Yeshua section 4

SCENE TWO. Action continues.

SIMON MAGUS:

            [Enters with others. Says to Yeshua.] Are you the student of John the Baptist?

PHARISEE:

            This one’s been tutored by God—

SIMON MAGUS:

            I knew it—

PHARISEE:

            God, rocks and rills and birds.  

SIMON MAGUS:

            [To Yeshua])

            Rabbi, I am Simon of Samaria, sometimes called the magus. Many years ago   the Baptist instructed me in esoteric skills. John said a new prophet would       come. Election’s aura spills on you!

SADDUCEE:

            Esoteric! What is hidden but knowledge, open to men with eyes and sense?   You mean exoteric. And skills? Call them “procedures.” Skills are efficacious.        Skills mean doing things. What does the esoteric so-called do but befuddle          the heads of imbeciles?

YESHUA:

            God is efficacious. [To Simon Magus] But John had no innovations.

SADDUCEE:

            We are efficacious. We measure and make.

YESHUA:

            God started the hot blazing world. He let it grow.

SIMON MAGUS:

            [To Yeshua.] Rabbi, I have gold to pay tuition. Teach me God’s holy magic.

YESHUA:

            The purple embers of dawn are magic.

SADDUCEE:

            Well said –  for once.

YESHUA:

            Dawn urges us to confess our coming emptiness at dusk, which only eternal             life can fill, so vast the spirit’s void.

SADDUCEE:

            And there it ends. [With sarcasm.]

SIMON MAGUS:

            But no – I have already made great progress with God’s power.

SADDUCEES:

            Tricks and lies.

PHARISEE:

            Moses knows what we can do with wizards!

SIMON MAGUS:

            Enoch walked with God! Samuel spoke from his comfort beyond the grave to            Saul! Elijah’s ignited car – that whirled into the clouds!  

SADDUCCEE:

            Old lies. The world teaches every day how to put old tails on young monkeys.

YESHUA:

            [To the Sadducee]) Who plumbs eternal depths?

PHARISEE:

            [Lost.] He talks of God’s plumbing?

SIMON MAGUS:

            [To Yeshua.] I know there’s all I need within me. Show me how to bring it out!           I have healed the sick and raised the dead.

SADDUCEE:

            Then what more can this man teach you? (Sardonically.)

YESHUA:

            Everybody wants a sign when already there is the diurnal miracle: birth,        growth, laughter. Or if we part the waters, they say the devil was behind it. If    we restore the insane, it was a hoax. If we say God forgives sinners, it’s a lie.     [Looking Simon in the eye.] Did you really think you could buy God?

SIMUS MAGUS:

            The God within me prompts me to a perfect knowledge. And tutors are hired            every day. John revealed –

YESHUA:

            John the Baptist had no occult, no privileged vision. But you want a     perfection of knowledge? Sit. Listen. [Reads] I knew a man whose young wife    suddenly became very sick. She was very dear to her husband, who had in            her all his hopes of future happiness and children. He promised generations             to come would bless her name. But before she was able to conceive, she died.           This shook the man deeply, so great was his faith in his future, so great was    his love for his wife. It seemed that heaven had promised so much only in        order to bash his heart the more.  He hadn’t even finished the funeral for his       wife, when word came that his father had drowned in the Great Sea. At first he could not believe that his estranged father, a herdsman, would go         anywhere near the sea, let alone drown in it. But it was confirmed that he had          gone to see Mt. Carmel while he still had strength to walk unattended. And             while he was there, a ship had run up on a sandbar nearby during a storm.   Many went out to help the sailors take their cargo of amphorae ashore once    the weather lightened. But his father couldn’t swim, and just as he was     stepping wrong or into an unseen hole, a comber crashed over him. No one noticed until his body washed up on the beach, sea foam and seaweeds on his            face as if the transformation of his bedraggled beard.

            The man’s heart cracked. He spent his days looking for help from the             synagogues where the Book was all hours read. There he heard the prophets.             And married himself to the word of God.

           

SADDUCEE:

            [Lost, exasperate] Does he refer to the Baptist or himself? Whose father          drowned?

YESHUA:

            [To Simon Magus] The world outside us is lambent. Beware, these candles     will burn you. Truth will sear your eyeballs blind like too much sun. And then      where is your inner divinity’s illumination?

SIMON MAGUS:

            [Confused] I guess I don’t know.

YESHUA:

            In the dark – that’s where.

PHARISEE:

            I still say this is possession!

YESHUA:

            [In a fit] Life is a possession!

SIMON MAGUS:

            [Thinking he suddenly understands] Yes! And we tend it, guard it and let it       grow its fruit.

YESHUA:

            We are possessed by life, not possessing life.

           

SIMON MAGUS:

            No! You are wrong! We hold it! We set it free!

YESHUA:

            You hold maggots, Simon, maggots.

           

SADDUCEE:

            I’m forced to concur with the Nazareth nut. (Pointing to Simon Magus) That religion couldn’t handle a bad rash. We get what’s earned.

           

YESHUA:

            [To the Sadducee.] You’ll earn a mouthful of dust.  

PHARISEE:

            Half of it’s mlack-mlack-mlack to me! All I get is a whole lot of megillah about            whose gorilla’s the true guerilla. The Greeks have their sophists who are paid             to dispute. He’s like that; he just wants to sew confusion and attack the wise.   

SADDUCEE:

            [Explaining to Pharisee] Our preacher friend is asking what happens when     trouble comes and—

SIMON MAGUS:

            [Quickly] But I have healed!

YESHUA:

            Inexplicable God heals or doesn’t heal.

PHARISEE:

            Or makes sick. (Pedantically.)

YESHUA:

            No, our sickness is disease in God’s own flesh.

SIMON MAGUS:

            We will our health.

YESHUA:

            [Serious yet sarcastic] Did you will your own will or was it willed to you? If     you are divine, then your paradise will be eternity alone in a pickle jar –        pickled in the brine of your own ego. Have fun in your heaven –  it sounds like            hell to me.

SIMON MAGUS:

            “O, great and wonderful happiness of humanity that it is given to us to do       what we desire, and so to be whate’er we will.” 

PHARISEE:

            Nilly-willy!

PRIEST:

            Kill kill!

            [He, the Pharisee and the Sadducee raise their flashlights and begin to beat       Yeshua. Simon Magus runs off.  Strobe lights. Screams of women. The two Marys           enter and rush Yeshua off the opposite side of the stage.]

SCENE THREE. Mary’s House.

BOY:

            [Enters calling.] Hello!

BARTHOLOMEW:

            [In front of the house working on an old motorcycle.] Yeah?

BOY:

            Whose house is this?

BARTHOLOMEW:

            Mary’s.

BOY:

            Which Mary?

BARTHOLOMEW:

            To be honest, I don’t really know. She’s a widow.

BOY:

            Is the Messiah here?

BARTHOLOMEW:

            Which Messiah? They come cheap.

BOY:

Yeshua of Nazareth.

BARTHOLOMEW:

            Oh, that one. Rabbi Yeshua. Yeah. No. He ain’t here. He was. He will be again.             Soon, I’d think. There’s just us Disciples right now. I’m Bartholomew. Maybe    you’ve heard of Thomas

            [There are two windows on the house. One actor wearing a beard sticks his      head at the left window at the name of Thomas, waves and moves from the           window to put on a beard of another color.]

            And Philip, not his real name,

            [Another actor puts his bearded face in front of the right window as the first    actor did.]  

            there’s Matthias – he can do your taxes, James bar Alphaeus, not his real       name, James the brother of John, one of the sons of Zebedee, a.k.a one half of      the Boä-nérges, also not his real name, and Thaddeus, Simon and Simon.          Where’s Judas Iscariot? Hey, Jude-us! Don’t know where he got off to but             Andrew, not his real name, and John, also not his real name, are off with        Yeshua doing … something … something propheteering. No, that’s not right.        Only some of them are off with Yeshua. Yeshua is his real name. Ain’t that funny? According to some scholars, anyway. Some claim it ought to be Yoshi. Yeah, um, Peter and John and some of them went off to be practice prophets.            Teachers-in-training. If you can’t, teach. If you can’t teach, teach teachers.

BOY:

            What do you mean, “Not his real name”?

BARTHOLOMEW:           Oh, that business? Well, we’re speaking American, right?           Except our names are Aromatic, right?

BOY: Aramaic?

BARTHOLOMEW: Yes, you may. It’s right around the corner.

BOY: I have a message for Yeshua.

BARTHOLOMEW:  Who from?

BOY: Whom.

BARTHOLOMEW: Huh?

BOY: From whom. You said who.

BARTHOLOMEW: What?

BOY: Whom.

BARTHOLOMEW: What’s your name, boy?

BOY: Boy.

BARTHOLOMEW: Huh? Now, don’t go startin’ that again!

BOY: “Boy.” My name is “Boy.”

BARTHOLOMEW: But it’s [in unison with Boy] not your real name.

BOY: Not my real name, no.

BARTHOLOMEW: No. I didn’t figure. (Pause.) What in green garblation were we talking about?

BOY: My message.

BARTHOLOMEW: Ah, right! Whom sent it?

BOY: Who. It’s grammar.

BARTHOLOMEW:

            My grammer died long ago. Now just a second ago you said Whom. I heard   ya. Hoo-mah. Which is a funny thing to call a person. And anyway, ain’t     hoomah what they call a funny in England? [In a bad English accent] That   was a jolly good bit of hoomah!

BOY:

             Judas Iscariot sends an urgent message to Yeshua. [He leaves the message      with Bartholomew and runs offstage.]

BARTHOLOMEW:

            Urgent, I’ll tell you what’s got some urgency to it: My hankering for victuals. Alimentiary over-ingulgence [sic] is the only vice I can squeak by with these         days. Yes, I’ve been spared a life of whoring and drunkenness, [Pause]) which   had its down side, too. Oh, I think I hear them comin’ now. Hey, where’d that     kid go? [He finds the message].

            [Enter Yeshua, Mother helping him walk.]

BARTHOLOMEW: What’s wrong? Is the rabbi hurt? 

MOTHER MARY: A Levite did this throwing stones. God curse them!

BARTHOLOMEW: Here, rabbi, rest.

MOTHER MARY: There are twelve of us. Let’s go with truncheons!

BARTHOLOMEW: Some wine, Yeshua? [Offering a large can of malt liquor]

MARY: [Runs onstage.] My God, Yeshua! My God, Yeshua!

MOTHER MARY:

            My Yeshu! My son! I’ll attend the wound. [Taking out a thermos] There is       kid’s milk in here to restore his strength. Those that did this – Let’s make     them pay the arm of God!

MARY: [Shocked.] Mother, turn from murderous hate.

BARTHOLOMEW: Rabbi, try some wine.

YESHUA:

            [Stands up holding his head. Raises his voice.]   Kibitz. Kibitz kibitz kibitz! How close by is the River Jordan? You sound like frogs croaking.

BARTHOLOMEW:

                  [Pause. Listening.] Um, it’s the Temple scribes about. Seeking radicals        they can devour up. Lookit. Says right here in today’s paper. I got it down     at the tavern. [Mother Mary gives him a hard look.] Market. I got it down at        the market. [He takes out a newspaper] Anyone who [reads] “speaks to                   more than two or three is suspect and subject to death.” I’d heard that     they were about. Some are spies for Herod Antipas. He’s jealous of his   peace in Galilee, they say. But both Herodians and scribes will sell us to Rome as tokens of their service. Yeshua, you should know that other bad      news has made it to us: the child of Levi you healed in Capernaum – the   one of demon possession has since been afflicted by Satan. Again he went            mad. He struck a Roman soldier with a rock. The soldier cut him down                   samaritanly.

MOTHER MARY: Don’t you mean summarily?

YESHUA: (Saddened.) Father in heaven.  

           

MOTHER:

            Lord Yeshua, take this as a sign. We must go to the Temple and you must      confront the Sanhedrin. Miraculous God will defeat the hirelings, just as   Elijah competed with the priests of Baal at Mount Carmel. We’ve heard the        Almighty voice name you messiah. You will defeat the Sanhedrin. The             Messiah will triumph! Did we not have a hundred gathered in the hills?—

YESHUA:

            [Breaking in] Mother, your head is full of immortality. The voice of God. Could          it be the idol pounding in your ears? What sound was it Elijah heard? From             Carmel he went to Horeb. The sound of nothing he called God. Nothing was       God to him. You don’t remember John beheaded? How about the warlike           Zadoc yesterday garroted by Rome?

BARTHOLOMEW:

            Rabbi Yeshua, that was years ago, not yesterday.

YESHUA:

            It doesn’t seem that way to me! [He takes the bandage from his head that        Mary Magdalene has had him hold on his wound and shows the blood on it to          Bartholomew.]

MOTHER:

            But thou art the Christ. The very Son of God.

YESHUA:

            You will see the Son of Man among you, raised with power and glory. The     kingdom will be fulfilled.

MOTHER:

            So let’s go at once, to David’s City!

YESHUA:

            Mother, what would you do to be saved?

MOTHER:

            [Embarrassed.] All that you ask.

YESHUA:

            Then cut off your head. And their heads too. Kibitz! [Points to the other          Disciples. Wheels around and exits.]

           

BARTHOLOMEW:

            Talking with him’s like trying to catch a bullfighter.

MARY MAGDALENE:

            Bravura of the toreador – he plucks

            Many a pattern on his harp until

            The frame would shatter. 

MOTHER:

            [Puzzled] Yeshua has a strange and eldritch energy endowed by – 

BARTHOLOMEW: [Jokes] Elderly bowels –  

MOTHER: [She strikes Bartholomew.] Never. Never say that!

BARTHOLOMEW: [Overlapping] No! No! We must pray! Let’s sing a psalm to God! 

(Lights fade on part of the stage but a light shines down on Yeshua)