Jeremy Robinson - The Didymus Contingency

Just beyond the Court of the Gentiles, was the Court of the Women, which was surrounded by beautifully carved columns. On the east side of this court were thirteen trumpet shaped containers, which Tom had learned were for voluntary money offerings. The floors were smooth with two-foot square tiles that led toward a grand, curved, fifteen step staircase. At the top of the staircase was the showstopper of the Court of the Women, the Nicanor Gate, which, when opened, led to the Court of Israel, where only Jewish men were allowed. The gate was a twenty-foot tall, arched doorway with shimmering, solid bronze doors, the glow of which could be seen reflecting on other portions of the temple.

However pleasing to the eye the temple was, there was always an ominous sign of the times, looming high above and attached to the temple. The Antonia, a Roman fortress, which towered above the temple, was constantly patrolled by spear wielding guards whose steel, scale armor and blood-red military cloaks could be seen from a distance. The fortress was plain in appearance but built of thick stone bricks. From its four towers, an enemy army could easily be kept at bay. During recent years, Tom learned it was where Pilate, the local Roman governor was housed. Tom wondered how people could worship or even believe in God while under such an obvious show of Roman power. Where was their God now?

“Tom, come join us,” Jesus said.

Tom stood up, not wanting to act any guiltier than he already had and approached his laughing friends, who were sitting on the ground, leaning against the smooth, white columns, engrossed in conversation. “And that works?” Judas asked Matthew.

“Without fail!” Matthew replied. “One look at the girth I lug around and most people believed I was capable of the act!”

“Your pockets must have been heavy with riches!” Judas said, wide eyed.

“It’s true, they were. But that was the life I lived before,” Matthew said, looking slightly ashamed. “Now I’m…” Matthew paused and seemed transfixed by something behind Judas. “…hoping that mob isn’t going to be trouble.”

“What?” Judas asked, perplexed by the statement.

Matthew stood to his feet quickly and pointed toward the Court of the Gentiles. A crowd was quickly approaching. Peter and Matthew jumped in front of Jesus, forming a formidably tall and wide wall. They had become experts at it over the past years. The mob stopped at the human blockade.

“State your business and be quick about it. You’re interrupting my time in the sun,” Matthew said.

A man from the crowd yelled, “We’ve come for Jesus, the demon possessed man!”

Matthew and Peter couldn’t help but smile. “I’m afraid you’ve come to the wrong place,” Peter said. “No one here is demon possessed.”

Another man from the crowd, less convinced then the first said, “You see! I told you demons couldn’t heal the eyes of the blind!”

“We know you are his disciples,” the first man said. “Let us see him with our own eyes. Let him tell us he is not possessed.”

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, as he walked around Peter and Matthew, into the view of the crowd. “I am not possessed.”

An honest looking man stepped from the crowd instantly, but was blocked from moving too far forward by Matthew’s thick hand. The honest man stopped and said, “The countryside is torn. How long will you keep us in suspense? Please, if you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Tom turned to David and whispered, “See, I’m not the only one who can’t understand the man.”

Cautiously scanning the area for hidden dangers, Tom’s gaze fell on David. Tom watched, as David remained silent, studying everything about the situation. He observed David’s facial expressions change from confusion to enlightenment. He could see in David’s eyes that he knew what was happening, what was going to happen. Before he could ask David what he knew, the crowd regained Tom’s attention when their words became familiar. They had called Jesus demon possessed.

The words he was hearing, the confusion of these people, were seeds he had planted. Apparently, the secret meeting with the Pharisees had gone well and they had taken his advice. The fact that Jesus was so hard to understand to a large number of people might be the evidence that Jesus was a magician. Upon hearing this from Tom, they translated magician to demon possessed, and while Tom did not believe in demons as much as he did not believe in God, he let them believe what they wanted. As long as they could mobilize people into proving it was true.

Lowering Matthew’s arm, Jesus addressed the crowd, “I did tell you, but you did not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep.”

Jesus began walking around the crowd. He continued, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me.”

A man in the crowd flinched as Jesus took hold of his face, looked him in the eyes and said, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.”

Jesus let go of the man and walked back toward Matthew and Peter. “My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”

Jesus, now standing next to Matthew, turned and faced the crowd directly and said, “The Father and I…are one.”

The crowd exploded. Someone yelled, “He claims to be the Father! He speaks the words of demons!”

The honest man bent down to the ground and picked up a loose stone. “Let’s show him what becomes of blasphemers! Stone him!”

The crowd shouted with agreement and searched the ground for stones to hurl. Matthew and Peter pursed their lips and tightened their muscles, bracing for the inevitable. Judas walked backward slowly, past David and Tom, and shuffled away toward the temple. His exit went unnoticed as everyone’s attention was on the angry horde. The crowd, now armed with stones, paused, waiting for someone to throw the first stone.

David leaned over to Tom and whispered, “Be ready, this might be a close shave.”

Jesus addressed the crowd, showing no fear, “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”

The honest man stepped forward, “Not for your miracles, for your blasphemy! I wasn’t sure, but now I know. A mere man is claiming to be God the Father himself!”

“Is it not written in your law, ‘I have said…’?”

Tom whispered to David as Jesus addressed the crowd, “Why do I get the feeling you know what’s going to happen?”

“I’ve read the book, remember?”

“Well then, what’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know.”

“But you just said, ‘I read the book.’”

“All the Bible says about this moment in time is, “He escaped their grasp.”

“That could mean anything.”

“Well, be ready for anything.”

“Great.”

Tom looked back toward Jesus, who was finishing his statement to the crowd, “…that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

Jesus turned and walked toward Tom and David, seemingly secure in the fact that he made his point to the crowd that was now analyzing his words.

“That could have gone worse,” Tom said to Jesus.

“How fast are you, Tom?” Jesus asked.

“What? Why?” Tom was dumbfounded by the right field question.

“Run…” Jesus said through his lips, without moving his jaw.

“What?” Tom’s brow wrinkled with suspicion.

Jesus leaned in. “My time has yet to come. Run!”

“Stone him!” yelled a man from the crowd.

All at once, the crowd raised the hands full of rocks to the sky, prepared to pelt the blasphemous Jesus. Like an Olympic runner on the starting line, Jesus was off and up to speed in seconds; Tom and David ran right behind him.