By this time, more of Jesus’s original supporters had caught up to the crowd. They, too, were shocked by what they saw and heard. But now, finding themselves in the position of being far outnumbered, they were too frightened to speak out.

One elder woman among them, however, who had known Orpah when she was a child, grew angry and told the others she could not abide by the people’s praising solely of the Father. Her companions tried to hold her back, but she threw them off and charged forward. When she got close to the front, she shouted up to Jesus, “Friend! Have you lost your way? Do you not say still, ‘Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you’?”

Upon hearing her words, Peter grew enraged. Facing the old woman head-on, he viciously retorted, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God the Father and obey it!”

The crowd roared its assent and the old woman cowered. Stunned into silence, and fearing for her life, she turned and fled.

Judas stood before Pilate. Dried blood clotted his clothes.

“I thought I told you not to return until after Passover,” Pilate growled, pressing his seal into a pool of hot wax. Already he felt as if security within the city was spinning out of his control.

“He is here,” Judas said.

“Who is here?” Pilate asked, then blew on the wax to cool it.

“The healer. The one called Jesus.”

“Here in Jerusalem?”

“Yes. He now claims to be the Son of God and means to incite a revolt. The number of his followers has grown enormously. And their efforts are well conceived.”

Pilate’s face shattered.

A revolt? In the city?

At first blush, the thought rattled him. But then he began to see the opportunity. He leveled a conspiratorial look at the battered assassin. “But you will help me bring him to justice?”

Judas nodded.

Pilate reached to his waist and removed a pouch full of coins. He slung it toward Judas. “Half now. Half when he is captured.”

Judas took the coins and bowed.

“I will command all the men you need. Bring him alive,” Pilate said.

Following their triumphant arrival in the city, Peter, Saul, and their men took shelter in a long tent far from the crowds. Lamps flickered on its dirt floor. Servants carried in trays of food and laid them in front of the men. A woman with glittering skin knelt before Peter rubbing his feet with perfumed oil. In the back of the tent rested several locked coffers. A set of heavy silver keys dangled at Saul’s waist.

As the men leaned forward to eat, the former magician stood to address his cadre. “Friends,” he began, “it has come to my ears that there are enemies in the land. Enemies who would challenge the righteousness of our one true Messiah.”