VII F K Mai E Tenth
hour of the day
779 AUC
Judea
-
Since he knew he’d be in time to be in Jerusalem for tomorrow’s start of the Centennial games in Rome,
Machba`nel was deeply concerned at being met by a wearied turmae on the barren rim of Micmash Mountain It was unnerving to be captured and held at this
place where the first king of Israel, Saul and his son Jonathon fought so bravely against the Philistines before it earned
their deaths, which few of the grim faced soldiers surrounding would know or recognized in its antiquity. Greater men than
he had had their blood spilled on the rocks and bare ridges without anyone remembering their name! He was
left unbound, but mounted on a nag unfit to carry water and feed to Titan and marched up the inner staircase to Pilate’s
chambers with nothing more than the chance to wash the dust off his hands in case he had to touch something within the plain
but hugely cluttered chamber. It was an insult that set his teeth on edge as much as his fear of an ignoble death as soon
as the prohibitions of the day were passed.
The
fear returned the instant the burly man turned and his scowl deepened.
Machba`nel began to the intone the dignified and lengthy formal greetings but the toga clad figure raced toward him,
pulled off his helmet and flung it at a sentry standing at attention near by and crudely ordered him to sit!
‘This was how his life would end! He knew the mistake he’d made in turning away from the Nazarene for the
failed power of Rome, but now there was no time to repent.’ Tears tried
to thrust themselves upwards through the tight grasp he held on his emotions but he denied them, as the last vestige of dignity
left to a condemn man.
“
Why hasn’t this man been fed and dressed? Must I think for all you fools? Pull your heads
out of you arsis and think, or by all the gods I’ll take your useless heads because obviously you won’t
even miss them! “ Pilate raged, his voice inarticulate with umbrage and
fervor.
Strong hands pulled Machba`nel roughly to his feet. Before he could think to knock them aside and move on his own power,
the Procurator’s scornful voice lashed both of them, and they stood still, neither man daring to breathe.
“
He’s here now. “ Pilate rebuked in utter contempt. “ Or perhaps
we should wait until you’ve eaten and taken a crap. Then, and only then...perhaps...you might allow matters of state
to commence? “
“
No, Honorable sir. “ The Decurion said in a helpless voice as a quick gaze
left and right showed no one able to signal him how to proceed.
Pilate opened his mouth and exposed
strong, even teeth in a mirthless smile that was more frightening than his pacing or his rage.
“ You may
leave now. It would take more effort than you’re worth to slay you with my sword. Before you died, I’d
make you clean it! “
“ I would
do the best I am able, sir. It would be an honor to die in your service, sir! “
The man said in a voice made high pitched
with fear, but he knelt, exposing the back of his neck and waited humbly for his fate.
The burly man stopped short, his face suddenly
a mix of shock and revulsion. Looking up he said his chief of guards and forgotten that he’d commanded him to be here
this evening. It was as if the standing soldier and the man hovering between the stool and the exit were on a different planet
for all the sigh the father gave to the son’s existence, and a knife twisted the knot already in his gut.
“
Remove him. “
He had to
motion toward the kneeling figure before any of the soldier in the room dared to presume which man he meant. Out of impatience,
he motioned for Xavier to leave as well. He didn’t want anything more interfering with his hearing of the strange reports
said to be been instigated by the uncommon warrior in the middle of the room.
“
Am I a god, Marcus? “ He asked in a coldly condescending tone, pouring
out the water into two goblets that he planned to offer the stiff and wary soldier. He kept his water level higher as a matter
of caution. He needed the military but he didn’t trust them. Trust led to betrayal as it had to Caesar on the Ides of
March of the Senate steps! “ I am only a politician, and a husband too long gone
from his wife’s aching arms. What news from the hordes? “
He listened to the chronicled narrative, nodding from time to time, but his eyes watched a dragonfly that had wafted
in on the evening breeze. Hearing his reports with a bland face that revealed nothing, though Pontus Pilate questioned him
sharply enough to show he had taken the time to read the reports submitted to him by Machba`nel and the others. There
was an edge of defensiveness anger hidden to his delicate phrasing of the Latin idiom he demanded used in these rooms.
“ There are always people willing to take advantage
of a would-be Messiah. They’re a dreamy lot, these idealists. If it’s a salve to your conscience Marcus, think
of it as though you were protecting him from the men who would use his drive for the spiritual and pervert it to their own
devices. “ He turned with a scowl that was frightening because he so seldom revealed anything
of his true emotions on his face.
Machba`nel took a step backwards instinctive, but the blunt, angular man took three steps forward to compensate.
“
Think of this however you must, but be there at his side! By some fluke of luck he chose to incorporate a thinking
man, not a killing machine, and he will trust you since he selected you himself! That puts you in a unique position to help
us, and him. “
“ I’ve
wondered at that choice myself, Excellency. “
“ Spare me the gore of your wretched soul, if you have one. I need a man of war, I need a
man of honor, and I believe you are that. I also believe that rebellion exits in his own house that if, left unchecked, could
destroy all the good the older brother wants to do! If you want to thank him, by Jove’s right hoof, if you want to worship
him, I care not! But stop the bloody flux his next to last brother would cause to this new kingdom of his. By all that that’s
holy, we all want peace, even Caesar, I believe. Though who can know the mind of a god? “
Machba`nel hung his head humbly and smote his breast.
“ Let it be done even as you say, Excellency. ”
“
Despite your assurances Marcus, I fear I regret my leniency toward the man when he set up such a commotion in the Temple
in March. Perhaps I should have had the man flogged for such a public outrage, but I loath giving those mean spirited, superior
…” He stopped short of using the word that instantly came to both their minds.
He spoke thoughtfully, gnawing at the edge of a worrisome hangnail on his second finger. His raised hand stopped Machba`nel’s
institutive protest as soon as the first choked sound emerged. But he refused to look at the man’s face, for fear of
what he’d see there when for the moment at least, it had been a companionable talk. A sigh rattled
from between his lips, masking a small burp and the odd, stale lingerings of wine on a man’s breath as he wrenched his
gaze away from the jeweled lapis azure irradiance of the winged insect’s abdomen and allowed them to
come to rest on the reddish coals finally producing heat just before they expired and ceased usefulness.
“
Still, I hated to give Them what they wanted! And they were a’ fluster at being
taken down a peg from their high and mighty roles as the Religious Potentates over these fellows! “
He laughed bitterly for a moment, enjoying a moment of malicious pleasure, then the veil returned over his eyes and
he pushed himself to his feet by the edges of his kneecaps, squared and bony for such a well put together athlete. “
There’s always tomorrow. Until there is none. For there is no remembrance in the grave , as your own prophets and dreamers have foretold, Marcus. Good night, and thank
you for such a complete report. “
He walked
out of the room without looking back. A rare and uncommon tribute to the soul of the man whose depths he’d just plundered
for his own use. He retired to the privacy of the solitary balcony where he sometimes fled simply to be free momentarily of
their clawing needs and icy hands; more deeply troubled in his spirit than he wanted to reveal to himself, much less an inferior!
Machba`nel left the empty room without being sure he had permission. But Pilate was a thoughtful and reserved man,
he wouldn’t just walk out of the room he had some place to be and there was no direct order to wait until his return,
in which case he would have till he lacked the strength in his limbs any longer, and then he’d sit in place till he
heard the Procurator’s approach. He admired the skillful man as much as he feared him, but at the moment his mind was
too shaken and filled with the buzz of doubts and questions, and after nearly four months of being able to move at his own
whim, he naturally obeyed the logical demand to escape this place before further harm befell him trying to draw too near to
where he clearly had no place!
If he understood Pilate
correctly, and one didn’t question the Voice of the authorities from Rome, he was to protect Jesus of Nazareth despite
his being a self- proclaimed messiah, in order to protect Rome’s interests and if necessary, to protect
the Nazarene’s life. The heart of Rome apparently felt him an idealistic and malleable dreamer who
would be easier to control that the sons of Herod the Butcher. But where did that place him?
Xavier approached him
in the wide aisle of the soldier’s barracks, greeting him with a long and lingering embrace.
“
I don’t even feel like I’m talking to the same man, Son. Can you stay? Or have you been given another assignment
by Pilate? “
“
Not directly, but I’ve been assured by his clerk that re received the others, and he made me to know I’m
not the only one. He meant it to sting me and put me in my place, but frankly, it’s good news. There’s talk of
reassigning me here with you, something about the zealots? Barabbas? “
Xavier snorted in contempt
and turned his head to watch Giovanni bring in the tray of wine and then separately the food. At first Machba`nel wondered
if his father had lost faith in the trusted old soldier, but then he realized it was a readiness to jump up and help if the
growing palsy to his hands threatened to shame the dear old man.
“
We’ve been holding our breath there won’t be some outbreak from your Nazarene’s presence in the Temple,
like earlier this year, but they seem to have their own momentum and they don’t plan to allow anything so insignificant
as mere as the first recognized prophet from Yahweh Elohim, Blessed be His Name, interfere with their self-appointed
tasks!
‘Did
you adopt me because I was Jewish and you were trying to be?‘
Machba`nel asked in his mind, but before he could find a way to speak the words in a non-judgmental tone, his father smiled deeply, shucking off the form of Abishalom ben Judah
for the ease and candor due a Roman solider of rank and his grown son.
“ Your mother has invited us both to dinner. She’s heard that you got enough since to
rid yourself of that sickly thing in Cana and she’s invited two young women of class and durable bodies, on separate
nights of course, since she can little count on a second birth from the sodomite she married your sister too! She’s
determined to have a grandson. ” Xavier hastened to add as he motioned his son to a couch before
the sumptuous repast, as he felt and saw the tenseness on the middle-aged man’s face. A knot of pain struck out from
his groin, as if in punishment for his lack of loyalty, since it had been his idea to adopt Claudia as well as Shemi’s
son, but though he began to sweat a little as he fought the pain, he was too excited about having his son safely returned
to him to allow self-pity or despair to sweep over him as it did when the intense sharp pains woke him in the dark of the
lonely night.
“
Apparently my reports were too terse? “ Machba`nel questioned, but having
used his hand to ease his place on the couch beside the travel stained man, Xavier laughed in joy from the depth of his being
and used the hand to wave away the regret and self-condemnation.
“ They hired a solider, not a poet. But son, I wonder at what you say of him?
“
“
As I was reminded today, I’m not the only one, and we can’t all be making up the same fantastic story!
“
He stood
quickly to help Giovanni and was stung with barbed rebukes he pretended bothered him, but he watched in pleasure as the white
haired soldier took a seat near enough to allow them a comfortable flow of conversation, as the talk fell sharply upon the
zealots and young hotheads who’d recently been driven to the cunning old fox’s coven.
“ For every one we catch and crucify, two more show up, determined to achieve martyrdom because
they think such feeble resistance will rid them of Rome. Their own religious leaders are worse than any that Caesar has thrust
upon them, by Zeus’ beard and navel! “
“ While he hangs back, exploiting their youth and keeping his cronies safe.
“
Machba`nel mused,
leaning on his elbow as he dipped the bread crust into the tangy lamb sauce.
“ And you said he had his head in the clouds! “ Xavier
mocked the hard eyed old soldier in public, but neither man paid him any attention as the medicine Evi had given them loosened
the hold of the pain on his flesh and the hold he normally held on his tongue. “ And
how will you bed the sister if you’ve betrayed both her brothers to the death? “
It was a challenge, the voice of the privileged
ranking Roman who’d kicked the bloodied body flung before him by the grunting Apulio of so long ago.
“ That is between me and my conscience. I ask nothing of what passes between my mother and
you in a world where I have no right to enter, do I? “
“ Nor
I any right to mock you for my own lacks. I apologize, son. “
The final
word was a peace offering, a painfully humble request not to throw away the one thing that had given them both strength when
they were younger, and keeping his eyes averted, the middle aged warrior gratefully grasp the extended olive branch and their
conversation stayed on safer subjects, of tactics of wars, of shared whores, and other matters that could no longer be of
the same intensity they once were, until Xavier was too tired to stay any longer and broke the link, however unwillingly.
It was with a sense of relief that Machba`nel was now free to wash, strip and find a measure of solitude
in the Baths. Speaking to those above him in rank who chose to acknowledge him, while ignoring the inferior status men who
were trying to pretend they didn’t recognize him naked. He closed his eyes as the steam and the sounds within the echoing
chamber took him back to a year ago today; and the idle but curious relieved review of where his life had diverted from the
rigid plan he had expected to follow. He knew even without looking down into the sparkling, heated water that he needed release
with a trusted whore, and he also wanted to speak to his brother-in-law so he was weighing the possibility of joining the
two against the freedom an anonymous, if less skilled woman might provide, since it would take very little stimulation to
make him release! Then unexpectedly he thought of the woman who had scorned him with such terrible efficiency. She couldn’t
divorce him, such options were unthinkable for a woman, but she certainly knew what to do and say to shatter the illusion
he still held of Aurelia Leite and the woman he longed for her to replace.
Only a few
days ago he’d willingly relinquished any hope of a wife and children, now suddenly he longed for them with a peculiar
intimacy, as if they were already were in existence and he had only to rise, dry and dress and he could go to them!
“
At least that beastly weather is beginning to break? “ A stranger said
in search of an invitation although Machba`nel had deliberately sought out a corner where no others sat in idle chatter and
gossip. “ You’re a Jew! “ The
man in mortal form said as if in shock, and Machba`nel fought the buoyancy of the heated mineral waters to slide his erection
between his raised knees. “ Sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, but when you were pointed out
to be, I had to come to see for myself. “
“
There’s little of me you can’t see for yourself. “ He answered
tartly, looking at the deeply shadowed stoned on the far side the narrow baths as the stranger carelessly flung off his towel
and stepped gingerly across the heated stoned and down into the water.
“
The real you is as hidden as a city behind a monumental wall. I was told you spoke Greek, but they didn’t meant
how well you coax your tongue around its sounds. “
“
Such gracious openings might win your friends and lovers in the baths of Rome, but here, they will earn you a reputation
as effeminate and merely make the strictness of this life more onerous to you. “
The
stranger nodded and looked down at the silvered water droplets gathering on his chest hairs, He was somewhere between thirty
and the young side of forty, but his body bore no scars, though his tone betrayed many. He spoke aloud, as if still deep in
thought.
“ I thought men like you were mealy-mouthed and shy as a virgin. “
“
Men like me? “
“ The ones
who give themselves over to hysteria and healing. “
Machba`nel laughed, feeling
no compulsion to spare the rude man’s feelings in return.
“ You must be someone of note, to be invited to personal baths, but it is worthy of a coy maiden
that I must myself ask, without you volunteering the information, if indeed your going to ask that question weighing so heavily
against your shoulders? “
It was the Stranger’s turn
to laugh.
“ I have purchased the vineyards of Ezra the Vintner, because they are frankly superior to
mine. I was going to salt the earth and plow them under, and then mock you with the death of something you love as much as
you loved Aurelia Leite but I heard a man speak today who has challenged everything I ever believed, even everything I’ve
ever been taught by my grandfather who grieves her death as if she were his own flesh and blood. “
They turned, in
one motion and looked at one another.
“ My older brother loved the girl and planned to marry her when he came of age, but the matchmaker
refused, we weren’t rich enough. Then she died in childbirth and money became the god we could trust. Now I’m
so rich I’m bored with it, and I find no release. I was going to kill myself, I was wrongly told that you’d already
died, so where was my revenge? “
“
You weren’t wrongly told. The prophet Jesus of Nazareth healed me when I stepped into the water to follow him.
“
“ And he healed your blind sister, in a revenge far worse than anything I could have plotted.
Why does he hate me so badly, that he’d do this to you? He must hate you even more than I do.
Machba`nel felt his body wilt and he stood without difficulty or modesty. The man still seated on the ledge beside
him had no relevance in his life. If anything he had helped to put the past at rest, beyond his reach.
“
This conversation is ended. “ He said in a surprisingly civil voice and
he stepped up to the stones that sputtered where the water struck them. It burned the flesh beneath the thick callously on
his feet but he refused to give his strange companion the pleasure of witnessing his discomfort.
-
The Stranger in mortal garb remained seated, thrusting away any sense of pleasure
from the warmth of the water on his bare limbs or the licentious discussion between two of the potbellied men to his left.
Nothing seemed capable of giving him pleasure any more, he thought to himself morosely. With Jesus so near, he was restricted
from his growing opposition among the rich and wealthy who had much to lose under a more restrained and sacrificial kingdom.
But for all his great wisdom and beauty, he felt as small as one of these as he tried in vain to peer into the near future
and guess what the Messiah had in store before He left Jerusalem with the ending of the Sabbath!
-
Barabbas listened, with his chin cupped on his bent wrist, vainly attempting to restrain his fury at the youth’s
idealistic chatter. He wished mightily the bronzed, statuesque stranger would leave while he had a chance to overwhelm and
publicly kill his nemesis’ son. It had seemed the chance of a lifetime to bring the boy who thought only that he was
avenging his baby sister’s honor, totally unaware of his part in the grand scheme of the aged zealot leader who plans
to use his gruesome death at the hands of the Romans as a rallying cry his eldest brother refused to offer!
“ Simon
ben Joses! Cease this and go home before someone misses you! You are only as much use to our cause as your anonymity will
allow! Don’t tell me you’ve raised the promise for a hundred swords, a promise isn’t a blade of iron or
bronze! When you have a thousand swords with armed and trusted ment o weld them, then we’ll talk about revolution! Or
wait and wet in your loincloth while you wait for the Romans to crush your older brother like a hard-shelled roach!
“ The seventeen-year-old
paled and fell silent, allowing himself to be coaxed to the door by the older man he idolized, but as he heard stealthy footsteps
following after him in the dark as he raced to the rental house of Joktan ben Achbor, he half-wondered if they weren’t
zealots sent to kill him before he could get himself caught and betray them all?
-
*
-
When Machba`nel sought out the stables
to groom and stroke Titan while he sorted out his conflicted emotions, he wasn’t surprised that the golden stallion
was restless and uneasy, twice trying to bite him from sheer bouts of nervous energy. Apulio would have punished the wary
horse, but Machba`nel forbid it, using carrot pieces and great patience to calm and restrain the stallion.
“
Do you want to come with me this time? “
“
Are you speaking to the horse, or to me, Marcus? “
“
Both actually. “ Machba`nel replied, hating the use of the offensive nickname
almost as much as the intimacy implied by using his given name. He slammed the stallion on the side of the neck so hard that
Titan retaliated, luckily catching the grooming cloth the solider had tossed over his shoulder rather than ribs and flesh,
for his great yellowed teeth snapped on the supple hide with great force.
Apulio stepped
backward in shock, a little afraid of the war trained stallion but Machba`nel remained beside the angry beast as it shook
the limp cloth and dropped it to his forefeet where he half reared and stomped on the offending cloth until it was driven
into the muck of the stall.
“ We both have so much anger in us, son. How are we going to get rid of it all?
“
He asked in a low, worried voices as the stallion, appeased, reached around to allow the knowledgeable fingers to rub
the soft velvet between his nostrils, whickering in trust and loneliness. Opening the stout wooden barrier, Machba`nel led
the placid stallion by the press of his hand against the sloping haunches and they returned to the rooms assigned to him in
the barracks below the sleeping stone buildings. When the stallion knelt and laid down on the pallet Machba`nel laid out for
him, he went to sleep with his head pillowed on the surprisingly slender legs of the great beast and was asleep before Apulio
could finish blowing out the wick in the olive oil lamp.
He remained awake till the next change of the Watch, leaned against the wooden door listening to two individual patterns
of snoring coming from the room on the other side. He wanted to say no, he wanted to say ‘enough!’ But even with
a wife and three stout sons, the thoughts of living at home year round while his wife and his mother-in-law aged and shriveled
in front of his eyes like dried black olives was enough for him to make an indefinite mental acquiescence to the oddly phrased
request.
Why go home to certainty and wonder what adventures he missed here? It would be there, when he was ready. If and when
he was ready. He dressed and allowed Apulio to shave him before he attended the marriage supper his mother had planned for
him, only waiting to fill in the name of the matron he selected as his bride.
-
*
-
III
BK Mai – E Second
hour of the day
779 AUC
Jerusalem
-
Jerusalem was in an uproar, with John in Herod Antipas’ mountaintop prison and the man he identified as the Expected One teaching in the Temple, being patiently ignored by the religious
leaders who should have been expected to be prostrating themselves at His feet, there was an air of uncertainty and resentment
marring the harvest holiday, but multitudes followed after the Nazarene as He walked down the wind swept mountain yet another
time without attempting to claim His throne. Once
the mountain-born birds of Jerusalem woke, sleep was impossible. Though he would have preferred to remain in the army at his
father’s side, he was deeply troubled by the implication of the obese merchant’s hasty departure for his wife’s
hometown and the apparent delight he was anticipating in having agents who stirred up the inner religious circle in Nazareth
to attempt to stone Jesus ben Joses for blasphemy if He spoke incautiously at the local synagogue on the next Shabbat!
Zaavan at least, had to believe it true to bestir himself to cross the mountains and the river to Galilee, for he had himself
carried on a liter here in Jerusalem rather than cross a single street! . Using Pilate’s implied
consent, since he hadn’t revoked it, Machba`nel groomed and saddled Titan for himself, determined not to leave the horse
behind again. He was going back as a soldier, in defense of a man he respected and honored but he didn’t want any mistake
made in his loyalties. He was a soldier, and he would die as one, either in Rome’s army defending the Nazarene, or leading
the armies to defeat His enemies, and it was very much the same to him. He had no further illusions of forgiveness for the
choices he’d made, but neither could he stand to one side, and idly watch as Elohim’s grand plan
across the ages was thwarted by the spite of smaller men!
Apulio purchased a bay gelding of exceeding height and depth of wind to accompany him, and he felt night unto invincible
at that moment! When he said goodbye to Xavier and was told his mother had already left for the difficult journey north, to
check on Claudia who was near to birth. He pretended a disinterest in leaving before his adopted father, but as he prepared
to actually ride out the opened city gate, his heart burned with a feral excitement and the wish for blood too soon granted.
Once they were past
the canyons where the cries for help of two lone soldiers wouldn’t be heard and answered by rigorously trained pedites,
they were attacked by four bandits who tried to pretend
to nationalistic fervor for their crimes. Misjudging the skill and the mood of their would-be victims in their lust to possess
the magnificent golden stallion under the scarred one’s control. Machba`nel acceded to their pleas for a quick and merciful
death rather than the slow torture of the cross, for rejoining the group several days from now would be hugely inconvenient.
He stopped only long enough to sort through their pitiful possessions and wash the blood from his hands and legs, burning
anything neither he nor Apulio wished to carry. He
remained long enough to arrange to have the four corpses buried and caught up with them at the inn in Jericho were a crowd
had gathered around the gentle man from Nazareth,
“
Why would the zealots of this land wish to kill off the one man who looks as if He could bring peace to this terrible
place, if you don’t mind my asking? “
He
questioned as they slept under the stars, preferring to light no fire that would draw feet in the dark in their direction.
Machba`nel rolled on his belly.
“
I think because peace means they’ll go back to being thieves and murderers. “
“ Isn’t that what they are now? “
“ Nationalism
gives a heady glow, Apulio. “
“
We’ve fought, to take people captive. We stay here to keep a people captive. What if their GOD isn’t as
forgiving as the Messenger He sent to his own? “
“ Isn’t it a little bit late for us to start wondering about that now?
“
“
At least we gave those men a decent burial! “ The older man replied defensively
and passing gas nosily with a certain air of satisfaction, he laid his head on his arm for a pillow and went soundly and profoundly
to sleep while the heavily scarred warrior beside him to lay awake watching the stars in their sense gaiety and number.
“ What are we to you? “ He questioned GOD, but
he was careful to be asleep before any reply could travel the distance between the throne of the One on High, and the chill,
lonely earth where he laid his head.
When they arrived in Nazareth at the high walled compound near the end of the Street of Carpenters, to see if Jesus might be there, Mary’s daughter-in-law were already
up, greeting him with a warm kiss on the cheek and providing them both with a bowl of cracked grains that melted goat’s
butter and honey in the center. Machba`nel ate with relish. While they were waiting for the Master, who had promised to come
visit His hometown on Saturday, it was pleasant to think of less weighty matters while they waited. Hilkiah,
who was staying with his wife Judith for a few days, had promised to them exploring with Judas and the two apprentices, for
a pleasant afternoon of relic hunting in some of the nearby caves where it was said ancient caravans stopped to hide jewels
and vague, unnamed treasures against plunder from the bandits and the fierce sea people who were said to have roamed in packs
like wild dogs or lions. Nameless, vague, but magnificent treasures in easy reach of a boy’s imagination, no matter
his age. It was little more than an excuse to indulge his growing pleasure in life, but once he reached
past her stern exterior Machba`nel found the old woman Judith to be a charming and cultured woman with opinions that were
fresh and verifiable, though she’d lived a sheltered life as a carpenter’s wife in a backwater village for her
entire life.
Joseph’s third son Joses demanded to be allowed to stay home form the lengthy forum he’d been invited,
to separate the family further, the scarred warrior suspected. There was such light banter at his expense that Machba`nel
found it difficult to believe that he was in as much pain as he pleaded. His betrothal to the girl of his childhood dreams
and fantasies had been broken abruptly by her father, the uncle of the local rabbi, and Joses, who fancied himself a scholar
since two older brothers already excelled at anything he could attempt to lay his hand too, had been crushed. Undoubtedly
the girl in question was making the same performance in her parent’s house that they might salvage a few hours in one
another arms. He didn’t discount the pain of such a lost love, especially since the accusation was unfounded, but would
require shredding her of the last of her dignity of he protested for his own defense, but he’d learned long ago that
Life is a wheel that moves by a stronger hand and you move with it or get crushed under it!
After dinner they excused themselves saying they would leave too early in the morning for their host, and James seemed mollified, although Rebecka blushed mightily.
-
*
-
House
of Joseph the carpenter’s sons
Nazareth
-
Early
in the day, Mary stood beside her daughter, feeling the dry, hot winds that helped to make the hard work of vine tendering
more bearable pull on the child’s mind perceptively. She straightened her back, pulling off the leather work gloves
already stained brown with the sap from the dead growth they were pulling away from the elderly widow’s unkempt property
adjacent to their back wall. Instead of their usual rounds she had decided to keep her acts of charity, and her daughter,
closer to home this week at least. Ahava was standing at the top of the hill, facing southeast toward Jerusalem.
Although her puppy played happily, digging and scrambling for the beetles loosen in the dry earth by the up rooted weeds and
old growth being removed, Mary couldn’t help but see they and their task was the last thing on the girl’s mind
as she watched the last of the noisy and happy caravan retreat from the hill Nazareth was built on. Those who were fit, or
of a mind too had been leaving on the great caravan road for the last three days, but this was the first time the girl had
betrayed her true feelings, watching their retreat as if the last morsel of food had ben handed to them in a clean cloth and
she despaired of every having another! It was difficult for her to see her child in such anguish when there wasn’t anything
she could do about it. With a deep sigh, she stripped off the other damp glove and laid them on the top of the sloping wood
support, which had once been the pride of the master’s vineyard. As much physical labor as she did, and as much walking
as they’d been doing, it surprised her to feel how stiff and weary her muscles were from lack of sleep.
“
There’s still time for you to join them, Beloved? “
She tried hard to keep
her feelings out of her voice as she watched her child’s smooth brow furrow, a sharp ache seizing her as she recognized
small mannerism of her father the girl had picked up in loving mimicry. The wind which had curled gently down at the foot
of the hill seemed sharper, more aggressive, pushing at her as if to deny her balance on the edge of the slope.
“
Thank you no, Ima. “
It was an adult’s
voice and she reached out instinctively for her daughter’s arm as she pushed herself to the summit of the rounded hill
. “
Beloved! “ She cried out in surprise as they came even. the girl
paled alarmingly.
“ What is it Ima? “ She began to swipe
at her shoulders, thinking a noxious pest had crawled on her clothes while she had her head down pruning back the winter killed
growth.
“ You’re the same height as me! "
“ Ima! “ She said
reproachfully, clutching at her chest. “ You scared me! “
Mary laughed and reached out her arms, waiting for the girl to come to her, if she willed. Almost getting the breath
squeezed out of her at the girl’s fierce response, as if something too large had just swept near enough to carry her
too quickly into the looming storm cloud! In the two and a half weeks the men were gone from the small
house the rooms seemed to expand, but once they returned, Joses’ strident voice preceding their arrival the rooms became
so cramped the girl wished to flee, but there wasn’t anywhere left she could run once she was told that her eldest brother
and her beloved uncle Hilkiah were still two days behind them, followed by a great cloud of misguided, lame, and to Joses’
nineteen year old’s sensibilities, the hysterical and mildly insane with messianic fervor.
“
Dod Av’ri says this will all end as soon as another Pretender takes the stage and promises to lead them to the
new ‘Promised Land’ “ She said in fresh anger.
“
He’s just angry because Jael wouldn’t come out of her father’s house to talk with him, Beloved.
“ Ten-year old Judas confided, only after their other brothers were busy
and she refused to have any interest in his thirteenth birthday in another eight weeks. Disappointed again when she still
evaded any real interest in his pressing excitement.
“ Just because Masrekah found three fellows for you, doesn’t mean I don’t
have a life, Sissy! “ He complained, in the first show of tears since
their father was found dead on terrible autumn morning.
Ahava tried to pretend
an interest, since she had a passing acquaintance with the girl he was most interested in, but he knew her too well, and his
angry departure from the room left a hole in her heart that she hadn’t foreseen as she had to acknowledge their childhood
was behind him, despite their tender years! She wouldn’t be eleven till fall of this year, but the only children left
in this house came with Did Hilkiah’s family and left with them, she noted gravely, overcome by a strange sadness.
On their way to
the synagogue Saturday morning, Joses had a mysterious stomach aliment and claimed that he would stay at home. Ahava secretly
fed Sheba several large scraps of meat to make sure she had enough milk to feed her babies and only Jude Thaddeus seemed to
notice, for he frowned in her direction. She smiled but recognizing their relationship was changing as the odors of her changing
body betrayed her growth, she made no attempt to move to his side and lean against him to encourage his rare smiles as she
had done as a child. The small dog’s sudden barking alerted them to the addition of a stranger, Daniel ben Noah and
his two sons. He asked Deborah to accompany him to her house for a private talk but her eyes just narrowed and she refused
him so coldly that it left her younger brother’s embarrassed for him, and for her.
As they came up the back way up to the steep hill to the house of worship to make up for the time they’d
lost waiting for Mattatha, they discovered Joses and Jael arguing bitterly at the back of the building. By the time they reached
the top of the incline she had fled and he angrily resisted any of his mother’s questions, stalking inside with the
wounded dignity of a feeble but proud bear. The other thing Ahava noticed as they approached was the tightly the unusually
busy synagogue building was the group of angry men clustered around the door of the synagogue, talking between themselves
in low tones, with much head shaking and trembling beards. Forgotten was her excitement about the preparations they left Rebecka
to do in the house for Deborah’s birthday celebration as soon as they returned from shul. She
looked for the bent form of rebbe Av’ri ben Shem to mitigate the frank looks of hostility in their direction, but the
crippled old man was nowhere in sight. It was possible he was already indoors with Dod Hilkiah helping to him prepare for
his turn as the Baal koreh for the offering of aliyah to her oldest brother, as was
common when a teacher passed through the village on Shabbat. This was the first major social exchange since
Tabboath’s shocking denigration of Joses on Wednesday.
Everyone but the
rabbi and his half-brother stepped away as if in fear and repugnance as Jesus approached last with his cousin. Obediah ben
Jeezer straightened himself to his fullest height with difficulty. His eyes, ruined by so many years of peering at ancient
scrolls and faded ink, squinted as he made a show of looking hard at the taller man’s face. Othoniel ben Jeezer wasn’t
nearly as subtle; he stepped in the young bearded man’s path. His son Jeremiah leering at her from behind his father.
“
My brother Tabboath couldn’t be here today! He woke with a sickness that won’t allow him to move anything
on his left side! Or swallow! “
“ I’ll go to him right now! “
“
Stay away from him, magician! You and your family have already done enough! His daughter is with him, she deserves
the service she’ll have to give his flesh now considering the way she took such good care of her own at his expense!
“
Even Jeremiah seemed a little surprised at the hint of accusation in his father’s voice, and she used that moment
to duck behind the elderly woman trying to enter, who was too deaf to hear their arguments and too tired
to care. She accepted the familiar child’s arm in gratitude.
When she felt
the pinch on her inner arm because she tried to make room for her sister’s late entrance, she whirled on the vicious
old gossip.
“ Do that again and I’ll slap you! “
She snapped, dangerously near the end of her rope at the additional pain.
Onycha, widow of the synagogue’s chief parnas, the lay leader, threw up her hands as if to ward
off a vicious attack but her eyes were narrowed and bright with delight. Suddenly Deborah’s fingers gripped her free
arm and Ahava whirled in tears, but her sister was looking over the dust outlined mehitzah that separated
them from the men’s section. Her eyes wide with shock.
“
And you’re the sister of the great prophet Jesus! “ Onycha
mocked
“ He’s here! He’s here! “
Deborah said loud enough to make several male heads turn in her direction, their prayer boxes still bound to their
foreheads as they quickly recited the prayers to the point where the congregation had already reached.
Ahava sunk down as much as her sister and Onycha would allow, preparing to sit on the floor rather than
share the crude bench when Deborah’ raised her voice in a dramatic whisper that carried across the packed shul
and back again to silence the gossiping mothers.
“ Zaavan! Zaavan! Heart of my heart, I’m
up here! “
Zaavan ben Jehoiarib ‘s ample cheeks
turned beet red but he turned in the oversized chair and smiled up thinly, nodding his head and waving his pudgy fingers either
to let her know that he had heard her, or to show off how filled they were with oversized jewels.
“
He’s come, Beloved! He’s come for me! Just like I told you he would! “
Deborah’s
voice cut across the low murmur of men’s voices. Shutting out her sister’s automatic response that she’d
never said such a thing.
A knot of cold fear formed at the pit of the young girl’s stomach as she watched the tall apothecary’s
quick argument which led to Zaavan ben Jehoiarib having to hoist himself up with difficult on the arms of the groaning chair,
moving the chair to a lesser position. Deborah clung to the dusty mehitzah as if it were a lifeline, despite
the harsh hisses and laughter behind her.
Ahava was
unable to share her older sister’s joy. Zaavan had become so obese in the last five months that he could no longer fit
in a regular chair yet he’d gone out of his way to make a weeklong journey to Nazareth? She didn’t
think his wife or his daughter were on his mind when he made the arduous journey. He acted as if they ceased to existed in
the world it wouldn’t be large enough event to force him to take notice. Then why was he here? And
who knew to expect him? Providing an extra wide and reinforced chair to bear his weight. Chakol?
On impulse she strolled to her sister’s side and looked down to find the crippled man smiling up in toothy contempt
of the sobbing woman. She searched her mind for everything Joseph had taught her about Nazareth, for some
logical explanation of Zaavan ben Jehoiarib’s unlikely arrival in such a largely Gentile town; Nazareth had a reputation
for brewing tumult and rebellion just under the surface, the way her brother Simon discovered, and it was a city of priests
in the past. That had to be it. She decided by the simple process of elimination. Rich men don’t formulate rebellion
when their riches arise from the ease of their life with the enemy, so it must be a trick to enmesh himself more deeply in
the good graces of the Temple authorities where he was selling his livestock and merchandize to their private homes. It was
said Caiaphas house had seven baths large enough to be Mikvahs for the priests. Their privacy
yes, but his too! By reemphasizing his link to the ancient city of priests he probably thought he could curry
more favor with the authorities who had kept their position during so many years of Roman occupation.
-
Waiting outside the stifling building Othoniel ben Jeezer saw the hesitation of the
well dressed man from Jerusalem from forcing his way inside after he’d arrived too late to be received at the East Wall.
Throwing the last of the muddied coins at the street boys as if he were throwing pebbles at them, Othoniel walked over to
the visitor, only now recognizing him as the man Zaavan had introduced him too at Passover. The stranger’s teeth bared
in a perfect smile of even white teeth as his inner self wound itself as a cankerworm in the sore Othoniel ben Jasher opened
in his own spirit. His lust for his son Jeremiah’s increased inheritance, so the boy would weep louder than his contemporaries
because he was no longer there to make it greater, was a living thing he could hear as easily as the man’s other thoughts
as he weighed additional ways to hinder or delay his son’s claim
to the fortune while he walked toward the smiling man to claim monies that his son or brothers would never know about!
They kissed in formal agreement
of their covenant, allowing Satan the opportunity to reach into his own belt and transfer the heavy leather pouch of gold
coins to the other man’s waiting hand, then unexpectedly he seized Othoniel’s hand as he wished him a hearty goodbye
that could be heard a street away. Fear entered Othoniel’s eyes. Was this articulate, wealthy man from Jerusalem going
to change his mind not that he’d given the money?
The seeds of leprosy planted in that handclasp, resisting the blessings of the Holy One of Israel which Othoniel had offered automatically, instantaneously sprouted, twisted inward and scabbed over. Silently running their tendrils into healthy tissue.
“ I will see to the task that means so much of to both of us, adonai.
“ He promised in a new joy at the uncomfortable weight of the coins pressed against
his lax maleness.
“
See that you do. I don’t accept failure graciously. “ The Stranger
warned but oddly it only heightened his own sense of anticipation and excitement so sure was he at his ability to incite and
control the mob he’d been preparing for the months o his contact with this stunning handsome and rich man.
His hand itched but he scratched at it in annoyance, his head filled with the details he needed to instigate before
too many of the men left the building. He noted the slight red sliver of blood under his nail but he sucked it clean and raced
back inside before Zaavan could get away from that caustic witch to notice him talking with the well dressed man from
Jerusalem. Since he had no real convictions, he decided he’d wait to choose sides between the Sadducees who currently
held the high Sanhedrin with the permission of the Romans, or the Pharisees, of whom he assumed this rich merchant to be a
member. One believed in life after death and one didn’t, he couldn’t remember which was which. Since he didn’t
care one way or the other it really didn’t matter, any more than it did to Zaavan ben Jehoiarib!
-
Deborah’s face was a vision as she stared out across the empty space were two flies buzzed and mated above the
smoky incense burning from the small raised dais in the center of the ground floor. Ahava wanted to remind
her that this was the same who had caused her such agony in Abib, while her sister sat in a charmed world
all of her own! From time to time she glanced down to watch the obese merchant but she never once saw Zaavan ben Jehoiarib
waste any time on the woman beside her. Bending his head toward Othoniel ben Jasher as the Service progressed,
until they lost interest in even pretending a show of piety in their heightened excitement. Until her brother stepped past
three rows of seated men to answer the call to the Bema to read this weeks’ Torah portion. Then the
whole building seemed to grow so quiet that even Onycha’s quiet snore could be heard clearly, like the buzzing of a
confused insect behind the elaborate cut out screen.
The words of the eternal Voice echoed painfully within many of the silent and expectant people as Jesus ben Joses began
to speak within the familiar building. The scroll of Isaiah was handed to him, and he opened it and found where it was written:
“ The Spirit of the LORD is upon
me, because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery
of sight to the blind. To free those who are downtrodden. To proclaim the Acceptable Year of the LORD. “
Jesus
closed the scroll and gave it back to the baal korah and sat down. The eyes of the all in the synagogue searched
out his face. They were speaking well of him, to Othoniel’s chagrin.
“ Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your ears.
“
Wondering
at his gracious words, and saying among themselves: “ Is this not Joseph the carpenter’s
son? “
And he answered them saying,
“ No doubt you will quote this proverb
to me, “‘ Physician, heal yourself’! Whatever we have heard was done
at Capernaum, do this in your hometown as well. Bemet, truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome
in his hometown. I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah the Elder, when the sky was
shut up for three years and six months and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarepath, in the land of Sidon,
to a woman who was a widow. And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elijah the Younger the prophet; and none of
them were cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. "
And all the men of the synagogue were
filled with rage as they heard these things; and they rose up and cast him out of the city and led him to the hill on which
their city was built in order to throw him down the cliff.
Othoniel tried
to make his voice heard above the small but angry crowd of men so the man from Jerusalem wouldn’t give all the credit
to Obediah ben Jeezer, who simply used their ire. He hadn’t ben able to turn them against the younger rabbi until he
stepped in! Assuming his target was at the back of the milling pack now ringed with women with high-pitched voices and grasping
hands, chief of which was his youngest sister who was fighting and clawing her way into the thick of the fray, desperately
seeking her loved one.
‘They
can’t save him now!‘ he thought triumphantly.
The
noise became more profound as the leading edge of the crowd reached the face of the cliff and looked back, waiting for the
stumbling form to be thrust at them. Othoniel and Zaavan ben Jehoiarib paced the edge of the hill, looking down, thinking
that he might already have plunged to his death.
But passing through
their midst, Jesus had gone his own way.
