The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ (19 page)

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.

John 6:68

Until now opposition to Jesus had come mainly from the Pharisees and scribes who saw in His liberal interpretation of Mosaic Law a threat to what they considered the welfare of Israel. The concept of the Anointed One, the Messiah who was to come, had been formed in a period of national trial and travail, when Judaism as a religion and the Jews as a people had been fighting for their very existence.

The Pharisees had visualized the Messiah as a great national deliverer, or perhaps as two persons, an earthly leader to bring political freedom and a spiritual leader, probably a high priest, who would be the very epitome of the orthodoxy which the Pharisees revered. They were very strict in this provision, and much of their enmity toward Jesus arose because He threatened their rigid concepts of Judaism.

At first the Pharisees at Jerusalem had considered Jesus an impostor worthy only of contempt. But when His following increased so rapidly, and particularly when the sending out of the Twelve marked a widening phase of His ministry, their efforts to thwart Him intensified. In addition, because Jesus was a Galilean, His growing popularity, with so many openly naming Him the Messiah, now became a source of concern to Herod who ruled here for Rome.

When the belief began to spread in Galilee that Jesus was the Messiah, He also became a threat to the priestly class at Jerusalem, largely composed of the Sadducees. If He succeeded in convincing the masses that He was the Anointed One, they would be forced to yield the temple and its worship to Him as the direct representative of the Most High, giving up the enormously profitable revenues that poured in daily.

As the time approached for the Twelve to return and give an account of their stewardship, Jesus faced steadily increasing tension and difficulty. Opposed bitterly by the Pharisees and scribes on one side and by the Sadducees and Herodians on the other, He had to curb at the same time the eagerness of the crowds who would make Him king in the hope that He would free them from the burdens of taxation and Roman oppression. All these secular conflicts inevitably hindered His mission to preach the kingdom of God.

Spring was far advanced and the dry season approaching when the Twelve returned. Jesus greeted them warmly. “Come apart into a desert place and rest a while,” He told them and led the way to a large fishing boat drawn up on the shore at the establishment of Zebedee.

East of Bethsaida near the region of Hippos in the Decapolis there was a lonely, uninhabited area lying between two brooks which, though dry during the summer, were now turbulent from the spring rains. Here the heights of the tableland north of the lake closely approached the shore, leaving only a narrow strand of flat land, heavily carpeted with green grass. The crowd following Jesus around the northern arc of the lakeshore as He and the disciples crossed in the boat had not reached this area when He and His companions debarked and climbed into the hills to a secluded spot. The Twelve told glowingly of healing the sick, curing mental diseases, and performing miracles in Jesus’ name which had attracted the attention of the crowds and made them marvel.

By now a crowd had gathered on the narrow strip of lakeshore at the foot of the hill where Jesus had retreated with His disciples. Most of them had walked, but many crippled had been brought by boat. When He saw the effort the people had made to follow Him, Jesus could not refuse them His miracle-working power; leaving His disciples, He descended to the grassy shore and began to heal.

The afternoon passed in this way and the crowd was still there when the sun began to sink toward the mountains of Galilee. Since the evening meal was the only large one eaten during the day, the approach of night found most of the listeners without food and with no way to procure it.

Judas of Kerioth carried the money pouch, and it was therefore his task to provide for the material needs of Jesus and the disciples. Some loaves and fish had been hurriedly procured before they left Capernaum, but these were barely enough for their own needs. When Jesus showed no sign of dismissing the crowd and sending them home for the night, Judas sought out Simon Peter and the two approached the Master.

“This is a desert place and it grows late,” Simon reminded Him. “Send the people away so they can go into the villages and buy bread.”

“Give them food to eat,” Jesus directed and turned back to His teaching.

“We have only about two hundred denarii,” Judas said indignantly to Peter. The disciples had obeyed Jesus literally when He had told them to carry neither silver nor gold nor brass coins. “That would not even begin to feed five thousand people.”

The two approached Jesus again. “Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread and give it to them to eat?” Judas asked a little sarcastically.

“How many loaves have you?” Jesus asked.

“Five loaves and two fish,” Simon reported.

Jesus got to His feet. “Bring them to Me,” He directed.

While Simon and Judas went to get the loaves and the fish, Jesus directed the crowd to divide themselves into groups of about fifty each. When traveling any distance, most Galileans carried a small basket into which they put fruit left on the trees by the pickers, fish too small to be dried, and anything else of value they found on the way. Jesus now blessed the loaves and the fish and directed representatives from each of the groups of fifty to pass before Him with their baskets as He divided the food.

As the line of men carrying baskets approached Jesus, a murmur of jeering laughter began to rise from some parts of the crowd. He ignored it, however, and began to break the bread and fish into pieces and drop them into the baskets that were held out to Him. As He did so, the laughter faltered and then vanished. Beneath Jesus’ swiftly moving hands, the fish and the bread seemed to multiply again and again. Each basket that passed before Him was filled and yet there was no sign of an end to the plenitude of food He had produced from one small basketful.

The people looked warily at the baskets carried out to them, uncertain whether they were not being tricked. A few reached in and took the food, carrying it gingerly to their mouths and tasting it carefully, as if afraid it was unreal. But when Jesus Himself began to eat and after Him the disciples, the people followed their lead. Soon the whole five thousand were eating joyously, for there was such a supply that no one needed to eat sparingly.

Judas had been astounded when Jesus produced such a vast quantity of food from almost nothing, but he did not let his astonishment overcome his frugal nature. Under his direction, twelve baskets of fragments were gathered for the morning meal and, as he supervised their collection, his mind worked busily. Before he had joined the Twelve, Judas had been sure that Jesus’ miracles could be turned to profit. Now the feeding of the five thousand showed him how they could. In following Jesus he had made a wise choice indeed!

The other disciples too were excited by the implications of the miracle they had witnessed. Jesus, however, did not allow them to question Him or discuss it with the crowd. Instead He sent them away secretly by boat that same evening, promising to follow later.

Excited as they were and engrossed with their own plans for the future, none of them noticed that a storm was building up until it descended upon them near the center of the lake with all the sudden fury of which storms were capable in this deep, hill-lined cup. Before they could even lower the sail, the boat was half-filled with water.

Gone now was their jubilation at the prospect of seeing Jesus at last assume His rightful place as King and Messiah in Israel. As the waterlogged boat was tossed about by the winds and their situation grew worse by the moment, they began to cry out from fear, certain that they were to be drowned.

With the keen eyes of a fisherman, John was the first to see what appeared to be a man walking on the water toward them. As the figure approached, they saw that it was Jesus but the sight only increased their fear, for they were sure now that the Master had been killed and they were seeing His spirit.

“It is I,” Jesus called out to them from some distance away. “Be not afraid.”

The disciples could hardly believe it was really Jesus in the flesh, although that very afternoon they had seen Him perform a miracle fully as great as that of walking on the water. Simon Peter was the first to find courage to speak.

“If it is you, Lord,” he called to Jesus, “bid me come to You on the water.”

“Come,” Jesus said at once.

Hesitantly, Simon rolled up the hem of his robe and stepped out of the boat. The water supported him and he took a few tentative steps toward Jesus. Then the faith that had led him to leave the boat began to desert him in the face of the waves that bore down upon him. And being afraid, he at once began to sink.

“Lord, save me!” Peter cried desperately, reaching out imploring hands to Jesus as he sank into the water.

Without trying Peter further, Jesus stretched out His hand and lifted Him to the surface again. “O you of little faith!” He said reprovingly. “Why did you doubt?”

Together Jesus and Peter, who was greatly ashamed at having failed in the test of faith, boarded the boat. The storm subsided shortly and they were able to continue back to Capernaum.

Arza, the coppersmith, had prospered since the day when he had been let down through the roof of Simon Peter’s house. Many who had witnessed the miracle were curious to see if it were permanent and came to visit Arza in his shop, sometimes bringing him business. Soon he had been forced to employ additional smiths and was able to wear a fine robe on the Sabbath. Since he was industrious, aggressive, and pious, there had been talk lately of making him one of the rulers of the congregation, an important position in a synagogue as large as that of Capernaum.

Arza had not seen Jesus since the day he had been healed, but he had heard of the further miracles the Nazarene was performing and knew that many people now believed Him to be the Messiah. When word spread through Capernaum that Jesus and His disciples were at the fishing sheds of Zebedee, Arza assigned enough work to his smiths to keep them busy for the rest of the day and hurried off to the shore. He was curious to hear the teachings of one who might be the Messiah and besides, he might even have a chance to speak to Jesus and call the crowd’s attention to himself and his new-found prosperity.

Arza had arrived only in time to see Jesus and the disciples embarking to cross the lake, but when the crowd began to follow around the northern shore, he had joined it. There he had listened as Jesus taught through the afternoon and healed the sick. And as he watched, a growing conviction had developed in the coppersmith’s mind that he was witnessing the manifestation of a power which could come only from God and might also be used for material benefits.

Then had come the astounding miracle of feeding the five thousand with the loaves and fishes. Arza had eaten heartily himself and knew that this was no trick, and as he considered the implications of a power that could create food where there had been nothing, a deep excitement began to rise within him, the nucleus of a plan which, could he but put it into effect, might easily mean a rich future for Arza himself, considerably greater than that of a successful coppersmith, or even of a ruler in the synagogue.

When the meal was finished and the fragments gathered up, Arza began to visit the groups of fifty who gathered around the campfires they had built along the shore to discuss the astounding miracle they had just witnessed. Wherever Arza went among them he stayed only long enough to start one topic of conversation and implant the idea that a man who could feed five thousand people from a few loaves and fish must possess also the power to become king in Israel, destroying the Romans and the hated son of Herod the Great with the thunderbolts of God which He no doubt also commanded.

Fresh from experiencing the miraculous power of Jesus, many of the crowd eagerly took up the suggestion, but Arza delayed his approach to Jesus or the disciples. And when he saw Jesus send the disciples back to Capernaum by boat shortly after nightfall he was pleased. He would go to Jesus in the morning with a fully formed plan, and to this end he enlisted the help of several others in the crowd whom he knew. One was a fellow smith named Ahab, another a merchant of Tiberias named Shobeal. They listened and eagerly agreed to stir up enthusiasm for Arza’s scheme among the crowd.

Arza intended to remind Jesus that he had been among the first to be healed by His miraculous power. Then, as planned, he would announce the crowd’s decision to acclaim Jesus as king and usher Him in triumph to Tiberias where He could assume the throne of Herod in Galilee before going on to Jerusalem for the final act of naming Himself King of the Jews. According to the plan, Ahab and Shobeal would lead the people in a surge of triumphant acclamation which must surely eliminate any reservations Jesus might have. To the coppersmith it was unbelievable that Jesus could have any objection to his plan or that a man who possessed the power to be king would refuse to exercise it.