a swarm of angry bees were about to swarm, and then a great groan arose. and I knew that I must be too late to do anything. Rabbi Jesus was now on the cross.

I left the Temple and slowly walked to Golgotha. I didn’t really want to go there, but my feet just seemed to go in that direction. When I got there, I got such black looks from people in the crowd, that I just stood towards the back. I could see the three figures on their crosses silhouetted against the sky, and I could see a small group of women, with one man in their midst standing near the foot of the central cross. I watched Rabbi Jesus gather himself to face the pain as he straightened his legs pushing on the nail going through his feet as he raised his body to allow himself to take a deep breath. I could see the cost in his face, and in his mother’s, for it was surely she standing there watching. Surely he couldn’t keep going like this for long could he? It was agonising just to watch. As I stood indecisively there, a hand grasped my arm. I turned and looked into the drawn face of Joseph of Arimathea.

‘Will you come with me to Pontius Pilate?’ he asked ‘Will you come with me to ask that we can have the body of Rabbi Jesus to give it a decent burial? His family have no means of burying him today, and it must be done before the Sabbath begins. If no one claims his body, he will just be thrown in a pit dug by the Romans. We owe him more than that.’

I turned, and together we went to the residence of the Roman Governor. Joseph used all his famed skill in rhetoric to get us in, and to persuade Pilate to let us have the body. He told Pilate that he would bury Rabbi Jesus in his own tomb, just outside the city wall. Pilate eventually agreed, with the proviso that Roman soldiers would be left to guard the body for a week to stop anyone from stealing the body. I went to get a burial cloth and spices to anoint the body, while Joseph went to get his servants to to open up his tomb in readiness.

We returned to Golgotha just as the sky turned black and Rabbi Jesus cried out from his cross ‘ It is finished’ and died. Neither of us could move for shock for quite some while. It had all been rather quick, for the other two men were still alive. The Roman soldiers didn’t believe it either, and after about half an hour, one of them thrust his spear in the side of Rabbi Jesus, and blood and water came out. The Rabbi was truly dead.

Joseph moved forwards to speak to the Centurion overseeing the crucifixion, and gave him the letter of authorisation from Pilate. I moved to speak to his shocked mother, to reassure her that we were friends of Rabbi Jesus, and that we had arrange to take his body to be buried decently. At this point his mother turned to the young man next to her, and wept onto his shoulder. She wept again when the soldiers took down the body of her son and laid it in her arms. She wept when Joseph waved forward two of his servants who had arrived with a handcart to take the body to the tomb. She wept as his body was quickly wrapped in grave clothes, and was pushed through the emptying streets escorted by a group of soldiers, and she was dry eyed as Rabbi Jesus’ body was gently placed in the tomb, the tomb sealed and a guard set. Joseph and I watched as she walked away leaving the body of her only son in a stranger’s tomb. We walked away knowing that what we had just done was too little too late.

Nicodemus the Lawgiver – part 2

A servant was sent to bring me to the Hall of the Hewn Stones late on Thursday evening. When we were all seated, Ciaiphas announced that he had sent some of his servants, and a small number of the Temple Guard to find Rabbi Jesus and bring him to stand before us to answer for his actions. He had now been found, and was on his way. Ciaiphas said that he had been gathering evidence, and would be putting a case before us. It seemed a very odd hour to be beginning a trial, and I wondered what Ciaiphas was up to.

Rabbi Jesus was brought before us with his hands bound in front of him. The Temple Guards who had been sent to find him must have decided that he was very dangerous. As they shoved him into the centre of the semi circle of benches, he stumbled, and fell down onto one knee, but he managed to get himself upright again, and stood there calmly looking around at us all examining our faces one by one, with not a trace of fear in his eyes. Several men began to throw questions at him, some began to make accusations, but he just continued to look at them all, without uttering a single word. For a trial this was not going well. The defendant was not supposed to look so unconcerned either about where he was, nor the people accusing him or the charges that were being levelled at him. Nothing that was being said was having any impact on him. Finally he turned to face Ciaiphas who had sat down in his seat. Rabbi Jesus stood there looking directly at the man who was about to lead the formal accusations against him.

‘I have witnesses here who have seen you commit many deeds which are against the law.’

Rabbi Jesus just looked politely interested as a stream of men were brought before him, and made the most ridiculous unsubstantiated accusations I have ever heard. Some of them were at best just a misinterpretation of something that the Rabbi had said, and at worst were a complete fabrication. None of them met the test in law, that a fact had to be agreed by two or more male witnesses. None of them seemed to be able to agree on anything. Ciaiphas seemed to be getting more and more agitated. At one point Joseph of Arimathea was moved to ask Ciaiphas why we were all here, as no one had yet presented a case for Rabbi Jesus to answer. At that point Ciaiphas left his seat for a few minutes, and went off to consult with a figure standing in the shadows in one back corner of the room, When the shadowy man moved to leave the room, I realised that Ananus ben Seth had been watching the proceedings. Soon after he had left two men were brought before Rabbi Jesus who both accused him of saying that he had said that he was able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.

A look of satisfaction came over Ciaiphas’ face and he stood up and pompously asked

‘Are you not going to answer this accusation? Are you not going to challenge the testimonly of these men?’

But as he had all evening, Rabbi Jesus remained silent just looking at Ciaiphas. Ciaiphas tried again

‘I charge you under oath by’ the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God?’

At this question all the noise in the room ceased and it almost seemed as if everyone was holding their breath. For the first time Rabbi Jesus opened his mouth to speak

‘You have said this, not me, but I tell you all, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.’

There it was, the declaration, before us all. A look of extreme satisfaction briefly flitted over Ciaiphas’ face, and he turned to look at the deep corner shadow where I expected he could see his father-in-law again. Then his face settled into serious lines, and he stood up and solemnly tore his robes.

‘He has spoken blasphemy. We do not need any more witnesses, you have heard him with your own ear. What do you all now say?’

A cry came up from the gathered Sanhedrin

‘He must die’

I turned and found the face of Joseph of Arimathea, who looked as stunned as I felt. Something was going on here that was not right. Ananus was behind it all, but what was he up to? Some members now got up and began to hit and spit at Rabbi Jesus. I had never seen anything like it before in my life, and frankly I never wanted to see such sights again. Whatever I might have thought about Rabbi Jesus when I went to meet him that night, his coolness, his calm, and his honesty shone through. Tonight I believed him when he said that he was the Son of God.

I could not join in with what was going on, nor did I think I could influence these men who seem to have had their minds made up for them. I slipped out of the chamber, and was quickly joined by Joseph.

‘What do you think went on there?’ he asked,

as we walked quickly across the Temple precinct.

‘I have no idea. Despite what has been said, we do not have the authority to put anyone to death, and I cannot believe that Pontius Pilate will put to death such a man. He will order his soldiers to flog him, and send him back to Galilee, threatening him with further punishment should he return to Jerusalem, but that will be about it. It will have all blown over by the morning.’

‘I agree,’ I replied. ‘Lets get out of here.’