‘But any priest who wants to indulge his secret appetites, his greed, his lust, his cruelty, will find himself like a wolf in a field of lambs where the shepherd is bound and gagged and blinded. No one will even think of questioning the rightness of what this holy man does in private; and his little victims will cry to heaven for pity, and their tears will wet his hands, and he’ll wipe them on his robe and press them together piously and cast his eyes upwards and the people will say what a fine thing it is to have such a holy man as priest, how well he takes care of the children…
‘And where will you be? Will you look down and strike these blaspheming serpents with a thunderbolt? Will you strike the governors off their thrones and smash their palaces to rubble?
‘To ask the question and wait for the answer is to know that there will be no answer.
‘Lord, if I thought you were listening, I’d pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive. That it should be not like a palace with marble walls and polished floors, and guards standing at the door, but like a tree with its roots deep in the soil, that shelters every kind of bird and beast and gives blossom in the spring and shade in the hot sun and fruit in the season, and in time gives up its good sound wood for the carpenter; but that sheds many thousands of seeds so that new trees can grow in its place. Does the tree say to the sparrow, “Get out, you don’t belong here?” Does the tree say to the hungry man, “This fruit is not for you?” Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?
‘This is all I can do now, whisper into the silence. How much longer will I even feel like doing that? You’re not there. You’ve never heard me. I’d do better to talk to a tree, to talk to a dog, an owl, a little grasshopper. They’ll always be there. I’m with the fool in the psalm. You thought we could get on without you; no – you didn’t care whether we got on without you or not. You just got up and left. So that’s what we’re doing, we’re getting on. I’m part of the world, and I love every grain of sand and blade of grass and drop of blood in it. There might as well not be anything else, because these things are enough to gladden the heart and calm the spirit; and we know they delight the body. Body and spirit… is there a difference? Where does one end and the other begin? Aren’t they the same thing?
‘From time to time we’ll remember you, like a grandfather who was loved once, but who has died, and we’ll tell stories about you; and we’ll feed the lambs and reap the corn and press the wine, and sit under the tree in the cool of the evening, and welcome the stranger and look after the children, and nurse the sick and comfort the dying, and then lie down when our time comes, without a pang, without a fear, and go back to the earth.
‘And let the silence talk to itself… ’
Jesus stopped. There was nothing else he wanted to say.
The Arrest of Jesus
But a little distance away John was sitting up and rubbing his eyes, and then he kicked Peter awake and pointed down into the valley; and then got to his feet and hurried up to where Jesus was still kneeling by himself.
‘Master,’ he said, ‘I’m sorry, forgive me, I don’t want to disturb you, but there are men with torches coming up the path from the city.’
Jesus took John’s hand and stood up.
‘You could get away, master,’ John said. ‘Peter’s got a sword. We can hold them off – tell them we haven’t seen you.’
‘No,’ said Jesus. ‘I don’t want any fighting.’
And he walked down the path towards the other disciples, and told Peter to put his sword away.
As they came up the path in the torchlight Christ said to the captain of the guards, ‘I’ll embrace him, and you’ll know who it is.’
When they came close to Jesus and the other three, Christ went up to his brother and kissed him.
‘You?’ said Jesus.
Christ wanted to speak, but he was shoved aside as the guards moved past him. He was soon lost among the crowd of curious onlookers who had heard rumours of what was going to happen, and come along to watch.
Seeing Jesus under arrest, the people thought that he’d betrayed their trust in him; that he was just another religious deceiver, like so many others, and that everything he’d told them had been false. They began to shout and jeer, and they might even have attacked and lynched him there and then, if the guards had not held them off; Peter tried to draw his sword again, but Jesus saw him and shook his head.
Peter said, ‘Master! We’re with you! We won’t leave you! Wherever they take you, I’ll come too!’
The guards marched Jesus off down the path, and Peter hastened after them. They took him through the city gate and along to the house of the high priest. Peter had to wait in the courtyard outside, where he joined the servants and the guards around the brazier they’d lit to keep themselves warm, for it was a cold night.
Jesus before the Council
Inside the house, Caiaphas had called together an emergency council of the chief priests and the elders and the scribes. This was unusual, because Jewish law normally prohibited courts from sitting at night, but the circumstances were urgent; if they were going to deal with Jesus the priests would have to do it before the festival began.
Jesus was brought before this council, and they began to question him. Some of the priests who had lost to him in argument were eager for a reason to hand him over to the Romans, and they had summoned witnesses in the hope of convicting him. However, they hadn’t coached the witnesses well enough, and several of them contradicted one another; for example, one said, ‘I heard him say he could destroy the temple, and build another in three days.’
‘No! That wasn’t him!’ said another. ‘That was one of his followers.’
‘But Jesus didn’t deny it!’
‘It was him. I heard him say it myself.’
Not all the priests were sure that was reason enough to condemn him.
Finally Caiaphas said, ‘Well, Jesus, what have you got to say? What’s your answer to these charges?’
Jesus said nothing.
‘And what about this other charge of blasphemy? That you claim to be the son of God? The Messiah?’
‘That’s what you say,’ said Jesus.
‘Well, it’s what your followers say,’ said Caiaphas. ‘Don’t you bear any responsibility for that?’
‘I have asked them not to. But even if I had said that, it would not be blasphemy, as you well know.’
Jesus was right, and Caiaphas and the priests knew it. Strictly speaking, blasphemy consisted of cursing the name of God, and Jesus had never done that. ‘ Then what about this claim to be king of the Jews? We see it everywhere daubed on the walls. What have you to say to that?’
Jesus said nothing.
‘Silence is no answer,’ said Caiaphas.
Jesus smiled.
‘Jesus, we’re trying very hard to be fair to you,’ the high priest went on. ‘It seems to us that you’ve gone out of your way to provoke trouble, not only with us, but with the Romans. And these are difficult times. We have to protect our people. Can’t you see that? Don’t you understand the danger you’re putting everyone in?’
Jesus still said nothing.
Caiaphas turned to the priests and scribes, saying, ‘I’m sorry to say that we have very little choice. We shall have to take this man to the governor in the morning. Of course, we shall pray that he is merciful.’
