And Greece was overcome and fell to dust when Ashtarte and her seven maidens came from the Syrian shores.

 

 

As for Jesus, I never saw the man before He was delivered up to me as a malefactor, as an enemy of His own nation and also of Rome.

 

 

He was brought into the Hall of Judgment with His arms bound to His body with ropes.

 

 

I was sitting upon the dais, and He walked towards me with long, firm steps; then He stood erect and His head was held high.

 

 

And I cannot fathom what came over me at that moment; but it was suddenly my desire, though not my will, to rise and go down from the dais and fall before Him.

 

 

I felt as if Caesar had entered the Hall, a man greater than even Rome herself.

 

 

But this lasted only a moment. And then I saw simply a man who was accused of treason by His own people. And I was His governor and His judge.

 

 

I questioned Him but he would not answer. He only looked at me. And in His look was pity, as if it were He who was my governor and my judge.

 

 

Then there rose from without the cries of the people. But He remained silent, and still He was looking at me with pity in His eyes.

 

 

And I went out upon the steps of the palace, and when the people saw me they ceased to cry out. And I said, “What would you with this man?”

 

 

And they shouted as if with one throat, “We would crucify Him. He is our enemy and the enemy of Rome.”

 

 

And some called out, “Did He not say He would destroy the temple? And was it not He who claimed the kingdom? We will have no king but Caesar.”

 

 

Then I left them and went back into the Judgment Hall again, and I saw Him still standing there alone, and His head was still high.

 

 

And I remembered what I had read that a Greek philosopher said, “The lonely man is the strongest man.” At that moment the Nazarene was greater than His race.

 

 

And I did not feel clement towards Him. He was beyond my clemency.

 

 

I asked Him then, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

 

 

And He said not a word.

 

 

And I asked Him again, “Have you not said that you are the King of the Jews?”

 

 

And He looked upon me.

 

 

Then He answered with a quiet voice, “You yourself proclaimed me king. Perhaps to this end I was born, and for this cause came to bear witness unto truth.”

 

 

Behold a man speaking of truth at such a moment.

 

 

In my impatience I said aloud, to myself as much as to Him, “What is truth? And what is truth to the guiltless when the hand of the executioner is already upon him?”

 

 

Then Jesus said with power, “None shall rule the world save with the Spirit and truth.”

 

 

And I asked Him saying, “Are you of the Spirit?”

 

 

He answered, “So are you also, though you know it not.”

 

 

And what was the Spirit and what was truth, when I, for the sake of the State, and they from jealousy for their ancient rites, delivered an innocent man unto His death?

 

 

No man, no race, no empire would halt before a truth on its way towards self-fulfilment.

 

 

And I said again, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

 

 

And He answered, “You yourself say this. I have conquered the world ere this hour.”

 

 

And this alone of all that He said was unseemly, inasmuch as only Rome has conquered the world.

 

 

But now the voices of the people rose again, and the noise was greater than before.

 

 

And I descended from my seat and said to Him, “Follow me.”

 

 

And again I appeared upon the steps of the palace, and He stood there beside me.

 

 

When the people saw Him they roared like the roaring thunder. And in their clamour I heard naught save “Crucify Him, crucify Him.”

 

 

Then I yielded Him to the priests who had yielded Him to me and I said to them, “Do what you will with this just man. And if it is your desire, take with you soldiers of Rome to guard Him.”

 

 

Then they took Him, and I decreed that there be written upon the cross above His head, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” I should have said instead, “Jesus of Nazareth, a King.”

 

 

And the man was stripped and flogged and crucified.

 

 

It would have been within my power to save Him, but saving Him would have caused a revolution; and it is always wise for the governor of a Roman province not to be intolerant of the religious scruples of a conquered race.

 

 

I believe unto this hour that the man was more than an agitator. What I decreed was not my will, but rather for the sake of Rome.

 

 

Not long after, we left Syria, and from that day my wife has been a woman of sorrow. Sometimes even here in this garden I see a tragedy in her face.

 

 

I am told she talks much of Jesus to other women of Rome.

 

 

Behold, the man whose death I decreed returns from the world of shadows and enters into my own house.

 

 

And within myself I ask again and again, What is truth and what is not truth?

 

 

Can it be that the Syrian is conquering us in the quiet hours of the night?

 

 

It should not indeed be so.

 

 

For Rome must needs prevail against the nightmares of our wives.

BARTHOLOMEW IN EPHESUS

On Slaves and Outcasts

 

The enemies of Jesus say that He addressed His appeal to slaves and outcasts, and would have incited them against their lords. They say that because He was of the lowly He invoked His own kind, yet that He sought to conceal His own origin.

 

 

But let us consider the followers of Jesus, and His leadership.

 

 

In the beginning He chose for companions few men from the North Country, and they were freemen. They were strong of body and bold of spirit, and in these past two-score years they have had the courage to face death with willingness and defiance.

 

 

Think you that these men were slaves or outcasts?

 

 

And think you that the proud princes of Lebanon and Armenia have forgotten their station in accepting Jesus as a prophet of God?

 

 

Or think you the high-born men and women of Antioch and Byzantium and Athens and Rome could be held by the voice of a leader of slaves?

 

 

Nay, the Nazarene was not with the servant against his master; neither was He with the master against his servant. He was with no man against another man.

 

 

He was a man above men, and the streams that ran in His sinews sang together with passion and with might.

 

 

If nobility lies in being protective, He was the noblest of all men. If freedom is in thought and word and action, He was the freest of all men. If high birth is in pride that yields only to love and in aloofness that is ever gentle and gracious, then He was of all men the highest born.

 

 

Forget not that only the strong and the swift shall win the race and the laurels, and that Jesus was crowned by those who loved Him, and also by His enemies though they knew it not.

 

 

Even now He is crowned every day by the priestesses of Artemis in the secret places of her temple.

MATTHEW

On Jesus by a Prison Wall

 

Upon an evening Jesus passed by a prison that was in the Tower of David. And we were walking after Him.

 

 

Of a sudden He tarried and laid His cheek against the stones of the prison wall. And thus He spoke:

 

 

“Brothers of my ancient day, my heart beats with your hearts behind the bars. Would that you could be free in my freedom and walk with me and my comrades.

 

 

“You are confined, but not alone. Many are the prisoners who walk the open streets. Their wings are not shorn, but like the peacock they flutter yet cannot fly.

 

 

“Brothers of my second day, I shall soon visit you in your cells and yield my shoulder to your burden. For the innocent and the guilty are not parted, and like the two bones of the forearm they shall never be cleaved.

 

 

“Brothers of this day, which is my day, you swam against the current of their reasoning and you were caught. They say I too shall swim against that current. Perhaps I shall soon be with you, a law-breaker among the law-breakers.

 

 

“Brothers of a day not yet come, these walls shall fall down, and out of the stones other shapes shall be fashioned by Him whose mallet is light, and whose chisel is the wind, and you shall stand free in the freedom of my new day.”

 

 

Thus spoke Jesus and He walked on, and His hand was upon the prison wall until He passed by the Tower of David.

ANDREW

On Prostitutes

 

The bitterness of death is less bitter than life without Him. The days were hushed and made still when he was silenced. Only the echo in my memory repeats His words.