When Jesus Wept - By Bodie Page 0,74

most Jewish celebrations centered around freedom. Freedom from slavery. Freedom from sin. Slavery and sin were alike, were they not?

“No one can serve two masters,” Jesus told us, “for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.”2

Two Levite choirs continued the dialogue in song:

Open for me the gates of the righteous;

I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.

This is the gate of the LORD

through which the righteous may enter.

I will give you thanks, for you answered me;

you have become my salvation.”3

The Pharisees gathered around Jesus and began to question him:

“How long will you keep us in suspense?”

“If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

Jesus answered, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me. But you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I will give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”4

The Levite choirs sang on in the background …

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.

From the house of the LORD we bless you.”5

The religious leaders were outraged as Jesus said these things. They picked up stones and were ready to stone him right then and there.

I whispered to Peter, “We’ve got to get him out of here.”

But Jesus answered his accusers, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?”

Caiaphas stepped forward then. “It’s not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

The priests and scholars could not match wits with Jesus. He quoted back to them from Scriptures, refuting every false charge they made against him. He ended the discussion that evening with this: “If I’m not doing the works of my Father, then don’t believe me. But if I do them, even though you don’t believe in me, believe the works. That way you’ll know and understand that the Father is in me, and I am in the Father.”6

The chorus continued singing:

“The stone the builders rejected

has become the cornerstone;

the Lord has done this,

and it is marvelous in our eyes!”7

The council sent for the guards to arrest Jesus. But the Jerusalem Sparrows snuffed out their torches. People moved in, jostling and shoving, shouting back at the Temple guards. Jesus slipped away, escaping from their clutches.

We hurried back to Bethany, where the Lord spent one more night. Then he left us, crossing the Jordan River to safety where John the Baptizer had been at first, and there he and his close disciples remained.

Fame from his miracles reached far and wide. People came from everywhere to seek him. They said, “John never performed miracles, but everything John said about this man Jesus was true.”

And many believed in Jesus in that place.

I rejoiced as the memory of a song of the Levite choirs at the Temple washed over me …

“You are my God and I will give praise you;

you are my God and I will exalt you.

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

his love endures forever!”8

Chapter 25

It was in winter, just after Jesus of Nazareth and his followers departed for the region of Perea, that the strangling sickness came to Jerusalem. I learned the grim news when Centurion Marcus Longinus galloped his black stallion to Bethany in search of the Healer. Otherwise the Jerusalem Sparrows would die, Marcus said.

Plagues were common enough in Jerusalem, especially among the poor. And there were few who lived more desperate lives than the Jerusalem Sparrows, the Link Boys who resided in the ancient quarries. It was said, “Sparrows are sold two for a penny.” The Link Boys were paid a penny for a pair of them to assist travelers in finding their way around Jerusalem by night. The Sanhedrin voted the orphans a charitable allowance: a supply of wood for torches. Such was the charity of Lord Caiaphas.

A penny earned might buy bread for a day … but not much else. The Sparrows scavenged or begged for the rest of their needs. When fares were scarce and donations dried