Final Confrontation (36 page)

“You defer to no one because You are so wise,” Achish continued. “We therefore have a question to put to You.”

Jesus gave no response.

“After all, as custodians of the peace and as liaisons with Caesar, it is important that things of a delicate political nature be resolved reasonably.”

“Here is the question,” Zichri burst in. “Is it lawful to pay tax to Caesar or not?”

“The poll tax of course,” added Achish, disturbed by Zichri’s intrusion.

Jesus looked at both of them.

“Why do you persist in provoking Me?” He asked. “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? Do you have one of these coins?”

An aide to Achish produced a denarius and handed it to Jesus. Jesus held out the coin for both men to see. Zichri looked at Achish uncomfortably.

“Whose image and inscription do you see here?” Jesus asked.

“Caesar’s, of course,” said Zichri.

“Then pay to Caesar the things that belong to Caesar. But give to God those things that belong to God!”

Achish, although preferring to have cornered Jesus in some legal entanglement, nodded and was satisfied with the answer. Zichri was astonished. Jesus handed the coin back to Zichri, who threw it to the ground and walked off. Achish signaled the men with him that it was time to leave.

“Twice today Jesus has bested the opposition,” said Crispin, who had just joined Gabriel in the Temple. “This is quite a day.”

“True,” said Gabriel. “They are getting more and more impertinent with Him.”

“With humans that means they are getting desperate,” cautioned Crispin. “Better keep quite alert.” He scanned the area and saw a number of unholy angels about. “These loathsome fellows have been here for some time. Ever since Jesus began His ministry some three years ago.”

Gabriel looked at the religious spirits whose place of power was in all places of human worship. Their task was to do anything and everything to keep men’s eyes and minds off the One True God.

“I’d say they have been here much longer than that, Crispin,” Gabriel said.

“Kara, what are you doing with that rabble?” asked Pellecus.

He discovered Kara at the Temple among the Sadducees, whose allegiance was more to Herod than the Lord. He had crafted in their minds a foolproof question to trap Jesus. They were even now on their way to find Him.

“They are on their way to find Jesus,” he said proudly. “My little visit with Gabriel reminded me we’ll need more than the Pharisees and Herodians to bring Jesus to account.”

“Jesus. He is in another part of the Temple,” said Pellecus. “He just made fools of the priests
and
the Herodians. Again.”

“Easy enough,” said Kara. “The Pharisees are so bent on being right they do not know how to be subtle. And the Herodians simply want to keep their grip on the throne. But
these
fellows—they are crafty and jealous of the Temple. I hope they will prove a powerful adversary.”

Pellecus scoffed at the notion. He had seen Jesus in too many instances where His answers completely humbled any opposition. Pellecus’ pride had been injured as well, since he had promoted the Pharisees all along as the intellectual response to Jesus’ murky gospel. But he followed along with Kara and the Sadducees who were determined to avenge the moneychangers as well as the honor of the Temple.

The Sadducees, more political than religious, were perfectly suited to Kara’s manipulations. They were bent on seeing Jesus destroyed, not because of His offense to the faith, but because of His threat to the peace and their position as wardens of the Temple. The ever-present threat of Roman intervention kept the Sadducees on a precarious perch balancing between submission to Rome and loyalty to the cult.

The Sadducees emerged during the bloody and confusing times when the Maccabees controlled Judah. They took their name from Zadok, the high priest of David, from whom they claimed descent. They were involved in the political life of the Jews and were closely associated with the Temple.

Their ambivalence to Jesus began when His cousin John called them “a brood of vipers” as they came to watch him baptize in the Jordan. Their claim, “We have Abraham as our father,” was met with John’s stunning rebuke, “God is able, from these stones, to raise up children to Abraham!”

They were also aware that Jesus was warning people to stay away from the teaching of the Sadducees. He said His followers should bewar, and have nothing to do with their teachings. They did not believe in the resurrection of the dead, and believed that angels were simply fables. Thus, they now approached Jesus, with Kara’s encouragement, to trump His knowledge with a question of their own.

“The Pharisees certainly haven’t shown themselves any threat,” admitted Pellecus, “at least not on an intellectual level. Still, in the end, it is religion and not politics that will destroy Jesus.”

“I suspect a little of both,” sniffed Kara. “But who knows? Perhaps the common threat of Jesus will bring these two together to destroy Him.”

Pellecus smirked and added, “Jesus did come to bring men together, did He not? I would say He is successfully uniting His enemies even now!”

Kara laughed.

“They marveled that only Jesus could bring a Simon the Zealot and a Matthew the Tax Gatherer together under one cause! But what would they say about His ability to bring the Sadducees and Pharisees together to destroy Him?”

“Teacher!”

Once more Jesus looked up to see a group of men approaching Him. This time it was the Sadducees. He looked about and—yes—lingering in the background were several Pharisees in the company of Zichri.

“Another question?” Jesus asked wearily.

A couple of His disciples snickered.

Ignoring Him, Zereth, the lead priest among this group, spoke up.

“Rabbi, as You know, Moses told us if a man dies without having children, his own brother must marry the widow so that she might have children in his name.”

“Yes?” responded Jesus. “That is what the Law says.”

“Good,” Zereth continued. “Now here is an interesting puzzle. There were seven brothers. The first brother married and soon after died. Rabbi, since he had no children, his brother stepped in as the Law required.”

He looked around as he told his story, noticing a crowd gathering. He raised his voice.

“And so the same thing happened right down through all the brothers—to the second and third brother, right on down to the seventh. And then the woman died! Now then, at the resurrection, whose wife will she be of the seven, since all of them were married to her?”

Jesus could only shake His head in disbelief. Zichri had moved in and was urging the crowd on, repeating the question and acting as if it were all very serious.

“You who do not believe in the Resurrection are asking Me this question?” Jesus asked.

Zereth looked uncomfortably at Zichri, knowing the Pharisees did believe in a resurrection. He looked back at Jesus.

“First of all, you are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. So how can you possibly ask an intelligent question or deliver a truthful answer? But I will tell you.”

Jesus spoke not only to the Sadducees but to the crowd around them. Zichri, by now, had stopped working the crowd and was preparing to arrest Jesus as soon as he uttered a heresy.

“At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage,” He said. “In that regard, they will be like the angels in Heaven.”

He turned sharply to Zereth and the other Sadducees.

“But about the resurrection of the dead—have you not read that God Himself said, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?”

“Of course we have,” said Zereth, as if defending himself in front of the people.

“So God is not the God of the dead but of the living,” said Jesus.

The crowds began muttering, astonished at His teaching and wisdom in so many things. Zereth and Zichri looked at the people’s faces, and could tell they believed Jesus’ words. The Sadducees remained silent, unable to respond.

Not about to let Jesus get by with this, Zichri signaled and a Pharisee by the name of Eli, an expert in the Law, came forward.

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” he asked.

Jesus quickly replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment of them all. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Before they could question Him further, Jesus addressed the Pharisees.

“What do you think about the Messiah? Whose Son is He?”

Zichri hushed the crowd so he could hear the question. They conferred a few seconds before deciding the answer, “The Son of David.”

“Very good,” Jesus said. “But how is it that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls Him ‘Lord’? As you recall, he says, ‘The Lord said to My Lord: Sit at My right hand until I put Your enemies under Your feet.”

Jesus turned to the people and asked:

“If, then, David calls Him ‘Lord,’ how can He be his Son?”

Zichri was enraged. He looked at the others and was so beside himself he could not speak. A few of the Pharisees made a weak suggestion here or there, but they were otherwise silenced by the authority of Jesus’ answer.

Kara and Pellecus watched as the three groups of bested men—the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees—murmured among themselves. The crowd in the outer court of the Temple was pressing in to hear Jesus.

“These fools will never defeat Jesus with words,” remarked Pellecus. “Look how the people hang on His every word. It’s obvious they believe Him.”

“It is not by twisting words that the Son of Man will be destroyed,” came a voice. “It is by twisting minds.”

“Ah, my prince,” said Kara, as Lucifer walked over. They stood under one of the porticos in the outer court of the Temple. “How true. These men have proven that words are useless with Jesus.”

“Nevertheless, you will continue fanning the passions of these men,” Lucifer said, looking at Zichri. “In the end they will serve us well.”

“How goes the matter with Judas?” asked Pellecus. “Has he turned yet?”

“As I have taken over that assignment personally I can assure you he is very close to ‘turning’,” snapped Lucifer. “I should think in the next day or two he shall be paying a visit to the high priest. It has already entered his mind.”

“You mean, it was introduced into his mind,” said Kara smiling.

“Yes and no,” said Lucifer. “What Judas does is of his own free will—just as every other crime committed by humans. I am merely expediting what is already in his heart. I am appealing to his greed, you know. And while normally we can allow men to run their lives with little interference, as long as they are not in covenant with the Most High, in the case of Judas I will leave nothing to chance. Thus I am personally seeing to it.”

“And then?” asked Pellecus.

“Then we shall see what the life of Jesus can be bought for,” said Lucifer.