I saw a powerful light, and before me appeared figures from Israel’s past, and they spoke to Jesus, and the skies opened and a voice said, ‘This is my beloved Son, listen to his words.’
21. Peter went on to tell Judas: ‘I understand what awaits us when we travel to Jerusalem, and I now accept that Jesus will rise from the dead.’
see
Mark 9:9–13;
Matt 17:9–13
22. Judas left him for he was inconsolable. If Jesus was the expected Davidic Messiah, the King of Israel, why would he enter Jerusalem only to be slain, and then to rise again from the dead three days later? There was nothing written or spoken in Jewish tradition that suggested such a happening would take place.
23. But it was clear to Judas that the thought of Jesus’ death no longer alarmed Peter, James or John, who had clearly been overwhelmed by what they had seen on the mountain during the night.
24. For the first time, Judas began to doubt that Jesus, in whom he had placed so much faith and commitment, was the Messiah Israel had been waiting for.
25. Judas withdrew from his fellow disciples and kept his own counsel.
26. When the sun reached its zenith, Jesus stopped to rest and gathered around him all his followers. He addressed them with these words: The Son of Man will be given into the hands of men, and they will kill him. But God will not abandon him. He will live again with you on the other side of death.
see
Mark 9:31;
Matt 17:22–23;
Luke 9:44
[xxv]
27. Judas loved the Master above all men, and after John the Baptist had commanded: There goes a man of God, follow him, he had become wholly committed to Jesus’ ministry.
see
John 1:34–36
28. But Judas was also a devout son of Israel, who looked to Jesus to fulfil the prophecies of Israel’s sages, and now feared that this Son of Man had no intention of entering Jerusalem with authority to reclaim the Davidic throne of Israel for the Jewish people.
29. Judas felt a deep pain in his heart while he pondered these matters, aware that if Jesus were to continue on this course, then all would be lost. Once again the Romans must triumph and the very
survival of Israel might be threatened.
Chapter 15
You have chosen to follow a dangerous man
1. Jesus and his disciples were approaching the end of their journey to Jerusalem.
2. They planned to spend nightfall in Jericho before ascending the slopes of Judea and finally entering the Holy City.
3. They passed through the gates of Jericho during the early evening, to find the vendors in the market place closing their booths, while the labourers who had been toiling in the fields were wending their way home.
4. As Jesus walked through the streets, the local people gathered around him, curious to set eyes on the stranger from Galilee.
[xxvi]
5. Rumours of a new prophet, possibly even the Messiah, had reached Jericho some time before Jesus appeared. Like so many devout Jews, the citizens of Jericho lived in hope that someone had finally come to rescue them from the tyranny of Rome.
6. As Jesus progressed through the streets, some simply stopped to gaze at the man from Nazareth, while others greeted him with cries of Master, Rabbi, even Messiah, but Jesus continued on his way without responding to the exhortations of the noisy crowd.