Instead he told himself, ‘The time for pruning has come!’
54
ANOINTING
What happened after that?’ I asked as if finished off the last words.
‘Well, after his raising Lazarus did not follow his master to Ephraim with the other disciples but remained behind at Bethany with his sisters. He needed quiet, a time to recover. Don’t forget, pairé, he had just returned from the realm of death and had to accustom himself to living in the world again.’
‘What did he see in that realm of death, Lea, can you tell me?’
‘In that realm he stood before Christ wearing only the loin-cloth of his soul and Christ baptised him with fire and He gave him a new name.’
‘A new name?’
‘Yes…he named him, John…’
‘Why another John, when there are so many?’
‘Because the finest and most noble essence of John the Baptist would live with Lazarus from that time on, so that the two would be like one, and those who recognised this union called him Lazarus-John, or the apostle John.’
‘The Apostle John! The writer of our Gospel?’
‘Yes, pairé.’
I was astounded, speechless, overcome! I could not believe it! I took myself to the window to look out at the black night. ‘But Lea, I had always thought that John was little John of Zebedee!’
‘The difference between John the apostle and John the Evangelist,’ she instructed me, ‘will not be understood for a long time, pairé. But you will soon see how little John of Zebedee will allow Lazarus-John to replace him in the circle of followers. Even so, because of his selflessness, he will still maintain his place in the circle, through Lazarus-John.’
‘So that is how the chain of love was bound between all Manicheans to John and his Gospel? John had once been Lazarus! Lazarus and the young man of Nain, who became Mani, had been united in common purpose by Christ!’
‘Shall I go on?’ Lea asked.
‘Please…’ I said. Coming back to the bench I took the quill in one hand and put the other hand to my mouth, lest my heart leap out.
‡
Among these strange and awesome transformations, Lazarus-John felt as if a drop of divinity had fallen from out of Christ and had entered into his own being. The prophecy of Photismos, his teacher, had come true after all – the Word that had once overshone his soul from above, did indeed now shine from inside him out to the world so that he could say: not I, but the Christ in me.
It was six days before the Feast of Passover and he was taken with this knowing, as he helped his sisters prepare a supper for Christ Jesus and his disciples. They had only just returned to Bethany from Ephraim. On their arrival, his master had seemed full of exhaustion and had spent most of the day in meditation. Lazarus understood that he was preparing himself for his final entry into Jerusalem and this would initiate all that would come after. And as Lazarus-John looked about him now at the faces of the other disciples, it was plain to see how fear had laid a grip on their souls because of it.
But he no longer felt fear, for he had died and had returned to life altered. In particular, his nights and days had lost their meaning. The hours passed unbroken by sleep, so that in the course of an unfolding day he could see, overlayed upon it, the fulfilment of the heavenly pattern he had seen in the night. This understanding of above and below made his vision threefold: he could see not only the present moment, but what had led to it from the past and what it would bring about in the future.
This peculiar knowledge cancelled out any notion of fear.
But Lazarus-John was never more aware that among his master’s dearest disciples there were varying degrees of understanding. There were those who struggled to see beyond Jesus, the master who stood before them in a body that was crumbling and turning to dust. Then again there were those who had risen only to an imperfect understanding of Christ. In truth, he knew that in the future this would spawn great conflicts and men would argue as to the divinity of Jesus and the humanity of Christ and that many would die because of it. If only those who were closest to him could understand this perfect marriage of God and Man in its fullness, perhaps these conflicts might never come.
However, Lazarus-John knew he had been raised for this very reason – because those around his master had failed to recognise the God in the Man. Lazarus would be the witness. He would be the only one to tell of both the earthly Jesus and the heavenly Christ.
When the meal was over and the women had come into the room to listen a quiet fell over the evening. Lazarus-John observed how Judas’ eye fell upon his sister Magdalena. She was kneeling before Christ Jesus preparing to anoint his feet with pure nard and to wipe them with her hair. The perfume filled the room with a sad blessing and made the air glow with warmth but it cast a shadow over Judas’ face. His blood was boiling, and his anger was poorly hidden.