Spin doctor's rift with preacher deepens

Jerusalem AD 32 - It has been confirmed that the preacher Jesus has relegated his spokesman Mr Judas Iscariot to an advisory role following a row last week.

It has been clear recently that Mr Iscariot has been unhappy with some of the addresses given by Jesus - notably his "I am the bread of life" talk - which Mr Iscariot felt would alienate most devout Jews.

However, others among Jesus's supporters have been as critical of Mr Iscariot, believing he has a distinct preference for style over substance. One such source said: "It really does appear that all Judas is interested in is how things will look. The truth doesn't bother him at all. Succeeding is all that interests him."

Others close to Jesus have also been concerned about what they felt was Mr Iscariot's undue influence over the content of Jesus's policy. That too appears to have been checked.

Two addresses by Jesus last weekend appear to have been the catalyst for Mr Iscariot's relegation. Sources indicate he objected strenuously to both, saying they amounted to "political suicide" for the campaign. Jesus again objected to the use of the word "campaign" to describe what he was about, repeating once more that his business was "truth".

Preaching in Galilee, Jesus denounced most of the prominent towns in the province which he had visited recently. They had not responded to him but continued in their old ways. He cursed Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum in particular. If what they had been seen and heard, had been seen and heard in Tyre and Sidon "they would be in sackcloth and ashes", he said.

But he went further. "If the miracles that were performed in you were performed in Sodom it would be still with us," he said. Sodom was a notorious city which it was widely believed was destroyed by God for its wicked ways. On judgment day, Jesus said, God would be kinder to Sodom than to the Galilean towns named. In many eyes his comments were an invitation to vicious attack from the towns he had so mercilessly criticised.

He praised those few who supported him. He praised God because he had "hidden these truths from the wise and educated and revealed them to children". And, in an unexpected aside, he urged all who were tired and overwrought to come to him. "I will give you rest . . . I am gentle and humble. You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden light." Not for the first time his meaning was not at all clear. Which is one reason why he has so badly needed spin doctors like Mr Iscariot.

But it would appear that it was an incident last Saturday that proved the final straw for his relationship with Mr Iscariot. Jesus and some of his friends were walking through a field of wheat. Some of them picked the heads off the wheat and ate them.

Some Pharisees saw this and, ever alert to pounce on Jesus, said to him: "Look. Your friends are breaking the sabbath." Even such things are forbidden by the law of God on a Saturday, according to the Pharisees.

Jesus reminded them that their great hero, King David, had done worse. "He and his friends went into the house of God and ate the consecrated bread." (Only priests are allowed do so.) He asked whether they knew the law at all, then really set the cat among the pigeons by telling them "someone greater than the temple is here" and that "the Son of Man is lord of the sabbath". Words which enraged the Pharisees and plunged Mr Iscariot into despair.

This was compounded later in a nearby synagogue. A man with a deformed hand asked Jesus to heal it. Again the Pharisees were ready for him. "Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath?" they asked. And he was ready for them. "If one of your sheep fell into a drain on the sabbath would you not get it out? And how much more important is a man than a sheep! So, take it from me, it is lawful to do good any day, even on the sabbath." And he cured the man.

The Pharisees saw this as "blasphemous defiance" and talked darkly among about what should be done with him. When they left Mr Iscariot exploded at Jesus. He will not do so again.