The Expected One (38 page)

Yeshua the Nazarene was unmoved by the question and unaffected by the insult. He silenced the crowd and said to them, “There is no greater prophet on this earth than John the Baptizer.”

To the men who had challenged him, he added, “Please give all kind regards to my cousin. Go, and tell him what things you see and hear with us today.”

And there would be much to tell. The Nazarene leader went out among the crowd then and ministered to the ill. On that day he was said to have given eyesight to many who had been blind. He cured the infirmities of the elderly; he drove evil spirits and ill humors from the afflicted. And through it all he preached the word of The Way and taught the people about the light of God. He told a story, a parable about a woman who was forgiven for her sins because she had a heart filled with faith and love. This was his final message of the day.

“Sins are forgiven of those who are filled with love. But if the most righteous man has little love in his heart, he will know little forgiveness.”

It was a day that would define the ministry of Yeshua the Nazarene as the healing Way of love and forgiveness, a path of salvation available to all people who chose to walk in that light.

Herod Antipas had a problem. The Roman envoy who had witnessed the arrest warrant for John the Baptizer months earlier had returned. When the Roman asked the tetrarch’s officials why there were so many Jews surrounding the palace, he was told that the imprisoned prophet continued to attract followers. The envoy was astounded that Herod had not seen fit to take a position on the insurgent Baptizer.

At dinner later in the evening, the nobleman from Rome spoke with Herod sternly about the issue.

“You cannot be seen to be spineless where these rabble-rousers are concerned. You are here because Caesar trusts you to represent Rome and because he feels that you have an advantage with the people as a fellow Jew. But it would be a terrible mistake to appear too soft on them. This man insults Rome daily from the very prison where he is held, and you allow it.”

The tetrarch defended his position. “This desert land is overrun by Essene sects and others who call this man a prophet. To execute him would incite rioting.”

“You, a Roman citizen and a king, allow yourself to be held hostage by these desert dwellers?” The question was filled with rebuke.

Herod knew when he was cornered. This envoy was returning to Rome the following day, and he could not risk the man reporting any perceived weakness to Caesar. He had plenty of enemies who would like to see the fall of the Herods once and for all; that could not happen. Antipas was not born into the blood of such kings for nothing. Hadn’t his grandfather executed his own sons when he perceived a threat to his throne? Herods knew how to fight for what was rightfully theirs.

Herod Antipas clapped twice to call his servants, and ordered the centurions brought forward.

“Carry out sentence on the prisoner, John the Baptizer, immediately. He is to be executed swiftly with a sword.”

The Roman envoy nodded his vigorous approval as Herod Antipas moved to take his place in history for the first time — but not for the last.

Before his execution, John asked for just one thing — that a message be sent to his wife in Galilee. He was allowed to receive one follower to act as a courier. To him, John gave his final words of instruction and repentance before the centurion’s sword fell swiftly. The head was severed from the body with the first blow, and John the Baptizer, prophet of the Jordan, was sent to the kingdom of God.

Herod had John’s head mounted on a pike and displayed high at the front gate of the palace to show the Roman envoy how swiftly and severely he would deal with treason. It stayed there until it had been picked clean by scavenging birds, but disappeared mysteriously one night. The rest of John’s body was given to the Essene followers for burial.

It was to a heavily pregnant Mary of Magdala that word was brought of John’s execution. The messenger delivered John’s last words to her in person.

“Repent, woman. Do penance each day for the sins that have brought us to this place. Do it in memory of me and for the sake of the child you carry. If there is any hope for the child to be accepted into the kingdom of God, you must repent and have the child baptized at birth.”

Whether or not John died believing that Mary carried his child, she would never know. That he bothered to send a message as his last request gave her some indication that he may have believed that the child was his. Mary took his words to her heart and prayed every day for the rest of her long life for John’s forgiveness. He had been unkind to her, but she did not hold ill will toward him. Easa and the Great Mary taught that forgiveness was divine, and she embraced that principle with all sincerity.

John had been an enigma for her from the very beginning. He was a rough man who had never asked for what was pressed upon him, never intended to take a wife. She did her best to behave in a way that John would determine was obedient, but nothing about her ever pleased him. Sadly, Mary was wed to the only man in Israel who wouldn’t have given anything to have her. She was beautiful, virtuous, and wealthy in her own right, and she carried the royal blood of their people. None of those qualities was of interest to John the Baptizer.

The marriage had been a kind of sentence for each of them. The blessing for both was that they were separated most of the time, coming together only when the Pharisees pressured John to create an heir. In the end, the marriage was more abhorrent to John than it was to Mary. Now they were released from it, but Mary would have given anything to change the manner in which she was given her freedom.

Just as Mary had been blamed for John’s imprisonment, so was she accused in the execution by his most loyal followers. The only woman more reviled in the land at that moment was Salome. The Herodian princess was accused of terrible acts, including incest with her stepfather. Lurid tales spread of Salome’s loose sexuality and how she had used it to demand the head of John the Baptizer on a silver platter. None of these things was true. Salome had used a childish ploy to secure John’s imprisonment, but she confessed tearfully to Mary later that she had never anticipated his execution. She merely wanted to stop John for a time, to diminish his growing power among the people so he could not harm Easa or Mary. Salome was ultimately too young and inexperienced in the ways of politics and religion to foresee that John’s arrest would lead to his greater popularity among the common people. Worse, she did not anticipate Herod’s unfortunate dilemma or its singular solution.

An anonymous messenger from John’s camp brought a final and unexpected relic of repentance to his young widow some weeks later. Without a word, the ascetic handed her a woven reed basket and left the house quickly. There was no message attached, and the courier would not meet her eyes as he delivered the package. Curious, Mary lifted the lid to reveal the contents.

Resting on a silk cushion within the container was the sun-bleached skull of John the Baptizer.

Mary went into labor prematurely. It was a blessing in disguise as her tiny frame would not have been able to deliver this baby at full term. Even coming before his time as he did, the child was a strapping infant. He arrived in the world bellowing with great indignity. At a single day old he was the physical image of John. And anyone who heard the insistence in the infant’s wail would have recognized him as the legitimate child of the Baptizer.

Mary of Magdala sent word to the Great Mary and to Easa that her child had been delivered safely, along with her thanks for their welcome prayers.

She named the child John-Joseph, after his father.

After John’s execution, tremendous pressure was put upon Easa to take a position among the followers. He went into the desert place and met with the Essenes and John’s disciples, preaching the kingdom of God in his own way. Some among the Essenes accepted Easa as their new messiah and followed him because he was of the line of David. Yet many others were opposed to his Nazarene reforms because John had spoken harshly of these things at the end of his life. For the majority of the desert dwellers, John was the one and only Teacher of Righteousness, and anyone who tried to take his position was an imposter.

The deep division between those who would follow John and those who would be faithful to Easa was fashioned in these early days. The Nazarene spirit emerged as one of love and forgiveness, and was accessible to anyone who chose to embrace it. The Johannite philosophy was a very different one, based on harsh judgments and strict rules of law. Where women were welcomed and honored by Easa and the Nazarenes, they were reviled by the followers of John. John had always held women in low esteem, and his depiction of Mary and Salome as the whores of Babylon incarnate cemented the idea of women as lowly.

Inaccurate and unfair portraits emerged of Mary as a repentant sinner and Salome as a decadent harlot. The followers of John the Baptizer fanned these flames of injustice, igniting a conflagration that would burn through several thousand years.