Jesus Of Nazareth

(4 of 7)

Most of the Twelve faced each other and nodded, not understanding of course but not asking.

Then Peter said, "Sir, what was wrong with that?"

Some of the others frowned; Judas sneered.

But Jesus grinned and answered him plainly, though on the bias: "Peter, aren't we learning that God is my father?"

Peter said, "Sir, I'm wondering if you're not wrong there, just in that one place."

Judas was only the first man to spit and grind it in the dust.

The Transfiguration
This experience of Jesus' transfiguration is recounted similarly in the first three Gospels, but as usual Mark offers the convincing grain of an accurate report. I imagine that for the three disciples, as for Jesus, this was the moment when they each began to comprehend the interim tragedy through which they had to pass. --R.P.

The Twelve had seen Jesus heal the worst curses: madness, leprosy, epilepsy, blindness, paralysis, every other ailment and death itself. He had raised that synagogue president's daughter from literal death, though he smiled and claimed she was maybe just asleep when he took her hand and said, "Lamb, come back."

Not one of the Twelve had asked out loud if any chicanery might be involved. Some of them quietly checked around, weeks after certain healings, to see if they had lasted or whether the failure had been bought off and hauled out of sight. No evidence of that; Jesus clearly had no money to bribe anyone.

But still no hard talk of when God's reign would break in and seat them on the thrones he had promised--rulers of all their people's 12 tribes. So traces of defection were starting to show. Nobody left, though some turned lazy and mean to the crowds. Some let themselves go and looked like beggars, stinking and lousy. More than one was seen leading some needy woman up a bushy path for private instruction.

When they got near the middle of that full year, and Peter had told him he was God's Messiah, Jesus took his three favorites and led them up the heights of Mount Hermon. While Peter, James and John were dozing in the thin air, they heard an uncanny voice say three times, "This is my son." When they looked uphill, there was Jesus dressed in the purest white clothes and standing in the midst of Moses and Elijah, who were whispering to him. James and John were known for their tempers, Peter for his blunt excitements; but at first all three of them huddled together--strong, heavyset men--as if they were boys in the reach of a demon.

Moses and Elijah began to fade. And though his clothes and face were still shining unbearably, Jesus walked down toward the three. He was still not himself--not the man they had known--yet each of them privately came to believe what they would tell one another only after his death. When Jesus reached them, he held out his hands, still streaming light, and said, "We'll never be gladder than this." Then he quietly told them about the death he must soon undergo to bear and discharge the burden of all the debts of wrong that humankind had accumulated since Noah's flood purged the world once before.

The Last Supper
The expansion here is only an attempt to imagine the baffled awe and fear of the disciples as they watched their teacher transforming before them into a sacrificial victim. The prospect of any reward for their loyalty was virtually gone. --R.P.

That awful last night in Jerusalem, Jesus insisted that he and the Twelve get through a Passover meal together. Even the women were there, in silence, and through the whole meal in the low, dark room, the general silence had been all but strangling. More than one of them thought of Jonah in the great fish--the curved belly of a killing monster tightening around them.

The whole stretch of days in Jerusalem had gone badly wrong--the ass that went lame while bearing him toward the "triumphal entry," the vicious eyes and mouths around him through the Temple debates he sought so hungrily, and then his wild-eyed one-man assault on the money changers and lamb-and-dove merchants. Physically speaking, he'd done enough damage to last five minutes; but in terms of challenging the Temple mob, he'd laid the last straw on a big camel's back.

They were out to kill him now; it was in every eye that looked his way. Even eleven of the Twelve had realized Judas was the squealer, the one who'd sold the secret news that Jesus of Nazareth was God's Messiah--the coming King of the glorified Jews--and was here to proclaim it and greet the dawning of the reign he'd lead. And when Jesus took up the loaf and began to break pieces into a bowl, Judas got to his feet, hunched low and left the room.

As the bread came around, followed by the wine, Jesus said only, "My body...my blood." Good Jews that they were, a few nearly gagged at the thought of drinking blood, but no one refused. Practically speaking, he was already dead--they could almost see it--and everything from here on was only a sign, to keep in memory, everything but the craven fear that was already closing on them entirely.