He inclined his ailing body on cushions and closed his eyes to let the smells of fish and rosemary and the sounds of the women cooking in the house comfort him. His master sat on a rush mat, so quiet and still, that it seemed to Lazarus as though only the body of his master was before him while his true essence was very far away.
Lazarus closed his eyes and his thoughts turned to arduous journeys, to rain and to sun, to being hunted and to fleeing. In his dream he saw his master sending the followers away to the townships to proclaim him, and he saw himself journeying home with the women to Bethany.
For a moment, the mislaid world returned, and he opened his eyes. He was in the booth. He heard the women arguing in the house. He saw his master. His eyes closed, and he was sunk down again, into half dreams where he heard his master’s words:
‘You must forsake not merely your worldly riches, which are easy to sacrifice, Lazarus, but those riches of your old soul, the riches of other lives,’ he said to him. ‘You must become like a poor man who has not even a loin cloth; like a little child, that is not ashamed to stand naked before God. Only then will you enter the kingdom!’
He opened his eyes again, and realised his master was returned again, and was looking upon him with kind concern.
Jesus said to him, ‘I have been in Jerusalem…in secret.’
Lazarus shivered. ‘At this moment…as you sat in contemplation?’
‘My spirit is still able to leave the body, and so I can speak in the Temple while I sit here with you…this ability will not last.’
At that moment Magdalena entered the booth to bring Lazarus a cool cloth. She was so beautiful to his eyes, his little sister whom his master had saved from the madness of her visions.
His master looked upon her with love, for she was also his spirit pupil. He said to her, ‘Stay a while…I must speak with you.’
She sat at his feet.
‘Listen to me Magdalena…soon the time comes for my sacrifice, but first must come the sign.’
Magdalena fell to weeping, and Christ Jesus put a soothing hand on her head and said to her tenderly, ‘Weep not for you will be the first to see me when I am raised, so be strong. For now we will speak of the last sign that must be performed before the Son of Man can go to his death. Your brother has near discarded the garment of his body, and soon he will pass into spiritual worlds. He will die, and you and your sister will have to prepare his body for the burial. You will sit with him and hold him in your heart, you will be the guardian of his soul, Magdalena, while Martha will be the guardian of his body. Do this until I return. Have faith, support your brother as you have support me. For in every death there is a rebirth. Wait for my call when the last sign shall be accomplished. I will raise your brother from the world of the dead. I will do this to reveal to all that Christ lives in me.’ He looked to Lazarus then, ‘Remember Lazarus, my brother, this is only a preparation for you will live long. Years from now you shall see the heavens part above you, and all those things which you shall witness, in your dying and becoming, will be made more clear to you. Your heart shall catch on fire and your soul shall be as a parchment on which God shall write his words. This is not the end for you but it is only enacted to show the glory of God in me.’
Lazarus could barely hear these things. He felt a sudden peace overtake him. The world was still. Quiet was the sea and air, and the very heavens came to rest, and among this harmony did his acquiescent soul lift up from him.
And that is when he entered the Kingdom.
51
THE SIXTH SIGN
It was the Feast of the Tabernacles, a time of great commemoration in the Hebrew Calendar and Claudia Procula, having heard that Jesus was in Jerusalem and discoursing with the Pharisees at the temple, made hasty preparations to see him.
She took herself out into the streets dressed like a Jew so as not to attract undue attention, and it was not long before she sensed as she made her way through the crowds, the presence of Gaius Cassius, following some way behind her.
It was her custom in those days to alert him of her movements by way of a note sent with Susannah. She understood that he followed her not only because it was his charge but also because between them was formed an understanding, bound not by duty, but by a friendship grown over many months as they now and again travelled to see Jesus.
This understanding had made her feel strangely disloyal to her husband, and there were many times when she almost told him of her doings, of her soul’s newfound joy, and the wide horizons that lay open to her heart’s senses. She wanted to tell him that she considered herself a follower of Jesus, but each time something had prevented it, and the words had come into her mind – not yet.