The reading was followed by an extended, almost embarrassed, silence.
Father Koesler, as was his habit, had read the assigned text shortly after the previous meeting. Of course, he had read it in the Catholic Confraternity edition. He had nothing philosophically or theologically against the King James Version. He agreed, in fact, that there were few English translations that equaled the grandeur of the King James. But he found the archaic style confusing. And he always found it difficult enough understanding some parts of the Bible without complicating the process. In any case, he had read the text and was prepared for its prophetic impact.
The others in the God Squad, as was their habit, had not read the assigned text beforehand. Understandably, they were now deeply struck by the obvious connection between the Gospel verses, which spoke of plotting a deliberate murder, and what had actually taken place within their small group in just the past week.
At length, Jay Galloway, as leader, tried to get the verbal ball rolling. “Anyone?”
Another silence.
“Well, quite obviously, it hits home, doesn’t it?” said Koesler.
“If you’re referring to the death of the Hun, I wouldn’t think so,” said Whitman. “After all, the Gospel text is talking about Jesus Christ. And I don’t see what Jesus Christ has to do with Hank Hunsinger.”
Kit Hoffer snorted, thought better of it, and stifled a laugh.
Koesler felt a flush of anger rising at the back of his neck. “That was a cheap shot, Dave. In the first place, no matter what you care to think of him, there was a connection between Jesus and Hank Hunsinger, just as there is a connection between Jesus and all of us.
“And secondly, I was referring, of course, to the Pharisees agreeing that one man had to die and then beginning to plot the assassination. Just two days ago, someone murdered one of our number as the culmination of a devilishly intricate plot. So, there is, I think for a double reason, a connection.”
What angered Koesler was the dismissal of Hunsinger as being of no consequence to Jesus Christ, the Savior of all people. At times like this, Koesler was immeasurably grateful that after death he would be judged by an all- loving God and not by any small-minded human.
“I happen to agree with the Father,” said Murray. “I think it more than a coincidence that the very text we read tonight has to do with plots to commit murder when here not two hours ago there we were in the presence of the last remains of our companion. I say it’s more than a coincidence; it’s the very providence of God, as well.”
“Do you think we could get back to the verses of the Bible we agreed to discuss,” said Galloway, more as a command than a question. “After all, this is a Bible discussion group. We didn’t come together to talk about Hank Hunsinger. If we wanted to get maudlin, we could have gone to a bar, lifted a few, and reminisced about the Hun.”
“Mr. Galloway’s right,” said Brown. “I always thought it was odd that anybody would plot to kill a man like Jesus Christ. I mean, He never did a mean, nasty thing to a soul. And you know, it never made any sense at all to me that anyone would want to kill Him. I mean, the way this Gospel text reads, why, man, that’s Murder One.”
“I can see why you’d think that, Brownie,” said Koesler. “Particularly if you think of all the people He cured and preached to and helped. All the common people with whom He spent almost His entire lifetime. But there were the others. In His case, they were the religious leaders who happened to be the Establishment of His society. He accused them of putting heavy burdens on the backs of other people while they lived high off the hog. He challenged the Pharisees constantly. And this is the way they reacted.”
“But I still don’t see why they had to kill Him,” Brown protested.
“You’ve got to remember, Brownie,” said Whitman, “that there was as much politics going on as there was religion. Back then, Israel was part of the Roman Empire. The Romans were sort of benevolent in dealing with their provinces. As long as a province paid the Roman tax and made no waves, the Romans left them pretty much alone.
“Oh, there was always a Roman governor on the scene-that’s the role Pontius Pilate played in this drama. And there were Roman soldiers there to keep order. But the important thing for an insignificant little province like Israel to remember was not to make waves.”
“And Jesus made waves?” Brown seemed incredulous. “I don’t understand.”
“The people were beginning to follow Him in droves.” Koesler picked up the explanation. “Maybe it could be called a popular uprising. As much as the Pharisees opposed Jesus and warned the people that He was a dangerous leader at best and a charlatan at worst, still the people followed Him in growing numbers.
“Of course, most of the people, including His Apostles, refused to take His word that He was not interested in establishing an earthly kingdom. His followers preferred to believe that He would lead them to freedom from the Romans. I suppose the Pharisees believed the same thing. Now, remember, the Pharisees were living a very comfortable life. Of course it would have been nice to be free of Rome. But in the meantime, things were cool for them. They did not want their comfortable lifestyle to be upset. Certainly not by a revolution. They were very nervous about Jesus and His ragtag followers.
“Then, when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, His popularity was never greater. The Pharisees perceived that what they considered Jesus’ political strength was now enough so that He could indeed, were he so inclined, get a revolution off the ground.
“So, we read in today’s text”-Koesler consulted his Bible, which happened to be the New American Bible-“that after some of their spies report to them, the result was that the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. ‘What are we to do,’ they said, ‘with this man performing all sorts of signs? If we let him go on like this, the whole world will believe in him. Then the Romans will come in and sweep away our sanctuary and our nation.’
“So, that’s what the Pharisees were afraid of: that the Romans would learn of this troublemaker and come and lean on the Jews and then the Pharisees’ sweet life would be swept away. Then, they said, ‘it is better for you to have one man die than to have the whole nation destroyed.’ That’s why they began to plot Jesus’ death. That was their motive. They wanted to save their own skins. They wanted to preserve their good life.”
“Yeah, motive,” Cobb murmured, “everybody’s got to have a motive.”
“What was that?” Galloway glowered at the quarterback.
“A motive. . a reason. People do things for reasons. The Pharisees wanted Jesus out of the way so they could continue on with their sweet life. Somebody wanted the Hun out of the way. But why?”
“I thought we’d agreed we weren’t going to get into that,” said Galloway.
“There’s no escapin’ it, if you ask me,” said Murray. “It’s on everybody’s mind, there’s no escapin’ it. He was at our meeting last week; he was on the field with us not more than two short days ago. And now he’s gone. And ’twasn’t as though he’d got some terrible sickness and passed away quietlike in a nice clean hospital bed. He was murdered, he was. Somebody plotted it, just like them Pharisees in the Gospel. And what’s more, the police think that one of us might be the culprit!”
He’d said it! He’d said what was on everyone’s mind.
Several long moments of silence followed as those around the table reevaluated each other. They’d worked together. They’d played together. Relied on one another. Was it possible one of them could be a murderer? Was it likely that one of them had killed Hank Hunsinger?
“That’s it, Mick,” said Cobb, “one of us might be the killer. By this time we pretty well know what all of us were doing on Sunday. Hoff and I were late for brunch. Mr. Galloway didn’t get there till ten. Mr. Whitman was alone from noon till game time. Brownie here was alone from ten till noon. Only the Mick has a corroborated alibi. We all knew the Hun kept strychnine in his apartment. We all knew the Hun’s peculiar habits. He was all set up like Jesus was. The Pharisees were scared He was going to rile up the Romans and they would come down on the
