“What is my part to be ?”
“Only this : you must go to the High Priest at once and offer him your help in arresting your master. You had better ask for payment, or else the subterfuge may be suspected. Once he is safely in custody, all will be well. But I will not yet reveal my plan to you, lest it miscarry.”
Judas eyed him doubtfully, but at last yielded to his persuasions. He knew Nicodemon to be honest, pious and loyal—perhaps the best of all God-fearing Pharisees in Jerusalem.
Nicodemon’s plan was based on his observation that Jesus had never preached against Rome—had never, except in his impersonation of the Worthless Shepherd, countenanced any sort of revolutionary activity. “After all,” he argued to himself, “what need is there for conflict between Rome and Israel? In ancient days Israel was subject to Egypt and to Assyria and to Persia, and even the prophets approved of this, so long as the tribute paid to foreign kings in return for their military protection did not conflict with the obligations owed to Jehovah. Look what grand commendation Cyrus of Persia gained from the prophet Isaiah! Now, why may Jesus not show friendship to the Romans, and peacefully put forward his claim to the throne of Herod, at the same time entering upon the Sacred Kingship of the whole Jewish race? The Emperor will be surprised at first at this revival of a claim so long dormant, but he is a reasonable man and will at once see the advantage of having a person of Jesus’s quality at the head of Jewish affairs : a Roman citizen, a quietist, a man of extraordinary personal power and Herod’s heir by the Will deposited with the Vestals.”
His plan was, that when Judas had saved Jesus from the swords of his disciples by helping Caiaphas to arrest him, Nicodemon would approach Pilate, with whom he was on fairly good terms, and inform him that Caiaphas had arrested a Roman citizen, none other than the secret heir to the Herodian throne. Pilate, after asking for proof, for which he would be referred to Jesus himself, would ask : “What sort of a man is he ?” and Nicodemon would then praise Jesus in the most glowing terms. He would say : “Your Excellency, he is the one man who can solve all the outstanding problems of Jewish government for you Romans by guaranteeing peace throughout the land, and vastly increased revenues, with no further need of an expensive army of occupation.”
Then he would explain that Jesus’s self-imposed task during the past two years had been to strengthen the Pharisaic party by the inclusion of the lower orders of Jewish society, with the object of bringing the whole nation, except the Temple priesthood, under the religious control of the central synagogue. That at the same time he had preached the simplification of Temple ritual and the abolition of blood-sacrifice : if Jesus had his way, the twenty thousand priests and Levites whose support was so burdensome to the Province would be reduced to a few score—the able-bodied Levites could be drafted as police to replace the Roman soldiers. Moreover, such ancient local shrines as Shiloh, Tabor and Ain-Kadesh would be re-dedicated, so that the inconvenience of the immense pilgrim traffic to Jerusalem at the three great Feasts would be abated, and even the Samaritan question would be solved ; with Jews and Samaritans reconciled under a Sacred King whom both acknowledged. The whole country would be contented (for the Jews love a monarchy), and the Imperial tax, in the form of a free donation, would be paid as cheerfully as the Temple-tax, without need of tax-farmers and a corrupt police. Beggary and banditry would be no more. The dispossession of Antipas and Philip from their tetrarchies, and the unification of the whole country into a single state, would end the costly absurdity of frontiers and petty courts. The Romans would, of course, be given full facilities for the passage of troops through the country to their necessary garrisons across the Jordan.
Pilate would surely see the cogency of this argument, and in any case the ultimate decision did not rest with him. He would be obliged to remove Jesus from the custody of the High Priest, who had no right to try a Roman citizen, and then to make a full report to the Emperor Tiberius.
Nicodemon was in high spirits and, strangely enough, never once paused to consider whether Jesus would accept the part assigned to him.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Thirty Silver Shekels
JESUS meanwhile anxiously awaited Judas’s return. Why did he delay? Had he been unable to find anyone who would sell him a sword? Though the civil population was forbidden to carry swords, they were come by easily enough in the Galilean quarter. Or had some accident happened to him? Or had his righteous indignation been smothered by a scruple against bloodshed, so that he had shirked his task and run off? If he did not soon return, a more resolute disciple must strike the blow.
He spoke with greater plainness : “It is written that the Worthless Shepherd shall be smitten and his sheep scattered. Children, in a little while you will see me no more.”
Still they did not understand. Peter asked : “Where are you going, Master? Let me go with you.”
“You cannot follow where I am going.”
“I will follow you wherever you go, and do whatever you command, even if I must die for it.”
Jesus looked about him, and said : “Before this night is out you will all be offended to be called my disciples. You will all be ashamed of your visions and of your prophetic mantles. When you are questioned, you will answer : ‘We are countrymen, we know no trade but cattle-driving.’ ”
Peter protested : “Lord, I will never be offended—everyone else, but not I !”
“Before the second cock-crow you will have thrice denied me !”
“I will never deny you.”
Jesus sighed as he quoted Isaiah :
He has blinded their eyes,
He has hardened their hearts,
That they should not see with their eyes,
Nor understand with their hearts,
And be converted, that I should heal them.
The Paschal lamb had been eaten, every morsel of it, and all the bread. The Third and Fourth Cups had been drained and they had sung their last hymn : O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good. John had blown up the fire again and burned the bones of the lamb ; the finger-bowl had gone round, and they had washed their hands and wiped them on the napkins. It was time to leave. Then Jesus rose, took off all his garments except his breech-cloth, tied a large towel round his middle, poured water into a basin and, as if he were a bath-attendant, began washing the disciples’ feet and wiping them dry with the towel. They were surprised, and asked : “Master, what is the meaning of this jest? Have you become our servant ?”
“Every man is servant to some other man ; the king is servant to his people ; and all are servants of Heaven. As for me, I am the Servant in whom the iniquity of all Israel meets.”
“You a sinner? There’s a riddle for us !”
“You will solve it in good time.”
At first Peter refused to allow Jesus to wash his feet, but Jesus threatened that, unless he submitted, he would cast him off ; then Peter cried : “Not my feet only, but my hands and head as well !”
“Being baptized by John, you need no further lustration except for your feet : they must be well cleansed, because of the mire into which God’s Adversary has led them, before they stand in a holy place to-night.”
“What place is that ?”
“The Mount of Olives, upon which the Son of Man is destined to alight from Heaven.”
They left the house, and as they went down the street Jesus asked them : “Which of you has obeyed me ?”
Peter answered proudly : “I have obeyed you : while the others were making ready, I bought two swords from the people of the house. I understand at last on whom I am to use it.”
“Not too soon, God-fearing son of Jonah! Keep one sword, entrust the other to John. Two will suffice for the execution of the Lord’s vengeance. Alas, is it not written : ‘As for our iniquities, we know them : transgression and lies against the Lord, the preaching of oppression and revolt, concealing and uttering falsehood from the heart’ ?”
They left the City by the East Gate, descended into th
e Kidron valley and crossed the brook by a foot-bridge ; then they climbed the Mount of Olives, taking a path which led them to the high-walled olive orchard called Gethsemane, “the oil-press”, which Nicodemon had offered Jesus as a refuge if he were in trouble. They met nobody on their way, found the orchard without difficulty, unlocked the gate with the key that Judas had fetched two days before, and entered. The olive-trees were very old and fantastically gnarled : four or five were recorded to have been planted in the year that King Solomon dedicated his Temple. Countrymen say : “Buy an ox, buy an ass, they are your servants while they live ; but buy an olive-tree, and you are its servant while you live.” There was an oil-mill in the orchard, a furnace for making brazier-charcoal of the crushed stones, and a hut with rough bunks used by the harvesters in the season.
Jesus led them to the hut, which stood in the furthest corner from the gate, and pushed open the door. “Peter, James and John must remain with me ; they are the strongest-hearted among you all. The others may wait here until they are summoned ; and if they are weary, let them sleep awhile.”
As he walked away with the three chosen disciples, James asked him : “Where is Judas? Why is he not with us ?”
“I fear he has turned traitor and flinched from his task.”
Peter cried : “All may prove traitors to their tasks, but not I. I will boldly use my sword on the wretch who has disgraced us all, and in sight of all Jerusalem, though I die for it.”
“I too will strike without fear,” said John, “for though I loved him, I always loved another better. And is it not my duty to hate the enemies of our God ?”
Jesus asked eagerly : “When did you first suspect the truth ?”
“When you made merry in the club-house.”
“It is well. Come back with me towards the gate, and watch over me until morning, while I make my peace with the Father whom I have offended. Are your swords sharp ?”
“As a priest’s sacrificial knife.”
“Do not let me out of your sight. As you love me, keep a jealous watch ; and when the blow is to be struck, strike home !”
The irony of this dialogue at cross-purposes—recorded in the Ebionite tradition—could hardly have been improved by the most skilful Attic writer of tragedies.
Jesus left the three disciples under a hollow tree and retired to a spot about a stone’s cast away, where he knelt down and prayed. They could hear his vehement words : “Father, sweet Father, to whom alone all things are possible, I beseech you to take this bitter cup from my lips. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”
Worn out after their long day, and drowsy with the wine and the roast meat, they wrapped themselves in their mantles and fell asleep. Half an hour later their mantles were twitched away from them and they awoke. Jesus was standing over them, holding the two swords in his hand : “See how easily I could have robbed you of your weapons. Watch again, and pray that you do not succumb to temptation and so fail in your duty. Pray for me too, that I am not tempted to rise and flee away from you to Galilee.”
He handed them back their swords and they started shamefacedly to their knees, while he went off to resume his prayers. Presently they fell asleep again, and he roused them a second time. “Peter, could you not keep watch for a single hour ?”
“Lord, my spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.”
Once more Jesus prayed, and once more the three disciples fell asleep. Then came a sudden clamour of voices and sounds of the orchard gate being battered down. He saw the twinkling of torches and then a crowd of white figures hurrying through the olive-trees towards him. Hobbling back to the sleeping men, he shook James violently by the shoulder and said : “Quick, rise up! Warn your comrades in the hut that enemies are here. Tell them to scatter and run for their lives.”
James grunted and snored, but would not wake. Jesus cried bitterly : “Snore on, then, and finish your sleep! It is now too late to rise.”
But Peter and John had been roused by a sudden sense of danger. They dragged James to his feet and pummelled him into wakefulness as a strong company of Levite halberdiers came running up. At their head were Judas and a Levite officer.
Judas muttered to the officer : “Arrest the man whom I kiss.” He went up to Jesus and kissed him, and as he did so whispered reassuringly : “All is well. Trust Nicodemon.” Then he shouted over his shoulder : “This is your man! This is Jesus of Nazareth.”
Jesus asked : “Judas, do you kiss the man whom you betray ?” And then : “Am I a bandit that these Sons of Levi come against me with weapons in their hands? I preached daily in the Temple—why did they not take me then ?”
“Stand back, men !” the officer ordered. “You are not to use your weapons unless he resists arrest.”
Jesus shouted in a tremendous voice : “Woe to my Worthless Shepherd who has forsaken the flock! His right arm shall utterly wither and his right eye be utterly dimmed. Sword, awake against this shepherd, though he is my friend! Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered !” He let fall his butcher’s crook, which he had carried with him all this while and, flinging out his arms, awaited the blow.
While John stood irresolute, Peter grasped his sword and rushed forward with a shout. “Save him, save him !” cried Judas. But it was at Judas himself, not at Jesus, that Peter lunged.
A Levite darted in to ward off the blow with his halberd, while Judas flung himself sideways and scrambled behind a tree. Peter then aimed a swinging blow at the Levite, but the sword glanced off his helmet, merely gashing his ear. Other halberdiers hurried to the rescue and, finding himself one against fifty, Peter took to his heels and, being swift of foot, escaped over the orchard wall. John tossed his sword away and followed Peter’s example.
James was nearly caught. Someone snatched at his tunic, but he struggled violently ; it tore in two and he broke away naked, with a sword-cut on his shoulder. Thus the prophecy of Amos was fulfilled.
Judas returned to where Jesus was standing in sorrowful resignation. He stooped down, picked up the fallen crook and asked : “Master, have you further need of this ?”
“It is your spoil. Keep it.”
The disciples in the hut meanwhile made good their escape. Andrew had started up from sleep at the noise of shouting and quickly roused the rest ; they had all stolen away unobserved under cover of the hut, helping one another over the orchard wall. Thomas reassured them : “We need not fear for the Master. If he could elude arrest by daylight and in open country at Nazareth, surely he can do so again here by moonlight and among the olive-trees.”
But Jesus made no attempt to escape. He was led out of the orchard towards the house of the former High Priest Annas, where the High Priest Caiaphas, son-in-law to Annas, was staying for the Feast. It was the largest and most luxurious house on the Mount of Olives and stood only a few hundred paces away from Gethsemane.
Peter followed behind at a safe distance. The night was quiet and he expected at any moment to see a company of bright angels swooping down from Heaven to the rescue. Was it not on the Mount of Olives that Ezekiel had once beheld the Chariot and the Glory of the Lord, and was it not there that the Messiah would stand in the Great Day? “I am glad that I submitted to the foot-washing,” he said to himself. “I am prepared for anything.”
But nothing notable happened ; only the noise of howling dogs across the Kidron grew louder and steadier. At Passover the full moon and the maddening presence of many lambs always disturbed the City dogs, and to-night the smell of roasted lamb ascended from a thousand fires in the Galilean quarter. Yet the dogs were denied even the bones to crack.
Jesus was brought into the house of Annas, and Peter, standing in the shadow of the wall, his sword still clutched in his hand, heard the Levite officer making his report to the Captain of the Temple. The Captain answered : “Good! Good! But how did the armed bandits manage to get away? You should have surrounded the place first.” The officer mumbled his excuses, which the Captain cut short with : “Send the informant
along to the Treasurer and see that he is given the blood-money. One hundred and twenty drachmae was the agreed sum.” (For Judas, asked to name a price, had remembered Zechariah and demanded thirty Sanctuary shekels, which were worth four drachmae apiece. “It is too much,” they had protested. “Not so,” Judas had insisted, “it is the value of a Canaanite slave as established by the Law ; and I am selling you a free Israelite.”)
Peter listened in incredulous horror. How in the world could Judas, his comrade Judas, whom he had regarded as the most generous and scrupulous of the Twelve, have ever brought himself to sell his Master for a paltry sum of silver? God’s Adversary must surely have entered into him.
At first cock-crow, the false alarm of dawn, Peter stole into the hall, his sword concealed under his mantle. He looked around in the hope of finding Judas, whom he was determined to kill ; but Judas was not there. Warming himself at the fire, he noticed for the first time that his fingers were bleeding—he had cut them on his sword while climbing into an olive-tree before leaping from an upper branch over the orchard wall.
A cook asked him : “How did you wound your hand ?”
“In the house of some friends of mine, in a rough-and-tumble.”
“Who are you, eh ?”
“I am a cattle-man. I never had any other trade. I have just driven a prime herd of beef down from the north.”
Then a maid-servant said : “I know you, big lout! I saw you the other day at the Basilica during the riot. You are one of the Nazareth gang, a follower of that Jesus.”