Jerusalem, AD 30: Stories in the city that the missing preacher Jesus has been seen alive and well have been corroborated by a young man just returned from the Judaean desert. Joseph is a member of a wealthy land-owning family, originally from the Arimathea area. He was crossing the desert last week when he saw a figure sitting alone on an outcrop of rocks.
Thinking it might be someone in trouble he went towards the man and as he approached recognised him as Jesus. He had seen the preacher in Capernaum and had listened to him there. He was impressed both by what Jesus had said and the natural authority with which he said it. He also liked his courage in attacking the religious authorities and recalled predicting at the time that if Jesus survived the anger of the authorities he would go far.
In the desert, as he came nearer, he asked: "Are you OK?" Jesus said he was fine. It emerged the preacher had been praying and fasting for almost five weeks and planned continuing to do so for at least one more.
"Forty days and 40 nights," calculated Joseph. "You are a good man." "Why do you call me good?" replied Jesus, "no one is good except God." Then Joseph asked him "What must I do to gain eternal life?"
"You know very well what to do," said Jesus, but he elaborated anyhow. "Keep the commandments. Don't murder. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't commit adultery. Don't defraud anyone. Treat your parents with respect." Joseph said he had been abiding by all those things since he was a child.
"There is one more thing you must do," said Jesus. "Sell everything you have and give the proceeds to the poor. After that? Follow me. Then you'll have wealth in heaven." Joseph had been taken by surprise. He felt he couldn't do this. He liked being wealthy. He was troubled.
"I've bread here if you want some," he said. "Get behind me Satan," retorted Jesus angrily, who thought the young man was trying to tempt him to break his fast. "Man does not live by bread alone," he added, pointedly.
Joseph pondered. "I could help you rule over all Palestine. I could make you ruler even further afield. I would help you get all the power you want and a lifestyle to match. I have the means and I would finance your campaign. That is, of course, if your policies are the same as mine."
Jesus did not conceal his disgust. "My only master is God and he is the only one I serve . . . or will serve," he said. Joseph said he then became angry. Contemptuously he said to Jesus: "If you are the `son of God', as you say you are, throw yourself off these rocks and see what happens. Was it not predicted by the prophets that God would command the angels to protect his son? `They will lift you in their hands so that you won't even hit your foot on a stone.' Is that not what they said?" he asked.
"They also said that God was not to be tested," Jesus replied. Then, with mock sympathy, he said: "How hard it is to be rich!" Seeing Joseph react with a smile, he continued: "You know it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven." Joseph's smile disappeared.
He told Jesus he was amazed at what he said. "If that's the case everyone is lost . . . if everyone has to give up what they have, what hope is there for anyone?" he asked. Jesus looked at him directly and said: "It might seem impossible to men but it is not impossible to God. All things are possible with God. And I'll tell you furthermore, no one who has left home or family - brothers, sisters, father, mother, children, even fields - for my sake and what I preach will fail to receive less than a hundred times as much back, in this life and in the next. However, many of those among the first to do so will be last and many who are last will be first."
Joseph did not quite understand what this last sentence meant but disregarded it in his overall gloom at what the preacher said. He knew he could never make the sacrifices asked of him. He left Jesus and continued on his journey to Jerusalem.
He said last night he had not been serious in offering to help Jesus become ruler. "I was just testing him," he said, "to see whether he was genuine."
