Final Confrontation (18 page)

“And so these men actually tore through the roof of the poor fellow’s house and lowered the man in on his pallet!”

The astonished group listened with rapt attention as Andrew recounted the extraordinary healing of a man riddled with palsy, that happened a few days earlier in Capernaum. Peter looked on as his brother spoke, enjoying the retelling.

“How is it, I wonder, that your Master eats and drinks with sinners and tax gatherers?” came a voice from the other side of the table.

Andrew looked up from his meal at the Pharisees who were seated around the room talking and eating. One of them, by the name of Zichri, was looking at Andrew.

Andrew smiled at the man.

“What was that?” he asked.

Peter looked up as well when he heard Andrew’s voice. Zichri gestured toward Jesus at the end of the table seated next to Matthew, whose spectacular hospitality they were now enjoying. Around Jesus and Matthew were a number of known misfits of society, all engaged in lively conversation.

Behind the grouping of Pharisees who occupied one-third of the table at which everyone was reclining stood Pellecus and a number of religious spirits, including Jerob. They were busily engaged in fanning the passions of these holy men so that they might find an occasion to accuse Jesus.

Pellecus liked what he saw in the Pharisees. This group of priests saw themselves as the caretakers of the Law, as the treasurers of the Covenant. Yet, in their selfish zeal to be right, they had defrauded the very religion which they sought to promote. Jesus represented to them another menace—an interloper whose casual handling of the Lord’s Word was becoming increasingly dangerous. Too many people were beginning to fall under His sway and this did not set well with them.

“How vain is man and his religion,” said Pellecus. “Observe how just being in the presence of true righteousness sets these legalistic religionists in a smoldering anger. Jesus will have His hands full with these fools.”

Jerob nodded in agreement.

“It is true, my lord,” he said to Pellecus, as many demons moved in and among the Pharisees, stirring them to further anger. “I have learned that among men religion is quite useful. From the eastern oriental kingdoms to Rome, from the most backwards tribes in the jungles to the simple desert nomads, men and women are swept away by their religious whims—and there is no place where religion is as brooding, melancholy, and tense as in Jerusalem.”

The man continued to chide Andrew.

“I said, why does your Master, who says He is a Holy Man, take fellowship with such people? Matthew is known to us, and therefore we tolerate him and attend his feasts.

He wagged a finger toward Jesus, who saw and heard what followed.

“But your Master consorts with such people all the time! I therefore put it to you that a truly righteous man who claims to be a teacher from God would never behave in such a manner!”

The Pharisees agreed with him, some of them pounding the table with the flat of their hands. The room fell silent as Jesus rose and walked over to the men who were confronting Andrew. Peter remained silent. Simon the Zealot prepared himself for a fight.

“Why do you question these men?” asked Jesus. “It is not as if you are seeking the truth. But to answer your question, I go where people need Me. When you are sick you go to a physician, don’t you? I go to those who are sick of heart and spirit and body, not to those who have no need or use of Me. I haven’t come to call those who are righteous, but I have come to call sinners to repentance.”

The Pharisees looked about at each other and at Andrew’s beaming “any more questions?” grin. They murmured among themselves, seething at Jesus’ presumption to judge between the righteous and sinners. Pellecus delighted in what was unfolding. If he could continue to stir up the already charged minds of the Pharisees, they would eventually turn on Jesus completely.

“As I observed, human religion always finds a way to corrupt the truth,” Pellecus said. He smirked at the priests. “Like the vicious wolves that they are, they will soon turn on the very One who was born to them.”

As they spoke, Aleph, one of John the Baptist’s disciples, stood to be recognized. Having been encouraged by the Pharisees’ line of questioning, he now posed a question to Jesus. Pellecus found this quite amusing. He even winked at the large warriors who stood constant vigil at Jesus’ side.

“Bad enough the priests are turning on Him,” said Pellecus. “Now it’s one of His cousin John’s disciples!” He looked at the others and laughed. “If only Kara were here to enjoy this!”

Aleph looked around the room before he spoke. The Pharisees were nodding with encouraging gestures that he should go ahead. Finally he did.

“Master,” Aleph began. “Why is it the disciples of my master John and even the disciples of the Pharisees fast often, and yet Your own followers do not?”

Pellecus couldn’t help but snicker at the discomfort he could feel welling up within Jesus’ disciples. The Pharisees also enjoyed what was to them a most agreeable moment. Jesus, ignoring the antagonistic eyes following Him, looked with compassion at Aleph and began speaking.

“Aleph, the friends of the Bridegroom will not stop eating while He is with them,” He explained, indicating His disciples. “These are with Me, and as long as I am here they shall eat. But some day the Bridegroom shall leave them. Then they shall fast.”

“Going somewhere, Lord?” sneered Pellecus. Several demons snickered.

Jesus glanced at Pellecus who stepped uncomfortably back into the shadows and then vanished from the room. His aides followed him.

“I am teaching you something new,” Jesus continued. He held up a skin of wine which one of the merchants had brought in with him. “Look at this wine skin. Now nobody would pour new wine into an old skin, would they? If they did it would burst the old skin and ruin the wine!”

He handed the skin back to its owner, who grinned at having been part of Jesus’ illustration. Jesus continued speaking.

“Instead, new wine is poured into a new skin and both are preserved.” He glanced in the direction of the Pharisees, who were huddled in counsel. “The old ways will no longer suffice. I teach you something new that will grow sweet like old wine.”

The Pharisees stood and excused themselves from the meal. As they departed they muttered and sneered at Jesus and His followers. Jesus by now was seated once more and was speaking with one of Matthew’s friends. After they left, Matthew approached Jesus and sat next to Him.

“I’m afraid, my Lord, You have offended the Pharisees,” he said cautiously. “You make a dangerous enemy in them.”

Jesus swallowed the bread He was eating and looked toward the door that the priests had just exited. He then turned back to Matthew.

“Jesus’ enemies are our enemies,” Simon the Zealot said forcefully. “Be they Roman or Jew.”

Jesus smiled at His eager disciple.

“It will not be by your sword that our enemies will be conquered, Simon,” said Jesus, looking at the warrior angels standing beside Him. He glanced at the powerful-looking sword held by one of them. “It will be a sword of the Spirit by which nations shall fall. And that not of angels nor of men. But of the Lord Himself!”

The water at the pool of Bethesda had been quiet for many months. Nearby, ranks of people with all sorts of maladies awaited their chance to be healed. It was said that an angel would stir the waters from time to time and the first one to get into the pool while the water was moving might be healed.

Serus, recently assigned to Jerusalem, stood near the pool looking at the sick and elderly who dared believe this might be the day an angel would visit the pool. He felt compassion for them—so many sick and so few chances to be made well. He looked at Gabriel, who had accompanied him to the pool.

“You are only to stir the water upon the Lord’s command,” Gabriel reminded.

Serus noted the sick humanity that surrounded the edges of the pool. Many of them were attended by demons of illness who had either caused or exacerbated the malady being suffered. They looked up at Serus and Gabriel casually, as if they knew they had a right to their dark assignment.

“There are so many of them,” he said, singling out one in particular. “This one will not live a week if he is not healed.”

He pointed to a man who was dying of a condition in his lungs. Gabriel shook his head in sad agreement as the man gasped for air.

“Lucifer certainly has mastered the art of disease,” he said.

A snicker of laughter arose upon those words as several demons looked up from their assigned humans and began to mock the archangel. Serus glared back at them.

“One day you shall all be overcome!”

“Poor Serus,” said a demon who was causing a tumor within the brain of an old man. He was massaging the tumor as he spoke, his scaly hands gripping the man’s head and his cat-like features smiling a grim grin. “This is only the beginning of our destruction of humans. These only fear for their lives on earth. They have no idea what awaits them.”

A chill hit Serus as he thought of the millions of men and women who had already gone before and were awaiting an impending judgment no angel really understood, but of which they were all aware.

“They had better stand in line,” said Gabriel to the demon. “For you and your master shall be judged first!”

The demons howled and jeered, cursing the holy angels.

“Nevertheless, leave the waters alone,” cried out another, who was slowly taking away the sight of a middle-aged woman. “You spoil our work here!”

Laughter again among the wicked spirits.

“Jesus!”

Every eye, both angel and human, looked toward the narrow street. A Man in simple clothing appeared, attended by several people. The demons began muttering, some of them vanishing, others simply burying themselves in their unwitting victims. Gabriel and Serus bowed low at the sight of their Lord.

“Looks as if we shall not need to stir the waters today,” said Gabriel discreetly.

Jesus continued to walk through the area while the crowd made room for Him as best they could. He seemed about to pass through altogether, when He suddenly stopped and looked at a man. The man looked up in return.

He was in his thirties, although he looked much older. He had been afflicted with a debilitating disease from birth, and had been at the pool for many years, living off the mercy of others and hoping for a chance to be healed by the angelic waters. Jesus knelt down to the man.

“Would you like to be healed?” Jesus asked.

Several demons growled at this question. They could no longer be seen, but they were still in the proximity of their charges. Jesus ignored them.

“I…I would love nothing else,” he began, hardly looking at Jesus. “But when the angel stirs the water I am never first to the pool. You see, some of these have friends who wait with them and help them into the pool.” He finally looked at Jesus. “I have nobody…”

“Here,” said Jesus. “Take My hand, rise up…and walk.”

Gabriel and Serus watched as a bright haze filled the area around Jesus and the man. No human eye saw this. But the demons did and began shrieking loudly, cursing Jesus and begging Him to go away.

At first the man seemed to resist, but slowly he rose, first on his knees and within seconds found himself standing with Jesus. The astonished crowd began to praise the Most High, calling to Jesus to come and heal them as well. The demons could no longer stand the anointing which accompanied the healing and began vaulting out of the area, blaspheming as they went.

The man could not believe what had happened to him! He was walking! He began jumping up and down and didn’t even notice as Jesus slipped away. Others crowded around him and rejoiced with him. Some wondered if perhaps an angel might yet visit the pool, and stationed themselves even closer to its edge.

Gabriel watched as the Lord departed, accompanied as usual by several large warrior angels. He nodded at them as they passed by. Serus pointed at another angel who loomed nearby, brooding over the scene. It was Kara.

“I didn’t see you Kara,” said Gabriel. “Another demonstration of our Lord’s greatness, hmm? One day the world will be filled with such events!”

Kara smugly looked up at Gabriel.

“Perhaps, archangel,” he said. “And Jesus has certainly made some friends today of these mongrels.”

He glanced at a group of Pharisees who had come to the pool to investigate the commotion. As they received the story they seemed increasingly agitated. “But it seems He makes as many enemies as He does followers!”

“What do you mean, Kara?” asked Serus.

“I mean, you stupid angel, that today is the Sabbath. A day sacred to the Jews, you know.”

The Pharisees approached Jesus.

Kara grinned at Gabriel and Serus and added, “And your Lord Jesus has just broken His own law!”

“Rabbi!”

Jesus turned to see a group of Pharisees approaching Him in the narrow street. He could also see Kara and Berenius accompanying them, as well as a host of unclean angels. The Pharisees approached Him smiling.