Gospel according to Jesus Christ Gospel According to Jesus Christ is Saramagos journey in to the life and death of Jesus.

On the go he picks up the odds in the well-known gospel story and fills the blanks. As his journey progresses we witness a Saramago, who is witty, imaginative, satirical, but towards the end a really raging Saramago brings his story to a profound ending. Joseph and Mary are young couple, Joseph barely 20 and Mary in her teenage. Joseph meticulously vouchsafes with his god all his deeds. But Mary remains not that pious. Poverty leads him to take job at the temple. There the angel appears as a soldier of the King Herod. Joseph overheard the soldier saying that Herod ordered the deaths of all toddlers in Bethlehem. A terrified Joseph took his wife and son to safety without even bothering to inform the people about the tragic order of the King. Thus Christ was saved, but according to Saramago at the cost of a lot of blood. Result, Joseph thereafter was inflicted by a sense of guilty that he had to endure till the end of his life. At his death, the guilty conscious passed over to 12 year old Jesus. The guilt stricken Jesus went away from home to the temple and took the elders there with a barrage of questions on guilt. The elders were embarrassed by Jesus profound d knowledge on the subject. In Saramagos story angels appear in all forms, beggars, shepherd, soldier etc. Then the story turns to a serious discussion on the nature of god, his action, and the deeds of devil. Jesus spent his younger years with a shepherd tending sheep, but later on we came to know that that shepherd was Satan. Another surprise of the story is the close bond between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. They were deeply in love and were inseparable. Saramagos Jesus even had an active love life with Mary. Mary sometimes appears as more reasonable and reliable than Jesus. When Jesus is about to curse the fig tree for not giving fruits, Mary jumps all over him and ridicules his thoughtlessness as it was not the fruit bearing time of the tree. Again at the death of Lazarus, Marys brother who was once healed by Jesus of his heart decease, but Mary stopped Jesus from resurrecting Lazarus saying, one death is enough for a man in his life time, dont make him die twice. Jesus by the time got the power to make the dead alive, but it turned to be useless. Then the story enters its climax. one fine morning the fishermen find the lake shrouded in thick mist, and nobody dared to went on to the lake. Jesus took a boat and went to the lake and a few strokes away he was

completely covered by the mist. Suddenly he realized that God himself was sitting at the other end of the boat. And without much delay Devil also appeared. Jesus realized only then that the companion of his younger years was none other than Satan himself. Then the story turns to a serious business of a long erudite discussion on the God, his close proximity to devil, the justification of gods deeds and so on. When this discussion was going on , all the three attendees , god , Jesus and Satan were covered by thick mist , away from the sight of people at the shore. Then Jesus came to know that he was the son of god. He ha d to be the king of Jews and had to die after prolonged suffering and pain. Confused Jesus quizzed the god again, of evil and good. Then God told him: " unless the devil is the devil, God cannot be God. Jesus eventually came to know about the plan of god to make him the king of Jews and his horrific death, all for a single religion world. God forewarn the doubting Jesus that if it was not so then, it would take several wars, millions of deaths and several years to achieve the goal. Here Devil comments, One has to be God to countenance so much blood." Jesus tries his level best to evade his fate. But God is god he tricked him to follow his method. By the time Jesus rowed back, forty days had gone, and a huge gathering was waiting there, who flocked to witness the miracle.