A strange excitement prevailed among the people in Galilee, and spread
through Samaria and Judaea even to Jerusalem. A new prophet had
arisen. There were many in those days, but this one was different from
the rest. As is always the way in such times, at first a few people
paid heed feverishly, then they infected others with their unrest, and
finally roused families and whole villages which had hitherto stood
aloof. So at last all heeded the new prophet. At the time of the
foreign rule old men had spoken of the King and Saviour who was to make
the chosen people great and mighty. Expounders of the Scriptures had
from generation to generation consoled those who were waiting and
longing. Men had grown impatient under the intolerable foreign
oppression, and a national desire and a religious expectation such as
had never before been known in so high a degree had manifested itself.
And lo! strange rumours went through the land. As the south wind of
spring blows over Lebanon, melts the ice, and brings forth buds, so
were the hearts of men filled with new hope. A man out in the
wilderness was preaching a new doctrine. For a long while he preached
to stones, because, he said, they were not so hard as men's
understanding. The stones themselves would soon speak, the mountains
be levelled and the valleys filled up so that a smooth road might be
ready for the Holy Spirit which was drawing nigh.
Men grew keenly interested in those tidings. Some said: "Let us go out
and hear him just for amusement's sake." They came back and summoned
others to go out and see the extraordinary man. He wore a garment of
camel's hair instead of a cloak, and a leather girdle round his loins.
His hair was long, black, and in disorder, his face sunburnt, and his
eyes flamed as if in frenzy. But he was not an Arab nor an Amalekite;
he was one of the chosen people. Down by the lake he was better known.
He was the son of Zacharias, a priest and a native of the wonderful
land of Galilee. The Galileans had at first mocked at him, and with a
side glance at Jesus, said: "What a blessed land is Galilee, where new
teachers of virtue are as plentiful as mushrooms in rainy weather!"
Jesus retorted by asking whether they knew what kind of a people it was
that only produced preachers of repentance?
The name of the preacher in the wilderness was John. More and more
people went out to hear him, and everyone related marvels. He chased
locusts and fed on them, and took the honey from the wild bees and
swallowed it. He seemed to despise the ordinary food and customs of
men. Since the murder of the innocents at Bethlehem, he had lived in
the wilderness, dwelling in a cave high up in the rocks of the
mountain. It almost seemed that he loved wild beasts better than men,
whose cloak of virtue he hated because it was woven out of
evil-smelling hypocrisy and wickedness.
They called him the herald. "We are surprised," they said, "that the
Rabbis and High Priests in Capernaum, Tiberias, and Jerusalem should
keep silent. They could put this man to death for his words." But the
herald had no fear. He preached a new doctrine, and he poured water
over the heads of those who joined him as a sign of the covenant.
"And what is his teaching?" asked others.
"Go and hear for yourselves!"
And so more and more people went out from Judaea and Galilee into the
wilderness. The preacher had withdrawn a little way above the point
where the river Jordan flows into the Dead Sea. The district, usually
so deserted, was alive with all sorts of people, among them Rabbis and
men learned in the law, who represented themselves as penitents, but
desired to outwit the prophet with cunning. The preacher stood on a
stone; he held a corner of his camel's hair garment, pressed against
his hairy breast with one hand, and the other he stretched heavenwards
and said: "Rabbis, are ye here too? Are ye at last afraid of the wrath
of heaven which ye see approaching, and so take refuge with him who
calls on ye to repent? Ye learned hypocrites! Ye stone him who can
hurt you with a breath, and praise him who brings with him a human
sacrifice. See that your repentance does not become your judge. But
if it is sincere, then receive the water on your head as a token that
you desire to be pure in heart."
Such were the words he spoke. The scholars laughed, scornfully; others
grumbled at the severity of his remarks, but kneeled down. He took an
earthen vessel, dipped it in the waters of Jordan, and poured it over
their heads so that little streams ran down their necks and over their
brows. A man raised his head and asked: "Will you give us
commandments?"
The prophet answered: "You have two coats and only one body. Yonder
against the oak is a man who has likewise a body but no coat. I give
no commandments; but you know what to do."
So the man went and gave his second coat to him who had none.
A lean old man, a tax-gatherer from Jerusalem, asked what he should do,
since everyone he met in the streets had a coat on his back.
"Do not ask more payment than is legal. Do not open your hand for
silver pieces, nor shut your eyes to stolen goods."
"And we?" asked a Roman mercenary. "We are not the owners of our
lives; are we, too, to have no commandments?"
"You have the sword. But the sword is violence, hatred, lust, greed.
Take care! The sword is your sin and your judgment."
And then women came to him with a triumphant air, and exclaimed: "You
wise man, you! We have no rights, so we have no duties? Is that not
so?"
And the prophet said; "You assume rights for yourselves, and duties
will be given you. The woman's commandment is: 'Thou shall not commit
adultery.'"
"And what do you say to men?" asked one of them.
"Men have many commandments besides that one. You must not tempt them
with snares of the flesh, for they have more important things to do in
the world than to make themselves pleasant to women. You must not
allure them with the colour of your cheeks, nor with the tangles of
your hair, nor with your swelling breasts. You shall not attract the
eye of man through beautiful garments and sparkling jewels. You shall
not glisten like doves when you are false like snakes."
The women were angry, and tried to set snares for him. So they smiled
sweetly, and asked: "Your words of wisdom, oh prophet! only concern the
women of the people. Royally-born women are excepted."
Then spoke the preacher; "Women born in the purple are of the same
stuff as the leprous beggar-woman who lies in the street. No woman is
excepted. The wives of kings live in the sight of all, and must obey
the law twice and thrice as strictly. Since Herod put away his
rightful wife, the Arab king's daughter, and lives openly in incest
with his brother's wife, the angel of hell will strike at her."
"You all hear," said the women, turning to the assembled crowd. Then
they pulled up their gowns high over their ankles, stepped into the
river where it is shallow, and bared their brown necks, in order that
the wild preacher might pour the water over them. The men pressed
closer, but the prophet tore a branch from the cedar and drove the
hypocritical penitents back. Some were glad that sin had no power over
this holy man.
Then they sent an old man to him to ask who he really was. "Are you
the Messiah whom we are expecting?"
"I am not the Messiah," answered the preacher. "But he is coming after
me. I prepare the way for him like the morning breeze ere the sun
rises. As the heaven is above the earth, so is he greater than I. It
is my prayer that I may be worthy to loosen his shoe latchets. I
sprinkle your heads with water; he will sprinkle them with fire. He
will separate you according as your hearts be good or evil. He will
lay up the wheat in the garner with his fan and burn the chaff.
Prepare yourselves--the kingdom of God is nearer than ye think."
The people were uneasy. Clouds came up over the mountains of Galilee,
and their edges shone like silver. The air lay like a heavy weight
over the valley of the Jordan, and not a twig stirred in the cedars.
The strangers from Samaria and Judaea did not know the man who climbed
down over the stones and went towards the preacher. He wore a blue
woollen gown that came down over his knees, so that only his sandalled
feet were seen. He might have been taken for a working man had not his
head, with its high, pale forehead and heavy waving locks, been so
royal. A soft beard sprang from his upper lip, and there was such a
wonderful light in his dark blue eyes that some were almost frightened
by it. And they asked each other: "Who is the man with the fiery eyes?"
He reached the prophet. One hand hung down: he held the other against
his breast. He said softly; "John, pour water over my head, too."
The prophet looked at the young man and was terrified. He went back
two steps--they knew not why. Did he himself know?
"You!" he said, almost under his breath. "You desire to receive the
token of repentance from me?"
"I will do penance--for them all. I will begin with water what will be
ended with blood." That is what they thought to hear. In a man who
speaks like this, there is something incredibly spiritual.
"He is a dreamer! He is a madman!" the people whisper one to another.
"No, he's not, he's not!" others declare.
"Did he not speak of blood?"
"It seemed so. Such young blood, and already repenting!"
"And as proud of it as a Roman."
"With eyes glowing like an Arab's."
"Looking at his hair, you might take him for a German."
"He is neither a Roman, nor an Arab, nor a German," someone exclaimed,
laughing; "he is the carpenter of Nazareth."
"The same who turned water into wine?"
"There are lots of stories about him. We know plenty of them."
"It is said that Herod's murder of the innocents was on his account."
When the crowd heard that, they were quiet, and looked at the new
arrival with a sort of awe. And so old Herod had taken him for the
Messiah-King!
A feeling of reverence spread among the people. For Jesus stepped into
the river. The prophet dipped his vessel in the water and poured it
over his lightly-bent head. The edges of the clouds in the heavens
shone with the crimson light of evening. The eyes of the bystanders
were riveted by a white speck which showed itself in the windows of
heaven, first like a flower-bloom and then like a fluttering pennon.
It was a dove that flew down and circled round the head of him who had
just been baptized.
"My dearly beloved son!"
The people whispered; "Whose voice was it that said: 'My dearly beloved
son'?"
"Didn't it refer to him over whom the water has just been poured?"
A shudder seized many of them. It was just as if he was presented to
men by the invisible God!
"We will ask him himself whose son he is," they said, and pressed
towards the river. But he had gone away, and the twilight of the
desert lay over the stream.
The same night Mary sat in her room at Nazareth, and sewed. She kept
looking out of the window, for she would not go to bed till Jesus
returned. When he had gone out of the door two days ago, he had turned
to her again, looked at her, and said:
"Mother, I go to my Father."
She thought he was going to the cemetery to pray at Joseph's tomb, as
he often did. For in the city of the dead solitude may be found. When
he returned neither on the first day nor on the second, she began to
feel anxious. She waited up the whole night.
The next morning the little town rang with the news: "The carpenter has
been seen with the preacher. He has been baptized."
"That's just like him. One enthusiast keeps company with another."
"It would be more correct to say with false prophets. For what else is
it when a man declares that he can wash away sin with a dash of water?"
Thereupon a Sidonian donkey-driver, who had come down the street;
"That's excellent! You Israelites can do so much with your ablutions.
That would be a capital thing!"
"Ah! what things one hears! Everything points to the speedy
destruction of the world." And one whispered in his ear, "I tell you,
frankly, 'twould be no great misfortune."
"Now John has caught it. Do you know what he's always shouting?"
"The young carpenter, his apprentice? He's never said anything that
matters."
"Do you know what he's always exclaiming? He strides through the
streets, and his hair flies in the wind. He spreads out his hands
before him, and says: 'The word has become flesh!'"
They shook their heads.
But Mary sat at the window and waited and watched.