Final Confrontation (10 page)

“You will remain in Egypt until I bring you word,” the angel answered. “Herod will not rest until the Child is dead. Go!”

Joseph suddenly awoke. There was nobody in the room. His wife and Son remained asleep. Was it real? Suddenly he felt a sense of urgency overwhelm him as visions of his family slaughtered began playing before his mind. He awakened his wife and began making preparations for Egypt.

“Have you seen my Son?”

Mary held her hand out her hand as she looked about her frantically. “He’s about this tall.”

She ran to the next woman.

“Have you seen a Boy of twelve? His name is Jesus.”

The woman shrugged her shoulders and indicated that she had seen no one. The group of pilgrims was returning from the annual trip to Jerusalem for the Passover. As the men traveled separately from the women, Joseph and Mary each thought their Son was with the other parent. When it was evident that the Boy was not among the women and children, Mary raced ahead to the group of men.

Joseph was surprised to see Mary hurrying to the men’s camp. He immediately realized something was the matter.

“Is Jesus with you?” she panted, looking among the boys playing noisily nearby. “Please say He is…”

Joseph’s eyes told the story and Mary began crying. Joseph told the others Jesus was missing and that he and Mary were returning to Jerusalem to see if He might be somewhere behind—perhaps with another group. They prayed as they left the camp that God would help them to find their Son.

“He is an amazing Boy,” mused Serus. “He is engaging those priests as if He were one of them!”

Crispin and Serus stood in one of the outer courts watching the young Jesus discussing matters of faith with the doctors of religion at the Temple. The priests were both amused and astonished that this young Nazarene should be so skilled in theology. Serus had been watching over Jesus ever since he had become separated from his parents, lingering behind in the house of the Lord—a place that felt strangely familiar.

“Of course He engages them,” said Crispin. “Remember, Serus, though He is a Boy, He is also the Son of God.” He snickered as the priests continued their questioning. “They are discussing Creation with the Creator!”

“Surely they realize there is something remarkable about the Lad,” said Serus. “How many boys entertain such thoughts?”

“Or grown men, for that matter,” said Crispin. “Again, Serus, we angels must remember that Jesus is both God and Man—a splendid blending of humanity and the Divine into a single person. And yet the Boy has acquired His knowledge through study and discipline and grown in favor with both God and men.”

Serus looked at the Child, who was now looking less the scholar and more the tired little Boy. Such a sweeping and profound thought: God Himself invested as a human. From the prophecy in Eden, to the promise through Abraham; from the pleadings of the prophets to that dramatic night in Bethlehem—somehow a wonderful plan known only to the Lord was unfolding and the Host were the astonished witnesses of it. And yet the question loomed unanswered and nagging…

“To what end?” asked Serus vacantly.

Crispin looked at the angel who had once been an enemy and was now an adept fighter for righteousness.

“To what end?” repeated Crispin.

“I mean, why must God become a human?”

“I suppose,” answered Crispin, “because as God He cannot fully do what He must do. Remarkable thought. At least that is what I tell the students at the Academy. Short of that we don’t really know.”

Serus was not satisfied. He decided to press the scholarly angel.

“But why?” he continued. “Why must the Most High do all of this? Why doesn’t He simply finish off Lucifer and his followers and be done with it?”

“Now that is the question,” said Crispin, as the two watched Mary and Joseph enter the court and collect their Son. Jesus disappeared with his parents leaving the priests in their discussion. The angels followed Joseph and Mary out of the courtyard. After leaving the Temple area they asked their Son why He had not returned with them.

“Mother, father, why were you searching for Me?” Jesus asked. “This is where you’ll find Me…in My Father’s house. I have to be in My Father’s house.”

Serus watched the parents as Joseph gave Mary a knowing look. They set the Boy upon His donkey and led Him out of the city.

“I have to be in my Father’s house,” repeated Crispin. “Incredible! Somewhere in that phrase is the answer to your question, Serus. But how it shall unfold is beyond the speculation of mere angels.”

“He must be in His Father’s house?” said Kara with an attitude of disdain. “He was in His Father’s house until He came to earth. Better He should have stayed there!”

The angels laughed at Kara’s remark.

“Obviously His coming to the Temple is intended to start some enormously important task for the Father,” returned Tinius.

“Or perhaps to finish one,” said Lucifer, who had just entered the Council with Pellecus and Rugio.

The Council immediately came to order. Lucifer seemed peculiarly jovial for one who was being increasingly pressured to act in the matter of the young Jesus. He nodded to the assembled group that he was ready for the reports. One by one the angels stressed their loyalty to their chief, and pledged that, come what may, they had confidence their lord would deal with Jesus decisively.

“Thank you all for your confidence,” he finally said. “But as our young Opponent demonstrated earlier at the Temple, this conflict is becoming less and less carnal and more and more philosophical.” He smiled at the group of angels.

“Meaning…?” inquired Kara.

“Meaning this battle will be won or lost in the mind. It has become a contest of wits, now, and is therefore decidedly in our favor.”

“How so, my lord?” asked Rugio, who favored an all-out bloody conflict rather than what he considered the niceties of a more cerebral war. “You always said it was men who would decide the war in the end.”

“And so they shall, Rugio,” said Lucifer. “We have shed much blood on this accursed world. We have the blood of millions on our hands. And yet the contest is still in play. I tell you, brothers, this war will indeed be fought in the minds of men—-not on their battlefields.”

Kara, who had become something of a loyal opposition leader ever since the birth at Bethlehem, stood to question Lucifer on behalf of others who were less bold, or perhaps less wise. Though he would never oppose Lucifer outright, he felt it his duty as a former elder in the Kingdom to propose debate whenever it seemed prudent.

“My prince, we are all indebted to your leadership,” Kara began. “It has taken us far. And true, the ordinary human mind is quite manageable. Our experience with humans since Eden has borne that out. But this Jesus is not an ordinary human. He possesses a superior mind—the mind of God. If it becomes a war of the mind, then we are in grave peril.”

A few affirming grunts arose from the Council. Kara. Emboldened by this and relishing the attention, he continued.

“It therefore seems to me the ordinary strategies we have employed will not suffice…”

As Kara spoke, Lucifer sat silent and listened. Pellecus could only smirk at Kara’s pompous show. Kara ignored the antagonism and continued forcefully.

“This is no David, who succumbed to Bathsheba in the passion of lust. This is no Solomon who corrupted his wisdom in carnal pursuits. This is no Samson who squandered the Spirit in prideful disregard. This is the Son of God! And we must deal with Him lest we all perish!”

Some of the Council cheered Kara with hearty agreements, but were quickly subdued under Rugio’s glaring eyes. For his part, Lucifer stood as if in deep thought, as if he had been challenged in a point he had not yet considered. Kara sat down with the others awaiting the response.

“Wonderful summation of your opinion, Kara,” said Lucifer. “It brings to mind those glorious days when you were one of the twenty-four elders.” His smile quickly vanished. “But those days are long over. This is not Heaven and you are no longer an elder. Stop pretending to be one.”

Kara sheepishly nodded in compliance. Pellecus beamed.

“As to your point, I have of course considered that Jesus is indeed no ordinary human. And yet He is still mortal. He must be! And if He is mortal then He is subject to mortal weaknesses.”

“But He is God,” Tinius complained. “He is not human. He was created by the Spirit of God.”

“In a human womb,” said Pellecus, whose scholarship held great weight with the Council. “He is both God and Man. Somehow the Most High is calculating that the human side will not tarnish the divine.” Pellecus gave a hint of a smile and added, “Of course, that was the idea in Eden, too.”

A few heads nodded.

“You see, the Lord’s plan from the beginning was to embrace these human creatures,” Pellecus continued. “That is where we missed it, I’m afraid. We saw A’dam as merely another beast to inhabit the world—the Lord created him to govern the world in His name. Indeed, He gave the man His own image. He turned everything over to this creature. And still the human propensity to corrupt itself overcame the image of God placed inside of it and rebellion resulted.

“Yes, yes,” said Kara. “We know all of this. We helped place the propensity within him, don’t you remember? But what is your point?”

“The point,” said Lucifer, “is that humans have passed that same propensity down through time—all the way through so that every human uses the freedom God has given him in the most hideous ways.”

He stood now, an imposing figure dominating the room.

“I propose that Jesus, being human, will have the same propensities—the same potential failings. Right now He is a Child. But give Him a few more years. Let Him grow up in the company of His parents. Let them instill in Him those primitive Hebrew morals. Allow Him to astound the doctrinaires and fascinate the local rabbis like some freakish prodigy.

“In the end He will grow into a Man—a Man who is tempted like any other. That is when we shall appeal to His human nature. I propose when the time is right we bribe Him with all that is in our disposal, that we tickle the human side of Him, offering Him the world if we must!”