Jacob mopped his face with his sleeve and urged the reluctant donkey
through the narrow streets of Jerusalem. It was already hot, and he was
anxious to get home. Suddenly, two familiar figures hurried toward him, and
Jacob guided the donkey out of the way.
"Peter! John!" he called. "Where have you been? My parents are worried.
They have not seen you since last week."
As the men came closer, Peter seemed not to see Jacob. A strange, far-away
expression was on his face as he continued his fast pace, looking straight
ahead. John, smiling broadly, slowed his steps for a moment.
"Tell your parents that all is well, my son," he said kindly, "We must go
now, but we will speak with all the followers soon. It is truly as the Master
said. He lives!"
John hurried after Peter, and soon they were out of sight. Jacob stood
looking after them, heedless for the moment of his donkey and other passers-by
thronging the road. What did John mean? he wondered. Could it be that Jesus
was alive? But that was impossible. Jesus had been crucified just before the
big storm on Friday, and then Jacob's father had said it would be safer for
all who loved him to go into hiding. The Twelve were in hiding, too, or, at
least, all but the one who had betrayed Him. Even Jacob had to stay inside
until this morning, when his mother sent him to the market for fruit and
cheese.
Father had said that everything was lost because they had killed the
Master Who was the Son of God. And now John, the man whom Jesus had loved most
in all the world, said that he was alive.
"Such a thing cannot be," Jacob thought, frowning, "A man cannot live
after he is dead. I had better tell my parents, like John said. Maybe they
will understand."
But Jacob's parents did not understand. His mother's eyes filled with
tears as she said, "Oh, the poor man. The tragedy has so grieved him he has
lost his reason."
Jacob's father moved impatiently. "Those closest to the Master are wise
men. They are not so easily given to illusions, even in the midst of great
sorrow. But what does he mean? How can the Master be alive? Would that John
were here now, that we might question him."
But John did not come, that day or the next, and life had to go on.
Jacob's father went back to work in the Street of Silversmiths, where he heard
many rumors. Some said that Peter had been imprisoned and others that he was
exiled. Someone even reported that the tomb where they had laid Jesus was
empty, and that the Roman guards were trying to keep that fact from the
people. Those who had loved the Master, however, hurried about their tasks
with averted faces, and were silent.
At the Temple school, where Jacob was learning to read the Torah and
recite the Law, the Rabbi forbade anyone to speak of Jesus. He knew that
Jacob's parents were followers of the Master, as were the parents of some of
the other boys, and he did not want any talk about this radical who had
finally been put out of the way. The sooner the events of Friday were
forgotten and things were back to normal, thought the Rabbi, the better.
Jacob and his friends did not forget, however. As they sat outside at
noon, eating their lunch of bread and olives, they whispered among themselves.
Jacob told them of what John had said, but no one could figure out the meaning
of his words. They, too, had heard rumors, and Ephraim's father had seen James
very briefly. All James would tell him, though, was, "Soon, soon, you shall
know everything. Have patience."
So things gradually did go back to normal. Jacob's mother could often be
seen wiping her eyes, but she tended the garden and made honey cakes for Jacob
to eat, as always. Jacob's father did not laugh as before, and was sometimes
severe, but Jacob understood. He, too, felt sad when he thought about Jesus,
but there were lessons to learn and games to play and his donkey to take care
of, so he did not have much time to be troubled.
Several weeks went by. Peter, John, and the others had either gone back
into hiding or had left town, for no one saw them. Gradually most people lost
interest in the crucified Jesus, and turned their attention to other matters.
Rumors died down, and soon it was almost as though he had no lived at all.
Then one day Ephraim arrived breathlessly at Jacob's house. "Peter sent
me," he announced to Jacob's father. "He is calling a meeting of the followers
this evening. He says that the real Work must now begin, and that he has much
to tell about Jesus. We can go, too," he turned to Jacob triumphantly. "Peter
says it is important for us to know."
That evening Job and his parents gathered with the others in the small
room that was their meeting place. Jacob sat with several of his friends on
the floor at one side while their parents crowded together on hastily-provided
benches and chairs. All was still as Peter, an imposing figure with a stern,
craggy face, began the meeting.
Peter talked for a long time, and Jacob did not understand some of the
things he said. One thing was clear, however. Jesus was alive, and the
Apostles had seen him three times since the Crucifixion. Peter now spoke of
him as Christ, however, and Jacob made up his mind to ask his father why,
later.
Peter said that Christ had told His followers that they were now to begin
the great task of spreading His Teachings everywhere in the known world. The
main thing that people would have to learn would be to love each other — not
just the members of their families or tribes, but everybody. Even Jacob knew
what a hard job that was going to be! The members of the various tribes that
he saw every day in Jerusalem didn't seem to like each other very well, and
nobody seemed to like the Roman conquerors, whose soldiers were everywhere.
How could they all possibly come to love each other?
Peter also said that the job of spreading the new Gospel was not going to
be easy. Many people would try to keep them from spreading the Teachings of
Christ and many of His followers would be outcasts and suffer. It was the duty
of His followers to tell other people about His Word, however, said Peter. The
only way human beings could become better, and the only way there would ever
be real peace among all men, was by following Christ's Teachings and living
the kind of life that He had lived.
Jacob was quiet most of the way home. His parents thought he was tired —
it was very late — but he really was thinking hard. Finally he said, "Why
does Peter call Jesus 'Christ' now? We always called him 'Jesus' before."
His father smiled. "I think that is something that people will have a hard
time understanding for many years to come. You see, Jacob, Jesus was a man —
a human being just as we are. He was a very good man, however, much better
than any of the rest of us. Christ is really one of the Archangels — the
greatest Archangel of them all. He is the great Spirit in charge of our
Earth, and for a long time He has watched men become more and more selfish and
turn away from God. He knew that the only way to help them save themselves was
to bring them His Gospel of love and peace. But He also knew that He had to
appear to them as a man so they could see Him. Archangels don't have physical
bodies as we do, so He decided to borrow the body of the best human being, who
was Jesus. Jesus was glad to let the great Archangel Christ use his body for a
few years. And so, all during the time that Jesus was teaching us, He really
should have been called Christ Jesus, because He was really the Archangel
Christ in Jesus' body."
Jacob thought about this for a minute and asked, "But then, what happened
to Jesus?"
"Jesus is still a human being, and for a long time to come he is going to
do his work from the heaven worlds, and in that way help men spread the
Teachings of Christ," answered his father.
"And Christ is still an Archangel in heaven, too?" asked Jacob.
"Christ is still an Archangel," said his father, "but He is more than that
besides. He is now what we call our indwelling Planetary Spirit. What happened
is that after the Crucifixion, Christ left the body of Jesus and went straight
into the center of the Earth. He spread His strong spiritual light everywhere
around us. Remember how dark it was that Friday and everyone thought it was
the most terrible storm they had ever seen? Really, it wasn't dark at all. It
was light — such tremendous light that we were all blinded for a while. That
was the pure Christ Light. The same thing happens when you try to look into
the Sun. It's so bright that it makes you see black spots, and if you look at
it too long, everything becomes black."
"But why did Christ spread light like that?" asked Jacob.
"He did it to help us," answered his father. "If we try to be good, and to
do what He taught us, we can use that light to make ourselves stronger and
purer, and the more we do that, the better able we will be to live as He wants
us to live. "
"Is Christ still in the center of the Earth?" went on Jacob.
"No, He is now released into the heaven worlds. But He will come back into
the Earth every year to spread His light for us. He will do this for many
centuries, until men have learned to love each other."
"Many centuries is a long time," said Jacob, thoughtfully.
"Yes, it is," agreed his father. "But it is going to be very hard for
people to stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about their
neighbors. Most people are very selfish, and it won't be easy for them to
change. As long as they are even the least bit selfish, the Christ will have
to help us all by giving us His light to work with."
"Will we see Christ when He comes each year?" went on Jacob.
"Not until we have learned to be as good and pure as He wants us to be.
Christ will never use another physical body. When He comes back into the Earth
each year it is in a spiritual body that men can't see. But we will be able to
feel His presence. His light is that powerful, and the less selfish we learn
to be, the more sensitive to it we will become."
That night, Jacob lay awake thinking about all that Peter and his father
had said, and wondering what he could do to help spread Christ's
Teachings. Peter and some of the others had talked about going to far-away
places to carry the Message, but Jacob knew that his parents would say he was
too young and should stay home and finish school. What could he do right here
in Jerusalem? What could he, a schoolboy, do at all?
Jacob was still thinking these things the next morning, and had a hard
time paying attention to the Rabbi's lessons. In fact, the Rabbi scolded him
for not keeping his mind on his work, which rarely happened.
At noon, when the boys again were eating their lunch under a tree, a
beggar came up asking for food. Beggars were common in Jerusalem, as they were
everywhere
in those days, and people did not pay much attention to them. Jacob's father
and the other adults gave alms regularly, Jacob knew, because this was
prescribed by law, but nobody liked it when beggars came right among them at
mealtime. They were often thrown crusts of bread just to get rid of them, or
were simply chased away.
Some of the boys seemed about to do just that when Jacob said, "Welcome.
Come and share our lunch. We have only bread and olives, but they are very
good."
Ephraim smiled at this, but most of the boys stared open-mouthed at Jacob.
Was he crazy, asking a beggar to join them? Nobody ever did that! The beggar
himself hesitated. He was rarely treated with kindness, and had never been
asked to share a meal by people from whom he was begging.
"Come on, sit down here," Jacob indicated a place next to him on the
ground. "It's much cooler in the shade."
The beggar, still hesitating, sat down. He was not a pretty sight. He was
dirty, his clothes were torn, his hair and beard were matted and he walked
with a funny shuffle that seemed to show how afraid of people he really was.
He had good reason to be afraid of people, for many had been cruel to him.
As he sat down, several boys got up. "If Jacob's going to start eating
with beggars now," said one, "we'll find someone else to eat with." And they
went off. Jacob's throat tightened, and in a sudden instant he realized what
Peter had meant about being outcast. Here he was trying to show kindness to
someone, as Christ taught, but, because that person was a beggar, some of his
best friends were walking away from him. He knew they would tell the Rabbi,
and the Rabbi would be angry, but he was pretty sure, too, that his parents
and Peter would approve. He saw that Ephraim and a few of the others still
remained with him, and felt better.
The beggar was sorry that he had caused Jacob this trouble, and started to
leave. Jacob pulled at his ragged sleeve and held him back. "Stay here," he
said firmly, "they'll get over it." Jacob and the boys who were left shared
their lunches with him, and they sat together until it was time to go back to
school.
Just as Jacob had thought, the Rabbi was angry, and reprimanded him
sternly. "Certainly it is good to give alms to beggars," he said, "but my
students cannot debase themselves by sitting down with the filthy wretches."
"Do you not think, Sir, " asked Jacob politely, "that it is good to show
them kindness and loved Even though they are beggars and filthy, they are our
brothers. "
"Love! Brothers!" echoed the Rabbi, hardly believing what he heard. "You
are talking just as did the crucified Galilean. His heresies have contaminated
even our children! Your father shall certainly hear of this, Jacob."
Jacob bowed his head respectfully, but smiled to himself when he thought
how shocked the Rabbi would be after his father had finished talking to him.
Late that night, Jacob lay in bed listening to the voices in the other
room. His father's was firm, but even and patient, while the Rabbi's seemed to
be getting angrier and angrier. Finally, the Rabbi left.
"Still awake, Jacob?" asked his father, coming softly into his room.
"Yes, Father," answered Jacob. "The Rabbi was angry, wasn't he?"
Father sighed and sat down on the edge of the straw pallet that was
Jacob's bed. "I'm afraid so," he said. "Will you mind very much, Jacob, if you
can't go back to school? I can teach you here at home.
Jacob was not too surprised and said, "No, Father. But what about Ephraim
and the other boys who stayed with me?"
"I think," said his father, "that all the followers who have children at
the school will soon have to take them out. Perhaps we can form a class of our
own. There are wise men among us from whom you can learn many things."
"I would like that, Father," said Jacob. "They can tell us of the things
Christ Jesus taught, and that is really the most important thing we have to
learn, isn't it?"
"Yes, Jacob, it is," answered his father. "And you have learned much
already. We are all very proud of what you did today. "
"But I wish we could follow Christ's Teachings without having other people
turn away from us," said Jacob sadly.
His father squeezed his hand. "So do I, my son. But some day they will
feel as we do, and everyone in the world will be friends. In the meantime,
there will soon be many who will turn to Him. All of His followers can take
strength from each other when our jobs become difficult. And He will always be
there to strengthen us, if we but pray to Him for guidance."
Jacob had more to say, but he could not keep his eyes open. He was almost
asleep when he smiled and murmured, "I guess there are many things I can do
right here in Jerusalem to spread the Teachings of Christ. You can do that
wherever you are, if you live the right kind of life every day."
— Rays from the Rose Cross Magazine, May, 1980, p. 236-240
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