# As others saw Him/chapter 7

VII.
THE SECOND SERMON.
VII.
I cannot clearly remember at what season of the year it was that I next saw Jesus; indeed, I am surprised to think that, after the lapse of nearly five-and-twenty years, I can still remember almost all that passed on the various occasions when I was in his presence. Yet I think it was about the time of the feast which we hold in memory of the rededication of the Temple under the Maccabæans that I again saw and heard the Galilæan stranger; for I mind me that I had just been taking the eight-branch candlestick which we use in the ceremonials of this feast to Petachayah the silversmith to be mended, when on my return I saw a throng collected round the synagogue of the Galilæans, and entering in, found that Jesus was to preach that day. The same ceremonial was gone through as I have already described to thee: the Law was taken from the ark with rejoicing; priest and Levite ​and four ordinary Israelites were summoned to hear it read, and again the crier called, "Let Rabbi Joshua, the son of Rabbi Joseph, arise." Now, it chanced that this time, I, as a member of the Sanhedrim, was summoned to the reading of the Law immediately after Jesus, and for a time, as is customary, we stood together upon the bema. I observed that, as the reading of the Law proceeded, the eyes of the Nazarene became fixed upon the ark, and a veil of mysterious tenderness seemed to come over them, as if he were in communion with the Shechinah, or Glory, itself. It seemed to me that afterwards, when he read the Haphtara from the prophets, and when he preached, something remained in him of this mystical communion.
Perhaps it was for this that we seemed to miss that sense of individual address which we had before observed in his eyes. No longer did these speak to us other and deeper thoughts than the words of the preacher; they seemed to dream of divine things, and so caused us also to be rapt in mystic musings. I cannot on this ​account recall for you all or even many of the words which he uttered on this occasion. He began with some plain teaching about practice. Soon he went on to speak of himself in a marvellous way, as if he would imply that communion with him and with the Most High were one and the same, and then in his last words he seemed to speak of the Last Things. And here again his words seemed as if he identified himself with the great Judge.
Now, this is not so strange to our mode of thinking in Israel as thou mightest think. Almost all our prophets speak the oracles of God as if they were using the very words of the Lord. Thou canst read in the Greek translation of the Seventy many passages of the prophets in which the very words of the Lord are given. Yet in most, if not all, cases the prophet beginneth, "Thus saith the Lord," or endeth, "This is the word of the Lord." But with this Jesus it was otherwise. He spoke as the ancient prophets do, but whether from his rapt intentness in the message he was delivering, or because he felt his spirit for the time merged in the ​divine, he spoke as if the message was his. And as he spoke, I saw looks of amazement pass between many in the synagogue, and one old graybeard rose as if to protest, and then, shaking his withered hands above his head, went out of the synagogue.
I will here set down for thee as many of the words that fell from Jesus' lips on this occasion as I can remember. They are but few, but many of them are weighty, and I have told thee above the general lines of thought which seemed to run through his discourse; and these are the words as far as I remember them.
"Cultivate faith and hope, through which is born that love of God and man which gives the eternal life. Those are the sons of God who walk in the spirit of God. What you preach before the folk, do in deed before every one. Accept not anything from any man, and possess not anything in this world. For the Father wisheth to be given to each man from his own gifts. Cleave unto the saints: for ​they that cleave unto them shall be sanctified. Yet shall there be schisms and heresies: for there is a shame which leadeth to death, as there is a shame which leadeth to life. Is it not enough for the disciples to be as the Master? If in a little you are not faithful, who shall give unto you what is much? Seek the great, and the little will be added to you; seek the heavenly, and the things of earth will be superadded.
"He that wonders shall reign, he who reigns shall find rest. My secret is for me, and for those that are mine are the things which eye saw not, and ear heard not, which entered not into the heart of man, whatsoever things God prepared for them that love him. Those who wish to see me, and wish to cling to the kingdom, must take me through affliction and suffering. For he that is near me is near the fire, he that is far from me is far from the kingdom. Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be. As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself.
"They that love me shall receive the ​crown. I will choose me the good, those good whom my Father in the heavens hath given me. Let the lawless continue in lawlessness, the just be justified. Behold, I make the last as the first, and all things new. In whatsoever state I find you, in that also will I judge you."
Never heard I any who spoke of himself as this man did. For days and days afterwards some of his words came to me again and again. Whenever I was alone I seemed to hear his voice saying, "Where one is, there too am I; where twain are, there too will I be." Whenever I gazed on the running stream or looked on the polished steel of the mirror, again I seemed to hear him say, "As any of you sees himself in the water or in the mirror, so let him see me in himself." And, in truth, at times my features seemed to fade away, and the face of Jesus gaze upon me.
Others thought not as I. When we assembled after the sermon, to talk over it, as is our custom, I found that most had been chiefly touched by certain sayings at the end of the sermon, in which Jesus ​seemed to speak of the future life and the last judgment. Thou knowest, Aglaophonos, that with regard to these matters I incline more to the teaching of the Sadducean sect, who hold that Holy Scripture speaketh not of these things, and that, therefore, we need not and should not think thereon. But there were few who held that doctrine in the synagogue that day, and these thought most of the words in which Jesus seemed to claim the prerogatives of the Divine Judge. "I was amazed," quoth Serachyah ben Pinchas, "when he spoke of judging us himself in the last days: it wanted but a little that I had rent my garments at the blasphemy. But surely, thought I to myself, the man will shortly tell us, 'These are the words of the Lord,' and so I refrained."
Now I will tell thee of a most strange event that happened with me and this Jesus. A day or two after this, I was sitting in my room and studying the words of Torah, and had fallen into deep thought on the things of this life and the next, and gradually I fell thinking of certain words that I had heard from Jesus ​the Nazarene, as I have before told you. Hast thou ever felt, Aglaophonos, as if some one was gazing upon thee, and thou couldst not refrain from looking round to see who it was? So I felt at this moment, and I looked up from the sacred scroll, and lo! Jesus the Nazarene stood before me, gazing upon me with those piercing eyes I can never forget. His face was pale and indistinct, but the eyes shone forth as if with tenderness and pity. Then he seemed to lean forward, and spoke to me in a low yet piercing voice these words: "Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and the Christ shall shine upon thee." I had shrunk back from his gaze, and was, indeed, in all amaze and wonder that he should be in the room; but when I looked again, behold, he was gone, there was no man there.
But this is not all the wonder of that event, for, being startled, and, indeed, somewhat fearful at his sudden appearance and disappearance, I arose and went out into the highway, and went out to walk on the Gethsemane road. Now, as I came clear of the city, I saw a group of ​men coming down the opposite hill, and when they came near, behold, it was Jesus and some of his friends. I was astonished and surprised beyond all measure, for how could Jesus have just been with me, and be now coming from Gethsemane? And when they were passing me, Jesus glanced at me very slightly, as at a stranger—he that had spoken to my soul but a few minutes since.
Now, after they had passed me, there came one running after them whom I knew—one Meshullam ben Hanoch—and I stopped him and asked him whither he was going, and he said, "Stay me not. I have run all the way from Bethany to catch up that man thou seest there, Jesus the Nazarene;" and with that he took up his running and left me.
I knew not what to think. I had seen and heard Jesus in my own house in Jerusalem, and lo! at that very same time, as I now learned, he had been at Bethany. What thinkest thou, Aglaophonos,—can a man be in two places at one and the same time? or can it be that the mind of man, and the power of his eye, can go ​forth from his body and create a vision of another man that hath all the semblance of reality? I know not what to think; but I have heard that, even after his death, those who were nearest and dearest to Jesus saw him and heard him even as I did. Nor do I wonder at this, after what has occurred to myself.