Original subtitles

[dramatic music]

♪

- The story of Jesus

is the greatest story ever told.

- [shouting]

- Where is he?

♪

male narrator: For over 2,000 years,

the story of Jesus Christ has touched the lives

of billions around the globe.

[whip cracking] - [screaming]

- Jesus felt what we felt.

He faced what we face today.

♪

- If we want to understand Western history at all,

we must understand the story of Jesus.

narrator: Now for the first time, his story is told

through the eyes of those who knew him best.

- Is that my son?

- Mary the mother of Jesus is a critical figure

in Christianity today.

- Stay safe.

- But the relationship between Mary and Jesus

is a complicated one.

- Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

- He was going to make choices that were beyond her control.

- This man is no Messiah!

- Mary understood that Jesus was special,

Jesus had a mission.

Jesus was going to live his life differently.

♪

- You can't stop them. - I have to try.

♪

- My name is Mary, the mother of Jesus.

I've always known

there was a special plan for my son,

a plan God would someday reveal.

♪

I've longed for that moment, and I feared it.

♪

Jesus?

- Jesus?

- We don't know much about Jesus as a child.

We hear about his birth,

and we hear about his adult ministry.

But there's only one story in the Bible

of Jesus as a young boy.

- Excuse me, have you seen a little boy?

No?

- All right, come on.

♪

- When Jesus is 12 years old, Mary and Joseph take him

to Jerusalem to visit the temple at Passover.

[indistinct chatter]

- Jerusalem would have been a madhouse at Passover.

You have Jews from all over the regions of the Roman Empire

here in their holy city during this time.

- Upon their return, Joseph and Mary realize

that Jesus isn't among them. They couldn't find him.

I can't imagine what was going through their minds.

[dramatic music]

- Jesus.

♪

Jesus! - Mary.

Come on. - It's not him.

- Come on.

♪

Tomorrow we will find him.

♪

- Yes.

- Mary knew that Jesus was the son of God,

that Jesus was potentially a threat to the Roman Empire.

And so when Jesus disappeared, it's likely that she was

really concerned about his well-being.

♪

- My only mission was to keep Jesus safe.

When he was young,

Joseph and I had to flee to save his life.

♪

- [shouting]

[all screaming]

♪

- Mary, come on.

Let's go.

- When Jesus was a very young child,

King Herod tried to have him killed.

♪

This was known as the Massacre of the Innocents.

- [shouting] - No, my son!

- [screaming]

♪

- So to escape certain death,

Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with the infant Jesus.

♪

It's only after Herod's death that they returned

to Galilee and they make their home in Nazareth.

- This is almost like a retelling of the Exodus story.

They're coming out of Egypt and back into the Promised Land.

♪

- After several days of frantically searching the city,

Mary and Joseph finally turn to the temple mount.

[distant shouting]

- Now Jesus was gone. Who was he with?

Why did he leave us? I didn't understand.

♪

- Jesus!

Have you seen a young boy running around here?

- Have you seen a little boy?

No one?

- The temple in Jerusalem was regarded not just as we would

regard a church or a synagogue today.

It was regarded as the house of God.

- Look-- - I've asked everyone.

- We will find him.

We're looking for our son, Jesus.

He's 12. - Yes, yes.

♪

- Come on.

- When they finally locate Jesus,

he's up in the temple apparently holding court

with some of the religious figures

debating with them, and they're astonished

at some of the things he knows.

♪

- Why have you treated us like this?

- Your mother and I have been searching everywhere for you.

- Why were you searching for me.

- Mary is shocked to find him there,

and he turns around and sort of says, "Well,

"what did you expect?

"Where did you expect to find me?

"You should have known that I had to be here

in my Father's house."

- This is the only story from the Bible we have

of Jesus as a child.

The whole point is to show Jesus was special,

even at a young age.

At 12 years old,

there was something different about him.

- This was the first notion that Mary had that he was

going to make choices that were beyond her control

and that were a part of what he had been called to live out.

♪

- Until now, Joseph and I had kept Jesus safe

knowing his secret wouldn't be ours forever.

♪

- The New Testament doesn't tell us anything more

about Jesus until he's a grown man.

♪

We don't even know what happens to Joseph.

The tradition is that he dies

before Jesus begins his adult ministry.

♪

- Many Christians today would be surprised to hear

that Jesus had brothers and sisters,

but it's very clearly and unambiguously stated

in the New Testament.

♪

- We don't know the names of Jesus' sisters,

but the Gospels of Matthew and Mark give us the names

of his brothers: Simon, Judas, Joses, and James.

- There's a great debate over whether these brothers

and sisters are actually Jesus' direct brothers and sisters

biologically from Mary and Joseph

or stepchildren from Joseph and another.

- Catholics believe that Mary was always a virgin,

and so many Catholics believe these may have been

Joseph's children from a former marriage.

Protestants have no problem with Jesus

having natural brothers and sisters.

♪

We know very little about what's called

the Hidden Life of Jesus, which are the years

from 12 to 30.

But we presume him to be a carpenter

who's been working in Nazareth all this time.

♪

- Joseph's death would have had

a significant impact on Mary.

It would have really shifted her relationship with Jesus

because now Jesus as her firstborn son

should have taken the role of the man of the house.

♪

- Must you leave now?

- I must.

♪

- Jesus left his brothers to do the job

of supporting the family.

And I think that there was very likely

some animus between Jesus and his brothers,

especially James, precisely because of this.

♪

- I think Jesus left Nazareth because of a deep-seated call.

He knows his time.

- As his mother, I've done all I could.

I could see he now had to leave me.

♪

I didn't know where or to what,

but I had faith in God and my son.

♪

♪

- Is that my son?

[laughing]

- Mom.

- Months passed with no word,

but when I finally saw Jesus again,

he was different...

You look well. [laughs]

Happy, surrounded by friends, a man with a new purpose.

- The very first time that we know for sure after Jesus

had already begun collecting disciples

that he saw his mother is at the wedding feast in Cana.

♪

- Cana is a small village not far from Nazareth.

♪

And it's important in Jesus' ministry because

it's the site of Jesus' first public miracle.

♪

- Mary noticed great changes in Jesus when she saw him again

at the wedding at Cana.

Jesus had not only gone and been baptized

and been blessed by the Holy Spirit,

but he had gone through the temptations of the desert.

- [breathing heavily]

♪

- He had fought all of those great struggles and won.

- Peter.

Andrew, John, Philip.

This is my mother.

- Well, the wedding of Cana was really the point

where Jesus launched his ministry.

He's now with a number of fishermen

who are his disciples.

- It's good to meet you.

- I'm not sure the disciples were actually invited.

You know, they just might have come along

kind of like the wedding crashers, you know?

- You are very welcome here.

I will get you something to drink,

some wine.

- Mary is quite involved in the wedding in Cana.

She seems to be close friends with the bride and the groom.

♪

- Jewish weddings at this time lasted for several days.

The drinking lasted many days late into the nights.

- They were one of the rare occasions where even

a poor family might celebre in excess.

[suspenseful music]

- Running out of wine

at a first-century Jewish celebration

would have been embarrassing,

especially at such a family and communal celebration.

- It could well be that Mary not only felt responsibility

about the wine itself but also that this was an opportunity

for her son to make a statement about his ministry.

♪

- They've run out of wine.

- Mary says to him, "They've run out of wine,"

as if to say, "You should really

do something about this."

Jesus' response is almost snippy.

- Dear woman, why do you involve me?

- He calls her woman. He doesn't call her Mother

because Jesus has to act on the authority

of his Heavenly Father, not his earthly mother.

- It's not my time yet.

- She's encouraging him to embrace who he is.

Embrace who he knows he is and embrace who she knows he is.

- Do whatever he tells you.

♪

- Fill these jars with water.

♪

Now draw some out.

♪

- It was the first public miracle that Jesus performed.

It let people know there was something different

about this man Jesus,

and it was the prelude of many miracles to come.

- Jesus is clearly different now.

He's the wonder worker. He's the miracle worker.

He is the Messiah in front of everyone

and in front of Mary, his mother, too.

- What did I expect of him? I didn't know.

But I didn't anticipate what Jesus would do next.

[uplifting music]

♪

- Mary seems to have moved the heart of Jesus.

Jesus doesn't seem to be ready to begin his public ministry

with the first miracle, and yet Mary says to Jesus,

"This is the time. Look, these people need you."

[chickens clucking]

- Make me understand the way of your precepts.

[suspenseful music]

And I will meditate on your wondrous work.

♪

- This is a pivotal place in Jesus' ministry,

when the miracles start to happen.

When he's going to be healing and teaching and preaching

and start to live into his calling.

- People are talking.

The drunken believe what they see.

♪

- And you don't?

- The behavior of Jesus would have certainly caused

tension with his siblings, especially James.

He is moving into incredibly dangerous territory.

♪

- I could see how the changes in Jesus frightened James.

But I didn't know yet how others would react.

♪

- People Jesus knew as he was growing up were Galileans.

So they were provincials slightly mocked by the grand,

more sophisticated people in Jerusalem.

♪

They were pious. They lived simple Jewish lives

and had an ideal dream life of Jewishness

ruled by a heroic king, the Messiah.

♪

- When Jesus returns to Nazareth

having begun his adult ministry,

he goes and speaks in the synagogue.

- The spirit of the Lord is upon me.

Because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free.

- Jesus read from the Book of Isaiah,

and he talked about the coming of the Messiah.

And in doing this, he starts to imply for the first time

that he may himself be the much longed for Messiah.

- Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

- Does he even know what he's saying?

[indistinct chatter]

- He's presenting himself as a Messiah, as the Messiah,

which they'd been waiting on, and all of a sudden

it's their--it's the little boy that grew up down the street?

It's you? Can't be.

- He's not saying it outright.

But you can't help but hear what Jesus is saying.

- Is this a joke? This man is no Messiah!

- The religious scholars were hearing blasphemy.

And the traditionalists who had been waiting for a Messiah

who would be a kind similar to David were upset.

- Truly I tell you no prophet is accepted in his hometown.

- Please!

- Jesus was surprised by the reaction.

He says, "A prophet is not welcome in their hometown--

is not honored in their hometown,"

which is a fiery response to come back.

I think he was a bit shocked.

But he continued and pressed the issue even more,

and they reacted fairly violently.

[all shouting]

- It gets very extreme in the synagogue.

His neighbors rise up.

They intend to take him out to a hill,

throw him off, and stone him.

[all shouting]

♪

- Now his life is in real danger because

in the first century, harsh sentences were

metered out for all sorts of transgressions.

[all shouting]

- So here's Jesus.

The crowd's pushing him toward the cliff,

holding him as he is getting nearer to the edge.

- That would be terrifying.

Now his life is in peril.

- This story leads to a climax

where simply because of Jesus' presence and conviction

and lack of fear and cowering,

he's able to triumph.

♪

- And Scripture says,

"And he passed through the multitude."

♪

- He's able to ease himself out of there,

short of death, and leaves.

♪

- He was prepared for rejection,

and he predicted it.

♪

He goes back to Nazareth to try to make clear to them

that something big is happening,

but he's not expecting much of a positive response.

♪

- The act of running Jesus out of town

fits completely with the Scripture.

The statement that Jesus

is not only prophet but will become Messiah,

that prophets are not accepted in their own town.

- He was only beginning to realize his power.

But now my neighbors saw Jesus as more than just my son.

♪

And I was afraid for him.

[dramatic music]

♪

- After Jesus spoke at the synagogue,

some of our neighbors were angry.

Others were resentful.

They didn't understand.

♪

- I would bet that Mary got furious about

the reaction in Nazareth.

Here's her son, the person that she

has held up, nurtured,

worked towards being a Messiah, and yet he's rejected

by her friends, her home, her family, her neighbors.

♪

- Look, if you're someone claiming to be

the Messiah in the Galilee,

this is gonna do nothing but attract Rome.

[footsteps thudding]

- Jesus' claims of being the Messiah puts not only Jesus

at risk but it puts the entire village of Nazareth at risk.

We're situated in a world in which the Romans do not

respond kindly to the idea of their power,

their kingship, being challenged by anyone

and for any reason.

[all shouting]

- When Jesus was a little boy, there was a rebellion

in a town called Sepphoris near his home in Nazareth.

The Romans sent in 15,000 legionaries.

They massacred the rebels. They burned the town.

And afterwards they crucified 2,000 Jews.

[dramatic music]

The message was clear.

Rome was the greatest empire in the world.

And this is what happened if you rebelled against it.

♪

- I knew they were frightened.

But I prayed that someday they would embrace my son.

♪

- After Jesus is rejected in Nazareth,

he heads down to Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee,

and it's here where the adult ministry

of Jesus really begins.

- Capernaum is the international crossroads

into Galilee,

roads coming all the way from Damascus

through to Egypt. Huge influx of visitors.

They were people coming from all different traditions,

all different areas, and it makes complete sense

that Jesus made an intentional decision to base in Capernaum

to give the broadest audience the widest hearing

of his message.

- It's while Jesus is based in Capernaum that he sought

to travel around the smaller towns and villages of Galilee,

and his reputation starts to grow.

He now starts preaching in earnest

and performing miracles.

- [distant chatter]

- Performing miracles for Jesus was a dangerous task.

He was doing something that was going to turn

the world upside down.

He was building this deep relationship with people,

not just through teaching of Scripture,

but he was touching and healing,

walking with, and speaking with the very

people Rome disrespected.

- [grunting]

- And now people are listening to him.

His story, his fame, is spreading everywhere.

[dramatic music]

♪

The ministry of Jesus is centered

on those who have their backs against the wall,

those who are marginalized and dismissed by society,

forgotten by everyone.

♪

- In the Gospel, a leper comes to Jesus

and asks to be healed.

♪

- Leprosy is mentioned 13 times in the New Testament,

so it's clearly a very common disease,

a very feared one.

Takes years to kill you, and there's no cure.

But it also means that the person who has leprosy

is the most despised figure in society.

It was widely believed that it was contagious.

♪

- Leprosy is a bacterial disease that was

a death sentence in the ancient world.

♪

- Be clean.

- And yet Jesus reaches out and touches the leper,

and the leper is healed.

♪

- When Jesus healed a leper, it shows us that he's concerned

about the marginalized, those that are cast out.

Lepers you weren't supposed to touch,

they were seen as unclean.

Yet he went to them, he loved them,

and he healed them.

♪

- We began to hear stories. I was proud of Jesus,

but I also feared for my son.

♪

- There has been talk about Jesus.

They say he's healing the sick.

- Don't, Judas.

- Once Jesus started performing healings,

once his ministry started growing,

there was actually a danger to his family back in Nazareth.

♪

- If Jesus was in danger, Mary and his brothers

and his sisters were in danger as well.

♪

- His preaching is what concerns me.

♪

They're calling him a madman,

and, worse, a charlatan.

♪

- What else have you heard?

- He even touched a leper. - Jude, stop.

- He made him clean. - This is too much.

- He's helping people. - He behaves like a Baptist.

And they served his head on a plate.

- If his own brothers couldn't embrace him...

Jesus.

What would happen to my son?

♪

- Are the things they say true?

- What do they say?

- That you heal the sick.

♪

- In John's Gospel, there's a story where

Jesus' brothers confront him and they want to know

why he doesn't reveal himself in public.

- Why have you returned?

♪

Do you even care about the trouble this will bring us?

♪

- I think his family is worried because they know how

violent the Roman government can be.

They have seen it before.

And they also know that the Jewish leaders

could be very vicious too, when it comes to threatening

their power, threatening their authority.

♪

- Why don't we leave here and go to Judea,

where your followers can see your miracles?

- Finish your food, James.

- No one who wants to be famous acts in secret.

- My time has not yet come.

♪

- Jesus says over and over again,

"My time has not yet come,"

and so when his brothers push him.

It's very easy to read Jesus as being frustrated

that he has this responsibility that they don't have,

and that that's a point of contention in the family.

- You played on the ashes of Sepphoris.

So you know your words and deeds put us all in danger.

- Enough.

- I have to wonder if James was not a supporter of Jesus

out of sibling rivalry.

- In what family is any brother a supporter

of any other brother when a brother is walking around

proclaiming to be the Son of God, right?

♪

- His own brothers couldn't grasp what Jesus was saying.

And each time he left, it became harder to explain.

♪

I didn't know what would come next.

But I knew everything was changing.

♪

I believe Mary is always aware of Jesus' calling

and Jesus' character.

His siblings, the Scriptures aren't so clear.

So I think Mary's the one that was always there for him,

always locked down, and always supportive,

and clear on his call.

♪

- With Mary, there's this tension.

She knows Jesus is the Messiah, but she's his mother.

She wants to guide him and protect him,

but she knows he has a greater purpose.

♪

- Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you.

♪

Bless those who curse you.

- In Galilee, Jesus begins preaching

and performing miracles.

And in the same way that his hometown rejected him,

people in Capernaum start to follow

and pay attention to Jesus.

- If someone slaps you on one cheek,

you turn to them the other also.

♪

- The Sermon on the Mount is the most important speech

that Jesus makes in the Bible.

- Do to others as you would have them to do you.

- It speaks to desires and ethics, you know,

that many nations have attempted, uh,

to write into some of their own policy.

♪

- Do not judge. You will not be judged.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

♪

- What Jesus taught was quite different from other Jewish

prophets at the time: love your neighbor,

not just your Jewish neighbor, but your enemy.

Love your enemy.

This was a message long before its time,

and that message helped shape a new world.

♪

- This was in itself a revolutionary

and radical message, and its implication

was threatening to the establishment

and to the ruling class.

♪

- Tell me. - He's in trouble.

♪

- When I saw Andrew, I knew it had to be bad news.

- It started out as a debate at the synagogue in Capernaum,

and it got out of hand.

- In Capernaum, Jesus encounters a man

who has a withered hand.

And Jesus understands this is an opportunity

to heal a man.

But the healing takes place on a Sabbath.

- The Pharisees feel that this is not legal,

that he shouldn't be doing this.

But Jesus' attitude is that it is good.

- He openly defied a Pharisee?

What was he thinking?

- Pharisees regarded themselves

as guardians of the faith.

They weren't necessarily Jesus' natural enemies,

in fact, but they were part of the establishment

he was taking on.

- I had no choice. I needed to be with my son.

♪

- Look around. You can't stop him.

- I have to try.

- Mary and Jesus' family hurry to Capernaum

because they're afraid that the Romans or the authorities

are going to do something bad to Jesus.

- When Mary and Jesus' family hear about his miracles

in Capernaum, they basically perform

a modern-day intervention.

- It would have taken Jesus' family a couple of days

to travel the 40 miles from Nazareth to Capernaum.

And when they arrived, they would have seen

the street thronged with people all there

to witss his miraculous works.

- [grunting]

- In the Gospel of Matthew...

[knocking]

The Pharisees bring a blind and mute man to Jesus,

saying that he's possessed by a devil.

- It is a question of what Jesus is going to do.

♪

- Can he heal him? How is he going to heal him?

Should he heal him? by what power will he do it?

- The situation becomes volatile.

It's clear that the Pharisees are out to get him,

bringing him people to exorcise,

to see what he's going to do, particularly on the Sabbath.

♪

[all shouting]

♪

[both grunting]

♪

In front of the assembled crowd,

Jesus draws the evil spirit out from the man,

and the man is cured.

♪

Jesus heals this man who's blind, mute,

possessed by demons. The crowd are amazed.

They hail him as the new son of David,

basically, the Messiah.

The Pharisees, on the other hand,

are not so impressed.

- [shouting]

- The Pharisees say, "Is he someone who

"is in league with Beelzebub, with the demons themselves?

This is why he's able to heal this man."

This is fascinating in that this is a moment

that's orchestrated by the Pharisees

to raise this very question of Jesus' identity,

authority, and power.

- The charge was being made that Jesus was actually

in association with the devil.

And Jesus' family are worried about this.

- You brood of vipers.

How can you who are evil say anything that is good?

For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

- I don't think the Gospels are very fair

to the Pharisees.

The Gospels are written to portray the Pharisees

as the bad guys.

- A good man brings good things out of the good

stored up in him.

And an evil man brings evil things out of the evil

stored up in him.

But I tell you that everyone will be brought to account

on the day of judgment...

♪

To every empty word spoke.

[cheering]

- He's out of his mind.

- But to me Jesus had never been more clear.

♪

Jesus would fulfill his destiny,

no matter the sacrifice.

- As I watched Jesus perform miracles,

I realized his mission had begun.

♪

- It's at Capernaum that Jesus says one of the harshest

things about his family recorded in the Bible.

- Peter!

♪

- Master, it's your mother and brother.

♪

- Jesus is told, "Your mother and your brothers are here."

And Jesus says...

- Who are my mother and my brothers?

♪

- Here.

Here are my mother and my brothers.

[cheering]

Whoever does the will of God is my brother.

And sister.

♪

And mother! - That's right!

- This is Jesus saying

traditional family ties don't matter.

What matters is this new family,

this new kingdom, this new discipleship

of following me,

and that must have hurt Mary and James.

♪

- I think Capernaum is a turning point for Jesus

and his family.

He's making clear that his pathway

is for him alone.

But I believe that Mary understood that Jesus

was special. Jesus had a mission.

Jesus was going to live his life differently

than the rest of her children.

And I think Mary understood that he was moving forward

in his ministry.

♪

[door creaking]

♪

- He's my brother, and I fear for him.

♪

I can't understand why he's doing this.

Why he would put us in this kind of danger.

- He will.

♪

- James' story is really fascinating.

He remains antagonistic as far as we can tell

to Jesus throughout his public ministry.

But after the crucifixion and resurrection,

he sees his brother risen.

And it transforms him.

He even in the end becomes the leader

of the Jerusalem church.

♪

- Mary knows that Jesus is someone very special.

She knows that he plays this huge role in God's plan.

And she might even think of him as God incarnate

and the Messiah that was promised to the Jews.

That said, she's conflicted

about what that means for her relationship

with her son.

She doesn't want to let him go.

She doesn't want him to be in danger.

And she certainly doesn't want him to die.

♪

- We are going up to Jerusalem.

♪

And the son of man will be delivered over

to the chief priests and the scribes.

♪

And they will condemn him to death.

♪

- The way the New Testament Gospels tell the story,

Jesus is reconciled to his fate.

♪

- Jesus travels to Jerusalem because it's at the epicenter

of Jewish life.

It is the culminating point of his mission.

It's the place where he has to go.

♪

- Mary had a vision about who Jesus was going to be

from the moment she conceived.

And so not only was she a typical mother

who knows her child well, but she also had a spiritual

understanding of who Jesus was.

♪

- I think Mary to Jesus was his source of life.

His point of creation. His inspiration.

You know, it's his mother.

And it's the person--without Joseph in the picture,

she's the matriarch.

She's the one parent.

She's the lifeline for him,

and I think that's where it starts and it ends.

♪

- I am Mary, the mother of Jesus.

I've raised my son and I love him.

But I must let him go.

♪

May God keep him safe.

[woman vocalizing]

[dramatic music]

- The story of Jesus is the greatest story ever told.

♪

- Get out!

You sinner!

- Where is he?

♪

male announcer: For over 2,000 years,

the story of Jesus Christ has touched the lives

of billions around the globe.

[whip cracks]

- [screaming]

- Jesus felt what we felt.

He faced what we face today.

♪

- If we want to understand Western history at all,

we must understand the story of Jesus.

announcer: Now, for the first time,

his story is told through the eyes

of those who knew him best.

- Now, tell me the truth.

- Caiaphas's high priest would have regarded himself

as the guardian of the Jewish people.

[all screaming]

- He has to be sure that there is not

going to be some kind of violent rebellion.

- No!

- Jesus starts coming to the temple

and disrupting him on his territory.

- Lazarus, come out.

- This is the miracle that causes those in power to say,

"This man's a problem.

We need to do something about him."

- I am the resurrection and the life.

[dramatic music]

♪

♪

[indistinct chatter]

♪

- Did I underestimate Jesus of Nazareth?

Certainly.

Could I have acted differently from the start?

Possibly.

I am in charge of keeping peace and stability in Judea.

No one will be able to say Caiaphas did nothing.

- Caiaphas is the high priest of Jerusalem,

high priest of the temple from 18 to 36 A.D.

♪

- We know a little bit about Caiaphas,

mainly from the Jewish Roman historian Josephus.

Caiaphas is the highest-ranking Jewish official in Judea.

♪

- Son-in-law of former High Priest Annas,

one of the ruling family.

It was a hereditary role. They were trying to be rich.

♪

- Caiaphas is central to the Jesus story

because without Caiaphas, Jesus can't be arrested.

The gospels tend to paint Caiaphas as the villain.

In fact, they may paint a different picture of Caiaphas

than the historical reality.

[indistinct chatter]

♪

- I first became aware of him--

the man claiming to be the Messiah--

on Hoshana Rabbah,

one of the most important days of the year

and the day on which everything I stand for

had come under threat.

♪

[indistinct chatter]

- The gospels do give us the sense that Jesus's travel

to Jerusalem is a preordained path.

He is going to the most grandiose stage possible

on a set mission which has a logical conclusion:

arrest, trial, crucifixion.

♪

[horns trumpet]

♪

- Hoshana Rabbah is the climax

of the Festival of Tabernacles,

which is one of the major festivals in Judaism,

and the temple would have been

a pilgrimage site during this time.

There would have been hundreds of thousands of people there.

[overlapping chatter]

♪

Hoshana Rabbah is a ceremony

that emphasizes the importance of water.

♪

- Jerusalem is susceptible to drought,

you have to pray to God for the rains to come.

♪

This is Caiaphas's big moment.

Caiaphas is the star of this festival.

- Oh, lord, deliver us.

Oh, lord, deliver us.

♪

Oh, lord, deliver us.

♪

- Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

[crowd murmuring]

- And Jesus decides to disrupt this festival

because what Jesus is doing right there is,

again, at the heart of the authority.

He is reinterpreting scripture at that moment.

- Whoever believes in me,

out of his heart shall flow living water.

♪

- Jesus comes up and says, "Rituals aren't important.

I'm the only one that can bring eternal life,"

and this makes Caiaphas furious.

♪

- Malchus! - Seize him.

♪

- Malchus is described as the servant of the high priest.

He perhaps is his henchman, his bodyguard,

somebody that's looking out for the high priest.

[dramatic music]

♪

- For Caiaphas, Jesus would have been

just the latest dangerous preacher

in a long line of them.

♪

- Why did they not arrest him?

♪

- They claim no one has ever spoken the way this man speaks.

♪

- Caiaphas, as high priest, would have regarded himself

as the guardian, the safe-keeper

of the Jewish people and of the temple itself.

This is a very prestigious role even though

it's totally tainted by cooperation with Rome.

♪

- The Roman Empire in the first century is an immense empire.

♪

It's conquered most of the Mediterranean world

and a good part of the Near East as well,

but to the east of Roman territory

you find the Parthians, Rome's great enemy.

♪

So the Romans are willing to grant high priests

in Jerusalem a tremendous amount of power

if the high priests can guarantee for them

some kind of safety zone or some kind of buffer

that will enable them to protect themselves

against the Parthians and even anticipate

what the Parthians might have in store.

♪

- Caiaphas is in a difficult position

because the Roman authority with whom he has to work,

Pontius Pilate, had a temper, that Pilate was someone

maybe you didn't want to provoke too far.

♪

- Caiaphas.

- Prefect.

- The power dynamic between Caiaphas and Pilate was simple.

Pilate was in charge.

Pilate had the Roman legions behind him.

Pilate was the Roman prefect.

He was responsible for raising the taxes

and keeping the peace.

- Caiaphas is in a difficult position

because in many ways he's the religious leader,

the spiritual leader of his people.

Hey, he's in an occupied territory.

As a religious leader, if something goes awry,

he's gonna be held accountable.

- How did your festival go?

- Hoshana Rabbah?

Yes, very good.

- Any other problems I should know about?

- No.

As long as I ensure that he hears of no problems,

he lets us live undisturbed.

It's a balancing act,

one I perform with great care, precision.

♪

For now things are peaceful,

but I know how quickly that could change.

[all shouting]

[somber music]

♪

- We're told by the Roman Jewish historian Josephus

that a few years into Caiaphas's tenure

as high priest and a few months into Pilate's

posting as governor, Caiaphas witnessed the horrors

of what Pilate was capable of doing.

♪

- Pilate decides that he wants to build an aqueduct

to bring fresh water into Jerusalem,

only he decides to do that with funds from the temple.

[all shouting]

- The Jews were incredibly sensitive

about the use of Jewish funds in the temple

for Roman projects, for un-Jewish projects.

[all shouting]

- And so this causes an uprising,

and so Pilate sends in his soldiers in plainclothes.

[dramatic music]

♪

[all screaming]

♪

- It's a bloodbath.

[all shouting, screaming]

♪

♪

It would have made Caiaphas, rightly,

extremely cautious in dealing with the Romans.

[all screaming]

- Caiaphas's memory of the brutality of Rome...

♪

and the potential for Rome

to revisit brutality upon the city of Jerusalem

invariably affects how he looks at Jesus of Nazareth.

♪

- Jesus, he had his followers,

but they were a minority.

I had no cause for concern.

How was I to know this Jesus was different?

♪

- No, no, stay.

- Bethany's a village just outside Jerusalem.

Jesus had connections there,

and it was an easy place to get into Jerusalem from.

♪

- Judas.

- Strategic place when you think about Jesus

wanting to have a base of operations, a base of rest.

- [indistinct]

- And if trouble arose and things got hot

inside the city, it was a good place to lie low.

- This is where he could find

a space to experience normal daily living.

- [sighs]

- Jesus not only had Galilean disciples.

He had Judean disciples,

and they were chiefly located in Bethany.

They involved a particular family,

Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.

- Later that day a Samaritan came by,

and he saw the man suffering by the side of the road,

and he crossed over, and he helped him.

- Jesus's friends, Mary and Martha of Bethany,

were two women who probably had a fair amount of means.

They were women who devoted much of their resources

of time and money to Jesus's ministry.

They probably traveled a fair amount with him,

and certainly when he was in town,

they welcomed him in their home.

- Which of these three do you think was the neighbor

to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?

♪

- The good Samaritan?

- Yes, Mary.

- The evidence as we have it historically

is that nobody before Jesus had female disciples,

so Jesus is the first Jew to do this,

and the way he treats those women is not different

from the way he treats his male disciples.

- In the Gospel of John, we learn that Mary and Martha

have a brother, Lazarus,

and he seems to be a very close friend of Jesus.

♪

- Lazarus.

- Jesus. - [laughs]

- It's unclear how Jesus and Lazarus

became such good friends,

but he is described in the gospels in very strong terms,

as "hon phileis" is the Greek, "he whom you love."

So this is obviously a very close friend of Jesus.

- Good to see you. - You too.

- I hear you're doing well.

- The Gospel of John tells us

that Jesus loved Lazarus.

It shows us that Jesus

had friends outside the 12 disciples.

It reminds us of Jesus's humanity.

♪

- Lazarus is important to him

and for the events that will ensue.

♪

- Jesus grew bolder.

He kept coming into the city,

where he was growing a reputation as a healer.

♪

- [indistinct shouting]

- In the Gospel of John,

you find Jesus making multiple trips to Jerusalem

and in open conflict with the Jewish authorities there.

[indistinct shouting]

- When Jesus visits Jerusalem on this occasion,

I think he knows that he's putting himself in some danger.

- Please.

Please, sir, please.

- Almost everybody in the ancient world

believed that disability or sickness

was somehow a direct consequence

of having angered God.

- Please? Sir.

Please, help me. Please, sir.

♪

Please, help me.

♪

- Rabbi?

Who is it who sinned for this man to be born blind?

Was it him or his parents?

- Neither this man nor his parents sinned.

This happened so that the works of God

might be displayed in him.

♪

- The disciples are connecting the fact

that this man is blind

with some sort of punishment from God,

and Jesus reacts against that.

He says, "No, the reason why this man is blind

is in order to bring glory to God."

[gentle music]

♪

Jesus spits in the ground, makes clay,

and puts the clay on the blind man's eyes,

asks him then to go and wash in the Pool of Siloam.

- Go.

- This is the way that ancient healers

often performed healings.

♪

- The healing of the blind man by the Pool of Siloam

is a controversial act because number one,

Jesus performs it on the Sabbath, right?

So there's a question of what is proper to be done

or not done on the Sabbath day.

♪

- This would have been seen

as a very provocative act on the Sabbath.

♪

- [gasps]

♪

[laughs]

- Bring him to me.

- [laughs]

- The man is dragged into religious court as a result.

♪

- Jesus's tricks delighted people.

Where's the harm in that, you may ask.

♪

How is it you received your sight?

- The man they call Jesus healed me so I could see.

- Clearly this man was never blind.

Go fetch his parents so that they may expose his lies.

♪

- We end up having his parents introduced into the equation

and being questioned by the authorities.

♪

- Is this your son?

- Yes, sir.

- Are you going to tell me, as he does,

that he was born blind?

If so, how is it that he now sees?

- We know he's our son,

and we know he was born blind,

but how he can see now

or who opened his eyes, we don't know.

- Caiaphas, he is highly upset.

All of the religious leaders,

instead of excited that he can see,

they say, "Who sinned?"

This man and his parents,

say something about this man named Jesus.

He's a sinner, isn't he?

He's someone who speaks against the Torah

and against tradition,

and the blind man's answer is astounding.

♪

- Now tell me the truth.

♪

- All I know is that I was blind,

but now I see.

♪

- The answer is so powerful by the blind man.

He says, "I really don't care about your religious framework.

"I'm not concerned about your theology.

"What I do know is I was blind,

and now I see."

- Clearly you were steeped in sin at birth.

How dare you lecture us!

♪

Throw these sinners out.

♪

Heal a blind man? Ridiculous.

But I knew that so many could fall for his tricks,

I couldn't ignore him.

I had to counter this hysteria with reason.

I knew he was dangerous.

- Clearly you were steeped in sin at birth.

How dare you lecture us!

Throw these sinners out.

♪

- Caiaphas has a couple of options.

One is to ignore him,

but as the Jesus movement gets bigger,

he can no longer do that,

especially when Jesus starts coming to the temple

and disrupting him on his territory.

♪

- The temple had been built by Herod the Great,

and it was one of the great buildings of the ancient world.

♪

- In the first century,

you have many groups that see themselves

as practicing a particular brand of Judaism

that they believe to be correct and proper.

The Pharisees are one such group.

- If you are the messiah, just say it.

- In the story of John's Gospel,

some Pharisees challenge Jesus

to prove that he is the messiah.

- The works that I do in my father's name show who I am.

♪

- The questions that the Pharisees are raising,

a lot of contemporary people don't realize,

are actually legitimate questions.

- My sheep hear me.

I know them, and they follow me.

I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.

- In response he does something kind of remarkable.

He doesn't prove that he's the messiah.

He actually goes beyond that, and he says

that he and the father, that is God, are one.

♪

- I have shown you many good works from the father.

♪

For which of these are you going to stone me?

♪

- It is not for your good work that we are going to stone you,

but for blasphemy.

[overlapping shouting]

- Get out! - Get out!

- When he's accused of this,

Jesus is in a perilous situation.

♪

- It's a blasphemous thing

to say that you yourself are God,

and the punishment for blasphemy

is actually stoning, so what they are doing

is perfectly within the legal rights of Jewish law.

♪

- Arrest them! Go!

♪

- The truth of the matter is that Jesus

had not followed the dictates

about how to win friends and influence people.

- Go! - This way!

- Here. - He had aggravated them.

♪

- Come on!

♪

- Come, come.

♪

♪

- A riot at the temple, the holiest place in Judea.

It was an insult.

Jesus didn't know what he was risking.

♪

Find him and bring him to me, alive.

♪

Enough was enough.

I had to arrest him.

♪

- Caiaphas is old enough to have seen what happens

when the Jews rebelled against Roman power.

♪

- When Caiaphas is a young boy,

Herod the Great dies.

There was a period of instability.

This instability led to Jewish rebellions against Rome.

Rome doesn't like this.

They sent in two legions of soldiers,

about 10,000 troops, to crush this rebellion.

[chaotic chatter]

- I was just a boy.

I'd been told to stay indoors, but I was bored.

There was a lizard on the wall,

and I chased it out to the gates.

- They rounded up the rebels.

They crucified 2,000 people.

The buildings around the temple were set on fire.

The temple was looted.

[chaotic shouting]

♪

I can still hear their screams.

[all screaming]

I still remember the smell.

[all screaming]

I cannot let that happen again.

♪

- Caiaphas is often depicted as kind of a pantomime villain,

but I think the historical reality

is a bit deeper than that.

He sees himself as the defender of the Jewish faith,

of the Jewish people.

♪

♪

- Please, let me help.

♪

- There is no time.

♪

♪

- Bring him out.

♪

Where is he? - Not there.

- Where is he? Stay here. Keep watch.

- [panting]

♪

- Of course I was disappointed Malchus couldn't find him,

but we had sent a strong message.

♪

If Jesus stepped foot in Jerusalem again...

♪

...he would be arrested.

♪

♪

- This was a close call during Jesus's ministry

where he had to actually flee the temple and got away.

♪

Jesus and his disciples actually flee

all the way east across the River Jordan.

♪

♪

- Here.

♪

- This is where he was with John the Baptist.

It's isolated. It's in the desert.

It's away from the Jewish authorities,

and so he leads his disciples to there,

♪

♪

And it's while Jesus is across the Jordan...

- Lazarus?

- That his good friend Lazarus has become very sick.

- Can you hear me?

♪

- All illness in the ancient world

was potentially life-threatening.

Even in the city of Rome at this time,

only about half the population ever made it to the age of ten.

♪

- They know that he's likely not to get well.

There isn't a lot they can do for him except call for Jesus,

the miracle worker, who's their friend,

who they know loves their brother.

♪

- So should he die, it would only be two women living alone,

and that's a precarious and vulnerable situation

in a male-dominated society.

♪

- One of the things that Mary and Martha

must have been thinking is, "Where is Jesus?"

They have this friend who has been proven as a wonder worker,

who has healed other people,

and they're probably desperate to have Jesus come

and see their brother and heal him.

♪

- They send a messenger to Jesus...

♪

...that in fact reaches him before Lazarus has died.

♪

- Jesus is faced with a tough decision

when he learns that his friend Lazarus is ill.

- We must go back, all right?

Lazarus will die unless you cure him, master.

- Look, if we leave now, we can be back by dawn.

- Let's go back to camp. Let's pack it up.

♪

- If he goes back to Jerusalem,

there will probably be an attempt to arrest him,

and if he stays across the Jordan,

his friend Lazarus will probably die.

- Lazarus's sickness will not end in death.

♪

- Did Jesus know what was about to happen?

Was it in his plan?

Because if it was, this was an extreme situation

that he's about to put his best friend through.

♪

- Even though he's his close friend,

he's not willing to divert from the path

that's laid out before him as he understands it.

[somber music]

♪

♪

- [sobs]

♪

- The normal practice of early Jews

involves wrap him in a winding sheet

with retarding spices or myrrh

so that the body can be visited

for a considerable period of time,

usually a week after it has died.

Then after the flesh has decayed,

you come back about a year later,

and you disassemble the skeleton,

and you put it in a bone box called an ossuary.

♪

♪

♪

- Jesus is dealing with the pressure

and the pull of what the father demands of him,

of what God demands of him, and he waits.

He waits until it is hopeless

in the eyes of everyone else.

- Lazarus is dead.

♪

But I am going there to wake him up.

♪

- If only Jesus had stayed away.

♪

♪

- From what we can tell, early Jews believed

that the spirit of the deceased

stayed with the body for three days.

After three days, Elvis had left the building.

The spirit had gone to wherever it's going to go,

either into paradise or somewhere else.

So this man is four days dead,

and there's no hope of him coming back.

♪

- So there's a sense that Jesus wants people to know

that Lazarus is truly dead before he performs his miracle.

♪

- If you had been here, my brother would not have died.

♪

- Your brother will rise again.

- I know he will rise again,

in the resurrection of the last day.

- Martha misunderstands what he's saying because,

like many first-century Jews,

she had a belief in the resurrection,

so she sort of thinks he's talking about

this end of days or apocalyptic resurrection.

♪

- I am the resurrection and life.

The one who believes in me will live

even though they die.

Do you believe this?

- I believe you are the messiah,

the son of God.

♪

- And this is Jesus revealing a central tenet

of Christianity to Martha, a woman,

by saying that faith in him

means that death is vanquished.

♪

- Where is Mary?

- Martha comes, and Jesus responds

as a teacher, talking about,

"I am the resurrection and the life."

In his encounter with Mary,

Jesus responds in a way that looks very human.

- Lord, if you had been here,

my brother would not have died.

- [sighs]

- When Jesus sees Mary,

how grief-stricken she is,

he himself starts to weep.

♪

It reminds us that Jesus is a human person

with human friends and human emotions,

and he is distraught at the death of his friend

and wants to do something about it.

♪

- "Jesus wept," is the shortest verse

in the New Testament

but speaks to the long tradition

of human suffering.

- [sobbing]

- Jesus experiences the pain and tragedy

and the grief of a loving and caring savior.

- Where have you laid him?

- Come and see, my Lord.

♪

- I think that as Jesus approaches Lazarus's tomb,

Mary and Martha are simply expecting him

to join in the mourners.

[somber music]

♪

- Take away the stone.

- What does Martha say?

"Lord, let's not open the tomb.

There will be a bad smell."

She's not expecting resurrection on the spot

even when they go to the tomb.

♪

- Did I not tell you that if you believe,

you will see the glory of God?

♪

♪

♪

♪

Lazarus, come out.

[dramatic music]

♪

[crowd gasps]

♪

♪

- What was going through the mind of Mary and Martha

when they saw their brother raised from the dead?

They were probably stupefied beyond words.

- Unbind him. Let him go.

- This is one reason Jesus has to say to the crowd,

"Untie him and let him go."

They probably were so shocked, they couldn't even move.

♪

♪

- And because Lazarus was sick and eventually died,

Jewish theology would have understood that

this was what God ordained.

So when Jesus resurrected Lazarus,

he was essentially overturning what God ordained,

which says that maybe his claims

that he is the son of God are believable,

and that made him an enormous threat

to the religious establishment.

♪

- Spies are sent by the high priest to Bethany

to watch Jesus.

They want to know who he is,

what he's doing, what his powers are,

what his intentions are.

They do this because they feel

that their authority in Jerusalem is threatened.

♪

- In the Gospel of John, this is the miracle

that causes those in power to say,

"This man is a problem.

We need to do something about him."

- This is a major shift, the raising of Lazarus.

This places Jesus on the trajectory of death.

[all shouting] - Messiah! Messiah! Messiah!

Messiah! Messiah!

- Raising the dead?

How did he do it?

He is not a sorcerer.

He is a man.

♪

A man made of flesh and blood,

and I must not be frightened of him.

♪

- Messiah! Messiah!

♪

♪

♪

- So Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin gathered together

to come up with a way to put a stop to Jesus.

[ominous music]

- If we let him go on like this,

everyone will believe in him,

and then the Romans will come and take away--

- The Sanhedrin is a group of Jewish elders

that make decisions on behalf of the Jews.

- And he has many followers now.

- They are arguing about Jesus,

some who believe that this is an act of blasphemy.

Others are raising questions, "Well, is he not a prophet?"

There is not agreement on what is going on.

- He has given us no reason to fear...

- This miracle would have frightened them, I think,

because it means that Jesus had authority even over death,

even somebody who was truly, well and truly dead,

not just swooned in a tomb.

- If we come down too hard on him,

we may risk precipitating an uprising.

- Perhaps we should listen to--

- Enough!

- Caiaphas makes the hard call, "We must get rid of him."

- We must act decisively because we cannot allow

the actions of one man to destroy an entire nation.

- As the leader of the entire Jerusalem elite,

he has to be sure that there is not going to be

some kind of violent rebellion.

- He wants to avoid bloodshed at all costs,

and to silence one man is a small price to pay,

in his eyes,

in order to avoid the bloodshed of thousands of people.

♪

- I've seen many pretenders in the past,

radicals looking for their moment,

but they didn't last.

I assumed this Jesus was no different.

♪

He must be stopped no matter what.

♪

But what if I've left it too late?

♪

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