ALIVE: Chapter 164, Shock and Ignorance
/In the morning Lazarus was not yet ready to travel, so he decided to stay home for a little while longer. The sisters were glad.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to discuss the increasingly threatening situation of Jesus. The rising of Lazarus increased their irritation to dangerous levels. Raising a dead man was so much more than working on the Sabbath, what broken law could they use against Him for this?
“What are we going to do about this? We have to do something! If we don’t, everyone will believe in this guy.” barked Reuben.
Asa added, “The Romans will not stand for anyone usurping their power over us.”
“True. They won’t stand for it and they will stop respecting us, we will lose our authority, and they may even decide to disperse us and destroy our nation. It will be like having to go to Babylon all over again!” cried Dan.
“Right, we will lose our homes, our sheep, we will become nomads again.” agreed Reuben.
A chorus of “God forbid!” followed.
Listening patiently to all this hysteria, the high priest, Caiaphas could take no more. He said. “You men know nothing at all. Didn’t you learn from Scripture that it is better that one man should die for the nation, rather than the whole nation perish.”
“Isn’t that what I’ve been saying?” echoed Asher.
“That settles it. We need to put an end to this threat, by putting an end to that man Jesus.”
“So, how do you propose we do this? We can’t kill him!”
“True, but the Romans can!” exclaimed Jude.
“Brilliant;” replied Asa, “we will let our enemy do away with our enemy!”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, how?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“First, we have to find him. He goes all over the place. No one ever knows where He will turn up.”
Knowing that the Pharisees were plotting to murder him, because He provoked them to do exactly that, but because the timing wasn’t perfect yet, Jesus lead His men away from Judea and Jerusalem and went out into the country, near a wilderness where there was a town called Ephraim.
One characteristic of God is His precision. God’s precision is evident in the Creation, in the placement of the planets, and in the construction of the cell. Likewise, His timing is precise. When Jesus and His disciples were in Ephraim, there was purpose and precision in going there and in how long they remained there.
How He filled this time is His secret, but what was apparent was that it had to do with the Passover. Passover, the zenith of God’s relationship with His control group, otherwise known as His people Israel, when the angel of death passed over the homes of those who painted the blood of the sacrificed lamb on the entrances of their homes to save their families from the tragedy that was to befall their oppressors. Passover was like the key that opens prison cells, foreshadowing the release from Hades. At Passover the death of the lamb, from its blood, trampled upon death (i.e. it resisted the angel of death) to restore freedom (i.e., rebirth) to the slaves.
Passover was closely followed by the other epic historical event, the crossing of the Red Sea, which was meant to remind them of when Noah and his holy family, the seeds of humanity, passed through the days of massive death-by-water. Likewise, those released during the Passover survived what would have been certain drowning death. Back-to-back miracles revealed to thinkers the power of God’s sacrificial lamb’s blood, not only for extinguishing sin, but for it’s power over death, so much power that even the waters which signified human-death since the flood, stepped aside.
God in Jesus was preparing for the new Passover, by the timing of it, like the timing of the revolution of the sun and moon, the great and the small lights so precise that they give humanity the concept of time, even to the second and the millisecond. To recognize God’s timing is the vitamin of faith.
While Jesus and His disciples lingered in Ephraim, the people who had gone to Jerusalem for Passover to cleanse themselves looked for the healer Jesus. They went to the temple every day hoping He would be there. While His followers and admirers yearned for Him, so did His enemies. The chief priests and Pharisees put out the call, that if anyone should spot Jesus, they were to report back to headquarters, so He could be arrested.
…
A woman named Rebecca who was visiting her sister in Ephraim recognized Jesus. “Oh my! I can’t believe I am seeing you again! You changed my life!” said Rebecca when she approached Jesus in the town square.
“Greetings Rebecca, how are you? Are you hungry?” chuckled Jesus because He knew that she was among the crowd that years before was miraculously fed the loaves and fishes that Jesus served them.
"You remembered! I am so happy to see You again! Can I hug You?”
“Of course you can. How are you?”
“I am well! I have a family now and all is well. I stopped to see my sister on our way to Jerusalem for the Passover.”
“Yes,” said Jesus, “We are going there too. In fact we will leave here in the morning.”
“Wonderful, hopefully, we can walk together on the road.” said Rebecca.
“God be with you!” said Jesus.
“He always is! Thank you again and again, for the bread, the fish and most especially for your teachings. You gave me a whole new outlook on life, and it has never faded. All glory to God!” With that Rebecca fell into Jesus’ open arms and they hugged a warm and unifying hug.
“So long, until we meet again! My sister is watching the children while I went to get our bread out of the ovens. Ha! What a coincidence.”
Jesus chuckled, “So long Rebecca.”
When the disciples overheard that they would be leaving for Jerusalem in the morning they grew nervous.
Peter was the spokesman for their concerns when he said, “Jesus, do you think this is a good idea? You know they want to hurt you. We’re afraid.”
“Let’s talk back at the camp.” Jesus led them back to their camp in silence where the fire-pit was ready to be ignited. The sun was going down as rapidly as the flames grew to illuminate the area and warm the men.
Jesus broke the silence when everyone was situated around the roaring fire.
He said, “Listen, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and will deliver Him to the Gentiles: and they will mock Him, and spit upon Him, and will scourge Him, and they will kill Him; and after three days He will rise again.”
Every one of the twelve gasped.
"My Lord! NO!” cried little John.
“Yes John. For this I was born, for this I came to you.”
The disciples were shocked. If Jesus hadn’t said these things, they would not believe it. Why? Oh Why does the Messiah have to be treated so unjustly? These were fishermen, not scholars. They had not studied scripture but only knew what they heard in the synagogue from the Rabbi.
Silence. No one knew what to say. The fire crackled and the wild animals in the distance chirped, howled, and rattled, making the only sounds around. Jesus had nothing more to say at that time. Everyone was left to their own thoughts as they peered into the fire, watching the wood turn red and be slowly dissolved by the ravenous flame.
John had a flashback of the evening when they were in the boat and there was a great storm. It had been dark and Jesus was not with them. A strong wind blew and the waters were choppy. The boat rocked fiercely and rowing was extremely difficult for Bartholomew and Andrew and the others with oars. Their faces were blood red and sweat poured out from their scalps. John was terrified. He will never as long as he lives forget that night. As they were nearing the middle of the sea he spotted Jesus walking on the water! Waking on the turbulent water towards them! How was that possible? But it happened! He saw it with his own eyes! Jesus walked right up to the boat and said, “It is Me! Don’t be afraid. Thomas reached out his arm, while holding on to Peter who stood like a rock clutching the mast pole. Jesus grabbed Thomas’ hand who pulled Him into the boat. All eyes were on Jesus and Thomas. Once He was safely in the boat, they found themselves at their destination! How did that happen? By what or by Whose command of nature and of time and space did that happen? They had been miles from the shore!
And now here was John who had never fully understood what happened or why that happened, confronted with his Master and Lord, Who was telling them that He was going to yield to the hostile self-righteous whims of the Pharisees, His enemies. The Man for Whom the roaring seas had no affect at all, who contradicted all the laws of nature, told them that He was about to be scourged and murdered by egotistical sinners. Or was He really the victim? He was too smart and too powerful to not use such injustice for His own purpose. But what could that be? John’s mind had to stop there. He suddenly felt very sleepy and decided to take his body and his thoughts to his bedroll.
One by one every disciple retreated into sleep, as if the news was a sleeping potion, or so great a shock, that they had to shut it off hoping that in the morning they would find it had been a nightmare.
Laying in his bedroll, mind racing, James wondered why Jesus had spoken in the third person, as if he was talking about someone else. What was He going to do in the time between when He was killed and when He comes back? When He returns will He be like Lazarus who came back from the dead and continued to live his life? There were too many questions that James couldn’t answer. It was apparent that Jesus was not going to spell it out. He, James, was going to have to be strong and faithful. He had no choice but to trust Jesus, to trust His Father God that this was to be a big, world changing event. Maybe even bigger than Passover for them.
In the morning as one by one as each disciple woke up, he noticed that Jesus hadn’t returned from His time with His Father. No one wanted to chat about what they heard the night before, to put words to their fears. It was too flabbergasting to discuss.
When Jesus returned, He knew how His men felt, so He decided that the next few days, before entering Jerusalem should be as normal for them as possible. They would heal people and leave it at that.