No change of expression. None of the bigot’s customary cold animosity dulled his eyes. His lips curled into a half smile, and he said, “Your belief is shared by a great majority of our people, not only here but even in his own village. We still have much work to do.”

“The more I hear about his final days,” I began, “the stronger grows my conviction that Jesus came to Jerusalem, that last week, not only for the purpose of celebrating Passover but to rally all the people to his cause, somehow expecting to be able to convince them that he could lead them to a better life, a new kingdom here on earth. Since even his most bitter foes are in agreement that he was neither foolhardy nor ignorant, I find it difficult to understand how he expected to impose his will on this great city with only a dozen or so unarmed Galileans to help him.”

“Matthias, there was much that was puzzling about that week, even to those of us who were closest to him. None of us had any stomach for going up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover that year, for we knew that the chief priests and the Sanhedrin had agreed to put Jesus to death, after he had raised Lazarus, because they feared that all men would soon believe in him if he were allowed to continue working his miracles.”

“John, why did Jesus enter the city, on that first day of his last week, riding on a lowly ass, of all animals?”

“As our party neared Bethpage, on our journey to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus sent two of us ahead to secure for him an ass, saying that it was necessary that he ride one into Jerusalem in order that the prophet’s words be fulfilled.”

“Did any of you understand what he meant?”

“None of us. We were not as proficient in the words of our prophets as Jesus. Only later, much later, did we learn that Zechariah had written, ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass.…’ ”

“Was Zechariah describing the Messiah?”

“Yes, he who was to come to free the people from Alexander, more than three hundred years ago.”

“Since Alexander died with the entire world in his hands, I take it that Zechariah’s liberator never came. Then Jesus, riding upon an ass, intended this to be a sign to the people that he was entering Jerusalem as their Messiah? That makes no sense at all. If you and the other apostles did not understand the sign, how could Jesus expect the rural and uneducated crowds on the road to recognize it?”

John shrugged his thin shoulders. “Other than his words that the prophecy should be fulfilled, Jesus did not explain his reasoning to us, nor did we ask.”