EXT. EAST JERUSALEM, GETHSEMANE – DUSK
Gethsemane is lively to-night, but the olive trees are still. The sky full of stars and dark with the uncertainty of night. JESUS sits on the earth. JUDAS sits with him–but he is unsettled.

JUDAS
Why do you come here?
JESUS
To the Garden?
JUDAS
Yes. To this Mount of Olives.
JESUS
I come here often.
(he turns to Judas)
JESUS (CONT’D)
Is that not answer enough?
JUDAS
No. There is nothing here but the trees and the dirt. There is nothing above but the night sky and a bird or a nest. No, it isn’t.
JESUS
Are these things not to be appreciated?
JUDAS
That isn’t what I said.

Jesus looks to the night sky. His eyes are wide, his hair glows with the thrust of stardust. His eyes too. Judas can only stare.

JESUS
It’s what I heard.
JUDAS
Is it not in our natural order to question things, then? Why should I not ask, Why do you come here, Jesus? Why should the answer be Why not? There is nothing here for you or me, you should know. And John calls it just that–a Mount of Olives.
JUDAS (CONT’D)
And do you not fear coming here alone? There are people who would have you dead.

Jesus turns to him at that.

JESUS
I know this, Judas.
JUDAS
(frustrated)
Then why do you come? Why! It is unsafe. You are unsafe. What if I were to kill you, now, in this very moment?
JESUS
I already know how my life will end. That my purpose will be fulfilled with my death. This is known by God.

Jesus turns to look at Judas. It is a different sort of look. A longing, understanding, all-knowing, yet oblivious sort of look…

JESUS (CONT’D)
And God knows who will betray me. I know how my death will come. I accept it in the hands of my Father, Judas.
JUDAS
How do you know these prophecies are true?
JESUS
Of course they are true.
JUDAS
How do you know? Who would betray you?
JESUS
I know because I am the Son of God. It doesn’t matter who would betray me. I forgive them already.
JUDAS
You are crazy.
JESUS
(laughing)
And you are my disciple, Judas Iscariot! What will you make of that?

Judas’ face betrays him when he hears his voice. A smile, timid, not unkind–but careful, cracks; it is telling, it is everything that Jesus must see.

JUDAS
Perhaps that I am crazy too.

There is no response.

There needs not be a response.

They sit in silence. The night is loud. Gethsemane is loud, the olives are loud. They are old, they creak, they wither. Judas feels out of place. Around him, Life, its principles of motion, of rest. Its transformation, from birth till death–and yet Judas sits complacently amongst it all. A bird in the maws of its predator, or perhaps, a predator amongst stupid prey.

He does not belong. He cannot help that his soul itches to be unsettled again. It is, too, in the natural order of things that Judas is forever unsettled.

JUDAS (CONT’D)
But… how can you not feel so incomplete everyday? When you know what will happen to you. Even I, who does not know, feels incomplete. Like I need a guiding hand; slave to master, perhaps.

Jesus looks at Judas again, yet his eyes do not stray. His hands are closer.

JESUS
Why should I feel incomplete? Look what is around me now in Gethsemane. I have trees, a lovely sky to-night, stars that rival the beauty of Helen! Among them is the earth, who grounds me, and keeps me nourished. Not in hunger, but in health! And on that earth is you, Judas.

He holds Judas there.

JESUS (CONT’D)
(softly, quietly)
Why should I feel incomplete? That perhaps is the better question for you. Why are you incomplete, with all of this? I don’t think you are.
JUDAS
And you trust the prophets how?
JESUS
I am the Son.
JUDAS
What more than that? What part of you that is Man doubts them? Doubts that a father would subject his son to such horrors around him.
JESUS
There are no horrors around me.
JUDAS
It is I, Jesus!
JESUS
You are no horror.
JUDAS
What gives you the jurisdiction, beyond divine right, to say this? There is nothing.

There is a silence. An unmistakable silence. There is a choir of locusts that hum the tunes of Abaddon in the shadows of the grove.

JUDAS (CONT’D)
There is nothing.
JESUS
(beat)
Do you believe in God, truly?
JUDAS
Yes. Of course. I am your disciple. I believe in you.
JESUS
What of the LORD?
JUDAS
You are my LORD, Rabbi.
JESUS
No. The Father.
JUDAS
I do not think of him. You are God.
JESUS
But I am Man, too.
JUDAS
Yes.

Judas cannot bear to look at him in this moment. For fear or for protection, perhaps both. He cannot tell. He knows nothing better.

JUDAS (CONT’D)
You are Man too.

They fall into a subtle silence again. It is naked. It is bare. It is borne of God.

JUDAS
You make no sense. You are nonsense.
JESUS
Why?
JUDAS
(frustrated)
You knew I wanted to betray you here. Not to-night, but a night soon. You said so at the table, and you said so just now.
JESUS
Of course.
JUDAS
And you are still grateful for my presence.
JESUS
Of course.

Judas swipes his hand away as if burned. His eyes close tightly.

JUDAS
Stop that.
JESUS
I’m not doing anything.
JUDAS
Yes you are.
(beat)
You are not a fool. Don’t play a fool.
JESUS
I love you.
JUDAS
Don’t say that.
JESUS
I love you, even when you kiss me for the Romans to take away.
JUDAS
Don’t say that! You don’t understand. You don’t understand. This dirt–this filth–it is hellish. It is not for your soft flesh, for your virtues, for your beauty and for your reverence and for your–

Jesus scoops dirt into his hands.

JESUS
But it nourishes, this dirt. Filth, perhaps, to me, cupped in my clean hands, yet to the olive trees, it is its savior. Just as to the Gentiles, I am the wicked. To my disciples, I am their Rabbi. Just as when I kneel upon the ground to wash your feet, I stain my knees. To others I act a slaveboy. To myself I act of love. I am love. You are love, Judas.
JUDAS
No…
JESUS
And this love will break you unfixable. And, too, this love will bless you with ecstasy incomparable. But as I take my last breath, bitter and painful it may be, it will be of love.
JUDAS
You are a fool.
JESUS
You said I was no fool.
JUDAS
You are a fool, O LORD, O LORD–

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