Killing Jesus: A History

physical longings. Anticipating the smell of roast lamb that will hang over Jerusalem as the Passover feasts are being cooked in ovens, the pilgrims count their money, worrying about how they will pay for that feast and the inevitable taxes they will incur in the city. Despite their sore feet and aching legs from walking mile after rugged mile through the wilderness, the travelers feel themselves transformed by the magnetic pull of Jerusalem. Their thoughts are no longer set on their farms back home and the barley crop that must be harvested immediately upon their return, but on holiness and purity.
    Soon they will ascend the hill known as the Mount of Olives and look down upon the heart-stopping sight of Jerusalem in all its glory. The Temple will gleam white and gold, and the mighty walls of the Temple Mount will astound them, as always. The sheer magnificence of the Temple will remind them that they have arrived at the center of Jewish life.
    It has been nearly fifty years since the Temple was refurbished and expanded and the first modern Passover celebrated within its courts. But even for those old enough to have been there that day, this Passover promises to be the most memorable in history. And today’s arrival in Jerusalem will be unlike any before—or to come.
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    “We are going up to Jerusalem,” Jesus tells his disciples as they prepare to depart for the Passover. “The Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life.”
    But if those words disturb the disciples, they don’t show it. For theirs has been a journey of many months, rather than the mere days of most pilgrims. After the Feast of Tabernacles six months ago, Jesus and the disciples did not return to Galilee. Instead, they began a roundabout trip. First stop, the village of Ephraim, only fifteen miles north of Jerusalem. From there they traveled as a group due north and away from Jerusalem, to the border of Samaria and Galilee. And then, when it came time for Passover, they turned in the opposite direction and marched due south along the Jordan River, joining the long caravans of pilgrims en route to the Holy City.
    The disciples now jockey for position during the walk to Jerusalem. James and John ask the Nazarene if they can be his principal assistants in the new regime, requesting that “one of us sit on your right and the other on your left in your glory.” Upon hearing this, the other ten are furious. They have followed Jesus as a collective group for more than two years, giving up their jobs and wives and whatever semblance of a normal life they might have once had. All the disciples hope they will reap the glory that will come after the new Messiah overthrows the Romans. Peter is so sure that Jesus is going to use military might that he is making plans to purchase a sword.
    But Jesus has no plans to wage war and no plans to form a new government. Rather than upbraid James and John, he calmly deflects their request. He then calls the disciples together, imploring them to focus on serving others rather than fighting for position. “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” he tells them.
    Once again, Jesus is predicting his death. And yet the disciples are so focused on the glorious moment when Jesus will reveal that he is the Christ that they ignore the fact that he is telling them he will soon die. There will be no overthrow of the Romans. There will be no new government.
    But the disciples’ willful ignorance is understandable. Jesus often speaks in parables, and the mania surrounding the Nazarene is now phenomenal. The adoration being bestowed upon Jesus makes any talk of death incomprehensible. The thick crowds of pilgrims treat Jesus like royalty, hanging on his every word and greeting him with enthusiastic awe. In the village of Jericho, two blind men call out to Jesus, referring to him as “Lord, Son of David,” a designation that could be applied only to the Christ. The disciples are encouraged when Jesus does nothing to rebuke the blind men.
    Jerusalem is just a forty-minute walk from the village of Bethany, where they stop for the night. They stay at the home of Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha, rather than risk traveling after sundown and on the start