The Gospel in Brief

Chapter Ten THE STRUGGLE WITH TEMPTATIONS

And therefore, in order to not fall into temptation, one should be united with the father every hour of one’s life.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

The Jews see that Jesus’s teaching allows a place for government, faith and nationhood, and consequently they see that there is no way for them to refute his teaching, so they decide to kill him. His innocence and the demands of justice slow them, but the chief priest Caiaphus invents an argument that allows them to kill Jesus.

Caiaphus says, “We do not need to reason out whether this man is just or unjust. We just need to reason out the following: do we or do we not want our nation to remain an independent Jewish nation, or do we want it to be destroyed and scattered? This will happen if we let the man continue and do not kill him.” This argument resolves the issue and the orthodox condemn Jesus to death, stirring up the people to capture him as soon as he appears in Jerusalem.

Jesus, although he knows about this, comes to Jerusalem for the Passover holiday. The students attempt to convince him not to go, but Jesus says, “What the orthodox want to do to me cannot change the truth. If I see a light, I know where I am and where I am going. Only he who does not know truth can be afraid or have any doubt about the future. Only the one who does not see can falter.” And he goes to Jerusalem.

Along the way, he stops in Bethany, where Mary anoints him with a bottle of expensive oil. Knowing that a quick death of the flesh awaits him, Jesus tells the students, as they rebuke Mary for pouring such expensive oil on him, that the balm she had poured out was to prepare his body for death.

As Jesus enters Jerusalem, crowds of people meet him and follow after him, which convinces the orthodox even more of the necessity of killing him. They await an opportunity to apprehend him, and Jesus knows that. He also knows that even the slightest incautious word against the law would give them reason to execute him. Despite this, he goes to the temple and again announces that the Jews’ former method of worship of sacrifices and libations is false. His teaching, based on the prophets, is such that the orthodox still cannot find any blatant violation of the law, by which they might have been able to condemn him to death.

There are gentiles at the celebration, and hearing the teaching of Jesus, they ask to speak with Jesus. The students become frightened that this conversation with gentiles will compromise Jesus and upset the crowd, but they decide to inform him of the gentiles’ wish. Hearing this, Jesus is confused. He understands that preaching before the gentiles would clearly demonstrate his rejection of the entire Jewish law and provide an angle for the orthodox to accuse him of wrongdoing. He also knows that his calling is to explain to people their unity as the sons of the one father, free from any distinctions of faith. Therefore he says, “Just as the wheat kernel must be destroyed in order for it to bear fruit, man must give away his mortal life in order to bear spiritual fruit. Whoever preserves his mortal life will be deprived of true life, but whoever does not care for the flesh will receive true life. I am confused by what awaits me, but I have made it to this moment in life, so why should I not do now what I am called to?”

Addressing the people, both gentiles and Jews, Jesus speaks openly about what he had only spoken of in secret to Nicodemus. He says, “All the varied faiths should be completely changed and all human power structures should be destroyed. You must come to understand man exclusively as the son of the father of life, and this knowledge will destroy all human divisions and unite all people as one.” To the Jews’ accusations he says, “I do not teach any sort of new faith, I just teach what everyone knows within themselves. Everyone knows that life is given to them and to all people by the father of life. My teaching simply consists of loving the life that the father gives to all people.”

Many of the simple people believe Jesus; the important and high-ranking ones do not believe since they are focused on the temporal meaning of his words. They decided not to seize him in the Jerusalem daylight, but somewhere in secret. One of the twelve students, Judas Iscariot, comes to them, and they bribe him to lead their men to Jesus when he is not surrounded by the people.

Jesus and the students celebrate the first night of Passover and Judas, thinking that Jesus does not know of his treachery, accompanies them. But Jesus knows that Judas has betrayed him and when they sit down to the table, Jesus breaks bread and offers each of the students a piece and gives them each wine from a cup, treating Judas no differently than the others. Not naming anyone, he says, “One of you will spill my blood, but I have fed him and given him drink and washed his feet. I do this in order to teach you how to behave with those who do evil to you.” The students all ask which of them is the traitor, but Jesus does not name him. When it had grown dark, Jesus points to Judas and commands him to leave. Judas stands from the table and runs so no one could stop him. Then Jesus said, “To exalt the son of man means to be as good as the father is, not merely to those that love us, but to all people, including those who do evil to us. Do as I have been doing and as you have just seen me do. I give you one commandment: love people. That is my whole teaching: always love people, until the end.”

Jesus becomes frightened and goes with the students by night to a garden, in order to hide. He grows sad as the students discuss how they will defend themselves. He goes into a deserted place and prays, prompting the students to do the same; but they do not understand him. Jesus says, “My father, spirit! End this struggle with temptation inside me. Make me strong enough to fulfill your will. I do not seek my own will, to defend my mortal life, but I seek your will, to refrain from opposing evil.” The students still do not understand him. He says to them, “Do not think about the flesh, but try to lift your spirits. There is power in the spirit, but the flesh has no power.” At another point he says, “My father! If suffering is unavoidable, then let it be. But even in suffering I have one desire, that your will be satisfied and not mine.” The students do not understand. And after more struggle with temptation, he finally conquers it, saying to the students, “Now it has been decided, you may be at peace. I will not struggle, but will offer myself into the hands of the people of this world.”

After this, the orthodox bishops began to investigate Jesus with all their resources, in order to somehow find a way to destroy him. They gathered into a council and began their examination.

They said, “We need to stop this man somehow. He proves his teachings in such a way that if we do not stop him, everyone will believe in him and give up our faith. Already now, half the people have come to believe in him. But if the Jews believe in his teaching that all people are the sons of one father and are brothers, that in our Hebrew nation there is nothing special to separate us from other nations, then the Romans will completely overtake us and there will be no more Hebrew kingdom.”

And the orthodox bishops and scholars were in council for a long time and could not think of what they ought to do. They could not come to a decision on killing him. And then one of them, Caiaphus, who was the chief priest that year, came up with the following argument. He said to them, “We must remember this: it is useful to kill one man so that a whole nation does not perish. If we leave this man alone, then the nation will perish, I can predict that for you, therefore it is better to kill him. Even if the nation does not perish, at the very least it will be scattered and lose its unity of faith if we do not kill Jesus. Therefore it is better to kill him.”

And when Caiaphus said this, everyone agreed that there was nothing else to think about and that they must not fail to kill Jesus. They would have taken Jesus and killed him right then, but he hid from them in the desert.

And the Passover holiday approached. At that time, many people descended on Jerusalem for celebration. And the orthodox bishops counted on the fact that Jesus would come with the people to the celebration. And they announced among the people that if anyone saw Jesus, they should bring him to them.

It happened that six days before Passover Jesus said to his students, “Let us go to Jerusalem.”

And he set off with them.

And his students said to him, “Do not go to Jerusalem; the bishops have now decided to beat you with stones. If you go, they will kill you.”

And Jesus said to them, “I cannot fear anything, because I live in the light of knowledge. And just as any man who walks during the day and not during the night, in order not to stumble, likewise, every man can live by knowledge in order to not doubt or fear anything. Only the one who lives by the flesh can doubt and fear; for the one who lives by knowledge, there is nothing doubtful, nothing frightening.”

And Jesus came to the village of Bethany, not far from Jerusalem, to visit Martha and Mary. And the sisters made dinner for him there. And when he sat down to dinner, Martha served him. And Mary took a quart of expensive, pure, fragrant oil and poured it out onto Jesus’s feet and wiped it with her hair.

And when the smell of the oil had spread throughout the house, Judas Iscariot said, “Mary has wasted that expensive oil in vain. It would have been better to sell that oil for three hundred grivna and give it to the poor.”

And Jesus said, “You will always have the poor with you, but soon, I will not be with you. She has done well, she has prepared my body for burial.”

In the morning Jesus went to Jerusalem. Many people were there for the celebration. And when they discovered Jesus, they surrounded him, began to tear branches from the trees and cast their clothing into the street for him and everyone shouted, “Here he is, our true king, the one who taught us of the true God.”

Jesus sat on a donkey and rode it behind the people as they ran ahead of him, shouting. And that is how Jesus entered Jerusalem.

And when he entered this way into the city, all of the residents became upset and asked, “Who is that?”

Those that knew him, answered, “That is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”

And Jesus entered the temple and again drove out all of the merchants and buyers.

And the orthodox priests saw all of this and said to each other, “Look what this man is doing. All of the people are following after him.”

But they did not dare to take him directly from the people because they saw that the people supported him, so they began to plot a way to take him by cunning.

Meanwhile Jesus was in the temple, teaching the people. In this group of people, apart from Jews there were Greek gentiles. The Greeks had heard of Jesus’s teaching and understood from it that he taught truth not only for the Jews, but for all people. And they also wanted to be his students, so they told Philip about this and Philip told Andrew. The students were afraid to bring Jesus together with the Greeks. They were afraid that the people would become embittered toward Jesus for not acknowledging the difference between the Jews and other nations, so they avoided telling Jesus for a long time, but then they both told him together.

Hearing that the Greeks wanted to become his students, Jesus became confused. He knew that the people would hate him for not making a distinction between the Jews and the gentiles, for acknowledging himself to be the same as the gentiles.

He said, “The time has come to explain what I mean by the son of man. And it may mean that I will perish for not making a distinction between the Jews and the gentiles in my explanation of this teaching, but I will speak the truth. A wheat kernel will bring forth fruit only after it dies itself. Whoever loves his mortal life will lose his true life, but whoever neglects his mortal life preserves it in eternal life. Whoever wants to work for my teaching, let him do as I do. And whoever does as I do will be rewarded by my father. My soul is struggling now: should I give into the considerations of temporal life or should I fulfill the father’s will now, at this moment. And now that the hour has arrived, and I am still living, can I really say, ‘Father, save me from the thing that I should do!’? No, I cannot say that just because I happen to be living now. And so I say, ‘Father! Show yourself in me!’”

And Jesus said, “From now on the world of people is condemned to death. From now on the thing that controls this world will be destroyed. And when the son of man is glorified above earthly life, then he will unite all people as one.”

And then the Jews said to him, “We understand according to the law that there is an eternal Christ; how is it that you say that the son of man should be glorified? What does it mean to glorify the son of man?”

At this, Jesus answered them, “To glorify the son of man means to live by the light of knowledge that is within you. To glorify the son of man above the earth means to believe in the light, insofar as there is light, in order to be a son of knowledge. He who believes in my teaching does not believe in me, but in that spirit who gave life to the world. And he who understands my teaching understands that spirit who gave life to the world. My teaching is the light of life, which has led people out of darkness.

“If somebody hears my words and does not fulfill them, then I do not blame him, since I came not to condemn but to save. He who does not receive my words is not condemned by my teaching, but by the knowledge that lives within it. That is what condemns him, because I have not spoken my own words, but have spoken what my father, the spirit living within me, inspired me to speak. What I say is only what I was told by the spirit of knowledge. And what I teach is true life.”

And having said this, Jesus left and again hid from the bishops.

And of those who had heard these words from Jesus, many of the strong and wealthy people believed in Jesus’s teaching, but they were afraid to admit this before the bishops because not one of the bishops admitted that they believed. This was because they were accustomed to judging by men’s standards and not by God’s.

After Jesus had hidden, the bishops and the elders again gathered at Caiaphus’s courtyard. And they began to determine how they might apprehend Jesus in secret, take him from the people and kill him. They were afraid to apprehend him in the open.

And one of the twelve students of Jesus, Judas Iscariot, came to them at their conference and said, “If you want to apprehend Jesus secretly, so that the people don’t see, then I will find a time when very few people will be with him and I will show you where he is so that you can take him. What will you give me for this?”

They promised to give him thirty rubles for this service. He agreed, and from then on began looking for a time when he could lead the bishops to Jesus, so that they could take him.

Meanwhile, Jesus was hiding from the people, and only his students were with him. When the first part of the holiday, the celebration of unleavened bread, arrived, the students said to Jesus, “Where are we going to celebrate Passover?”

And Jesus said, “Go into the village somewhere and stop by someone’s house and say that we have no time to prepare Passover and ask him to let us in to observe Passover.”

The students did just that—they went and asked a man in the village and he let them in. Then they entered and sat at the table: Jesus and the twelve students; and Judas was with them.

Jesus knew that Judas Iscariot had already promised to turn him over to face his death, but he did not expose Judas and did not avenge himself on Judas for this, and just as he had taught his students love his whole life, now he likewise reproached Judas only with love.

When all the twelve had sat down to the table, he looked at them and said, “Among you sits someone that has betrayed me. Yes, he who drinks and eats with me will also destroy me.”

He said nothing more, and they could not determine who it was that he was referring to, so they began their dinner. When they had begun to eat, Jesus took the bread, broke it into twelve parts, gave each of the twelve students a piece and said, “Take and eat—this is my body.”

And then he poured out a cup of wine, gave it to the students and said, “Drink from this cup, all of you.”

And when they had all drunk, he said, “This is my blood. I spill it so people can know that my will is to forgive others their sins. Because I will soon die and I will no longer be with you in this world, but will be united with you only in the kingdom of heaven.”

After that Jesus stood up from the table, wrapped a towel around himself like a belt, and took a pitcher of water and began to wash all of the students’ feet.

And he came to Peter, but Peter said, “How is it that you can be washing my feet?”

Jesus said to him, “It seems strange to you that I wash your feet, but you must understand now why I do this. I do it because although you are clean, albeit not entirely so, among you sits my betrayer, to whom I gave bread with my own hands as well as wine, and whose feet I want to wash.”

And when Jesus had washed all of their feet, he again sat down and said, “Have you understood why I did this? I did this so that you will do the very same for each other, always. I, your teacher, do this so that you will know how to behave with those who do evil to you. If you have understood this and will do this, then you will be blessed. When I said that one of you will betray me, I was not speaking about all of you, because only one of you whose feet I have washed and given bread to eat, just one of you will destroy me.”

And having said that, Jesus became indignant in his spirit and again said, “Yes, yes, one of you will betray me.”

And again the students began to look at one another and did not know who it was that he referred to. One student sat close by Jesus. Simon Peter nodded to him so that he would ask him who the traitor was. This student asked him.

Jesus said, “I will dip a piece of bread and offer it to someone, and the one to whom I offer it is the traitor.”

And he offered it to Judas Iscariot, and he said to him, “Do what you will, and do it quickly.”

Judas understood that he had to leave and as soon as he took the piece of bread, he left immediately. And there was no time to chase after him.

And when Judas had left, Jesus said, “Now it is clear to you, what the son of man is, now it is clear to you that if God is within him, he can be as good as God is.

“Children! I do not have long to be with you. Do not philosophize about my teaching, as I said to the orthodox, but just do as I do. I give you one new commandment: just as I have always and indefinitely loved you all, likewise you must always and indefinitely love one another. This will be the only thing that will set you apart. Only in this will you differ from other people: love one another.”

And after this they went to the Mount of Olives.

Along the way Jesus said to them, “Now is the time when what is written in the scriptures will take place, that they will kill the shepherd and the sheep will all scatter. That will happen this very night. They will take me and you will all abandon me and run your separate ways.”

And in answer, Peter said to him, “Even if all the others are frightened and run away, I will not deny you. I am prepared to go with you to prison and to death.”

Jesus said to him, “But I tell you that when I am taken, you will turn your back on me, not once, but three times before the cocks crow this night.” But Peter said that he would not turn his back; the other students said the same.

Then Jesus said to the students, “Previously I did not need anything and you did not need anything. You traveled without a bag and without extra footwear; and I had commanded you to do so. But now, if they have found me to be a lawbreaker, it has become impossible to continue that way, so we must store up everything and gather knives so that we are not destroyed in vain.”

And the students said, “Here, we have two knives.”

Jesus said, “Good!”

And having said that, Jesus went with the students into the Garden of Gethsemane. And as they entered the garden, Jesus said, “Let us stay here a while, I want to pray.”

And approaching Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to languish and to grow sorrowful, saying to them, “This is very difficult for me. I am sorrowing before death. Remain here and do not despair as I do.”

And he went off a short way, laid down, prone, on the ground and began to pray, saying, “My father, the spirit! Let this be not as I want, to not die, but as you want. Even though I may die, still, for you, as the spirit, everything is possible; make it so that I do not fear death, so that there be no temptation of the flesh for me.”

Then he stood, approached the students and saw that they had become depressed. And he said to them, “How is it that you do not have the power to lift your spirits for one hour, as I do? Lift your spirits so that you do not fall into the temptation of the flesh. The spirit is strong, but the flesh is weak.”

And again Jesus went off a short way and again began to pray and said, “Father! If it is impossible for me to avoid suffering and I have to die, then let me die. Let your will come to pass!”

And, having said that, he again approached the students and saw that they had grown even more depressed and were on the verge of tears.

Again he went a short way off and for the third time said, “Father! Let your will come to pass.”

Then he returned to the students and said to them, “Now you may be at peace and be calm, because everything has been decided, and I will turn myself over into the hands of worldly people.”