“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!”
