The Didymus Contingency

FOURTEEN
Beginning
30 A.D.

Jerusalem, Israel

Tom was up and moving at the crack of dawn. He knew it was the only way he could see the Pharisees without being noticed or questioned extensively by David. Tom worked his way through the streets of Jerusalem, which he was proud to say he had nearly memorized. Finding his way to the upper-city, street-side home of Tarsus was no problem.

Not having been to the upper city too often, Tom forgot how stunning it was. Not at all like the lower city, full of beggars, blind men and the pungent odor of filth. Here it was clean. The homes were spaced apart nicely, with landscaping and statue decorations. It was like stepping out of the middle ages and into the glory of Rome.

A pang of guilt struck Tom in the stomach as he approached and admired the smooth marble home. He had convinced himself he wasn’t betraying his friends. He wasn’t plotting against them, just gathering information. David was always one step ahead of Tom and it was time to educate himself. He would learn from his own sources what the future was going to bring. Tom knew that by the way David glared at the Pharisees whenever they crossed paths, they must have something to do with a resistance to Jesus’s claim to be God. He figured they must know something that David didn’t. They must know and perhaps be able to prove that Jesus was a fake. Tom was convinced of it.

Tom knocked on the hand-carved wooden door. No answer. He banged harder and thought he heard some movement inside. Crash! Something fell over and seconds later, the door flung open. “What? What is it?” Tarsus asked with his eyes half shut. “Every time I send Silva to the market…”

“Sorry, did I wake you?” Tom asked.

“Yes, yes. Now what do you-Wait, I know you… I’ve seen you with-”

“Jesus, yes, I’ve been traveling with him.”

“Yes. One of his intolerable disciples! Be gone with you or I’ll fetch the Romans!” Tarsus fumed.

“Wait, please, hear what I have to say.” Tom said. “I think we have some opinions in common.”

Tarsus eyed Tom, “Meaning?”

“I’m as unconvinced by Jesus’s claims as you are,” Tom said.

Tarsus scrunched his lips together. “Explain yourself. How would you account for the miracles people say he does?”

“Sleight of hand, deception, some might call it magic,” Tom said as though it were nothing impressive.

Tarsus upper lip snarled. “Magic! The black arts! You mean to tell me, you, a disciple of this man believes him to be demon possessed?”

Tom wasn’t sure how Tarsus had made the leap from simple magic to demon possession, but reckoned these primitive people had yet to be introduced to the illusionary arts that were more science than magic. But if the modern day equivalent of a magic-using con artist was demon possession, so be it. “Yes,” Tom said plainly.

Tarsus smiled a toothy grin, “Indeed… Perhaps you would like to speak with some colleagues of mine as well?”

“I would,” Tom said.

“Come in, come in. Let me dress and I will take you to them,” Tarsus said with a full-blown smile.

Tom stepped into the home and closed the door behind him.

Tom managed to sneak back without waking anyone up. He had learned a lot, but not enough. He arranged to meet with the Pharisees again, and they had all agreed to keep their meetings a secret. Tom acted like nothing was different, but he felt different, somehow. He felt like everyone was watching him, like everyone knew. Maybe David was right; he was being paranoid.

Tom was sitting on the hard stone floor of Solomon’s Colonnade, which was a row of columns on the East side of the Temple. He had come to the Temple with David, Peter, Matthew, Judas and Jesus, but he had remained distant. He now sat ten feet away, leaning against one of the tall columns, admiring the view, lost in thought. Every time Tom came to the Temple, he found himself captivated by the beauty of the structure. Truly, his ancestors were master craftsman. Tom felt that if there were a God and God actually needed a house, this would be it.

From the colonnade, Tom could see the outer walls and columns of the Court of Gentiles, which he knew was full of merchants selling doves, sheep and cattle for sacrifice. There would be Jewish pilgrims from all over Israel and the Roman Empire, moneychangers, scribes and Pharisees. Tom calculated that the entire area took up around thirty-five acres of land. Beyond the Court of the Gentiles, no non-Jew was allowed.

Just beyond the Court of the Gentiles, was the Court of the Women, which was surrounded by beautifully carved columns. On the east side of this court were thirteen trumpet shaped containers, which Tom had learned were for voluntary money offerings. The floors were smooth with two-foot square tiles that led toward a grand, curved, fifteen step staircase. At the top of the staircase was the showstopper of the Court of the Women, the Nicanor Gate, which, when opened, led to the Court of Israel, where only Jewish men were allowed. The gate was a twenty-foot tall, arched doorway with shimmering, solid bronze doors, the glow of which could be seen reflecting on other portions of the temple.

However pleasing to the eye the temple was, there was always an ominous sign of the times, looming high above and attached to the temple. The Antonia, a Roman fortress, which towered above the temple, was constantly patrolled by spear wielding guards whose steel, scale armor and blood-red military cloaks could be seen from a distance. The fortress was plain in appearance but built of thick stone bricks. From its four towers, an enemy army could easily be kept at bay. During recent years, Tom learned it was where Pilate, the local Roman governor was housed. Tom wondered how people could worship or even believe in God while under such an obvious show of Roman power. Where was their God now?

“Tom, come join us,” Jesus said.

Tom stood up, not wanting to act any guiltier than he already had and approached his laughing friends, who were sitting on the ground, leaning against the smooth, white columns, engrossed in conversation. “And that works?” Judas asked Matthew.

“Without fail!” Matthew replied. “One look at the girth I lug around and most people believed I was capable of the act!”

“Your pockets must have been heavy with riches!” Judas said, wide eyed.

“It’s true, they were. But that was the life I lived before,” Matthew said, looking slightly ashamed. “Now I’m…” Matthew paused and seemed transfixed by something behind Judas. “…hoping that mob isn’t going to be trouble.”

“What?” Judas asked, perplexed by the statement.

Matthew stood to his feet quickly and pointed toward the Court of the Gentiles. A crowd was quickly approaching. Peter and Matthew jumped in front of Jesus, forming a formidably tall and wide wall. They had become experts at it over the past years. The mob stopped at the human blockade.

“State your business and be quick about it. You’re interrupting my time in the sun,” Matthew said.

A man from the crowd yelled, “We’ve come for Jesus, the demon possessed man!”

Matthew and Peter couldn’t help but smile. “I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place,” Peter said. “No one here is demon possessed.”

Another man from the crowd, less convinced then the first said, “You see! I told you demons couldn’t heal the eyes of the blind!”

“We know you are his disciples,” the first man said. “Let us see him with our own eyes. Let him tell us he is not possessed.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, as he walked around Peter and Matthew, into the view of the crowd. “I am not possessed.”

An honest looking man stepped from the crowd instantly, but was blocked from moving too far forward by Matthew’s thick hand. The honest man stopped and said, “The countryside is torn. How long will you keep us in suspense? Please, if you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Tom turned to David and whispered, “See, I’m not the only one who can’t understand the man.”

Cautiously scanning the area for hidden dangers, Tom’s gaze fell on David. Tom watched, as David remained silent, studying everything about the situation. He observed David’s facial expressions change from confusion to enlightenment. He could see in David’s eyes that he knew what was happening, what was going to happen. Before he could ask David what he knew, the crowd regained Tom’s attention when their words became familiar. They had called Jesus demon possessed.

The words he was hearing, the confusion of these people, were seeds he had planted. Apparently, the secret meeting with the Pharisees had gone well and they had taken his advice. The fact that Jesus was so hard to understand to a large number of people might be the evidence that Jesus was a magician. Upon hearing this from Tom, they translated magician to demon possessed, and while Tom did not believe in demons as much as he did not believe in God, he let them believe what they wanted. As long as they could mobilize people into proving it was true.

Lowering Matthew’s arm, Jesus addressed the crowd, “I did tell you, but you did not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.”

Jesus began walking around the crowd. He continued, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.”

A man in the crowd flinched as Jesus took hold of his face, looked him in the eyes and said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

Jesus let go of the man and walked back toward Matthew and Peter. “My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

Jesus, now standing next to Matthew, turned and faced the crowd directly and said, “The Father and I…are one.”

The crowd exploded. Someone yelled, “He claims to be the Father! He speaks the words of demons!”

The honest man bent down to the ground and picked up a loose stone. “Let’s show him what becomes of blasphemers! Stone him!”

The crowd shouted with agreement and searched the ground for stones to hurl. Matthew and Peter pursed their lips and tightened their muscles, bracing for the inevitable. Judas walked backward slowly, past David and Tom, and shuffled away toward the temple. His exit went unnoticed as everyone’s attention was on the angry horde. The crowd, now armed with stones, paused, waiting for someone to throw the first stone.

David leaned over to Tom and whispered, “Be ready, this might be a close shave.”

Jesus addressed the crowd, showing no fear, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

The honest man stepped forward, “Not for your miracles, for your blasphemy! I wasn’t sure, but now I know. A mere man is claiming to be God the Father himself!”

“Is it not written in your law, ‘I have said…’?”

Tom whispered to David as Jesus addressed the crowd, “Why do I get the feeling you know what’s going to happen?”

“I’ve read the book, remember?”

“Well then, what’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you just said, ‘I read the book.’”

“All the Bible says about this moment in time is, “He escaped their grasp.”

“That could mean anything.”

“Well, be ready for anything.”

“Great.”

Tom looked back toward Jesus, who was finishing his statement to the crowd, “…that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

Jesus turned and walked toward Tom and David, seemingly secure in the fact that he made his point to the crowd that was now analyzing his words.

“That could have gone worse,” Tom said to Jesus.

“How fast are you, Tom?” Jesus asked.

“What? Why?” Tom was dumbfounded by the right field question.

“Run…” Jesus said through his lips, without moving his jaw.

“What?” Tom’s brow wrinkled with suspicion.

Jesus leaned in. “My time has yet to come. Run!”

“Stone him!” yelled a man from the crowd.

All at once, the crowd raised the hands full of rocks to the sky, prepared to pelt the blasphemous Jesus. Like an Olympic runner on the starting line, Jesus was off and up to speed in seconds; Tom and David ran right behind him.

With each step forward pushing David faster and faster, he realized he was in the best shape of his life. Before, he couldn’t have run ten feet at this speed without having a heart attack. The feeling of health and vigor spurred him on even faster and he sped past Tom and Jesus.

The crowd quickly made their way around Peter and Matthew, who only received a few bumps and bruises for their efforts. They pursued Jesus, Tom and David toward the temple, toward the crowded and busy Court of the Gentiles.

David, Tom and Jesus bowled through the Court of the Gentiles at full speed. Dove feathers burst into the air as the captive birds flapped their wings in a panic, brought on by the noise of Tom running into a moneychanger’s table, spilling coins everywhere and inciting a near riot of looting. The ensuing chaos bought some distance between them and the stone-wielding crowd, but the lead would not last long.

Jesus led the way into the Court of the Women, beneath a sign in Greek, which read: No foreigner is allowed within the balustrades and embankment about the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be personally responsible for his ensuing death.

Tom swallowed hard as he ran beneath and read the sign, which he had never noticed before, as he couldn’t previously read Greek. Could he pass as an ancient Jew? He wasn’t sure. He didn’t believe in God the Father. He didn’t know all the ancient Jewish traditions. He wasn’t even from this time! Crap! Tom felt like they were dooming themselves.

The few women that were in the Court of the Women paid little attention to Jesus, David and Tom, as they had slowed to a casual walk before entering the open court. The three made their way across the courtyard and up the curved flight of fifteen stairs that lead to the Nicanor Gate. They paused at the gate.

“This is a dead end,” said Tom.

“Through these gates is the house of my Father, who can never die.”

“It’s just an expression,” Tom said.

“And you say I speak in riddles,” Jesus replied.

David rolled his eyes, pulled open the large bronze door and shoved the two men inside. They were now in a narrow hall, which was empty at this time of day and led to the Court of Israel. There was a lower wall on either side, maybe ten feet tall. Tom ran to the wall and attempted to jump to the top. His hands struck the wall a foot below the top. David and Jesus ran to help him up as the voices of an approaching, outraged posse began to echo through the closed doors of the Nicanor Gate.

“We’re not going to make it,” said David, wondering exactly how Jesus was going to escape the crowd’s grasp. Could the Bible be wrong? None of the book’s authors were present-maybe they got the secondhand story wrong?

“Give me your hand,” came the voice of Judas.

Everyone looked up. Judas was on top of the wall, thrusting his arm down. In all the excitement, they had completely forgotten about Judas! Tom wasted no time and locked wrists with Judas. He was quickly hoisted to the top of the wall. Tom and Judas both threw their arms down and Jesus and David were quickly pulled up and over, just as the Nicanor Gate burst open.

The four watched from above as their pursuers rushed through the hallway and filled the Court of Israel like water streaming out of a spilled bucket. The noise attracted the attention of Levites standing guard in the next courtyard, the Court of the Priests. Four Levites, dressed in pointed hats and robes that contained pockets large enough to hold books of the law, entered the Court of Israel. These men were only slightly physically imposing, but carried all the authority of God when it came to defending the temple. They could and would kill, should a crime against the temple be committed. And the crowd knew it. To continue in their effort would be suicide. Granted, they could have overpowered the Levites, but doing so would mean certain death under Jewish law and would be an unforgivable crime against God Himself.

The mob skidded to a stop in front of the Levites, who didn’t have to say a word. Every good Jew knew that the Levites would kill in defense of the Temple if need be. Roman law forbade murder, even in defense of the temple, but crimes such as these were often overlooked. One by one, the people dropped their stones, fell silent and shuffled back out of the Court of Israel.

Jesus, David, Judas and Tom watched as the crowd dissipated. Now safe, they all relaxed and laughed with nervous tension.

“I fear Jerusalem may be too dangerous for us now,” Jesus said.

“Not as long as we have Judas around to pull us out of trouble,” Tom said, as he smacked Judas on the back. “Good job.”

Judas smiled. He had overcome the piercing fear that caused him to flee in the first place, and he had saved his friends’ lives. He was changing for the better. He could feel it. No longer would fear control his life. Brave. Reliable. Proud. These were the words Judas would use to describe himself from now on. He was sure people would see him differently; treat him differently.

Things were finally looking brighter for Judas.