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Title: Jesus the Son f Man
Author: Kahlil Gibran
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Language: English
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JESUS THE SON OF MAN
His words and His deeds as told
and recorded by those who knew Him
by Kahlil Gibran
CONTENTS
JAMES THE SON OF ZEBEDEE
On the Kingdoms of the World
ANNA THE MOTHER OF MARY
On the Birth of Jesus
ASSAPH CALLED THE ORATOR OF TYRE
On the Speech of Jesus
MARY MAGDALEN
On Meeting Jesus for the First Time
PHILEMON A GREEK APOTHECARY
On Jesus the Master Physician
SIMON WHO WAS CALLED PETER
When He and His Brother were Called
CAIAPHAS
The High Priest
JOANNA THE WIFE OF HEROD'S STEWARD
On Children
RAFCA
The Bride of Cana
A PERSIAN PHILOSOPHER IN DAMASCUS
Of Ancient Gods and New
DAVID ONE OF HIS FOLLOWERS
Jesus the Practical
LUKE
On Hypocrites
MATTHEW
The Sermon on the Mount
JOHN THE SON OF ZEBEDEE
On the Various Appellations of Jesus
A YOUNG PRIEST OF CAPERNAUM
Of Jesus the Magician
A RICH LEVI IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF NAZARETH
Jesus the Good Carpenter
A SHEPHERD IN SOUTH LEBANON
A Parable
JOHN THE BAPTIST
He Speaks in Prison to His Disciples
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA
On the Primal Jims of Jesus
NATHANIEL
Jesus was not Meek
SABA OF ANTIOCH
On Saul of Tarsus
SALOME TO A WOMAN FRIEND
A Desire Unfulfilled
RACHAEL A WOMAN DISCIPLE
On Jesus the Vision and the Man
CLEOPAS OF BETHROUNE
On the Law and the Prophets
NAAMAN OF THE GADARENES
On the Death of Stephen
THOMAS
On the Forefathers of His Doubts
ELMADAM THE LOGICIAN
Jesus the Outcast
ONE OF THE MARYS
On His Sadness and His Smile
RUMANOUS A GREEK POET
Jesus the Poet
LEVI A DISCIPLE
On Those who would Confound Jesus
A WIDOW IN GALILEE
Jesus the Cruel
JUDAS THE COUSIN OF JESUS
On the Death of John the Baptist
THE MAN FROM THE DESERT
On the Money-changers
PETER
On the Morrow of His Followers
MELACHI OF BABYLON AN ASTRONOMER
The Miracles of Jesus
A PHILOSOPHER
On Wonder and Beauty
URIAH AN OLD MAN OF NAZARETH
He was a Stranger in our Midst
NICODEMUS THE POET
On Fools and Jugglers
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHAEA
The Two Streams in Jesus' Heart
GEORGUS OF BEIRUT
On Strangers
MARY MAGDALEN
His Mouth was like the Heart of a Pomegranate
JOTHAM OF NAZARETH TO A ROMAN
On Living and Being
EPHRAIM OF JERICHO
The Other Wedding-Feast
BARCA A MERCHANT OF TYRE
On Buying and Selling
PHUMIAH THE HIGH PRIESTESS OF SIDON
An Invocation
BENJAMIN THE SCRIBE
Let the Dead Bury Their Dead
ZACCHAEUS
On the Fate of Jesus
JONATHAN
Among the Water-lilies
HANNAH OF BETHSAIDA
She Speaks of her Father's Sister
MANASSEH
On the Speech and Gesture of Jesus
JEPHTHA OF CAESAREA
A Man Weary of Jesus
JOHN THE BELOVED DISCIPLE
On Jesus the Word
MANNUS THE POMPEIIAN TO A GREEK
On the Semitic Deity
PONTIUS PILATUS
Of Eastern Rites and Cults
BARTHOLOMEW IN EPHESUS
On Slaves and Outcasts
MATTHEW
On Jesus by a Prison Wall
ANDREW
On Prostitutes
A RICH MAN
On Possessions
JOHN AT PATMOS
Jesus the Gracious
PETER
On the Neighbour
A COBBLER IN JERUSALEM
A Neutral
SUSANNAH OF NAZARETH
Of the Youth and Manhood of Jesus
JOSEPH SURNAMED JUSTUS
Jesus the Wayfarer
PHILIP
And When He Died All Mankind Died
BIRBARAH OF YAMMOUNI
On Jesus the Impatient
PILATE'S WIFE TO A ROMAN LADY
A MAN OUTSIDE OF JERUSALEM
Of Judas
SARKIS AN OLD GREEK SHEPHERD CALLED THE MADMAN
Jesus and Pan
ANNAS THE HIGH PRIEST
On Jesus the Rabble
A WOMAN, ONE OF MARY'S NEIGHBOURS
A Lamentation
AHAZ THE PORTLY
The Keeper of the Inn
BARABBAS
The Last Words of Jesus
CLAUDIUS A ROMAN SENTINEL
Jesus the Stoic
JAMES THE BROTHER OF THE LORD
The Last Supper
SIMON THE CYRENE
He who Carried the Cross
CYBOREA
The Mother of Judas
THE WOMAN OF BYBLOS
A Lamentation
MARY MAGDALEN THIRTY YEARS LATER
On the Resurrection of the Spirit
A MAN FROM LEBANON
Nineteen Centuries Afterward
JAMES
THE SON OF ZEBEDEE
On the Kingdoms of the World
Upon a day in the spring of the year Jesus stood in the market-place
of Jerusalem and He spoke to the multitudes of the kingdom of heaven.
And He accused the scribes and the Pharisees of setting snares and
digging pitfalls in the path of those who long after the kingdom; and
He denounced them.
Now amongst the crowd was a company of men who defended the Pharisees
and the scribes, and they sought to lay hands upon Jesus and upon us
also.
But He avoided them and turned aside from them, and walked towards
the north gate of the city.
And He said to us, “My hour has not yet come. Many are the
things I have still to say unto you, and many are the deeds I shall
yet perform ere I deliver myself up to the world.”
Then He said, and there was joy and laughter in His voice, “Let
us go into the North Country and meet the spring. Come with me to the
hills, for winter is past and the snows of Lebanon are descending to
the valleys to sing with the brooks.
“The fields and the vineyards have banished sleep and are awake
to greet the sun with their green figs and tender grapes.”
And He walked before us and we followed Him, that day and the next.
And upon the afternoon of the third day we reached the summit of
Mount Hermon, and there He stood looking down upon the cities of the
plains.
And His face shone like molten gold, and He outstretched His arms and
He said to us, “Behold the earth in her green raiment, and see
how the streams have hemmed the edges of her garments with silver.
“In truth the earth is fair and all that is upon her is fair.
“But there is a kingdom beyond all that you behold, and therein
I shall rule. And if it is your choice, and if it is indeed your
desire, you too shall come and rule with me.
“My face and your faces shall not be masked; our hand shall
hold neither sword nor sceptre, and our subjects shall love us in
peace and shall not be in fear of us.”
Thus spoke Jesus, and unto all the kingdoms of the earth I was
blinded, and unto all the cities of walls and towers; and it was in
my heart to follow the Master to His kingdom.
Then just at that moment Judas of Iscariot stepped forth. And he
walked up to Jesus, and spoke and said, “Behold, the kingdoms
of the world are vast, and behold the cities of David and Solomon
shall prevail against the Romans. If you will be the king of the Jews
we shall stand beside you with sword and shield and we shall overcome
the alien.”
But when Jesus heard this He turned upon Judas, and His face was
filled with wrath. And He spoke in a voice terrible as the thunder of
the sky and He said, “Get you behind me, Satan. Think you that
I came down the years to rule an ant-hill for a day?
“My throne is a throne beyond your vision. Shall he whose wings
encircle the earth seek shelter in a nest abandoned and forgotten?
“Shall the living be honoured and exalted by the wearer of
shrouds?”
“My kingdom is not of this earth, and my seat is not builded
upon the skulls of your ancestors.
“If you seek aught save the kingdom of the spirit then it were
better for you to leave me here, and go down to the caves of your
dead, where the crowned heads of yore hold court in their tombs and
may still be bestowing honours upon the bones of your forefathers.
“Dare you tempt me with a crown of dross, when my forehead
seeks the Pleiades, or else your thorns?
“Were it not for a dream dreamed by a forgotten race I would
not suffer your sun to rise upon my patience, nor your moon to throw
my shadow across your path.
“Were it not for a mother’s desire I would have stripped
me of the swaddling-clothes and escaped back to space.
“And were it not for sorrow in all of you I would not have
stayed to weep.
“Who are you and what are you, Judas Iscariot? And why do you
tempt me?
“Have you in truth weighed me in the scale and found me one to
lead legions of pygmies, and to direct chariots of the shapeless
against an enemy that encamps only in your hatred and marches nowhere
but in your fear?
“Too many are the worms that crawl about me feet, and I will
give them no battle. I am weary of the jest, and weary of pitying the
creepers who deem me coward because I will not move among their
guarded walls and towers.
“Pity it is that I must needs pity to the very end. Would that
I could turn my steps towards a larger world where larger men dwell.
But how shall I?
“Your priest and your emperor would have my blood. They shall
be satisfied ere I go hence. I would not change the course of the
law. And I would not govern folly.
“Let ignorance reproduce itself until it is weary of its own
offspring.
“Let the blind lead the blind to the pitfall.
“And let the dead bury the dead till the earth be choked with
its own bitter fruit.
“My kingdom is not of the earth. My kingdom shall be where two
or three of you shall meet in love, and in wonder at the loveliness
of life, and in good cheer, and in remembrance of me.”
Then of a sudden He turned to Judas, and He said, “Get you
behind me, man. Your kingdoms shall never be in my kingdom.”
And now it was twilight, and He turned to us and said, “Let us
go down. The night is upon us. Let us walk in light while the light
is with us.”
Then He went down from the hills and we followed Him. And Judas
followed afar off.
And when we reached the lowland it was night.
And Thomas, the son of Diophanes, said unto Him, “Master, it is
dark now, and we can no longer see the way. If it is in your will,
lead us to the lights of yonder village where we may find meat and
shelter.”
And Jesus answered Thomas, and He said, “I have led you to the
heights when you were hungry, and I have brought you down to the
plains with a greater hunger. But I cannot stay with you this night.
I would be alone.”
Then Simon Peter stepped forth, and said:
Master, suffer us not to go alone in the dark. Grant that we may stay
with you even here on this byway. The night and the shadows of the
night will not linger, and the morning shall soon find us if you will
but stay with us.”
And Jesus answered, “This night the foxes shall have their
holes, and the birds of the air their nests, but the Son of Man has
not where on earth to lay His head. And indeed I would now be alone.
Should you desire me you will find me again by the lake where I found
you.”
Then we walked away from Him with heavy hearts, for it was not in our
will to leave Him.
Many times did we stop and turn our faces towards Him, and we saw him
in lonely majesty, moving westward.
The only man among us who did not turn to behold Him in His aloneness
was Judas Iscariot.
And from that day Judas became sullen and distant. And methought
there was danger in the sockets of his eyes.
ANNA
THE MOTHER OF MARY
On the Birth of Jesus
Jesus the son of my daughter, was born here in Nazareth in the month
of January. And the night that Jesus was born we were visited by men
from the East. They were Persians who came to Esdraelon with the
caravans of the Midianites on their way to Egypt. And because they
did not find rooms at the inn they sought shelter in our house.
And I welcomed them and I said, “My daughter has given birth to
a son this night. Surely you will forgive me if I do not serve you as
it behoves a hostess.”
Then they thanked me for giving them shelter. And after they had
supped they said to me: “We would see the new-born.”
Now the Son of Mary was beautiful to behold, and she too was comely.
And when the Persians beheld Mary and her babe, they took gold and
silver from their bags, and myrrh and frankincense, and laid them all
at the feet of the child.
Then they fell down and prayed in a strange tongue which we did not
understand.
And when I led them to the bedchamber prepared for them they walked
as if they were in awe at what they had seen.
When morning was come they left us and followed the road to Egypt.
But at parting they spoke to me and said, “The child is not but
a day old, yet we have seen the light of our God in His eyes and the
smile of our God upon His mouth.
“We bid you protect Him that He may protect you all.”
And so saying, they mounted their camels and we saw them no more.
Now Mary seemed not so much joyous in her first-born, as full of
wonder and surprise.
She would look upon her babe, and then turn her face to the window
and gaze far away into the sky as if she saw visions.
And there were valleys between her heart and mine.
And the child grew in body and in spirit, and He was different from
other children. He was aloof and hard to govern, and I could not lay
my hand upon Him.
But He was beloved by everyone in Nazareth, and in my heart I knew
why.
Oftentimes He would take away our food to give to the passer-by. And
He would give other children the sweetmeat I had given Him, before He
had tasted it with His own mouth.
He would climb the trees of my orchard to get the fruits, but never
to eat them Himself.
And He would race with other boys, and sometimes, because He was
swifter of foot, He would delay so that they might pass the stake ere
He should reach it.
And sometimes when I led Him to His bed He would say, “Tell my
mother and the others that only my body will sleep. My mind will be
with them till their mind come to my morning.”
And many other wondrous words He said when He was a boy, but I am too
old to remember.
Now they tell me I shall see Him no more. But how shall I believe
what they say?
I still hear His laughter, and the sound of His running about my
house. And whenever I kiss the cheek of my daughter His fragrance
returns to my heart, and His body seems to fill my arms.
But is it not passing strange that my daughter does not speak of her
first-born to me?
Sometimes it seems that my longing for Him is greater than hers. She
stands as firm before the day as if she were a bronzen image, while
my heart melts and runs into streams.
Perhaps she knows what I do not know. Would that she might tell me
also.
ASSAPH
CALLED THE ORATOR OF TYRE
On the Speech of Jesus
What shall I say of His speech? Perhaps something about His person
lent power to His words and swayed those who heard Him. For He was
comely, and the sheen of the day was upon His countenance.
Men and women gazed at Him more than they listened to His argument.
But at times He spoke with the power of a spirit, and that spirit had
authority over those who heard Him.
In my youth I had heard the orators of Rome and Athens and
Alexandria. The young Nazarene was unlike them all.
They assembled their words with an art to enthral the ear, but when
you heard Him your heart would leave you and go wandering into
regions not yet visited.
He would tell a story or relate a parable, and the like of His
stories and parables had never been heard in Syria. He seemed to spin
them out of the seasons, even as time spins the years and the
generations.
He would begin a story thus: “The ploughman went forth to the
field to sow his seeds.”
Or, “Once there was a rich man who had many vineyards.”
Or, “A shepherd counted his sheep at eventide and found that
one sheep was missing.”
And such words would carry His listeners into their simpler selves,
and into the ancient of their days.
At heart we are all ploughmen, and we all love the vineyard. And in
the pastures of our memory there is a shepherd and a flock and the
lost sheep.
And there is the plough-share and the winepress and the
threshing-floor.
He knew the source of our older self, and the persistent thread of
which we are woven.
The Greek and the Roman orators spoke to their listeners of life as
it seemed to the mind. The Nazarene spoke of a longing that lodged in
the heart.
They saw life with eyes only a little clearer than yours and mine. He
saw life in the light of God.
I often think that He spoke to the crowd as a mountain would speak to
the plain.
And in His speech there was a power that was not commanded by the
orators of Athens or of Rome.
MARY MAGDALENE
On Meeting Jesus for the First Time
It was in the month of June when I saw Him for the first time. He was
walking in the wheat field when I passed by with my handmaidens, and
He was alone.
The rhythm of His steps was different from other men’s, and the
movement of His body was like naught I had seen before.
Men do not pace the earth in that manner. And even now I do not know
whether He walked fast or slow.
My handmaidens pointed their fingers at Him and spoke in shy whispers
to one another. And I stayed my steps for a moment, and raised my
hand to hail Him. But He did not turn His face, and He did not look
at me. And I hated Him. I was swept back into myself, and I was as
cold as if I had been in a snow-drift. And I shivered.
That night I beheld Him in my dreaming; and they told me afterward
that I screamed in my sleep and was restless upon my bed.
It was in the month of August that I saw Him again, through my
window. He was sitting in the shadow of the cypress tree across my
garden, and He was still as if He had been carved out of stone, like
the statues in Antioch and other cities of the North Country.
And my slave, the Egyptian, came to me and said, “That man is
here again. He is sitting there across your garden.”
And I gazed at Him, and my soul quivered within me, for He was
beautiful.
His body was single and each part seemed to love every other part.
Then I clothed myself with raiment of Damascus, and I left my house
and walked towards Him.
Was it my aloneness, or was it His fragrance, that drew me to Him?
Was it a hunger in my eyes that desired comeliness, or was it His
beauty that sought the light of my eyes?
Even now I do not know.
I walked to Him with my scented garments and my golden sandals, the
sandals the Roman captain had given me, even these sandals. And when
I reached Him, I said, “Good-morrow to you.”
And He said, “Good-morrow to you, Miriam.”
And He looked at me, and His night-eyes saw me as no man had seen me.
And suddenly I was as if naked, and I was shy.
Yet He had only said, “Good-morrow to you.”
And then I said to Him, “Will you not come to my house?”
And He said, “Am I not already in your house?”
I did not know what He meant then, but I know now.
And I said, “Will you not have wine and bread with me?”
And He said, “Yes, Miriam, but not now.”
Not now, not now, He said. And the voice of the sea was in those two
words, and the voice of the wind and the trees. And when He said them
unto me, life spoke to death.
For mind you, my friend, I was dead. I was a woman who had divorced
her soul. I was living apart from this self which you now see. I
belonged to all men, and to none. They called me harlot, and a woman
possessed of seven devils. I was cursed, and I was envied.
But when His dawn-eyes looked into my eyes all the stars of my night
faded away, and I became Miriam, only Miriam, a woman lost to the
earth she had known, and finding herself in new places.
And now again I said to Him, “Come into my house and share
bread and wine with me.”
And He said, “Why do you bid me to be your guest?”
And I said, “I beg you to come into my house.” And it was
all that was sod in me, and all that was sky in me calling unto Him.
Then He looked at me, and the noontide of His eyes was upon me, and
He said, “You have many lovers, and yet I alone love you. Other
men love themselves in your nearness. I love you in your self. Other
men see a beauty in you that shall fade away sooner than their own
years. But I see in you a beauty that shall not fade away, and in the
autumn of your days that beauty shall not be afraid to gaze at itself
in the mirror, and it shall not be offended.
“I alone love the unseen in you.”
Then He said in a low voice, “Go away now. If this cypress tree
is yours and you would not have me sit in its shadow, I will walk my
way.”
And I cried to Him and I said, “Master, come to my house. I
have incense to burn for you, and a silver basin for your feet. You
are a stranger and yet not a stranger. I entreat you, come to my
house.”
Then He stood up and looked at me even as the seasons might look down
upon the field, and He smiled. And He said again: “All men love
you for themselves. I love you for yourself.”
And then He walked away.
But no other man ever walked the way He walked. Was it a breath born
in my garden that moved to the east? Or was it a storm that would
shake all things to their foundations?
I knew not, but on that day the sunset of His eyes slew the dragon in
me, and I became a woman, I became Miriam, Miriam of Mijdel.
PHILEMON
A GREEK APOTHECARY
On Jesus the Master Physician
The Nazarene was the Master Physician of His people. No other man
knew so much of our bodies and of their elements and properties.
He made whole those who were afflicted with diseases unknown to the
Greeks and the Egyptians. They say He even called back the dead to
life. And whether this be true or not true, it declares His power;
for only to him who has wrought great things is the greatest ever
attributed.
They say also that Jesus visited India and the Country between the
Two Rivers, and that there the priests revealed to Him the knowledge
of all that is hidden in the recesses of our flesh.
Yet that knowledge may have been given to Him direct by the gods, and
not through the priests. For that which has remained unknown to all
men for an eon may be disclosed to one man in but a moment. And
Apollo may lay his hand on the heart of the obscure and make it wise.
Many doors were open to the Tyrians and the Thebans, and to this man
also certain sealed doors were opened. He entered the temple of the
soul, which is the body; and He beheld the evil spirits that conspire
against our sinews, and also the good spirits that spin the threads
thereof.
Methinks it was by the power of opposition and resistance that He
healed the sick, but in a manner unknown to our philosophers. He
astonished fever with His snow-like touch and it retreated; and He
surprised the hardened limbs with His own calm and they yielded to
Him and were at peace.
He knew the ebbing sap within the furrowed bark – but how He
reached the sap with His fingers I do not know. He knew the sound
steel underneath the rust – but how He freed the sword and made
it shine no man can tell.
Sometimes it seems to me that He heard the murmuring pain of all
things that grow in the sun, and that then He lifted them up and
supported them, not only by His own knowledge, but also by disclosing
to them their own power to rise and become whole.
Yet He was not much concerned with Himself as a physician. He was
rather preoccupied with the religion and the politics of this land.
And this I regret, for first of all things we must needs be sound of
body.
But these Syrians, when they are visited by an illness, seek an
argument rather than medicine.
And pity it is that the greatest of all their physicians chose rather
to be but a maker of speeches in the market-place.
SIMON
WHO WAS CALLED PETER
When He and His Brother were Called
I was on the shore of the Lake of Galilee when I first beheld Jesus
my Lord and my Master.
My brother Andrew was with me and we were casting out net into the
waters.
The waves were rough and high and we caught but few fish. And our
hearts were heavy.
Suddenly Jesus stood near us, as if He had taken form that very
moment, for we had not seen Him approaching.
He called us by our names, and He said, “If you will follow me
I will lead you to an inlet where the fishes are swarming.”
And as I looked at His face the net fell from my hands, for a flame
kindled within me and I recognized Him.
And my brother Andrew spoke and said, “We know all the inlets
upon these shores, and we know also that on a windy day like this the
fish seek a depth beyond our nets.”
And Jesus answered, “Follow me to the shores of a greater sea.
I shall make you fishers of men. And your net shall never be
empty.”
And we abandoned our boat and our net and followed Him.
I myself was drawn by a power, viewless, that walked beside His
person.
I walked near Him, breathless and full of wonder, and my brother
Andrew was behind us, bewildered and amazed.
And as we walked on the sand I made bold and said unto Him,
“Sir, I and my brother will follow your footsteps, and where
you go we too will go. But if it please you to come to our house this
night, we shall be graced by your visit. Our house is not large and
our ceiling not high, and you will sit at but a frugal meal. Yet if
you will abide in our hovel it will be to us a palace. And would you
break bread with us, we in your presence were to be envied by the
princes of the land.”
And He said, “Yea, I will be your guest this night.”
And I rejoiced in my heart. And we walked behind Him in silence until
we reached our house.
And as we stood at the threshold Jesus said, “Peace be to this
house, and to those who dwell in it.”
Then He entered and we followed Him.
My wife and my wife’s mother and my daughter stood before Him
and they worshipped Him; then they knelt before Him and kissed the
hem of His sleeve.
They were astonished that He, the chosen and the well beloved, had
come to be our guest; for they had already seen Him by the River
Jordan when John the Baptist had proclaimed Him before the people.
And straightway my wife and my wife’s mother began to prepare
the supper.
My brother Andrew was a shy man, but his faith in Jesus was deeper
than my faith.
And my daughter, who was then but twelve year old, stood by Him and
held His garment as if she were in fear He would leave us and go out
again into the night. She clung to Him like a lost sheep that has
found its shepherd.
Then we sat at the board, and He broke the bread and poured the wine;
and He turned to us saying, “My friends, grace me now in
sharing this food with me, even as the Father has graced us in giving
it unto us.”
These words He said ere He touched a morsel, for He wished to follow
an ancient custom that the honoured guest becomes the host.
And as we sat with Him around the board we felt as if we were sitting
at the feast of the great King.
My daughter Petronelah, who was young and unknowing, gazed at His
face and followed the movements of His hands. And I saw a veil of
tears in her eyes.
When He left the board we followed Him and sat about Him in the
vine-arbour.
And He spoke to us and we listened, and our hearts fluttered within
us like birds.
He spoke of the second birth of man, and of the opening of the gates
of the heavens; and of angels descending and bringing peace and good
cheer to all men, and of angels ascending to the throne bearing the
longings of men to the Lord God.
Then He looked into my eyes and gazed into the depths of my heart.
And He said, “I have chosen you and your brother, and you must
needs come with me. You have laboured and you have been heavy-laden.
Now I shall give you rest. Take up my yoke and learn of me, for in my
heart is peace, and your soul shall find abundance and a
home-coming.”
When He spoke thus I and my brother stood up before Him, and I said
to Him, “Master, we will follow you to the ends of the earth.
And if our burden were as heavy as the mountain we would bear it with
you in gladness. And should we fall by the wayside we shall know that
we have fallen on the way to heaven, and we shall be
satisfied.”
And my brother Andrew spoke and said, “Master, we would be
threads between your hands and your loom. Weave us into the cloth if
you will, for we would be in the raiment of the Most High.”
And my wife raised her face, and the tears were upon her cheeks and
she spoke with joy, and she said, “Blessed are you who come in
the name of the Lord. Blessed is the womb that carried you, and the
breast that gave you milk.”
And my daughter, who was but twelve years old, sat at His feet and
she nestled close to Him.
And the mother of my wife, who sat at the threshold, said no word.
She only wept in silence and her shawl was wet with her tears.
Then Jesus walked over to her and He raised her face to His face and
He said to her, “You are the mother of all these. You weep for
joy, and I will keep your tears in my memory.”
And now the old moon rose above the horizon. And Jesus gazed upon it
for a moment, and then He turned to us and said, “It is late.
Seek your beds, and may God visit your repose. I will be here in this
arbour until dawn. I have cast my net this day and I have caught two
men; I am satisfied, and now I bid you good-night.”
Then my wife’s mother said, “But we have laid your bed in
the house, I pray you enter and rest.”
And He answered her saying, “I would indeed rest, but not under
a roof. Suffer me to lie this night under the canopy of the grapes
and the stars.”
And she made haste and brought out the mattress and the pillows and
the coverings. And He smiled at her and He said, “Behold, I
shall lie down upon a bed twice made.”
Then we left Him and entered into the house, and my daughter was the
last one to enter. And her eyes were upon Him until I had closed the
door.
Thus for the first time I knew my Lord and Master.
And though it was many years ago, it still seems but of today.
CAIAPHAS
The High Priest
In speaking of that man Jesus and of His death let us consider two
salient facts: the Torah must needs be held in safety by us, and this
kingdom must needs be protected by Rome.
Now that man was defiant to us and to Rome. He poisoned the mind of
the simple people, and He led them as if by magic against us and
against Caesar.
My own slaves, both men and women, after hearing him speak in the
market-place, turned sullen and rebellious. Some of them left my
house and escaped to the desert whence they came.
Forget not that the Torah is our foundation and our tower of
strength. No man shall undermine us while we have this power to
restrain his hand, and no man shall overthrow Jerusalem so long as
its walls stand upon the ancient stone that David laid.
If the seed of Abraham is indeed to live and thrive this soil must
remain undefiled.
And that man Jesus was a defiler and a corrupter. We slew Him with a
conscience both deliberate and clean. And we shall slay all those who
would debase the laws of Moses or seek to befoul our sacred heritage.
We and Pontius Pilatus knew the danger in that man, and that it was
wise to bring Him to an end.
I shall see that His followers come to the same end, and the echo of
His words to the same silence.
If Judea is to live all men who oppose her must be brought down to
the dust. And ere Judea shall die I will cover my grey head with
ashes even as did Samuel the prophet, and I will tear off this
garment of Aaron and clothe me in sackcloth until I go hence for
ever.
JOANNA
THE WIFE OF HEROD’S STEWARD
On Children
Jesus was never married but He was a friend of women, and He knew
them as they would be known in sweet comradeship.
And He loved children as they would be loved in faith and
understanding.
In the light of His eyes there was a father and a brother and a son.
He would hold a child upon His knees and say, “Of such is your
might and your freedom; and of such is the kingdom of the
spirit.”
They say that Jesus heeded not the law of Moses, and that He was
over-forgiving to the prostitutes of Jerusalem and the country side.
I myself at that time was deemed a prostitute, for I loved a man who
was not my husband, and he was a Sadducee.
And on a day the Sadducees came upon me in my house when my lover was
with me, and they seized me and held me, and my lover walked away and
left me.
Then they led me to the market-place where Jesus was teaching.
it was their desire to hold me up before Him as a test and a trap for
Him.
But Jesus judged me not. He laid shame upon those who would have had
me shamed, and He reproached them.
And He bade me go my way.
And after that all the tasteless fruit of life turned sweet to my
mouth, and the scentless blossoms breathed fragrance into my
nostrils. I became a woman without a tainted memory, and I was free,
and my head was no longer bowed down.
RAFCA
The Bride of Cana
This happened before He was known to the people.
I was in my mother’s garden tending the rose-bushes, when He
stopped at our gate.
And He said, “I am thirsty. Will you give me water from your
well?”
And I ran and brought the silver cup, and filled it with water; and I
poured into it a few drops from the jasmine vial.
And He drank deep and was pleased.
Then He looked into my eyes and said, “My blessing shall be
upon you.”
When He said that I felt as it were a gust of wind rushing through my
body. And I was no longer shy; and I said, “Sir, I am betrothed
to a man of Cana in Galilee. And I shall be married on the fourth day
of the coming week. Will you not come to my wedding and grace my
marriage with your presence?”
And He answered, “I will come, my child.”
Mind you, He said, “My child,” yet He was but a youth,
and I was nearly twenty.
Then He walked on down the road.
And I stood at the gate of our garden until my mother called me into
the house.
On the fourth day of the following week I was taken to the house of
my bridegroom and given in marriage.
And Jesus came, and with Him His mother and His brother James.
And they sat around the wedding-board with our guests whilst my
maiden comrades sang the wedding-songs of Solomon the King. And Jesus
ate our food and drank our wine and smiled upon me and upon the
others.
And He heeded all the songs of the lover bringing his beloved into
his tent; and of the young vineyard-keeper who loved the daughter of
the lord of the vineyard and led her to his mother’s house; and
of the prince who met the beggar maiden and bore her to his realm and
crowned her with the crown of his fathers.
And it seemed as if He were listening to yet other songs also, which
I could not hear.
At sundown the father of my bridegroom came to the mother of Jesus
and whispered saying, “We have no more wine for our guests. And
the day is not yet over.”
And Jesus heard the whispering, and He said, “The cup bearer
knows that there is still more wine.”
And so it was indeed – and as long as the guests remained there
was fine wine for all who would drink.
Presently Jesus began to speak with us. He spoke of the wonders of
earth and heaven; of sky flowers that bloom when night is upon the
earth, and of earth flowers that blossom when the day hides the
stars.
And He told us stories and parables, and His voice enchanted us so
that we gazed upon Him as if seeing visions, and we forgot the cup
and the plate.
And as I listened to Him it seemed as if I were in a land distant and
unknown.
After a while one of the guests said to the father of my bridegroom,
“You have kept the best wine till the end of the feast. Other
hosts do not so.”
And all believed that Jesus had wrought a miracle, that they should
have more wine and better at the end of the wedding-feast than at the
beginning.
I too thought that Jesus had poured the wine, but I was not
astonished; for in His voice I had already listened to miracles.
And afterwards indeed, His voice remained close to my heart, even
until I had been delivered of my first-born child.
And now even to this day in our village and in the villages near by,
the word of our guest is still remembered. And they say, “The
spirit of Jesus of Nazareth is the best and the oldest wine.”
A PERSIAN PHILOSOPHER
IN DAMASCUS
Of Ancient Gods and New
I cannot tell the fate of this man, nor can I say what shall befall
His disciples.
A seed hidden in the heart of an apple is an orchard invisible. Yet
should that seed fall upon a rock, it will come to naught.
But this I say: The ancient God of Israel is harsh and relentless.
Israel should have another God; one who is gentle and forgiving, who
would look down upon them with pity; one who would descend with the
rays of the sun and walk on the path of their limitations, rather
than sit for ever in the judgment seat to weigh their faults and
measure their wrong-doings.
Israel should bring forth a God whose heart is not a jealous heart,
and whose memory of their shortcomings is brief; one who would not
avenge Himself upon them even to the third and the fourth generation.
Man here in Syria is like man in all lands. He would look into the
mirror of his own understanding and therein find his deity. He would
fashion the gods after his own likeness, and worship that which
reflects his own image.
In truth man prays to his deeper longing, that it may rise and fulfil
the sum of his desires.
There is no depth beyond the soul of man, and the soul is the deep
that calls unto itself; for there is no other voice to speak and
there are no other ears to hear.
Even we in Persia would see our faces in the disc of the sun and our
bodies dancing in the fire that we kindle upon the altars.
Now the God of Jesus, whom He called Father, would not be a stranger
unto the people of Jesus, and He would fulfil their desires.
The gods of Egypt have cast off their burden of stones and fled to
the Nubian desert, to be free among those who are still free from
knowing.
The gods of Greece and Rome are vanishing into their own sunset. They
were too much like men to live in the ecstasy of men. The groves in
which their magic was born have been cut down by the axes of the
Athenians and the Alexandrians.
And in this land also the high places are made low by the lawyers of
Beirut and the young hermits of Antioch.
Only the old women and the weary men seek the temples of their
forefathers; only the exhausted at the end of the road seek its
beginning.
But this man Jesus, this Nazarene, He has spoken of a God too vast to
be unlike the soul of any man, too knowing to punish, too loving to
remember the sins of His creatures. And this God of the Nazarene
shall pass over the threshold of the children of the earth, and He
shall sit at their hearth, and He shall be a blessing within their
walls and a light upon their path.
But my God is the God of Zoroaster, the God who is the sun in the sky
and fire upon the earth and light in the bosom of man. And I am
content. I need no other God.
DAVID
ONE OF HIS FOLLOWERS
Jesus the Practical
I did not know the meaning of His discourses or His parables until He
was no longer among us. Nay, I did not understand until His words
took living forms before my eyes and fashioned themselves into bodies
that walk in the procession of my own day.
Let me tell you this: On a night as I sat in my house pondering, and
remembering His words and His deeds that I might inscribe them in a
book, three thieves entered my house. And though I knew they came to
rob me of my goods, I was too mindful of what I was doing to meet
them with the sword, or even to say, “What do you here?”
But I continued writing my remembrances of the Master.
And when the thieves had gone then I remembered His saying, “He
who would take your cloak, let him take your other cloak also.”
And I understood.
As I sat recording His words no man could have stopped me even were
he to have carried away all my possessions.
For though I would guard my possessions and also my person, I know
there lies the greater treasure.
LUKE
On Hypocrites
Jesus despised and scorned the hypocrites, and His wrath was like a
tempest that scourged them. His voice was thunder in their ears and
He cowed them.
In their fear of Him they sought His death; and like moles in the
dark earth they worked to undermine His footsteps. But He fell not
into their snares.
He laughed at them, for well He knew that the spirit shall not be
mocked, nor shall it be taken in the pitfall.
He held a mirror in His hand and therein He saw the sluggard and the
limping and those who stagger and fall by the roadside on the way to
the summit.
And He pitied them all. He would even have raised them to His stature
and He would have carried their burden. Nay, He would have bid their
weakness lean on His strength.
He did not utterly condemn the liar or the thief or the murderer, but
He did utterly condemn the hypocrite whose face is masked and whose
hand is gloved.
Often I have pondered on the heart that shelters all who come from
the wasteland to its sanctuary, yet against the hypocrite is closed
and sealed.
On a day as we rested with Him in the Garden of Pomegranates, I said
to Him, “Master, you forgive and console the sinner and all the
weak and the infirm save only the hypocrite alone.”
And He said, “You have chosen your words well when you called
the sinners weak and infirm. I do forgive them their weakness of body
and their infirmity of spirit. For their failings have been laid upon
them by their forefathers, or by the greed of their neighbours.
“But I tolerate not the hypocrite, because he himself lays a
yoke upon the guileless and the yielding.
“Weaklings, whom you call sinners, are like the featherless
young that fall from the nest. The hypocrite is the vulture waiting
upon a rock for the death of the prey.
“Weaklings are men lost in a desert. But the hypocrite is not
lost. He knows the way yet he laughs between the sand and the wind.
“For this cause I do not receive him.”
Thus our Master spoke, and I did not understand. But I understand
now.
Then the hypocrites of the land laid hands upon Him and they judged
Him; and in so doing they deemed themselves justified. For they cited
the law of Moses in the Sanhedrim in witness and evidence against
Him.
And they who break the law at the rise of every dawn and break it
again at sunset, brought about His death.
MATTHEW
The Sermon on the Mount
One harvest day Jesus called us and His other friends to the hills.
The earth was fragrant, and like the daughter of a king at her
wedding-feast, she wore all her jewels. And the sky was her
bridegroom.
When we reached the heights Jesus stood still in the grove of the
laurels, and He said, “Rest here, quiet your mind and tune your
heart, for I have much to tell you.”
Then we reclined on the grass, and the summer flowers were all about
us, and Jesus sat in our midst.
And Jesus said:
“Blessed are the serene in spirit.
“Blessed are they who are not held by possessions, for they
shall be free.
“Blessed are they who remember their pain, and in their pain
await their joy.
“Blessed are they who hunger after truth and beauty, for their
hunger shall bring bread, and their thirst cool water.
“Blessed are the kindly, for they shall be consoled by their
own kindliness.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall be one with God.
“Blessed are the merciful, for mercy shall be in their portion.
“Blessed are the peacemakers, for their spirit shall dwell
above the battle, and they shall turn the potter’s field into a
garden.
“Blessed are they who are hunted, for they shall be swift of
foot and they shall be winged.
“Rejoice and be joyful, for you have found the kingdom of
heaven within you. The singers of old were persecuted when they sang
of that kingdom. You too shall be persecuted, and therein lies your
honour, therein your reward.
“You are the salt of the earth; should the salt lose its savour
wherewith shall the food of man’s heart be salted?
“You are the light of the world. Put not that light under a
bushel. Let it shine rather from the summit, to those who seek the
City of God.
“Think not I came to destroy the laws of the scribes and the
Pharisees; for my days among you are numbered and my words are
counted, and I have but hours in which to fulfil another law and
reveal a new covenant.
“You have been told that you shall not kill, but I say unto
you, you shall not be angry without a cause.
“You have been charged by the ancients to bring your calf and
your lamb and your dove to the temple, and to slay them upon the
altar, that the nostrils of God may feed upon the odour of their fat,
and that you may be forgiven your failings.
“But I say unto you, would you give God that which was His own
from the beginning; and would you appease Him whose throne is above
the silent deep and whose arms encircle space?
“Rather, seek out your brother and be reconciled unto him ere
you seek the temple; and be a loving giver unto your neighbour. For
in the soul of these God has builded a temple that shall not be
destroyed, and in their heart He has raised an altar that shall never
perish.
“You have been told, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say unto you: Resist not evil, for resistance is food unto evil
and makes it strong. And only the weak would revenge themselves. The
strong of soul forgive, and it is honour in the injured to forgive.
“Only the fruitful tree is shaken or stoned for food.
“Be not heedful of the morrow, but rather gaze upon today, for
sufficient for today is the miracle thereof.
“Be not over-mindful of yourself when you give but be mindful
of the necessity. For every giver himself receives from the Father,
and that much more abundantly.
“And give to each according to his need; for the Father gives
not salt to the thirsty, nor a stone to the hungry, nor milk to the
weaned.
“And give not that which is holy to dogs; nor cast your pearls
before swine. For with such gifts you mock them; and they also shall
mock your gift, and in their hate would fain destroy you.
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures that corrupt or that
thieves may steal away. Lay up rather treasure which shall not
corrupt or be stolen, and whose loveliness increases when many eyes
behold it. For where your treasure is, your heart is also.
“You have been told that the murderer shall be put to the
sword, that the thief shall be crucified, and the harlot stoned. But
I say unto you that you are not free from wrongdoing of the murderer
and the thief and the harlot, and when they are punished in the body
your own spirit is darkened.
“Verily no crime is committed by one man or one woman. All
crimes are committed by all. And he who pays the penalty may be
breaking a link in the chain that hangs upon your own ankles. Perhaps
he is paying with his sorrow the price for your passing joy.”
Thus spake Jesus, and it was in my desire to kneel down and worship
Him, yet in my shyness I could not move nor speak a word.
But at last I spoke; and I said, “I would pray this moment, yet
my tongue is heavy. Teach me to pray.”
And Jesus said, “When you would pray, let your longing
pronounce the words. It is in my longing now to pray thus:
“Our Father in earth and heaven, sacred is Thy name.
Thy will be done with us, even as in space.
Give us of Thy bread sufficient for the day.
In Thy compassion forgive us and enlarge us to forgive one
another.
Guide us towards Thee and stretch down Thy hand to us in
darkness.
For Thine is the kingdom, and in Thee is our power and our
fulfilment.”
And it was now evening, and Jesus walked down from the hills, and all
of us followed Him. And as I followed I was repeating His prayer, and
remembering all that He had said; for I knew that the words that had
fallen like flakes that day must set and grow firm like crystals, and
that wings that had fluttered above our heads were to beat the earth
like iron hoofs.
JOHN
THE SON OF ZEBEDEE
On the Various Appellations of Jesus
You have remarked that some of us call Jesus the Christ, and some the
Word, and others call Him the Nazarene, and still others the Son of
Man.
I will try to make these names clear in the light that is given me.
The Christ, He who was in the ancient of days, is the flame of God
that dwells in the spirit of man. He is the breath of life that
visits us, and takes unto Himself a body like our bodies.
He is the will of the Lord.
He is the first Word, which would speak with our voice and live in
our ear that we may heed and understand.
And the Word of the Lord our God builded a house of flesh and bones,
and was man like unto you and myself.
For we could not hear the song of the bodiless wind nor see our
greater self walking in the mist.
Many times the Christ has come to the world, and He has walked many
lands. And always He has been deemed a stranger and a madman.
Yet the sound of His voice descended never to emptiness, for the
memory of man keeps that which his mind takes no care to keep.
This is the Christ, the innermost and the height, who walks with man
towards eternity.
Have you not heard of Him at the cross-roads of India? And in the
land of the Magi, and upon the sands of Egypt?
And here in your North Country your bards of old sang of Prometheus,
the fire-bringer, he who was the desire of man fulfilled, the caged
hope made free; and Orpheus, who came with a voice and a lyre to
quicken the spirit in beast and man.
And know you not of Mithra the king, and of Zoroaster the prophet of
the Persians, who woke from man’s ancient sleep and stood at
the bed of our dreaming?
We ourselves become man anointed when we meet in the Temple
Invisible, once every thousand years. Then comes one forth embodied,
and at His coming our silence turns to singing.
Yet our ears turn not always to listening nor our eyes to seeing.
Jesus the Nazarene was born and reared like ourselves; His mother and
father were like our parents, and He was a man.
But the Christ, the Word, who was in the beginning, the Spirit who
would have us live our fuller life, came unto Jesus and was with Him.
And the Spirit was the versed hand of the Lord, and Jesus was the
harp.
The Spirit was the psalm, and Jesus was the turn thereof.
And Jesus, the Man of Nazareth, was the host and the mouthpiece of
the Christ, who walked with us in the sun and who called us His
friends.
In those days the hills of Galilee and her valleys heard but His
voice. And I was a youth then, and trod in His path and pursued His
footprints.
I pursued His footprints and trod in His path, to hear the words of
the Christ from the lips of Jesus of Galilee.
Now you would know why some of us call Him the Son of Man.
He Himself desired to be called by that name, for He knew the hunger
and the thirst of man, and He beheld man seeking after His greater
self.
The Son of Man was Christ the Gracious, who would be with us all.
He was Jesus the Nazarene who would lead His brothers to the Anointed
One, even to the Word which was in the beginning with God.
In my heart dwells Jesus of Galilee, the Man above men, the Poet who
makes poets of us all, the Spirit who knocks at our door that we may
wake and rise and walk out to meet truth naked and unencumbered.
A YOUNG PRIEST OF CAPERNAUM
Of Jesus the Magician
He was a magician, warp and woof, and a sorcerer, a man who
bewildered the simple by charms and incantations. And He juggled with
the words of our prophets and with the sanctities of our forefathers.
Aye, He even bade the dead be His witnesses, and the voiceless graves
His forerunners and authority.
He sought the women of Jerusalem and the women of the countryside
with the cunning of the spider that seeks the fly; and they were
caught in His web.
For women are weak and empty-headed, and they follow the man who
would comfort their unspent passion with soft and tender words. Were
it not for these women, infirm and possessed by His evil spirit, His
name would have been erased from the memory of man.
And who were the men who followed Him?
They were of the horde that are yoked and trodden down. In their
ignorance and fear they would never have rebelled against their
rightful masters. But when He promised them high stations in His
kingdom of mirage, they yielded to His fantasy as clay to the potter.
Know you not, the slave in his dreaming would always be master; and
the weakling would be a lion?
The Galilean was a conjuror and a deceiver, a man who forgave the
sins of all sinners that He might hear Hail and Hosanna from their
unclean mouths; and who fed the faint heart of the hopeless and the
wretched that He might have ears for His voice and a retinue at His
command.
He broke the Sabbath with those who break that He might gain the
support of the lawless; and He spoke ill of our high priests that He
might win attention in Sanhedrim, and by opposition increase His
fame.
I have said often that I hated that man. Ay, I hate Him more than I
hate the Romans who govern our country. Even His coming was from
Nazareth, a town cursed by our prophets, a dunghill of the Gentiles,
from which no good shall ever proceed.
A RICH LEVI
IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF
NAZARETH
Jesus the Good Carpenter
He was a good carpenter. The doors He fashioned were never unlocked
by thieves, and the windows he made were always ready to open to the
east wind and to the west.
And He made chests of cedar wood, polished and enduring, and ploughs
and pitchforks strong and yielding to the hand.
And He carved lecterns for our synagogues. He carved them out of the
golden mulberry; and on both sides of the support, where the sacred
book lies, He chiselled wings outspreading; and under the support,
heads of bulls and doves, and large-eyed deer.
All this He wrought in the manner of the Chaldeans and the Greeks.
But there was that in His skill which was neither Chaldean nor Greek.
Now this my house was builded by many hands thirty years ago. I
sought builders and carpenters in all the towns of Galilee. They had
each the skill and the art of building, and I was pleased and
satisfied with all that they did.
But come now, and behold two doors and a window that were fashioned
by Jesus of Nazareth. They in their stability mock at all else in my
house.
See you not that these two doors are different from all other doors?
And this window opening to the east, is it not different from other
windows?
All my doors and windows are yielding to the years save these which
He made. They alone stand strong against the elements.
And see those cross-beams, how he placed them; and these nails, how
they are driven from one side of the board, and then caught and
fastened so firmly upon the other side.
And what is passing strange is that that labourer who was worthy the
wages of two men received but the wage of one man; and that same
labourer now is deemed a prophet in Israel.
Had I known then that this youth with saw and plane was a prophet, I
would have begged Him to speak rather than work, and then I would
have overpaid Him for his words.
And now I still have many men working in my house and fields. How
shall I know the man whose own hand is upon his tool, from the man
upon whose hand God lays His hand?
Yea, how shall I know God’s hand?
A SHEPHERD IN SOUTH LEBANON
A Parable
It was late summer when He and three other men first walked upon that
road yonder. It was evening, and He stopped and stood there at the
end of the pasture.
I was playing upon my flute, and my flock was grazing all around me.
When He stopped I rose and walked over and stood before Him.
And He asked me, “Where is the grave of Elijah? Is it not
somewhere near this place?”
And I answered Him, “It is there, Sir, underneath that great
heap of stones. Even unto this day every passer-by brings a stone and
places it upon the heap.”
And He thanked me and walked away, and His friends walked behind Him.
And after three days Ganaliel who was also a shepherd, said to me
that the man who had passed by was a prophet in Judea; but I did not
believe him. Yet I thought of that man for many a moon.
When spring came Jesus passed once more by this pasture, and this
time He was alone.
I was not playing on my flute that day for I had lost a sheep and I
was bereaved, and my heart was downcast within me.
And I walked towards Him and stood still before Him, for I desired to
be comforted.
And He looked at me and said, “You do not play upon your flute
this day. Whence is the sorrow in your eyes?” ý
And I answered, “A sheep from among my sheep is lost. I have
sought her everywhere but I find her not. And I know not what to
do.”
And He was silent for a moment. Then He smiled upon me and said,
“Wait here awhile and I will find your sheep.” And He
walked away and disappeared among the hills.
After an hour He returned, and my sheep was close behind Him. And as
He stood before me, the sheep looked up into His face even as I was
looking. Then I embraced her inn gladness.
And He put His hand upon my shoulder and said, “From this day
you shall love this sheep more than any other in your flock, for she
was lost and now she is found.”
And again I embraced my sheep in gladness, and she came close to me,
and I was silent.
But when I raised my head to thank Jesus, He was already walking afar
off, and I had not the courage to follow Him.
JOHN THE BAPTIST
He Speaks in Prison to His Disciples
I am not silent in this foul hole while the voice of Jesus is heard
on the battlefield. I am not to be held nor confined while He is
free.
They tell me the vipers are coiling round His loins, but I answer:
The vipers shall awaken His strength, and He shall crush them with
His heel.
I am only the thunder of His lightning. Though I spoke first, His was
the word and the purpose.
They caught me unwarned. Perhaps they will lay hands on Him also. Yet
not before He has pronounced His word in full. And He shall overcome
them.
His chariot shall pass over them, and the hoofs of His horses shall
trample them, and He shall be triumphant.
They shall go forth with lance and sword, but He shall meet them with
the power of the Spirit.
His blood shall run upon the earth, but they themselves shall know
the wounds and the pain thereof, and they shall be baptized in their
tears until they are cleansed of their sins.
Their legions shall march towards His cities with rams of iron, but
on their way they shall be drowned in the River Jordan.
And His walls and His towers shall rise higher, and the shields of
His warriors shall shine brighter in the sun.
They say I am in league with Him, and that our design is to urge the
people to rise and revolt against the kingdom of Judea.
I answer, and would that I had flames for words: if they deem this
pit of iniquity a kingdom, let it fall into destruction and be no
more. Let it go the way Sodom and Gomorrah, and let this race be
forgotten by God, and this land be turned to ashes.
Aye, behind these prison walls I am indeed an ally to Jesus of
Nazareth, and He shall lead my armies, horse and foot. And I myself,
though a captain, am not worthy to loose the strings of His sandals.
Go to Him and repeat my words, and then in my name beg Him for
comfort and blessing.
I shall not be here long. At night ‘twixt waking and waking I
feel slow feet with measured steps treading above this body. And when
I hearken, I hear the rain falling upon my grave.
Go to Jesus, and say that John of Kedron whose soul is filled with
shadows and then emptied again, prays for Him, while the grave-digger
stands close by, and the swordman outstretches his hand for his
wages.
JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA
On the Primal Aims of Jesus
You would know the primal aim of Jesus, and I would fain tell you.
But none can touch with fingers the life of the blessed wine, nor see
the sap that feeds the branches.
And though I have eaten of the grapes and have tasted the new vintage
at the winepress, I cannot tell you all.
I can only relate what I know of Him.
Our Master and our Beloved lived but three prophet’s seasons.
They were the spring of His song, the summer of His ecstasy, and the
autumn of His passion; and each season was a thousand years.
The spring of His song was spent in Galilee. It was there that He
gathered His lovers about Him, and it was on the shores of the blue
lake that He first spoke of the Father, and of our release and our
freedom.
By the Lake of Galilee we lost ourselves to find our way to the
Father; and oh, the little loss that turned to such gain.
It was there the angels sang in our ears and bade us leave the arid
land for the garden of heart’s desire.
He spoke of fields and green pastures; of the slopes of Lebanon where
the white lilies are heedless of the caravans passing in the dust of
the valley.
He spoke of the wild brier that smiles in the sun and yields its
incense to the passing breeze.
And He would say, “The lilies and the brier live but a day, yet
that day is eternity spent in freedom.”
And one evening as we sat beside the stream He said, “Behold
the brook and listen to its music. Forever shall it seek the sea, and
though it is for ever seeking, it sings its mystery from noon to
noon.
“Would that you seek the Father as the brook seeks the
sea.”
Then came the summer of His ecstasy, and the June of His love was
upon us. He spoke of naught then but the other man – the
neighbour, the road-fellow, the stranger, and our childhood’s
playmates.
He spoke of the traveller journeying from the east to Egypt, of the
ploughman coming home with his oxen at eventide, of the chance guest
led by dusk to our door.
And He would say, “Your neighbour is your unknown self made
visible. His face shall be reflected in your still waters, and if you
gaze therein you shall behold your own countenance.
“Should you listen in the night, you shall hear him speak, and
his words shall be the throbbing of your own heart.
“Be unto him that which you would have him be unto you.
“This is my law, and I shall say it unto you, and unto your
children, and they unto their children until time is spent and
generations are no more.”
And on another day He said, “You shall not be yourself alone.
You are in the deeds of other men, and they though unknowing are with
you all your days.
“They shall not commit a crime and your hand not be with their
hand.
“They shall not fall down but that you shall also fall down;
and they shall not rise but that you shall rise with them.
“Their road to the sanctuary is your road, and when they seek
the wasteland you too seek with them.
“You and your neighbour are two seeds sown in the field.
Together you grow and together you shall sway in the wind. And
neither of you shall claim the field. For a seed on its way to growth
claims not even its own ecstasy.
“Today I am with you. Tomorrow I go westward; but ere I go, I
say unto you that your neighbour is your unknown self made visible.
Seek him in love that you may know yourself, for only in that
knowledge shall you become my brothers.”
Then came the autumn of His passion.
And He spoke to us of freedom, even as He had spoken in Galilee in
the spring of His song; but now His words sought our deeper
understanding.
He spoke of leaves that sing only when blown upon the wind; and of
man as a cup filled by the ministering angel of the day to quench the
thirst of another angel. Yet whether that cup is full or empty it
shall stand crystalline upon the board of the Most High.
He said, “You are the cup and you are the wine. Drink
yourselves to the dregs; or else remember me and you shall be
quenched.”
And on our way to the southward He said, “Jerusalem, which
stands in pride upon the height, shall descend to the depth of
Jahannum the dark valley, and in the midst of her desolation I shall
stand alone.
“The temple shall fall to dust, and around the portico you
shall hear the cry of widows and orphans; and men in their haste to
escape shall not know the faces of their brothers, for fear shall be
upon them all.
“But even there, if two of you shall meet and utter my name and
look to the west, you shall see me, and these my words shall again
visit your ears.”
And when we reached the hill of Bethany, He said, “Let us go to
Jerusalem. The city awaits us. I will enter the gate riding upon a
colt, and I will speak to the multitude.
“Many are there who would chain me, and many who would put out
my flame, but in my death you shall find life and you shall be free.
“They shall seek the breath that hovers betwixt heart and mind
as the swallow hovers between the field and his nest. But my breath
has already escaped them, and they shall not overcome me.
“The walls that my Father has built around me shall not fall
down, and the acre He has made holy shall not be profaned.
“When the dawn shall come, the sun will crown my head and I
shall be with you to face the day. And that day shall be long, and
the world shall not see its eventide.
“The scribes and the Pharisees say the earth is thirsty for my
blood. I would quench the thirst of the earth with my blood. But the
drops shall rise oak trees and maple, and the east shall carry the
acorns to other lands.”
And then He said, “Judea would have a king, and she would march
against the legions of Rome.
“I shall not be her king. The diadems of Zion were fashioned
for lesser brows. And the ring of Solomon is small for this finger.
“Behold my hand. See you not that it is over-strong to hold a
sceptre, and over-sinewed to wield a common sword?
“Nay, I shall not command Syrian flesh against Roman. But you
with my words shall wake that city, and my spirit shall speak to her
second dawn.
“My words shall be an invisible army with horses and chariots,
and without axe or spear I shall conquer the priests of Jerusalem,
and the Caesars.
“I shall not sit upon a throne where slaves have sat and ruled
other slaves. Nor will I rebel against the sons of Italy.
“But I shall be a tempest in their sky, and a song in their
soul.
“And I shall be remembered.
“They shall call me Jesus the Anointed.”
These things He said outside the walls of Jerusalem before He entered
the city.
And His words are graven as with chisels.
NATHANIEL
Jesus was not Meek
They say that Jesus of Nazareth was humble and meek.
They say that though He was a just man and righteous, He was a
weakling, and was often confounded by the strong and the powerful;
and that when He stood before men of authority He was but a lamb
among lions.
But I say Jesus had authority over men, and that He knew His power
and proclaimed it among the hills of Galilee, and in the cities of
Judea and Phoenicia.
What man yielding and soft would say, “I am life, and I am the
way to truth” ?
What man meek and lowly would say, “I am in God, our Father;
and our God, the Father, is in me” ?
What man unmindful of His own strength would say, “He who
believes not in me believes not in this life nor in the life
everlasting” ?
What man uncertain of tomorrow would proclaim, “Your world
shall pass away and be naught but scattered ashes ere my words shall
pass away” ?
Was He doubtful of Himself when He said to those who would confound
Him with a harlot, “He who is without sin, let him cast a
stone” ?
Did He fear authority when He drove the money-changers from the court
of the temple, though they were licensed by the priests?
Were His wings shorn when He cried aloud, “My kingdom is above
your earthly kingdoms” ?
Was He seeking shelter in words when He repeated again and yet again,
“Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in three days”
?
Was it a coward who shook His hand in the face of the authorities and
pronounced them “liars, low, filthy, and degenerate” ?
Shall a man bold enough to say these things to those who ruled Judea
be deemed meek and humble?
Nay. The eagle builds not his nest in the weeping willow. And the
lion seeks not his den among the ferns.
I am sickened and the bowels within me stir and rise when I hear the
faint-hearted call Jesus humble and meek, that they may justify their
own faint-heartedness; and when the downtrodden, for comfort and
companionship, speak of Jesus as a worm shining by their side.
Yea, my heart is sickened by such men. It is the mighty hunter I
would preach, and the mountainous spirit unconquerable.
SABA OF ANTIOCH
On Saul of Tarsus
This day I heard Saul of Tarsus preaching the Christ unto the Jews of
this city.
He calls himself Paul now, the apostle to the Gentiles.
I knew him in my youth, and in those days he persecuted the friends
of the Nazarene. Well do I remember his satisfaction when his fellows
stoned the radiant youth called Stephen.
This Paul is indeed a strange man. His souls is not the soul of a
free man.
At times he seems like an animal in the forest, hunted and wounded,
seeking a cave wherein he would hide his pain from the world.
He speaks not of Jesus, nor does he repeat His words. He preaches the
Messiah whom the prophets of old had foretold.
And though he himself is a learned Jew he addresses his fellow Jews
in Greek; and his Greek is halting, and he ill chooses his words.
But he is a man of hidden powers and his presence is affirmed by
those who gather around him. And at times he assures them of what he
himself is not assured.
We who knew Jesus and heard his discourses say that He taught man how
to break the chains of his bondage that he might be free from his
yesterdays.
But Paul is forging chains for the man of tomorrow. He would strike
with his own hammer upon the anvil in the name of one whom he does
not know.
The Nazarene would have us live the hour in passion and ecstasy.
The man of Tarsus would have us be mindful of laws recorded in the
ancient books.
Jesus gave His breath to the breathless dead. And in my lone nights I
believe and I understand.
When He sat at the board, He told stories that gave happiness to the
feasters, and spiced with His joy the meat and the wine.
But Paul would prescribe our loaf and our cup.
Suffer me not to turn my eyes the other way.
SALOME TO A WOMAN FRIEND
A Desire Unfulfilled
He was like poplars shimmering in the sun;
And like a lake among the lonely hills,
Shining in the sun;
And like snow upon the mountain heights,
White, white in the sun.
Yea, He was like unto all these,
And I loved Him.
Yet I feared His presence.
And my feet would not carry my burden of love
That I might girdle His feet with my arms.
I would have said to Him,
“I have slain your friend in an hour of passion.
Will you forgive me my sin?
And will you not in mercy release my youth
From its blind deed,
That it may walk in your light?”
I know He would have forgiven my dancing
For the saintly head of His friend.
I know He would have seen in me
An object of His own teaching.
For there was no valley of hunger He could not bridge,
And no desert of thirst He could not cross.
Yea, He was even as the poplars,
And as the lakes among the hills,
And like snow upon Lebanon.
And I would have cooled my lips in the folds of His garment.
But He was far from me,
And I was ashamed.
And my mother held me back
When the desire to seek Him was upon me.
Whenever He passed by, my heart ached for his loveliness,
But my mother frowned at Him in contempt,
And would hasten me from the window
To my bedchamber.
And she would cry aloud saying,
“Who is He but another locust-eater from the desert?
What is He but a scoffer and a renegade,
A seditious riot-monger, who would rob us of sceptre and crown,
And bid the foxes and the jackals of His accursed land
Howl in our halls and sit upon our throne?
Go hide your face from this day,
And await the day when His head shall fall down,
But not upon your platter.”
These things my mother said.
But my heart would not keep her words.
I loved Him in secret,
And my sleep was girdled with flames.
He is gone now.
And something that was in me is gone also.
Perhaps it was my youth
That would not tarry here,
Since the God of youth was slain.
RACHAEL
A WOMAN DISCIPLE
On Jesus the Vision and the Man
I often wonder whether Jesus was a man of flesh and blood like
ourselves, or a thought without a body, in the mind, or an idea that
visits the vision of man.
Often it seems to me that He was but a dream dreamed by the countless
men and women at the same time in a sleep deeper than sleep and a
dawn more serene than all dawns.
And it seems that in relating the dream, the one to the other, we
began to deem it a reality that had indeed come to pass; and in
giving it body of our fancy and a voice of our longing we made it a
substance of our own substance.
But in truth He was not a dream. We knew Him for three years and
beheld Him with our open eyes in the high tide of noon.
We touched His hands, and we followed Him from one place to another.
We heard His discourses and witnessed His deeds. Think you that we
were a thought seeking after more thought, or a dream in the region
of dreams?
Great events always seem alien to our daily lives, though their
nature may be rooted in our nature. But though they appear sudden in
their coming and sudden in their passing, their true span is for
years and for generations.
Jesus of Nazareth was Himself the Great Event. That man whose father
and mother and brothers we know, was Himself a miracle wrought in
Judea. Yea, all His own miracles, if placed at His feet, would not
rise to the height of His ankles.
And all the rivers of all the years shall not carry away our
remembrance of Him.
He was a mountain burning in the night, yet He was a soft glow beyond
the hills. He was a tempest in the sky, yet He was a murmur in the
mist of daybreak.
He was a torrent pouring from the heights to the plains to destroy
all things in its path. And He was like the laughter of children.
Every year I had waited for spring to visit this valley. I had waited
for the lilies and the cyclamen, and then every year my soul had been
saddened within me; for ever I longed to rejoice with the spring, yet
I could not.
But when Jesus came to my seasons He was indeed a spring, and in Him
was the promise of all the years to come. He filled my heart with
joy; and like the violets I grew, a shy thing, in the light of His
coming.
And now the changing seasons of worlds not yet ours shall not erase
His loveliness from this our world.
Nay, Jesus was not a phantom, nor a conception of the poets. He was
man like yourself and myself. But only to sight and touch and
hearing; in all other ways He was unlike us.
He was a man of joy; and it was upon the path of joy that He met the
sorrows of all men. And it was from the high roofs of His sorrows
that He beheld the joy of all men.
He saw visions that we did not see, and heard voices that we did not
hear; and He spoke as if to invisible multitudes, and ofttimes He
spoke through us to races yet unborn.
And Jesus was often alone. He was among us yet not one with us. He
was upon the earth, yet He was of the sky. And only in our aloneness
may we visit the land of His aloneness.
He loved us with tender love. His heart was a winepress. You and I
could approach with a cup and drink therefrom.
One thing I did not use to understand in Jesus: He would make merry
with His listeners; He would tell jests and play upon words, and
laugh with all the fullness of His heart, even when there were
distances in His eyes and sadness in His voice. But I understand now.
I often think of the earth as a woman heavy with her first child.
When Jesus was born, He was the first child. And when He died, He was
the first man to die.
For did it not appear to you that the earth was stilled on that dark
Friday, and the heavens were at war with the heavens?
And felt you not when His face disappeared from our sight as if we
were naught but memories in the mist?
CLEOPAS OF BETHROUNE
On the Law and the Prophets
When Jesus spoke the whole world was hushed to listen. His words were
not for our ears but rather for the elements of which God made this
earth.
He spoke to the sea, our vast mother, that gave us birth. He spoke to
the mountain, our elder brother whose summit is a promise.
And He spoke to the angels beyond the sea and the mountain to whom we
entrusted our dreams ere the clay in us was made hard in the sun.
And still His speech slumbers within our breast like a love-song half
forgotten, and sometimes it burns itself through to our memory.
His speech was simple and joyous, and the sound of His voice was like
cool water in a land of drought.
Once He raised His hand against the sky, and His fingers were like
the branches of a sycamore tree; and He said with a great voice:
“The prophets of old have spoken to you, and your ears are
filled with their speech. But I say unto you, empty your ears of what
you have heard.”
And these words of Jesus, “But I say unto you,” were not
uttered by a man of our race nor of our world; but rather by a host
of seraphim marching across the sky of Judea.
Again and yet again He would quote the law and the prophets, and then
he would say, “But I say unto you.”
Oh, what burning words, what waves of seas unknown to the shores of
our mind, “But I say unto you.”
What stars seeking the darkness of the soul, and what sleepless souls
awaiting the dawn.
To tell of the speech of Jesus one must needs have His speech or the
echo thereof.
I have neither the speech nor the echo.
I beg you to forgive me for beginning a story that I cannot end. But
the end is not yet upon my lips. It is still a love song in the wind.
NAAMAN OF THE GADARENES
On the Death of Stephen
His disciples are dispersed. He gave them the legacy of pain ere He
Himself was put to death. They are hunted like the deer, and the
foxes of the fields, and the quiver of the hunter is yet full of
arrows.
But when they are caught and led to death, they are joyous, and their
faces shine like the face of the bridegroom at the wedding-feast. For
He gave them also the legacy of joy.
I had a friend from the North Country, and his name was Stephen; and
because he proclaimed Jesus as the Son of God, he was led to the
market-place and stoned.
And when Stephen fell to earth he outstretched his arms as if he
would die as his Master had died. His arms were spread like wings
ready for flight. And when the last gleam of light was fading in his
eyes, with my own eyes I saw a smile upon his lips. It was a smile
like the breath that comes before the end of winter for a pledge and
a promise of spring.
How shall I describe it?
It seemed that Stephen was saying, “If I should go to another
world, and other men should lead me to another market-place to stone
me, even then I would proclaim Him for the truth which was in Him,
and for that same truth which is in me now.”
And I noticed that there was a man standing near, and looking with
pleasure upon the stoning of Stephen.
His name is Saul of Tarsus, and it was he who had yielded Stephen to
the priests and the Romans and the crowd, for stoning.
Saul was bald of head and short of stature. His shoulders were
crooked and his features ill-sorted; and I liked him not.
I have been told that he is now preaching Jesus from the house tops.
It is hard to believe.
But the grave halts not Jesus’ walking to the enemies’
camp to tame and take captive those who had opposed Him.
Still I do not like that man of Tarsus, though I have been told that
after Stephen’s death he was tamed and conquered on the road to
Damascus. But his head is too large for his heart to be that of a
true disciple.
And yet perhaps I am mistaken. I am often mistaken.
THOMAS
On the Forefathers of His Doubts
My grandfather who was a lawyer once said, “Let us observe
truth, but only when truth is made manifest unto us.”
When Jesus called me I heeded Him, for His command was more potent
than my will; yet I kept my counsel.
When He spoke and the others were swayed like branches in the wind, I
listened immovable. Yet I loved Him.
Three years ago He left us, a scattered company to sing His name, and
to be His witnesses unto the nations.
At that time I was called Thomas the Doubter. The shadow of my
grandfather was still upon me, and always I would have truth made
manifest.
I would even put my hand in my own wound to feel the blood ere I
would believe in my pain.
Now a man who loves with his heart yet holds a doubt in his mind, is
but a slave in a galley who sleeps at his oar and dreams of his
freedom, till the lash of the master wakes him.
I myself was that slave, and I dreamed of freedom, but the sleep of
my grandfather was upon me. My flesh needed the whip of my own day.
Even in the presence of the Nazarene I had closed my eyes to see my
hands chained to the oar.
Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Doubt is a foundling unhappy and astray, and though his own mother
who gave him birth should find him and enfold him, he would withdraw
in caution and in fear.
For Doubt will not know truth till his wounds are healed and
restored.
I doubted Jesus until He made Himself manifest to me, and thrust my
own hand into His very wounds.
Then indeed I believed, and after that I was rid of my yesterday and
the yesterdays of my forefathers.
The dead in me buried their dead; and the living shall live for the
Anointed King, even for Him who was the Son of Man.
Yesterday they told me that I must go and utter His name among the
Persians and the Hindus.
I shall go. And from this day to my last day, at dawn and at
eventide, I shall see my Lord rising in majesty and I shall hear Him
speak.
ELMADAM THE LOGICIAN
Jesus the Outcast
You bid me speak of Jesus the Nazarene, and much have I to tell, but
the time has not come. Yet whatever I say of Him now is the truth;
for all speech is worthless save when it discloses the truth.
Behold a man disorderly, against all order; a mendicant, opposed to
all possessions; a drunkard who would only make merry with rogues and
castaways.
He was not the proud son of the State, nor was He the protected
citizen of the Empire; therefore He had contempt for both State and
Empire.
He would live as free and dutiless as the fowls of the air, and for
this the hunters brought Him to earth with arrows.
No one shall open the flood gates of his ancestors without drowning.
It is the law. And because the Nazarene broke the law, He and His
witless followers were brought to naught.
And there lived many others like Him, men who would change the course
of our destiny.
They themselves were changed, and they were the losers.
There is a grapeless vine that grows by the city walls. It creeps
upward and clings to the stones. Should that vine say in her heart,
“With my might and my weight I shall destroy these
walls,” what would other plants say? Surely they would laugh at
her foolishness.
Now sir, I cannot but laugh at this man and His ill-advised
disciples.
ONE OF THE MARYS
On His Sadness and His Smile
His head was always high, and the flame of God was in His eyes.
He was often sad, but His sadness was tenderness shown to those in
pain, and comradeship given to the lonely.
When He smiled His smile was as the hunger of those who long after
the unknown. It was like the dust of stars falling upon the eyelids
of children. And it was like a morsel of bread in the throat.
He was sad, yet it was a sadness that would rise to the lips and
become a smile.
It was like a golden veil in the forest when autumn is upon the
world. And sometimes it seemed like moonlight upon the shores of the
lake.
He smiled as if His lips would sing at the wedding-feast.
Yet He was sad with the sadness of the winged who will not soar above
his comrade.
RUMANOUS
A GREEK POET
Jesus the Poet
He was a poet. He saw for our eyes and heard for our ears, and our
silent words were upon His lips; and His fingers touched what we
could not feel.
Out of His heart there flew countless singing birds to the north and
to the south, and the little flowers on the hill-sides stayed His
steps towards the heavens.
Oftentimes I have seen Him bending down to touch the blades of grass.
And in my heart I have heard Him say: “Little green things, you
shall be with me in my kingdom, even as the oaks of Besan, and the
cedars of Lebanon.”
He loved all things of loveliness, the shy faces of children, and the
myrrh and frankincense from the south.
He loved a pomegranate or a cup of wine given Him in kindness; it
mattered not whether it was offered by a stranger in the inn or by a
rich host.
And He loved the almond blossoms. I have seen Him gathering them into
His hands and covering His face with the petals, as though He would
embrace with His love all the trees in the world.
He knew the sea and the heavens; and He spoke of pearls which have
light that is not of this light, and of stars that are beyond our
night.
He knew the mountains as eagles know them, and the valleys as they
are known by the brooks and the streams. And there was a desert in
His silence and a garden in His speech.
Aye, He was a poet whose heart dwelt in a bower beyond the heights,
and His songs though sung for our ears, were sung for other ears
also, and to men in another land where life is for ever young and
time is always dawn.
Once I too deemed myself a poet, but when I stood before Him in
Bethany, I knew what it is to hold an instrument with but a single
string before one who commands all instruments. For in His voice
there was the laughter of thunder and the tears of rain, and the
joyous dancing of trees in the wind.
And since I have known that my lyre has but one string, and that my
voice weaves neither the memories of yesterday nor the hopes of
tomorrow, I have put aside my lyre and I shall keep silence. But
always at twilight I shall hearken, and I shall listen to the Poet
who is the sovereign of all poets.
LEVI
A DISCIPLE
On Those who would Confound Jesus
Upon an eventide He passed by my house, and my soul was quickened
within me.
He spoke to me and said, “Come, Levi, and follow me.”
And I followed Him that day.
And at eventide of the next day I begged Him to enter my house and be
my guest. And He and His friends crossed my threshold and blessed me
and my wife and my children.
And I had other guests. They were publicans and men of learning, but
they were against Him in their hearts.
And when we were sitting about the board, one of the publicans
questioned Jesus, saying, “Is it true that you and your
disciples break the law, and make fire on the Sabbath day?”
And Jesus answered him saying, “We do indeed make fire on the
Sabbath day. We would inflame the Sabbath day, and we would burn with
our touch the dry stubble of all days.”
And another publican said, “It was brought to us that you drink
wine with the unclean at the inn.”
And Jesus answered, “Aye, these also we would comfort. Came we
here except to share the loaf and the cup with the uncrowned and the
unshod amongst you?
“Few, aye too few are the featherless who dare the wind, and
many are the winged and full-fledged yet in the nest.
“And we would feed them all with our beak, both the sluggish
and the swift.”
And another publican said, “Have I not been told that you would
protect the harlots of Jerusalem?”
Then in the face of Jesus I saw, as it were, the rocky heights of
Lebanon, and He said, “It is true.
“On the day of reckoning these women shall rise before the
throne of my Father, and they shall be made pure by their own tears.
But you shall be held down by the chains of your own judgment.
“Babylon was not put to waste by her prostitutes; Babylon fell
to ashes that the eyes of her hypocrites might no longer see the
light of day.”
And other publicans would have questioned Him, but I made a sign and
bade them be silent, for I knew He would confound them; and they too
were my guests, and I would not have them put to shame.
When it was midnight the publicans left my house, and their souls
were limping.
Then I closed my eyes and I saw, as if in a vision, seven women in
white raiment standing about Jesus. Their arms were crossed upon
their bosoms, and their heads were bent down, and I looked deep into
the mist of my dream and beheld the face of one of the seven women,
and it shone in my darkness.
It was the face of a harlot who lived in Jerusalem.
Then I opened my eyes and looked at Him, and He was smiling at me and
at the others who had not left the board.
And I closed my eyes again, and I saw in a light seven men in white
garments standing around Him. And I beheld the face of one of them.
It was the face of the thief who was crucified afterward at His right
hand.
And later Jesus and His comrades left my house for the road.
A WIDOW IN GALILEE
Jesus the Cruel
My son was my first and my only born. He laboured in our field and he
was contented until he heard the man called Jesus speaking to the
multitude.
Then my son suddenly became different, as if a new spirit, foreign
and unwholesome, had embraced his spirit.
He abandoned the field and the garden; and he abandoned me also. He
became worthless, a creature of the highways.
That man Jesus of Nazareth was evil, for what good man would separate
a son from his mother?
The last thing my child said to me was this: “I am going with
one of His disciples to the North Country. My life is established
upon the Nazarene. You have given me birth, and for that I am
grateful to you. But I needs must go. Am I not leaving with you our
rich land, and all our silver and gold? I shall take naught but this
garment and this staff.”
Thus my son spoke, and departed.
And now the Romans and the priests have laid hold upon Jesus and
crucified Him; and they have done well.
A man who would part mother and son could not be godly.
The man who sends our children to the cities of the Gentiles cannot
be our friend.
I know my son will not return to me. I saw it in his eyes. And for
this I hate Jesus of Nazareth who caused me to be alone in this
unploughed field and this withered garden.
And I hate all those who praise Him.
Not many days ago they told me that Jesus once said, “My father
and my mother and my brethren are those who hear my word and follow
me.”
But why should sons leave their mothers to follow His footsteps?
And why should the milk of my breast be forgotten for a fountain not
yet tasted? And the warmth of my arms be forsaken for the Northland,
cold and unfriendly?
Aye, I hate the Nazarene, and I shall hate Him to the end of my days,
for He has robbed me of my first-born, my only son.
JUDAS
THE COUSIN OF JESUS
On the Death of John the Baptist
Upon a night in the month of August we were with the Master on a
heath not far from the lake. The heath was called by the ancients the
Meadow of Skulls.
And Jesus was reclining on the grass and gazing at the stars.
And of a sudden two men came rushing towards us breathless. They were
as if in agony, and they fell prostrate at the feet of Jesus.
And Jesus stood up and He said, “Whence came you?”
And one of the men answered, “From Machaereus.”
And Jesus looked upon him and was troubled, and He said, “What
of John?”
And the man said, “He was slain this day. He was beheaded in
his prison cell.”
Then Jesus lifted up His head. And then He walked a little way from
us. After a while He stood again in our midst.
And He said, “The king could have slain the prophet ere this
day. Verily the king has tried the pleasure of His subjects. Kings of
yore were not so slow in giving the head of a prophet to the
head-hunters.
“I grieve not for John, but rather for Herod, who let fall the
sword. Poor king, like an animal caught and led with a ring and a
rope.
“Poor petty tetrarchs lost in their own darkness, they stumble
and fall down. And what could you of the stagnant sea but dead
fishes?”
“I hate not kings. Let them rule men, but only when they are
wiser than men.”
And the Master looked at the two sorrowful faces and then He looked
at us, and He spoke again and said, “John was born wounded, and
the blood of his wounds streamed forth with his words. He was freedom
not yet free from itself, and patient only with the straight and the
just.
“In truth he was a voice crying in the land of the deaf; and I
loved him in his pain and his aloneness.
“And I loved his pride that would give its head to the sword
ere it would yield it to the dust.
“Verily I say unto you that John, the son of Zachariah, was the
last of his race, and like his forefathers he was slain between the
threshold of the temple and the altar.”
And again Jesus walked away from us.
Then He returned and He said, “Forever it has been that those
who rule for an hour would slay the rulers of years. And forever they
would hold a trial and pronounce condemnation upon a man not yet
born, and decree his death ere he commits the crime.
“The son of Zachariah shall live with me in my kingdom and his
day shall be long.”
Then He turned to the disciples of John and said, “Every deed
has its morrow. I myself may be the morrow of this deed. Go back to
my friend’s friends, and tell them I shall be with them.”
And the two men walked away from us, and they seemed less
heavy-hearted.
Then Jesus laid Himself down again upon the grass and outstretched
His arms, and again He gazed at the stars.
Now it was late. And I lay not far from Him, and I would fain have
rested, but there was a hand knocking upon the gate of my sleep, and
I lay awake until Jesus and the dawn called me again to the road.
THE MAN FROM THE DESERT
On the Money-Changers
I was a stranger in Jerusalem. I had come to the Holy City to behold
the great temple, and to sacrifice upon the altar, for my wife had
given twin sons to my tribe.
And after I had made my offering, I stood in the portico of them
temple looking down upon the money-changers and those who sold doves
for sacrifice, and listening to the great noise in the court.
And as I stood there came of a sudden a man into the midst of the
money-changers and those who sold doves.
He was a man of majesty, and He came swiftly.
In His hand He held a rope of goat’s hide; and He began to
overturn the tables of the money-changers and to beat the pedlars of
birds with the rope.
And I heard Him saying with a loud voice, “Render these birds
unto the sky which is their nest.”
Men and women fled from before His face, and He moved amongst them as
the whirling wind moves on the sad-hills.
All this came to pass in but a moment, and then the court of the
Temple was emptied of the money-changers. Only the man stood there
alone, and His followers stood at a distance.
Then I turned my face and I saw another man in the portico of the
temple. And I walked towards him and said, “Sir, who is this
man who stands alone, even like another temple?” And he
answered me, “This is Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet who has
appeared of late in Galilee. Here in Jerusalem all men hate
Him.”
And I said, “My heart was strong enough to be with His whip,
and yielding enough to be at His feet.”
And Jesus turned towards His followers who were awaiting Him. But
before He reached them, three of the temple doves flew back, and one
alighted upon His left shoulder and the other two at His feet. And he
touched each one tenderly. Then He walked on, and there were leagues
in every step of His steps.
Now tell me, what power had He to attack and disperse hundreds of men
and women without opposition? I was told that they all hate Him, yet
no one stood before Him on that day. Had He plucked out the fangs of
hate on His way to the court of the temple?
PETER
On the Morrow of His Followers
Once at sundown Jesus led us into the village of Beithsaida. We were
a tired company, and the dust of the road was upon us. And we came to
a great house in the midst of a garden, and the owner stood at the
gate.
And Jesus said to him, “These men are weary and footsore. Let
them sleep in your house. The night is cold and they are in need of
warmth and rest.”
And the rich man said, “They shall not sleep in my
house.”
And Jesus said, “Suffer them then to sleep in your
garden.”
And the man answered, “Nay, they shall not sleep in my
garden.”
Then Jesus turned to us and said, “This is what your tomorrow
will be, and this present is like your future. All doors shall be
closed in your face, and not even the gardens that lie under the
stars may be your couch.
“Should your feet indeed be patient with the road and follow
me, it may be you will find a basin and a bed, and perhaps bread and
wine also. But if it should be that you find none of those things,
forget not then that you have crossed one of my deserts.
“Come, let us go forth.”
And the rich man was disturbed, and his face was changed, and he
muttered to himself words that I did not hear; and he shrank away
from us and turned into his garden.
And we followed Jesus upon the road.
MELACHI OF BABYLON
AN ASTRONOMER
The Miracles of Jesus
You question me concerning the miracles of Jesus.
Every thousand thousand years the sun and the moon and this earth and
all her sister planets meet in a straight line, and they confer for a
moment together.
Then they slowly disperse and await the passing of another thousand
thousand years.
There are no miracles beyond the seasons, yet you and I do not know
all the seasons. And what if a season shall be made manifest in the
shape of a man?
In Jesus the elements of our bodies and our dreams came together
according to law. All that was timeless before Him became timeful in
Him.
They say He gave sight to the blind and walking to the paralysed, and
that He drove devils out of madmen.
Perchance blindness is but a dark thought that can be overcome by a
burning thought. Perchance a withered limb is but idleness that can
be quickened by energy. And perhaps the devils, these restless
elements in our life, are driven out by the angels of peace and
serenity.
They say He raised the dead to life. If you can tell me what is
death, then I will tell you what is life.
In a field I have watched an acorn, a thing so still and seemingly
useless. And in the spring I have seen that acorn take roots and
rise, the beginning of an oak tree, towards the sun.
Surely you would deem this a miracle, yet that miracle is wrought a
thousand thousand times in the drowsiness of every autumn and the
passion of every spring.
Why shall it not be wrought in the heart of man? Shall not the
seasons meet in the hand or upon the lips of a Man Anointed?
If our God has given to earth the art to nestle seed whilst the seed
is seemingly dead, why shall He not give to the heart of man to
breathe life into another heart, even a heart seemingly dead?
I have spoken of these miracles which I deem but little beside the
greater miracle, which is the man Himself, the Wayfarer, the man who
turned my dross into gold, who taught me how to love those who hate
me, and in so doing brought me comfort and gave sweet dreams to my
sleep.
This is the miracle in my own life.
My soul was blind, my soul was lame. I was possessed by restless
spirits, and I was dead.
But now I see clearly, and I walk erect. I am at peace, and I live to
witness and proclaim my own being every hour of the day.
And I am not one of His followers. I am but an old astronomer who
visits the fields of space once a season, and who would be heedful of
the law and the miracles thereof.
And I am at the twilight of my time, but whenever I would seek its
dawning, I seek the youth of Jesus.
And for ever shall age seek youth. In me now it is knowledge that is
seeking vision.
A PHILOSOPHER
On Wonder and Beauty
When he was with us He gazed at us and at our world with eyes of
wonder, for His eyes were not veiled with the veil of years, and all
that He saw was clear in the light of His youth.
Though He knew the depth of beauty, He was for ever surprised by its
peace and its majesty; and He stood before the earth as the first man
had stood before the first day.
We whose senses have been dulled, we gaze in full daylight and yet we
do not see. We would cup our ears, but we do not hear; and stretch
forth our hands, but we do not touch. And though all the incense of
Arabia is burned, we go our way and do not smell.
We see not the ploughman returning from his field at eventide; nor
hear the shepherd’s flute when he leads his flock to the fold,
nor do we stretch our arms to touch the sunset; and our nostrils
hunger no longer for the roses of Sharon.
Nay, we honour no kings without kingdoms; nor hear the sound of harps
save when the strings are plucked by hands; nor do we see a child
playing in our olive grove as if he were a young olive tree. And all
words must needs rise from lips of flesh, or else we deem each other
dumb and deaf.
In truth we gaze but do not see, and hearken but do not hear; we eat
and drink but do not taste. And there lies the difference between
Jesus of Nazareth and ourselves.
His senses were all continually made new, and the world to Him was
always a new world.
To Him the lisping of a babe was not less than the cry of all
mankind, while to us it is only lisping.
To Him the root of a buttercup was a longing towards God, while to us
it is naught but a root.
URIAH
AN OLD MAN OF NAZARETH
He was a Stranger in our Midst
He was a stranger in our midst, and His life was hidden with dark
veils.
He walked not the path of our God, but followed the course of the
foul and the infamous.
His childhood revolted, and rejected the sweet milk of our nature.
His youth was inflamed like dry grass that burns in the night.
And when He became a man, He took arms against us all.
Such men are conceived in the ebb tide of human kindness, and born in
unholy tempests. And in tempests they live a day and the perish
forever.
Do you not remember Him, a boy overweening, who would argue with our
learned elders, and laugh at their dignity?
And remember you not His youth, when He lived by the saw and the
chisel? He would not accompany our sons and daughters on their
holidays. He would walk alone.
And He would not return the salutation of those who hailed Him, as
though He were above us.
I myself met Him once in the field and greeted Him, and He only
smiled, and in His smile I beheld arrogance and insult.
Not long afterward my daughter went with her companions to the
vineyards to gather the grapes, and she spoke to Him and He did not
answer her.
He spoke only to the whole company of grape-gatherers, as if my
daughter had not been among them.
When He abandoned His people and turned vagabond He became naught but
a babbler. His voice was like a claw in our flesh, and the sound of
His voice is still a pain in our memory.
He would utter only evil of us and of our fathers and forefathers.
And His tongue sought our bosoms like a poisoned arrow.
Such was Jesus.
If He had been my son, I would have committed Him with the Roman
legions to Arabia, and I would have begged the captain to place Him
in the forefront of the battle, so that the archer of the foe might
mark Him, and free me of His insolence.
But I have no son. And mayhap I should be grateful. For what if my
son had been an enemy of his own people, and my grey hairs were now
seeking the dust with shame, my white beard humbled?
NICODEMUS THE POET
On Fools and Jugglers
Many are the fools who say that Jesus stood in His own path and
opposed Himself; that He knew not His own mind, and in the absence of
that knowledge confounded Himself.
Many indeed are the owls who know no song unlike their own hooting.
You and I know the jugglers of words who would honour only a greater
juggler, men who carry their heads in baskets to the market-place and
sell them to the first bidder.
We know the pygmies who abuse the sky-man. And we know what the weed
would say of the oak tree and the cedar.
I pity them that they cannot rise to the heights.
I pity the shrivelling thorn envying the elm that dares the seasons.
But pity, though enfolded by the regret of all the angels, can bring
them no light.
I know the scarecrow whose rotting garments flutter in the corn, yet
he himself is dead to the corn and to the singing wind.
I know the wingless spider that weaves a net for all who fly.
I know the crafty, the blowers of horns and the beaters of drums, who
in the abundance of their own noise cannot hear the skylark nor the
east wind in the forest.
I know him who paddles against all streams, but never finds the
source, who runs with all rivers, but never dares to the sea.
I know him who offers his unskilled hands to the builder of the
temple, and when his unskilled hands are rejected, says in the
darkness of his heart, “I will destroy all that shall be
builded.”
I know all these. They are the men who object that Jesus said on a
certain day, “I bring peace unto you,” and on another
day, “I bring a sword.”
They cannot understand that in truth He said, “I bring peace
unto men of goodwill, and I lay a sword between him who would peace
and him who would a sword.”
They wonder that He who said, “My kingdom is not of this
earth,” said also, “Render unto Caesar that which is
Caesar’s”; and know not that if they would indeed be free
to enter the kingdom of their passion, they must not resist the
gate-keeper of their necessities. It behooves them gladly to pay that
dole to enter into that city.
There are the men who say, “He preached tenderness and
kindliness and filial love, yet He would not heed His mother and His
brothers when they sought Him in the streets of Jerusalem.”
They do not know that His mother and brothers in their loving fear
would have had Him return to the bench of the carpenter, whereas He
was opening our eyes to the dawn of a new day.
His mother and His brothers would have had Him live in the shadow of
death, but He Himself was challenging death upon yonder hill that He
might live in our sleepless memory.
I know these moles that dig paths to nowhere. Are they not the ones
who accuse Jesus of glorifying Himself in that He said to the
multitude, “I am the path and the gate to salvation,” and
even called Himself the life and the resurrection.
But Jesus was not claiming more than the month of May claims in her
high tide.
Was He not to tell the shining truth because it was so shining?
He indeed said that He was the way and the life and the resurrection
of the heart; and I myself as a testimony to His truth.
Do you not remember me, Nicodemus, who believed in naught but the
laws and decrees and was in continual subjection to observances?
And behold me now, a man who walks with life and laughs with the sun
from the first moment it smiles upon the mountain until it yields
itself to bed behind the hills.
Why do you halt before the word salvation? I myself through Him have
attained my salvation.
I care not for what shall befall me tomorrow, for I know that Jesus
quickened my sleep and made my distant dreams my companions and my
road-fellows.
Am I less man because I believe in a greater man?
The barriers of flesh and bone fell down when the Poet of Galilee
spoke to me; and I was held by a spirit, and was lifted to the
heights, and in midair my wings gathered the song of passion.
And when I dismounted from the wind and in the Sanhedrim my pinions
were shorn, even then my ribs, my featherless wings, kept and guarded
the song. And all the poverties of the lowlands cannot rob me of my
treasure.
I have said enough. Let the deaf bury the humming of life in their
dead ears. I am content with the sound of His lyre, which He held and
struck while the hands of His body were nailed and bleeding.
JOSEPH OF ARIMETHEA
The Two Streams in Jesus’ Heart
There were two streams running in the heart of the Nazarene: the
stream of kinship to God whom He called Father, and the stream of
rapture which He called the kingdom of the Above-world.
And in my solitude I thought of Him and I followed these two streams
in His heart. Upon the banks of the one I met my own soul; and
sometimes my soul was a beggar and a wanderer, and sometimes it was a
princess in her garden.
Then I followed the other stream in His heart, and on my way I met
one who had been beaten and robbed of his gold, and he was smiling.
And farther on I saw the robber who had robbed him, and there were
unshed tears upon his face.
Then I heard the murmur of these two streams in my own bosom also,
and I was gladdened.
When I visited Jesus the day before Pontius Pilatus and the elders
laid hands on Him, we talked long, and I asked Him many questions,
and He answered my questionings with graciousness; and when I left
Him I knew He was the Lord and Master of this our earth.
It is long since our cedar tree has fallen, but its fragrance
endures, and will forever seek the four corners of the earth.
GEORGUS OF BEIRUT
On Strangers
He and his friends were in the grove of pines beyond my hedge, and He
was talking to them.
I stood near the hedge and listened. And I knew who He was, for His
fame had reached these shores ere He Himself visited them.
When He ceased speaking I approached Him, and I said, “Sir,
come with these men and honour me and my roof.”
And He smiled upon me and said, “Not this day, my friend. Not
this day.”
And there was a blessing in His words, and His voice enfolded me like
a garment on a cold night.
Then He turned to His friends and said, “Behold a man who deems
us not strangers, and though He has not seen us ere this day, he bids
us to His threshold.
“Verily in my kingdom there are no strangers. Our life is but
the life of all other men, given us that we may know all men, and in
that knowledge love them.
“The deeds of all men are but our deeds, both the hidden and
the revealed.
“I charge you not to be one self but rather many selves, the
householder and the homeless, the ploughman and the sparrow that
picks the grain ere it slumber in the earth, the giver who gives in
gratitude, and the receiver who receives in pride and recognition.
“The beauty of the day is not only in what you see, but in what
other men see.
“For this I have chosen you from among the many who have chosen
me.”
Then He turned to me again and smiled and said, “I say these
things to you also, and you also shall remember them.”
Then I entreated Him and said, “Master, will you not visit in
my house?”
And He answered, &ld