Christ the Lord - Anne Rice [86]
“Now, that I do not believe,” declared my brother James. “Cleopas, did you witness this yourself, what they're saying, that all the wine being served now was water before he changed it? I tell you, this is mad!”
Suddenly all but Cleopas were speaking at once. Only Cleopas stood there studying me.
The night was evaporating and up came the deepest blue of the dawn. The stars, my precious stars, were still visible. And beyond, the house sang still and throbbed with dancing.
“What will you do now?” Cleopas asked.
I thought for a long moment. Then I answered.
“I will go on, from surprise to surprise.”
“What are you saying?” James demanded.
They fell to quarreling again. Jason gestured furiously for silence. “Yeshua, I demand that you tell these gullible fools that you did not turn water into wine.”
My uncle began to laugh. As was always the way with him the laughter started low, creeping, and then gathered strength and depth. It remained muted yet became darker and fuller.
“Tell them,” said James. “Our young cousin here will make himself a laughingstock with this story. He'll make you a laughingstock with it. Tell them this did not take place.”
“It did take place, we saw it,” said Peter. Andrew and James bar Zebedee joined furiously in the affirmation. Then my brother James threw up his hands.
“I believe you could drive the devil out of a woman,” said Jason. “I believe that you can pray for the rain to stop and it might stop. Those things, yes, I believe those things. But not this, this I don't accept.”
Cleopas spoke up again.
“What will you do?” He drew very close to me, so that I couldn't escape him, but the others could still hear him. “When you were a little boy, you asked me many a time for answers. Remember this?”
“Yes.”
“I told you one day you would give us the answers. And I also told you that I would explain everything that I knew.”
“Yes.”
“Well, I am telling you now: you are the Anointed One. You are Christ the Lord. And you must lead us.”
Peter, the sons of Zebedee, and Philip all nodded and said they too believed this.
Cleopas said, “You must lead us now, you have no choice. You must go forth and answer every challenge put to Israel. You must take up arms as the prophets have foretold.”
“No.”
“Yeshua, you can't escape it,” Cleopas said. “I saw and heard at the Jordan. I saw the water changed into wine.”
“Yes, these things you saw,” I said, “but I will not lead our people into battle.”
“But look around you,” said Jason hotly. “The times demand it. Pontius Pilate—why, he's the reason John came out of the wilderness. It was Pilate with his cursed ensigns. And the House of Caiaphas, what did they do to avert the disaster! Yeshua, you must call all Israel now to take up arms.”
“My brother,” said James. “Surely that is so.”
“No.”
“Yeshua, the words of Isaiah call on you to do this,” said Cleopas.
“Don't quote them to me, Uncle. I know them.”
“Yeshua, if you did this thing,” said James, “then how can we fail? We must take up arms. It's the moment we've waited for, prayed for. If you tell me you did this—.”
“Oh, I know how bitterly you are all disappointed,” I said. “And I have seen in my mind's eye the armies I might lead and the victories that might come to pass. How could you think I don't know such things?”
“Then why won't you accept your destiny?” asked James bitterly. “Why must you always step back?”
“James, don't you understand what I want? Look into the faces of those around you who saw the wine come from the jar. I want an innovation that will ignite the world. That wine is no less than the blood inside my veins. I come to bring the Face of the Lord—to the whole wide world!”
They fell silent.
“The Face of the Lord,” I repeated it. I looked intently at James, and at Cleopas. I looked one by one at each of them. “The Face of the Lord I mean to bring to all.”
Silence. They stood still loosely gathered and staring at me, rapt yet not daring to speak.
“Don't you know all battles fought with swords are ultimately lost battles?” I asked. “Don't you see yourselves