The Gospel According to the Son

36

As the shadows in the great courtyard grew longer with the lowering of the sun, echoes kept returning of all that had been contested between the scribe and myself. Now that I could speak with no one to dispute me, I was more ready to say all that I thought. For I could see that my Father's cause would not prevail unless I was prepared to battle the powers of this Temple, and the great walls of their thought. So I must speak with the mightiest words I could find. Indeed, I could hear the voice of the Lord coming forth from me without errant thoughts of my own. There were Pharisees still among us, and I began by saying: "The elders sit in the seat of Moses, and the Great Temple of Jerusalem is their throne. Whatever these elders bid you to observe, observe it. But do not do as they do. For they lay heavy pieties on men's shoulders, yet they will not raise a finger to move our burdens. Rather they look for the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at feasts."

Immediately, the Pharisees stirred. Some began to leave. Yet a few, as if twice fortified, remained to spy upon what I would say further. So I mocked them. I spoke in their voice as if I too were a Pharisee. " 'Look upon me,' " I told them. " 'Am I not prosperous?'" And then said in my own voice, "Do any of you grieve over the bent fingers of the old woman who embroiders the fringe of your prayer shawl?"

Bolder Pharisees began to hoot and others, more timid, chose to leave. But I could also see the faces of those who had lost their houses through the sharp practice of others. "Why," I asked the Pharisees, "did you not feed the widow's children instead of acquiring the house? Slaves of Mammon! If you swear by the gold of the Temple, you will become a debtor to the Lord. Fools! You are blind! You pay tithes of mint and anise and cumin according to the Law and you omit the weightier matters of the Law, which are judgment and mercy and faith. You strain at a gnat and swallow a camel. You clean the outside of the cup and leave the inside full of extortion and excess. You are like sepulchers, beautiful and white, that are full of dead men's bones. You build the tombs of the prophets, yet you are the children of those who killed the prophets."

The Lord had given me these words, and at last I could speak in the brave voice of John the Baptist. I was truly his cousin. "Behold," I said. "I will send prophets to you, and wise men. Some you will kill and some you will crucify; some you will persecute from city to city. And upon you will fall all the righteous blood shed upon the earth until this day.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You have stoned those who were sent unto you!"

My words fell upon them. All the while, my heart was heavier than the blows they received to their pride. For my words were not false. I knew that these were my people and this was my Temple, and so I must mourn for Israel.

And I could see that it was time to leave. The Pharisees had summoned the Temple Guard.

Yet the throng who still surrounded me had been moved by my words. My people were so ready to protect me that they were like a tempest of whirling sand ready to sting the eyes of any man who interfered with my leaving. Some of the guards held rocks in their hands. But not one was thrown. No man laid hands on my garments. My hour was not come. The guards approached and fell back, approached and fell back, and my eyes told them not to touch my cloth.

In that manner, I departed from the Temple on that first day.