ALIVE: Chapter 155, Busy Sabbaths

After they met in Jerusalem, the Marys and Susana slept at Mary’s house. Jesus and his disciples went to the hotel where his grandparents used to stay when visiting His mother at school. He took the room where His grandparents Joachim and Anna slept. He could hear echos of their presence in that room where they slept so often and with so much love for their daughter, His kind mother.

The next morning, after His time with His Father, which He enjoyed in His room alone, Jesus went to His mother’s home to tell the ladies that they would be traveling again. It was time to leave Jerusalem but that they would be back. He explained to His mother that they could not stay too long in one place because there were so many others who needed to hear, to heal their souls with teaching, and to be healed physically.

Mary understood and agreed. She asked if she could please join them on the trip. Mary Magdalene and Susana promised that they would take care of her. Jesus smiled at being outnumbered by the ladies, who took such good care of Him and agreed, and then bid them good bye to go and meet with His men. Mother that she was, before He left, Mary asked Jesus to send her the laundry of the disciples. And they would take care of that too. Fresh start while they could.

The ladies cheerfully spent the following day shopping, then preparing food to bring for the journey; washing clothes, and packing. They needed another day, so Mary told little neighbor-boy Jack, to go and find her Son and tell Him that they needed another day to be ready. She gave the boy a loaf of bread that had just come out of the oven and so Jack diligently went to carry out his task while happily munching on his warm bread, leaving the ladies to their work.

On the morning of their departure, Jesus and His men, including Manasseh and little Lev from the crowd that followed them from Nazareth all gathered outside Mary’s home.  Several men hauled the baskets of food and clean clothes for the journey loading up three donkeys for the trip.

Mary, watching the men loading up the donkeys looked over at her new friends and said, “Moving with the masses is such an ordeal! It’s a wonder that you do this all the time!”

Mary Magdalene chuckled and said, “All the food we cooked and the clean clothes will be a real treat for everyone. We usually just have our own satchels and fend for ourselves when we can. Mary, you have made us feel rich!”

"Oh!” replied Mary. Then she went back to point out what needed to go.

Meanwhile, Jesus was conferring with His disciples about where they were heading and the route they would take. Matthew and Thomas, being most familiar with Jerusalem would lead the mass out of Mary’s neighborhood and to the outskirts of Jerusalem, and then Bartholomew and Judas would take over and lead the crowd to the first stop which would be Bethlehem and then on to Hebron.

…

Mary hardly minded sleeping outside on her first night of camping where they set up near a well. The air was thin and clean and it’s temperature, still warm. The breeze that wafted over the crowd from time to time reminded them of how comfortable they were. Night-time brought a refreshing coolness to the air.

The ladies took care of the men, at first unpacking the food they brought, and days later when that was gone, some men would hunt or forage, or when there was a nearby village, they would see if there was any food to buy or to barter with labor. Men and women took turns cooking to feed their community, like holy gypsies they served Christ and His roving theological university and hospital.

Some of these vagabonds filled with healthy wisdom sensed that it was time to go home. They were prepared to tell their own villages of what they learned and saw, so they peeled off; while new people joined for a time.

Jesus and His followers went to village after village, town after town to spread the good news that God had come, neither from Bethlehem nor from Nazareth but from heaven to guide His people, the Jews, not out the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt, but out of the wrong mindset of the  Pharisees, Scribes and Lawyers who distorted the commandments, even the Torah, and defiled their own circumcision from pride, desire for power, or simply from ignorance. It’s the same story with a different color scheme. Innocent ignorance is as vile as intentional ignorance and just as destructive.

Jesus attracted the people with His uncanny command of nature; the power and authority that in the beginning belonged to Adam and Eve. Once drawn into His Holy bubble, Jesus taught. He illuminated their dark minds. Once the people saw the light, they yearned to remain in the light, which was the hard part. As can be expected, His teachings came with the need to chide the rabbi, the Pharisee, the scribe and the lawyer for spreading error. The unpleasant arguments one after another were necessary.  He had to illuminate the narrow path to show how it differs from the well traveled path to oblivion.

On one typical sabbath, Jesus was teaching for the first time in a particular synagogue. Out of the corner of His eye, he noticed a woman hunched over standing in a dark corner of the hallowed room. He perceived that it was a spirit of infirmity that was the source of her suffering. Jesus watched her struggle to lift herself up and called to her, saying, “Woman, do you want to be loosened from your infirmity? Hearing His voice directed to her, she painfully ratcheted up her neck to show her face, revealing beautiful blue eyes sparkling with the hope of relief. “Yes, Master! Oh yes. I have been this way for eighteen painful years. Help me! All I ever see is dirty ground. I yearn to see faces and the beautiful sky!”

Jesus walked over to her. When He was near, He laid His hands on her shoulders and soon she was able to straighten her back as she slowly, but confidently erected herself as if she had only just picked up a nut that fell on the ground! And without pain! A huge smile brightened her whole face as she exclaimed, “Oh my! Oh my! Oh my! Look! Thank You Lord, what a great and magnificent God You are! Thank you Lord! Thank you God. Glory to You my God, Glory to You. Thank You, oh thank You Master!” Tears spilled from her eyes and trickled down the rosy cheeks that no one had seen since she was a young girl.

A dignified man with his intricately embroidered robe rushed over to the scene saying louder than necessary for Jesus to hear, “What's this! In my synagogue you dare heal on the Sabbath!Who do you think you are transgressing the law!? There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and heal and be healed, but NOT on the day of the sabbath!” His ire went from the woman first then to Jesus, daring the crowd to indulge in the joy of the miracle.

There followed a low din of agreement from sectors of the crowd who chose to always be on the side of the authority.

Jesus thundered back, “You hypocrites, doesn’t each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox

or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan had bound, for the past eighteen years, to have been loosed from Satan’s bond on the day of the sabbath?” As He said these things, the rabbi and all but a handful of people were confused by the logic, and didn’t bother to think it through while their consciences dinged them with a sense of shame. He looked severely at Jesus, who returned his gaze with authority. Then he turned around and walked away.

The healed woman grabbed the hand of Jesus and kissed it repeatedly. Her joy spread through the crowd as the keystone of the moment. Suffering ceased. There was no argument strong enough to combat that. With the man gone, a young girl suddenly clapped her hands, and then another and another until the room was loud with clapping and rejoicing over the miracle.

When the clapping died down Jesus turned to the crowd to continue teaching, He said, “Enter into God’s will, into the Kingdom of Heaven by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many are they that choose that seemingly easy way and go in only to be surprised by disappointment. I tell you, that the gate is very narrow and straight that leads to life here and in the immortal life to come, and few are they who find it.”

Having healed the woman’s body, it was necessary to remind the crowd that each of them were riddled with the infirmity of their souls. Spiritual illness was much more difficult to treat because typically it wasn’t recognized and because with no pain or outward malady the spiritually ill person had to want to be well. It required, as John the Baptist said, “REPENTANCE”. Lest His audience, just by listening to Him and observing miracles believe that they had been perfected by proximity, or by observing and hearing, they needed to be reminded that to enter heaven required their own action. It wasn’t enough to go to the synagogue and hear. The prayers needed to come from their heart and to be followed by their actions and attitudes toward God and others.

To convey this Jesus shouted, “Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by Your name, and by Your name cast out demons, and do many mighty works?”

He paused for each normal person to introspect or even imagine that they could prophesy, or cast out demons or perform miracles, for there were no prophets in the crowd. But even the suggestion puffed up the listener like a hen who becomes twice her size, only to deflate her by adding, “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, you that work iniquity. And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into outer darkness: there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.”

Menassah and several others who listened most attentively were truly shocked by that statement. Did Jesus just make Himself out to be God at the judgment? Was it possible for God to come to earth in human form? Mary Magdalene looked over at her new friend, Mary, His mother, in wonder and confusion. What did she see? A glow around the woman’s head! She rubbed her eyes in case it was formed by a film of dried tears, but no. It was still there, a warm halo. Mary Magdalene wondered how other people couldn’t see it, because if they had there would be a stir, but everyone else just focused on what Jesus was saying, trying to understand what was impossible for them to understand.

Before anyone of those most alert people could think it through, certain Pharisees entered the synagogue and recognizing Jesus, forced their way through the crowd and the strongest one said in a loud warning tone, “Jesus you had better get out of here quickly. I suggest you go far away because I’ve heard that Herod wants you killed.”

Jesus replied calmly and confidently (which surprised more than a few people), “Go and say to that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day I am perfected. Nevertheless I must go on my way to-day and to-morrow and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.”

Appreciating the warning, Jesus then excused himself to the crowd. His mother and her friends were most disturbed by the warning. The disciples, like protective secret service men stepped up and encircled Jesus to create a path through the crowd for Him to exit the building.

The helpful Pharisee who warned Jesus and saw Him leaving the crowded building waited for him to come outside.  When he saw Jesus and His disciples he said, “Come to my house where it is quiet. We have fresh bread.”

“I will.” replied Jesus and followed him with His men. Everyone else, the ladies and all His other followers knew to go back to camp, and the locals back to their homes for it was sabbath and no one worked on that day.

The house was near and when He entered Jesus noticed a servant in there who had dropsy, his legs were swollen from excess fluid and he appeared quite uncomfortable. This servant ushered the guests into the sitting room in which soft seating created a comfortable arena. Jesus took His seat, but couldn’t take his eyes off the uncomfortable servant.

When everyone was seated, Jesus was the first to speak to everyone saying, “Let me ask you, if it is lawful to heal on the sabbath, or not?”

Silence. No one dared say anything because they knew that coming from Jesus, it was a rhetorical question, asked to provoke argument or discussion.

Everyone held their peace.

Jesus then spoke directly to the servant with dropsy (edema) who was standing in the zone between discomfort and pain, ready to serve when needed.

Jesus stood up with everyone’s eyes on Him, and said to the servant, “Come here may man.”

He took him by the shoulders, laid hands on him and prayed, healed him, and let him go. No one else had even noticed the man’s swollen legs or his obvious discomfort. He never asked for healing. This man suffered quietly and nobly, and only Jesus knew that. The man felt the swelling subside as if a faucet in his toes was opened and the fluids that so distressed him ran out like a stream rushing downhill. He felt comfort for the first time since he could remember. His toes tingled with joy. All he could do was to fall onto his knees in gratitude and relief. He couldn’t even speak, and abhorred the attention, but was forced by his relief to ignore that. After several moments the servant got up off his knees and took Jesus’ hand and kissed it several times. Then he turned and quickly left the room to be alone in a quiet place to thank God.

Jesus turned to the people sitting comfortably, watching the incident and said to them, “Which of you whose ass or ox that falls into a well will not rush to draw him up, even on a sabbath day?”

No one dared to answer.

“Now where is that fresh bread you offered!” asked Jesus, breaking the silence and sitting back in His seat, glancing over at little John who had a huge grin on his face.