Jesus Of Nazareth Part 6

PETER: Oh, Lord! The Son of David cannot die.

JESUS: Back, Satan! What do you know of the will of the Father?

JAMES: Master, don't you have words of eternal life?

JESUS: They have not understood me! O John, as for you, did you understand that death is only an appearance?

JOHN: I believe it, Master, without understanding it.

JESUS: Children! Isn't it necessary for the buried seed to rot for the olive to grow? O G.o.d, Master, Father, Wisdom, did you will this? Have I sown in the sand?

Will I depart having vainly paraded fire and light in these shadowy humans?

PETER: Master, you always speak to us in parables which is why we don't understand.

JESUS: Would you understand me if I said: I come from the Father and I must return to the Father having pa.s.sed through death, and it is necessary for you to do as I have done, that you be tortured as I will be tortured, for you to speak as I have spoken, fearing nothing, no one and that you accept to live and die very bitterly before rejoining me by my Father?

PETER: To die for you, that is very easy, Lord.

JESUS: Very easy? You will have renounced me three times when the c.o.c.k crows.

Easy to die? Yes, when indeed death has a pretty face or indeed when coming on wolf's feet it grasps you from behind, with both hands, shutting your eyes, or when it is made to accompany glory. I see a different sort of death coming which is not that of a warrior, nor that which leans over the bed of an old geezer, premature death.

JAMES: Lord, you who revived Lazarus, you can give death its dismissal if it comes without your permission: you are its master.

JESUS: Shut up, James, shut up! There's perhaps another obstacle between you and the light beside me. The Messiah you comprehend hides from you, perhaps, the veritable Messiah; my flesh and my bones, O my Father isn't that the trap and the scandal of Israel? Will you make it adopt me when you've taken me away and will you raise up the spirit which justifies the Son of Adam?

PETER: Lord, there are few persons who love you more than I do. You know it, for you see my heart. You know the feeling of each man before he speaks. I cannot believe you would think of leaving us. That would be hard for me and the others, too.

JESUS: Peter, you are speaking like a woman and like a child. Is your faith so weak? Have you lost G.o.d, when you lose your brother? And is man ever abandoned when G.o.d remains with him? What did I say to you tonight while breaking bread?

"Do this in memory of me." Once I've disappeared, have I also disappeared from your mind and your heart? Have I spoken only dead words? Will you forget me as you forget a dream? I did not come to be the friend and companion to Peter, James and John. If it pleases G.o.d to break me, I who am his instrument, and to achieve without me the salvation of Israel, is it for us to complain? And will you end by accusing G.o.d of it, men of little faith? The love that I am preaching to you is not a carnal love. What are you and what am I? Men, images, shadowy copies of the Eternal Face. And we will go on to love, to give ourselves entirely to one another, brother to brother, wife to spouse, son to father, in accordance with the flesh; man to friend of his choice? What an abyss is between and me that you don't understand the things I say? What is a friend, a spouse, a father or a brother if not transported by infirm flesh to the t.i.tles of the Eternal? There is no other love than the love of the Father! You love me, love me more, it's G.o.d that you love in me. Your loves? Vapors of dreams or screams of b.e.s.t.i.a.l blood, if you don't know how to discover the love of the Father. You love your wife with ardor and jealousy; your mother so long as you have need of her protection; your friend because it's nice in life to have a confidant. Let the spouse, the mother and the friend die; if you haven't taken G.o.d to witness your loves, of what will you complain if he leaves you in prey to your mourning and if he has no ears for your wailing? I came to tell you this and to show you that a man can do what I say and do what I do without any father but G.o.d, and without possessing what makes for pride and the sin of all men, no science, nor concubines, but only certainty that one thing is necessary and not two. To do the will of G.o.d, cost what it may, and what ever may be the tremblings of our fragility. If I've made of you men of this faith, if I've been able to prune away your dead wood, to burn your thickets in the fire of this conviction, it matters little to me if I die today rather than tomorrow. You three alone have the ability to speak the language that I am speaking by recreating me in each of your actions in the manner of saying yes or no, in your self denial, in the serenity of your adversity, in the perpetual repet.i.tion of the prayer I taught you. "May your name be sanctified; may your reign come, may your will be done!"

Nothing except you three and the world. You are no longer listening to me. They are sleeping.

JOHN: I heard you, Lord.

JESUS: What's that noise? Didn't you hear anything?

JOHN: Nothing, Master.

JESUS: Peter, James! Wake up!

PETER: I am not asleep, Master.

JAMES: "One thing alone is necessary "

JESUS: You can't keep awake a moment with me? Death prowls tonight, and Satan is alert. Let's not let ourselves be surprised. Is this all your friends.h.i.+p? I tell you that my soul is sad to death: will I ask you in vain for the comfort of a prayer?

(He moves away.) JOHN: Let's pray then.

PETER: Let's pray.

JAMES: For him.

PETER: Let's pray as he taught us. Our Father who is in heaven, may your name be sanctified JOHN: May your reign arrive JAMES: May your will be done, in heaven and on earth.

PETER: In heaven and on earth.

JOHN: Give us today our daily bread.

JAMES: Our daily bread JOHN: Don't let us succ.u.mb to temptation.

JESUS: Nothing except a wall of silence and impalpable shadows.

JOHN: But deliver us from evil.

JESUS: No other opposition except h.e.l.lish carnality. And this silence is unbroken as if I had not spoken; the gauze of shadows, I haven't torn it, I have not been able to impose servitude on the flesh. Who says that? The witness of the carnal eye which sees nothing in the night, and does it see better during the day? The eternal plan is realizing itself unaware that my eyes and my ears do not perceive anything of the march of ceaseless activity; for you are working, O Father, in the silence and the least action of the least creature: a word, a gesture, a breath, the shadow of a thought, has reverberations foreseen by you who wed our destinies to your will. If I've done your will, if I've really understood, if I've served with an exact obedience, if I've placed the cornerstone of the true Jerusalem of salvation, and that you've reserved for those who will follow me to build completely, remove me from the world, O my father! You won't find me rebellious. But at least, if it pleases you, spare me from this bitter chalice of violent death, for I fear weakening and suffering flesh doesn't know any longer what it is saying. All the sadness of the world is in me, motionless, heavy, and I've been unable to shake it off except by seeking your face and you alone know, you alone know. My G.o.d! Isn't this enough? So many solitary tears, of nights without name, of days without consolation, all spent dragging the cadaver of human sin. Is that not yet a sufficient example nor a sufficient expiation? What more have I to give? Must I experience in my body all the evil with which my soul was lacerated? If it's possible, my Father, make my death like the death of Elijah and of Moses and let me be spared drinking the bitter dregs of the wine you've made me drink. They are only unfortunate, right?

They won't be placed beyond mercy! My G.o.d! My Father! If I am your child, don't expose me to such a rough temptation; keep this chalice away from me. I have confidence in you, my Father. They're coming. It's the wind in the leaves. I feel death coming. Father, see my agony. Is it thus that I shall die and will you be content with this sweat of blood? Gethsemane, my tomb? Is it the end?

Peter!

(The Disciples approach.) JESUS: Asleep! Peter! James! And you, too, my John? Can't you watch an hour with me? At this hour even, they are not sleeping. Pray with me that their plans be rendered vain. The enemy never sleeps; we must pray to frustrate his malice.

PETER: We will pray again, Lord, but the night is so calm.

JESUS: Is it calm? Then I hear noises you don't hear? Evil is at work, I tell you! If we see morning, it's to our prayers that we will owe it. And perhaps we will go into Galilee. A few minutes yet, one short prayer again and we will leave.

JAMES: The night is chilly, Lord.

JESUS: Yes, we are going to leave. Yet one more moment, a fervent prayer and we will leave together, rendering thanks to our father. (he moves off) PETER: The Master seems to sense a danger. But who will come here to seek us?

JAMES: You have your sword and I have mine. We would die defending him.

JOHN: Let's pray, since he asks us to pray.

JAMES: It's cold. It would be better in a nice bed.

JOHN: Will we be more demanding than he?

PETER: In a few minutes it will go away.

JOHN: Our father who is in heaven JAMES: Always the same prayer?

JOHN: It's the one he always says. I'm not tired of it. But it is indeed necessary to meditate on it. One could spend one's life repeating this prayer.

PETER: It's true, John. If all men knew it and recited it every day they would be happier than they are.

JAMES: We are really happy now, John.

JOHN: Why do you say that, James?

JAMES: To think that he is there, he who is the Messiah, the Saviour of Israel and he has chosen us to be the first in his kingdom.

JOHN: If we are worthy of it.

JESUS: And as for me, if I think there is no necessity to die? What benefit would my death be for Israel? Must there be yet another shower of blood so that this sterile people will bear fruit? Then, when my life was so powerless will my death be more efficacious? Wouldn't it be better, appearing in the sun, brandis.h.i.+ng a sword forged by your angels and completely armored in gold to descend on Israel at the sound of awakening trumpets of the dead and followed by a sparkling cohort of just men, revived, encircled by a radiant and terrifying guard of angels, to forcefully establish the City of G.o.d, the Reign of David that will never end, the imperishable Jerusalem? It's in me to ask you this, my father, it's in you to grant it to me; it requires gold, lightning and glory to dissipate this deafness, to make these blind eyes see. Shall I say the word?

Will I be King after having been the pastor? Shall I at last write the first page of divine history? G.o.d, do you consent, from tonight, to the resurrection of man? Those torches in the valley. Your response, my Father? It's not the hour of glory, only the hour of death. May your will be done. What is going to follow doesn't concern me any further. I deliver my body into your hands. Ah, at last, action is over, willing is over. Only submission, easy task, an absence of work.

(approaching his disciples) Sleep, brothers. But now, I don't have the right to waste a single lamb that the Father has confided to me. Peter, arise! The hour has come.

PETER: To leave, Lord?

JESUS: For us to part. For you to go refit your boat and repair your nets. For me to confront the Pharisees.

JOHN: We won't leave you, Master.

JAMES: Is there some news? Someone has come.

JESUS: Someone is coming. We are encircled by torches. (Judas enters) And here's the one I was expecting.

PETER: The Iscariot! What are you coming here to do, traitor?

JUDAS: Leave me alone.

JAMES: Bandit, you are no longer one of us.

JESUS: Predestination! Who are you seeking, Judas?

JUDAS: You, Master.

JESUS: Greetings. It was you who led them here?

JUDAS: Me?

JESUS: Who are you looking for?

SELOMITH: Jesus of Nazareth.

JESUS: That's me.

PETER: Help me, James. (he strikes a soldier) SOLDIER: I am wounded.

JESUS: Peter, sword in scabbard. He who strikes with the sword will perish by the sword. If I wanted to be defended I could make a legion of angels shower down, a whole divine army, bustling with lances. Watch me and wait until I say, "Help me!" Who are you seeking?

SELOMITH: Jesus of Nazareth.

JESUS: That's me.

SELOMITH: In the name of the Sanhedrin, I arrest you. Seize him.

PETER: Lord, command your angels!

JESUS: My Father! The word is burning behind my teeth. Peter, John, James, go away, until G.o.d stops them. Who are you looking for?

SELOMITH: Yourself, if you are Jesus of Nazareth.

JESUS: That's me, I tell you. Is it for me to give myself up? You have come with spears and sticks as if to seize a thief or a murderer. If I were that, would I have waited for you? And if you fear that like Eli the Thesbite, I won't call the fire of heaven on you, the same that consumed the soldiers of Ochosias, of what use do you think your sticks and swords would be? I said a word very low: G.o.d alone heard it and you cannot take a single step; if I say another little word the earth will open and bite you! Know G.o.d and the one you wish to arrest.

And now, seize me; there's no longer a barrier. Do it quickly.

SELOMITH: This is the order of the High Priest.

JESUS: Do it. (the soldiers bind Jesus) But allow them to go.

SELOMITH: I must arrest only Jesus of Nazareth. Let the others go. (the disciples flee) This is the one who denounced you.

JESUS: I know. For how much?

SELOMITH: How much did they give you, man? Answer.

JUDAS: Thirty sheckels.

SELOMITH: Yes, I believe it.

JESUS: I know.

SELOMITH: You will easily justify yourself.

JESUS: G.o.d knows it.

SELOMITH: As for me, I am only obeying. Come on! March! (they all leave) JUDAS: That's the way it must end. A little sooner, a little later. That money was still good to take. It's the end of a nightmare. They will return to their boats. In a week the whole world will have forgotten him. Lazarus? Brr! It's cold among the olives. And Magdalene? What to say to her when she learns? I want to tell her. And then as I go to the right or the left with my money I will make interesting friends. But I know what they cling to. I know what it costs to have a disinterested friend. Let's march. And henceforth may this be on all the roads of the world!

(Exit.) CURTAIN.

ACT III.

SCENE VI. MARY MAGDALENE.

Bethany, in front of the house of Lazarus.