Final Confrontation Read online

  “And we are to allow this?” asked Bakka defensively. He looked to Gabriel for some show of support. “Surely not!”

  “It is his right,” said Gabriel. “He has a measure of authority on this fallen planet. But it is both short in limit and short in life.” He turned to Lucifer. “It is the Spirit of the Lord who leads Him to be tempted. Get on with it, Lucifer!”

  Lucifer bowed his head low.

  “As you command, archangel,” he said, looking over at Jesus, who was still in prayer. “And when this exhausted, hungry Man Jesus succumbs to what I offer, the war will be finally decided.”

  “Try with all your might, Lucifer,” scoffed Bakka. “Jesus might be a human but He is still full of the Lord’s Spirit and full of the Lord’s Word!”

  “True, Bakka,” mused Lucifer smiling at Gabriel “The Lord’s Spirit and I have long parted company. But I am quite acquainted with His Word.”

  “Quite a wilderness, hmm?”

  Jesus looked up at the stranger.

  “A most desolate place,” the stranger continued. “Makes one wonder why the Lord ever created such a place.”

  Jesus ignored the man.

  “I see by Your clothes You are a Jew,” the man went on. “A fine people, the Jews. It’s such a pity they have lost their way…”

  No response.

  “Of course, the God they worship seems to have cast them somewhat adrift,” said the man, walking in front of Jesus, who was still seated on a flat rock. “Such a promising start, too. But all gods, it seems, end up disappointing…”

  Jesus looked at the man.

  “So You are the Son of God?” the man asked. He snickered. “Forgive me, Jesus, but You look so…so ordinary. Not quite what one would expect of the Son of God.”

  Jesus looked down and began drawing in the sand with His finger.

  “Is that what they told You? That You are the Son of God? It’s amazing what religious excitement can bring on.” He laughed out loud. “Just look what it has done to that poor baptizer named John. The man is absolutely insane!”

  The man sidled down beside Jesus and sat next to Him.

  “He fancied himself to be the fore-runner of…” The man jumped back as if caught off guard. “Why…of You! Can You imagine the Most High sending a fanatic like that to introduce His Son to the world?”

  Jesus looked at the man once more.

  “Do You really believe these things, Jesus? Or is it possible that Your mother’s love and Your father’s zeal caused them to force these things upon Your mind? What with John’s father serving in the Temple and all. I hear he even had a fit upon him for a while that took his speech away. Perhaps he had a devil…”

  “What do you want, Morning Star?” asked Jesus.

  Lucifer’s Edomite character immediately changed into the form of Lucifer, splendid in a white tunic and archangel’s golden belt. Lucifer spoke soothingly.

  “I am merely trying to help You through this delusion,” he said. “Holy men come cheaply in this part of the world. Even sons of the divine are common. Tiberias himself claims heritage through the gods. The last thing this poor nation needs is another prophet. And so I must ask why You persist in this tragic drama?”

  Jesus remained silent.

  “I suppose You will continue this delusion, therefore I shall assist You in dispelling it,” said Lucifer standing up.

  “It isn’t that I don’t believe You, Jesus,” reasoned Lucifer. “And I realize if the Lord indeed wanted to use a Man such as Yourself—even an ordinary Jew—He could do so. But I am no ordinary creature, and require proof.”

  He smiled at Jesus.

  “I would imagine, after all these years of Your mother feeding You these stories, You have often wondered Yourself. You have, haven’t you?”

  Jesus ignored him.

  “I understand You have been out here forty days,” he continued. “Forty days with no water or food. Not an entirely gracious entrance into the world for a Son of the Most High, hmm? Nevertheless the fast is over, Jesus. I congratulate You. This is a great feat for a man or a God. And now let us break the fast and put the matter to a test so that once and for all You shall know who You really are…”

  He looked around leisurely, and then, with a slight gesture, caused a small stack of rocks to pile up before Jesus’ feet. “Something I have learned since being consigned to this wretched world,” he said with false modesty. “This should do nicely.”

  He waved his hand casually at the rocks.

  “Jesus, if You are truly the Son of God, then command these stones to become bread. A reasonable, if not practical, test. You must be hungry.”

  Jesus looked at Lucifer.

  “My Father has said that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from His mouth.”

  The rocks remained cold and hard.

  “Well stated,” admitted Lucifer. “That is indeed what the Scriptures say. You are a credit to Your faith. However, come with me, Jesus; I wish to show You something.”

  Jesus suddenly found Himself on the roof of the still unfinished Temple in Jerusalem, with Lucifer standing beside Him. They stood looking far down below into the city, the Antonia Fortress nearby.

  “This is the Temple built for Your Father,” Lucifer said. “It is of course not as magnificent as the one built by Solomon, but it is nevertheless a great house and will help me make my point.”

  He took Jesus by the arm and escorted Him to the very edge.

  “Like You, I am a student of the Scriptures,” Lucifer said. “I know You hold great stock in the Holy Writ—they are Your life, so to speak. I recall a verse that goes like this: ‘He will command His angels concerning You, and they shall lift You up in their hands, so that You won’t even strike Your foot against a stone.’ If You truly believe this, and if You are truly the Son of God, then throw Yourself from here. The angels will surely protect You.”

  Jesus looked down into the courtyard. Lucifer stood close to Him.

  “How easy it would be…what a glorious way to allow the Lord’s Word to prove itself…what a sure way to demonstrate Your trust in the Most High and to convince these religious fools You are indeed who You claim to be…”

  Jesus stepped back and looked at Lucifer.

  “The Word also says we should not put the Lord to the test!”

  Jesus suddenly felt a cool breeze as He found himself standing with Lucifer upon a high mountain top. They were at a vantage overlooking a great valley in which many great cities were spread out before them. Lucifer stood in front of Jesus, indicating the greatness of the world which was before His eyes.

  “Look at it Jesus,” he said. “All of this and much more belongs to me. You are a Jew—the Son of a poor carpenter. There is nothing extraordinary about You. You look like any other Jew in this forsaken and forgotten province of Rome. You shall never amount to anything other than that which Your father has left You—a few simple skills in carpentry and a devotion to Your Lord.”

  He walked over to Jesus, almost pleading.

  “Keep those if You like. Keep Your faith and Your father’s trade. But I am offering You much more! I am offering You this world. It has been mine since Eden and it shall be Yours if You will only bow Your knee to me and worship me! That is all I ask! That is all I wanted in Heaven! It is all I require on earth.”

  “AWAY FROM ME, SATAN!”

  Upon those words Lucifer was thrown back and fell to the ground. He managed to get on his knees as Jesus spoke again.

  “It is written that you shall worship only the Lord your God…and you shall serve only Him!”

  Lucifer stood, his anger rising within him as several holy angels began descending upon Jesus to minister to Him. He looked up as they began surrounding Him.

  He scoffed at them.

  “Very well, Jesus,” he said finally. “Let these weak-willed slaves tend to You here and now. But this is not yet over!”

  He vanished as hundreds more angels settled in and
around Jesus. Serus arrived with Gabriel. They had watched their Lord overcome the great temptation set before Him by a very cunning enemy.

  “I saw one man fall in Eden and start this war,” said Gabriel, as they watched Jesus eat food provided by the angels. “I praise God I have not see another fall and finish it.”

  “Was there ever a doubt?” asked Serus. “I mean, Jesus is the Son of God. How could He fall prey to something as common as temptation?”

  “Because He must prove Himself,” came the familiar voice of Crispin, who was leading a group of students to earth to witness the ministry of Jesus, which was about to unfold in earnest. “For whatever reason it was important to the Lord that Jesus overcome the temptation of Lucifer. Sort of makes Eden not quite so painful.”

  “But I wonder what the ultimate goal of Jesus will be?” asked Serus. “ What is His strategy? He just met the enemy. Why didn’t He simply humble him?”

  Crispin winked at Serus.

  “I believe He just did!”

  CHAPTER 6

  “The Lord has zeal for his Father’s house.”

  “Behold the Lamb of God!”

  John watched as Jesus, recently returned from his contest with Lucifer in the wilderness, approached the area where he was baptizing. The people around John began drifting toward Jesus, gawking, whispering and silently contemplating just who this Man was John had singled out.

  “He is the Lamb of God!” repeated John. “He has come to take away the sins of the world!”

  Jesus acknowledged His cousin John, whose wild appearance had created such a stir in the region that even some representatives from the Sanhedrin had come to see this holy man. Some of these same priests now looked upon Jesus, waiting to see if He, too, might begin baptizing in the Jordan or preaching repentance. Upon hearing John declare that this Man, this Jesus, had come to take away the sins of the people, the priests looked at each other with puzzled expressions. They began to mutter among themselves.

  There was another who heard John’s declaration of Jesus. His name was Andrew. Watching Jesus move among the people, he thought of the weeks leading up to this moment. It was beginning to somehow make sense. John’s ministry was already well known, and his preaching had initiated a popular and personal search for faith. Andrew had been touched by the baptist’s fiery call to return to the Lord and become one of his disciples.

  But now John was declaring this other Man—this Jesus of Nazareth—to be the very Man for whom he had been sent. He even said he had seen the Holy Spirit fall upon this Man! And now John was abdicating in favor of the Nazarene. Andrew thought about following along with the crowds and finding out more about Jesus. He chased after them until he caught up with Jesus.

  “Master!”

  Jesus turned and saw Andrew coming toward Him. Andrew was of medium height and build, and wore the clothes of a common laborer. But his eyes shone with remarkable intensity—as if he were sizing up Jesus even as he neared Him. With him was another of John’s disciples.

  “Master!” repeated Andrew.

  Jesus stood and looked at the two men.

  “Master, where are You staying?”

  “Come with Me and find out,” said Jesus, who turned again and began walking.

  Andrew looked at the other man who shrugged with a “now what?” expression. Andrew looked once more at Jesus, who was walking away.

  “Let’s go with Him,” he decided.

  The day spent with Jesus at the place where He was staying was the most amazing day of Andrew’s life. Jesus spoke to them of wonderful, simple truths. He gave them vision for a coming world which would see the Lord vindicated and Israel consoled. Most of all, Jesus spoke of hope—something Andrew had only recently begun to rediscover under John’s teaching. He thought about staying longer with Jesus—but then decided to go and tell his brother Simon about the Man.

  Simon was a large man—much larger than most of his fellow Jews, certainly bigger than his brother Andrew. He was older and bore the obvious marks of a laborer. His hands were massive and well-worn, and looked as if they could easily crush a man’s skull—and yet Simon’s eyes were clear and strangely compassionate.

  Simon snorted a bit.

  “What does He mean come and see?” he whispered to his brother. “Why should we come and see? Seems to me this is an ordinary enough Fellow. We have a catch to make!”

  Andrew pleaded with his brother.

  “Simon, listen to me,” he said with intensity. “I cannot explain it to you. But I believe this Man is the Messiah!”

  Simon dropped the net he was folding and looked at his brother quizzically. He walked over to Andrew and sniffed his breath to make sure he hadn’t been drinking some wine.

  “Stop it,” said Andrew. “I’m not drunk. I’m telling you the truth!”

  Simon shook his head in disbelief and left the net to follow Andrew. The two continued talking about the younger brother’s insistence that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Finally Simon had enough of it. He would see to this Jesus nonsense and make sure He stopped filling his younger brother’s head with ridiculous ideas. He might even have a word with John’s disciples.

  “You think this Jesus is the Messiah…the Messiah?” Simon finally asked as they walked along.

  “That is what John said,” Andrew responded. “There He is!”

  He pointed to Jesus, who was drinking from a well near the house where He was staying. Jesus looked up as the two men approached.

  “See here,” said Simon, not even allowing Andrew to introduce him. “My brother tells me You are some sort of Holy Man. That’s well and good. But don’t be going around calling Yourself the Messiah.” He winked at Jesus. “The last ‘Messiah’ we had was killed by the Romans in a skirmish north of here. His whole group was murdered by Pilate’s cutthroats. I don’t want my brother to get caught up in any of that.”

  Jesus looked at Simon and half-smiled.

  “Your name is Simon, isn’t it?” He asked. “The son of Jonah.”

  Simon was astonished.

  “Why, yes,” he admitted, looking at his smirking brother who shrugged as if to indicate he had not divulged the information. “Andrew must have mentioned it to you.”

  “From now on you shall be called Peter, the rock.”

  Simon, now called Peter, was dumbfounded. He could only nod his head and blurt out a meager ‘thank you, Sir.’ He looked at Andrew and motioned for them to leave.

  “We best be getting back to our nets,” he muttered. “Come on Andrew. We have a great deal of fishing to do yet.”

  “Yes, you do,” Jesus said, as they left Him.

  Michael and several other warriors followed Jesus into the house in Cana. Although He had only been in Cana for three days, He had taken on two followers, Philip and Nathaniel, who accompanied Him to the wedding. Philip was from Bethsaida, the town of Andrew and Peter. Nathaniel had been called when Jesus had passed through and spotted him under a tree.

  Serus wasn’t particularly impressed with either Philp or Nathaniel. But he understood that all men were deficient, and if the Lord felt He needed men around Him, then these were just as good as any other. He had questioned Michael about it all.

  “These are not things for you or me to decide,” Michael cautioned.

  The archangel never pretended to understand everything the Lord did, but he had learned to trust Him. ‘Whatever the Lord does is right’ was one of his favorite maxims. And Serus knew this to be true. Still, it boggled him that the Lord should gather mere men around Him to begin organizing the Liberation.

  “Of course He must use men,” Crispin said.

  The wisdom angel was in the company of Michael and the other warriors at Cana to study the early ministry of Jesus and record the events for the Kingdom Chronicles. He loved Serus, and wanted the angel to understand that the Lord’s ways were neither the ways of men nor of angels.

  They entered the house and walked through to a courtyard in the back where a couple of table
s had been pushed together to form a large banquet setting. Jesus was greeted by the people and introduced around by His mother. Nathaniel and Philip also greeted the people. When they were all seated a servant brought refreshment to everyone and the celebration began.

  “Humans are simple creatures really,” Crispin observed, listening to the joyful noise of fellowship. “A bit of wine, some food, good company and they are as content as any creature.”

  “They certainly are easily contented,” said Serus.

  Michael looked at Crispin upon Serus’ words and smiled.

  “What do you mean, Serus,?” Michael asked.

  “Look at them,” he said. “I know they are made in the image of the Most High but…”

  A burst of laughter filled the area as the host told a story about a member of the wedding party. Serus shook his head.

  “I don’t understand your attitude,” said Crispin. “Since when does the indifference of humans become so problematic for you? Humans have been indifferent toward the Lord since after Eden. What makes this occasion any different?”

  “Here they all sit with the Lord of the Universe,” continued Serus. “They are happily eating and drinking and making merry. They don’t even know Who is seated in their midst!”

  “Is that what concerns you?” said Michael. “As I recall there were two humans who were in the Lord’s very Presence in an ideal setting…”

  “Yes, and they settled for much less as well,” said Serus.

  “As did your former master in Heaven,” noted Crispin. “Lucifer was one of the most privileged creatures in Heaven. He, too, settled for something far inferior in the presence of the Most High.”

  “Then the plan is doomed,” said Serus resignedly. “It seems any creature with a free will eventually choose poorly.”

  The wedding party was now in full swing with a live band of musicians playing in the courtyard. Jesus was engaging in lively conversation with the host. His mother was also enjoying herself. The angels watched the party for a moment.