RM
Good morning. This is Rufus Milo of the Mediterranean News Service with a special report live from Judea. Over the past few weeks we’ve been closely following the growing controversy over Galilean rabbi Yeshua bar Joseph, whose revolutionary message continues to attract followers from all over the province. In a stunning move certain to raise tensions in the area, increasing the possibility of renewed armed conflict, this charismatic figure has invited one of King Herod’s tax collectors, a notoriously corrupt and ruthless member of his revenue enhancement team named Levi, to switch sides. The offer was made and accepted late last night, and the deal was cemented over what has been reported to be a rather raucous dinner. The Jerusalem establishment, already shaken by Yeshua’s popularity, is sure to be seething over this latest development. Our Jerusalem reporter, Xeno Philologos, has the reaction there in the capital city.
XP
Good morning, Rufus. Here with me to comment on this situation is Baruch ben Yoel, a leading figure here in the city and a prominent member of the Pharisee party. Mr. Ben Yoel, can you explain for our viewers what has happened and why it matters?
BBY
First of all, Xeno, let me thank you for inviting me to appear on your program this morning. It’s always a great pleasure to be here. We here in Jerusalem are responsible for the spiritual and moral well-being of our citizens. We know there is a great deal of suffering among our people, especially in the rural areas, and that they are under great temptation to follow charlatans who promise them quick and easy solutions to the problems in their lives. But, as you know from our previous conversations, keeping our Jewish identity is a serious responsibility. There are no short cuts. God himself gave us the Torah, the law and the prophets, and we have to be careful to say and do everything that is in it, otherwise he will remove his protection from our country. In fact, most of our leaders believe that the reason Rome came in and took over after Herod the Great died was because we had become lax in our observance of the law. So when someone appears out of nowhere, telling people that it’s okay to ignore the rules, that my colleagues and I are asking too much of them, why of course we’re concerned.
XP
I understand that your party, the Pharisees and the other group in your ruling council, the Sadducees, have formed an alliance to combat the influence of this Rabbi Yeshua. Can you explain how this unusual meeting of minds came about?
BBY
Certainly, Xeno. It’s very simple, really. We all realize that there is nothing to be gained by stirring up dissension. It is a great deal easier for us to keep the freedom we need to worship as God commanded us when the governor isn’t worried that there’s going to be an uprising. It’s awfully easy for a gathering of undisciplined peasants to turn violent, especially when they’re being encouraged to disregard authority. If they don’t respect and obey their own leaders, the Romans might be tempted to step in and establish order in a way that won’t be good for anyone. It’s really for their own good that we keep these popular movements under control. I mean, look what happened with the Baptizer Johannon. He got to thinking he was so popular no one would touch him, criticized Herod’s wife once too often in public, and got slapped into the dungeon. Things were very tense there for a while as we all wondered if his followers would begin to riot. Everyone expected it. Things are quiet enough now, since most of his followers seem to have joined forces with Yeshua’s, but that’s probably just postponed the next outburst. Yeshua’s crowds are already nearly double Yohannon’s.
XP
I can see where you would both have an interested in maintaining political stability, Mr. Ben Yoel. But it surprises me that Yeshua is attracting Yohannon’s followers. Wasn’t Yohannon one of those old-time Torah-thumpers, you know, all hell-fire and damnation and calling sinners to repent? Rabbi Yeshua’s not in the same mold at all, is he?
BBY
No he’s not, Xeno. And it has us puzzled, too. Yohannon called everyone - even us Pharisees who set the standard for religious observance for the entire country - to repent and be baptized to be cleansed of our sins. But Rab Yeshua! He’ll talk to anyone! He’ll take anyone! All the protective walls that we’ve spent so much time and effort building, all the safeguards that we’ve put into place to make sure no one inadvertently offends our God and brings curses down upon us, he’s just ignoring them as if they didn’t matter! He is a complete menace to the entire Jewish people, and he must be stopped.
XP
I can see that this is very important to you and your colleagues, Mr. Ben Yoel. And that brings us to yesterday’s events. As I understand it, Rabbi Yeshua and his followers had just left their home base of Capernaum and were traveling around through the villages on the shores of Lake Tiberias. What happened next?
BBY
Well, this tax collector Levi had his table set up just outside the gate north of Tiberias, where all the travelers and merchants heading south to Jerusalem, or around to Perea on the east, have to pass. He had his scales set up and the scrolls spread out and his men were stopping everyone and charging a tax on whatever they were carrying. From what I hear, Levi had just waved Yeshua and his rag-tag band of followers through, it was obvious they didn’t have anything worth patting them down for, when Yeshua turned back and said something, my man couldn’t hear exactly what, and Levi stood up, swept the contents of the entire table, coins and all, into bags and gave them to his servants, and went off down the road with Yeshua.
XP
Go on, and then what happened?
BBY
Why, the next thing you know Yeshua and his crew were having dinner with him! Actually sitting down and eating with him, in Levi’s own house! With all the same disgusting parasites who always hang around tax collectors and their ilk, hoping for a little of the loot to trickle down to them. Loose women, tavern owners, brothel keepers, informers, money lenders, that sort. Yeshua and his disciples were actually eating with them! No self-respecting Jew would be caught dead talking to their sort, much less going under their roof, and as for breaking bread! The very thought makes my skin crawl.
XP
What are your plans now, Mr. Ben Yoel? How are you and the others planning to handle this crisis?
BBY
Well, Xeno, it’s going to take more than handwashing and a pair of doves to get him into the temple at the next festival, if I have anything to do with it. We’ll have to consult, of course, but I think there’ll be a consensus for a ban. Unless, of course, he listens to reason and stops committing these monstrous blasphemies.
XP
Thank you, Mr. Ben Yoel, for your views. We’ll look forward to having you back on again after you’ve met with your colleagues. Coming up after the break our correspondent in Galilee, Niko Aletes will be having a conversation with one of Yeshua’s own followers, Simon bar Jonah himself.
NA
Thank you for joining us, Simon. May I call you Simon? Oh, Peter. That’s your Greek name? Interesting, a little unusual. Let’s get right to the point. You heard Baruch ben Yoel in the previous segment giving his views about what Rev Yeshua has been doing. It is clear that he thinks your leader’s actions are going well outside the mainstream. We’d like to give you the chance to present your side of the story.
SP
It’s a pleasure, Niko, thanks for having me on. It’s like this, see. My brother Andrew was with Yohannon - you know, the Baptizer, the one Herod arrested earlier this year - and Rab Yeshua showed up at the Jordan to be baptized along with the rest of the crowds coming down from Galilee and Decapolis and Judea. Only Yohannon stopped cold, walked up onto the bank, and waved everybody away; Andrew said he argued with Yeshua, apparently didn’t want to baptize him at all, but finally gave in. And when Yeshua came up out of the water, he - that is Andrew - heard the voice of Adonai himself, blessed be the name, saying “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” [Mt 3:17] Well of course Andrew went off to talk to Yeshua, and to make a long story short, he and Nathaniel came back to Capernaum ¬ and told us - me, James and John, and the other Galileans, that this was the teacher we’d been waiting for. So when Yeshua showed up a few weeks later we were ready, and we’ve been following and learning from him ever since.
Well, you don’t want all the ancient history. I know you’re here about Matthew. Levi, he was, until last night, but he got a new name. Like me. I wasn’t with the Rabbi for 24 hours before everybody was calling me Peter. And now Levi is Matthew. Well, we’re all living a completely new life, I suppose it’s not surprising that we should get new names as well.
What do we think about Levi joining us?
It’s not going to be easy, I can tell you that. We all know people who’ve been ruined by taxes. People who’ve lost their farms, or their businesses, or had their children starve through a bad winter. It’s a dirty business, tax collecting. I’d sooner shake hands with a pig farmer. Well, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. My wife wouldn’t let me back in the house if she thought I’d ever do such a thing. But you know what I mean. Anybody who can prey on their own people! It’s bad enough to pay taxes to Rome, but they’re conquerors, we’re all used to that, but a Jew! They’re nothing but traitors, that lot, toadying for Herod and getting rich of the misery of the common folk. It shook us when the Rabbi called him, it did indeed.
Well, you don’t argue with Rev Yeshua. Or maybe you do, or I do, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. We had some of the same problems when Joanna joined us. There’s not another rabbi from Damascus to Cairo who’d let a woman come along, but Yeshua’s different. Anybody who wants to learn can come. I’ll bet you could come too, whaddya say, Niko? He might even take a Greek journalist! Just kidding, of course. We’re good Jews, no matter what the Pharisees say!
I know, I know, they accuse Yeshua of being soft on sin. He’s not, believe me! I’ve never met anyone who’s more completely committed to holiness than the rabbi. It’s just that he’s made us rethink what sin really is. I mean, I was brought up to believe that the priests and the scribes, you know, the temple big shots, were as close to sinless as anyone could be, that that’s what we were supposed to be like if we wanted God’s blessing. But you know, when you have to mend the nets before you go back out fishing again and you can’t afford to miss a day because the kids are hungry or the taxes are due, somehow keeping the Sabbath perfectly doesn’t seem quite so important. And if it was your wife who had to carry the water from the well, you wouldn’t use it all up for washing before prayers unless you’re actually dirty. Especially when she’s pregnant. My sister-in-law lost a baby carrying water in the heat of summer and she’s not the only one.
Oh. You wanted to know why Yeshua disagrees with the Pharisees.
It goes right back to the Torah. You know the Pharisees say that there are 615 different laws that we absolutely have to follow? And just memorizing them takes more time than most of us have to spare, much less doing them. So most of us figure God won’t listen to our prayers anyway, so we don’t bother. We show up at the synagogue because we have to, but we don’t really listen except when they talk about the Messiah. That’s the only hope any of us had, that when the Messiah came things would be better even for us stragglers who loved God and wanted to be good Jews but just couldn’t seem to do it right. That’s why Andrew was following Yohannon, and why we’re with Yeshua now. He is our hope. And he’s changing the way we think.
Oh, the Torah. Right. You’d think we’d have figured it out for ourselves, but it was too simple. What the Torah teaches more than anything else, is to love God and your neighbor. Everything else is just detail about how to do that. The point of the other rules is to help us remember that we belong to God and shouldn’t get distracted or tempted by the way other people do things. And it’s really hard to love God when you’re afraid he’s mad at you. So the rabbi has been trying to get us to change our minds about God. He’s been teaching us that God loves us, and the rules are there to help us live right, not to make us feel like failures all the time. Not that we’re not failures in many ways, mind you. It’s just that when the rabbi is with you, you don’t focus on what you do wrong. You focus instead on what you can do to help other people. It’s remarkable what a difference it makes in how you see the world.
Why, I remember once at the very beginning, when we were out fishing one night, hadn’t caught anything, the rabbi had us go back out again and let our nets down. Well, of course we didn’t think there was any point, the fish had all decided to go somewhere else, but you know he has a way about him, you just wind up doing what he says. So we did, and you know what? We caught so many fish that our nets were started to break. So we signaled our partners in the other boat to come and help, and they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. Why, I was so scared that I fell down on my knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Then Jesus said “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.” [Lk 5:8-9] And he lifted me up off my knees and put his arm around my shoulders and I’ve never looked back. Yes, I’m a sinful man. But when I’m around the rabbi, I know that I’ll be okay.
And that’s why when he called Levi - that is Matthew - we all went along. That’s part of what we do, now, is catch sinners. What I mean is, when people meet Yeshua, they see that there’s hope, that they don’t have to go on feeling hopeless and dirty - but they won’t listen if you act as though you’re better than they are. And any fisherman can tell you that you have to spread the net where the fish are. Getting wet doesn’t make you grow gills. So we’ll all swallow hard and welcome Matthew or anybody else who wants to get closer to God into the group, because that’s the only sin the rabbi won’t tolerate: the sin of thinking we’re better than other people. That’s why he’s so down on the Pharisees, you know...
The priests and the scribes want to lock themselves up in the temple and the synagogue and never some out, for fear of getting dirty. And I suppose I can’t blame them. There’s a lot of dirt out there in the world. But Rab Yeshua makes you feel clean.
You sure you don’t want to join us? Well, if you ever change your mind, come to Capernaum. My wife will know where to find me.
NA
Thanks, Simon - Peter - I think I’ll pass this time. This is Niko Aletes signing off from Tiberias.
