They traveled southwest toward the Jordan, river, sloping down into the valley.
“Yochanon is preaching.”
“Yochanon is preaching.”
“Yochanon is at the river.”
They followed the direction of the chatter, and a day outside of Jerusalem, they arrived to see Yochanon on the water with his disciples. People were still there, yes, but not nearly as many, and Jesus, aware that even if they followed at a distance, he was still being followed by an enthusiastic crowd, wondered, “Is this how it ends?”
He pushed that ungracious thought from his head. But he looked around and saw that the one large tribe assembled around Yochanon was doubtless smaller, and knew it surely must have happened since his frequent run ins with Herod. And here Jesus was, accompanied by the people who had once been part of that encampment.
But the Yochanon who preached today, wore the hair cloak like Eijah and like the prophets of old was more sunbaked, more wide eyed, more wild haired and more… tragic than the one Jesus had seen last, and as they descended the grassy shore, snd could see on the other side of the broad, shallow river, the mountains of Moab, Yochanon was shouting:
“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.
“On that day, I will banish the names of the idols from the land, and they will be remembered no more,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will remove both the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. And if anyone still prophesies, their father and mother, to whom they were born, will say to them, ‘You must die, because you have told lies in the Lord’s name.’ Then their own parents will stab the one who prophesies.
“On that day, every prophet will be ashamed of their prophetic vision. They will not put on a prophet’s garment of hair in order to deceive. Each will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth.’ If someone asks, ‘What are these wounds on your hands?’ they will answer, ‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.’
Jesus clutched his staff hard. A cleansing. But the cleansing was not one administered by Yochanon, nor was it a cleansing Jesus desired. It was the cleansing of Yochanon himself, a punishment for the prophet and the man of vision, and as Yochanon stretched out his arms, there was a great wound on his own chest and he cried out, in his crow’s voice.
“Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones.”
Marta had dismounted from her carriage now, and she was weeping. She was coming down the valley, pushing away her rich veil. As if her clothing had not been woven in Sion, as if she was not wearing gold of Ophir, Marta descended to him, and still, almost blind, a shadow of himself, Yochanon cried:
In the whole land,” declares the Lord,
“two-thirds will be struck down and perish;
yet one-third will be left in it.
This third I will put into the fire;
I will refine them like silver
and test them like gold.
They will call on my name
and I will answer them;
I will say, ‘They are my people,’
and they will say, ‘The Lord is our God.’”
Suddenly he seemed to see her. He seemed to see them all.
“Wife!” he croaked. “Wife!
She had been afraid he would spurn her, push her away, remind her they were separated, but Yochanon came to her on the edge of the water, and what a strange couple they were. He clasped her with his wiry arm, and he crowed, “Cousins, kinsman. Friends!
“Behold the Lamb of God!” he cried again.
“Behold him who comes to take the sins of the world. A sacririce must be made, Cousin,” he said. “But the sacrifice is not you. Not you, my heart. Not today.”
“Then you must baptize,” Yochanon said, when Jesus had told him of last night.
“You cannot hide the light. You would not put a lamp under a bushel basket or va bed. It will burn them both up, and the fire become brighter. Now is the time of which I spoke. I see it before me. That is why I do not mind that my time is at and end. I laid the rootwork.”
Jesus nodded.
Yochanon took him by the chin, grinning.
“See what a change has come over them! Over you. You have come with the baptism for which were all waiting. Go. Baptize. My words are ending, my voice is rasping. Go out there, give them a good word. Preach all the way to Jerusalem so that when you enter the holy city, you are known.”
Jesus went to the rise of the slope, and people were there waiting. He opened his mouth, and words came out. It was like opening for some voice to speak through him, but he was the voice. The voice was more him than he had ever been.
Jesus said, “This heaven will pass away, and the one above it will pass away. The dead are not alive, and the living will not die. In the days when you consumed what is dead, you made it what is alive. When you come to dwell in the light, what will you do? On the day when you were one you became two. But when you become two, what will you do?”
Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like.”
Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous angel.”
Matthew said to him, “You are like a wise philosopher.”
Thomas said to him, “Master, my mouth is wholly incapable of saying whom you are like.”
Jesus said, “I am not your master. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring which I have measured out.”
And he took him and withdrew and told him three things. When Thomas returned to his companions, they asked him, “What did Jesus say to you?”
Thomas said to them, “If I tell you one of the things which he told me, you will pick up stones and throw them at me; a fire will come out of the stones and burn you up.”
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will know them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
