Martin Fieber - He Who Returned

“You’ve got a point there, Jacob. And now it is being rebuilt in the spirit of the Greeks. Pah.” Samuel spat again.

“Exactly, and today it is even under the rulership of the stupid Herod Antipas. May he die of a foul illness soon, that son of a bitch.” Jacob snorted deeply through his large nodular nose.

“May God hear your words. “ Samuel nodded. “But I…“

“Samuel, I believe in God, our Lord, but I believe that we ought to free ourselves from the oppression through Rome. In this regard I am rather on the side of the zealots, on the side of Judas, their leader. The zealots could kill all of the Romans in my opinion, after all, don’t their crosses on which innocent Jews die horrible deaths stand everywhere on the hills of Judah and Galilee? Where is he, our saviour?”

“Jacob, nothing can be reached by violent means. The peaceful path is the right one.”

“Excuse me“, Jacob was a little confused about the statement of the rabbi, “then why did you beat up your son? He has not been to school in more than a week as I have heard, and people say that he has not spoken for days due to your slap in his face.”

Samuel was shocked and affronted. How could even his best friend now backstab him so wretchedly?

“Jacob, you yourself heard what Joshua said and how he exposed me, the guardian over the laws of our faith in our village.” Samuel had the feeling as if his head must explode any minute. “Every real man would have had the duty to punish his son as I did. After all Joshua was supposed to learn a lesson from this. And that he has, believe me. That dreamer will not risk a big lip again the way he did that evening. And in the future I will have a very watchful eye on my son. I will never let him get away with something like that again.”

After that they both went back to the village in silence. Samuel did not say anything anymore because he felt betrayed by Jacob, and Jacob remained silent because he did not feel understood by Samuel.

∞

“Joshua, please say something.” Sarah was desperate, for her son had not spoken for over two weeks. Not a single word. “Are you o.k.? Are you still in pain?”

A barely noticeable shaking of his head, followed by a stronger nodding. The desperation of the loving mother was interrupted by a gentle knocking on the door. Sarah quickly went to the door.

“Greetings Miriam, please come inside.” Sarah’s soul always smiled, whenever she saw the new female inhabitant of the village.

“I just saw how your husband took the path down to the meadow. And since he has been walking around among the hills for many hours the past few days, I thought I would quickly come around and say hi to you and to Joshua.” Miriam hugged Sarah closely to her heart.

“How is Joshua doing?”

“He simply is not speaking. The ear pain seems to have passed. Now only the wounds on his bottom are still worrying me. Miriam, why does Samuel beat our son?” As soon as Sarah had asked the question, she was surprised at her own natural openness when dealing with Miriam. She trusted her.

“Samuel loves your son, but he expects too much from him.” They both went into the room next door, in which Joshua was lying motionless on his stomach and staring at the ceiling. He seemed to have crept into another world.

“Joshua, I greet you. How are you?” Miriam bent over his body a little. No answer, just a little shake of the head. Sarah was obviously deeply moved by the reaction, and tried to change the subject.

“Miriam, please tell me everything that you did not tell on the evening of the celebration. The birth in Bethlehem seems to have been something very special. Who is your son?”

“Sarah, I know that he is a prophet. Yeshua was chosen. He has a difficult path ahead of him. He is prepared for his future, since he is ahead of it.” Miriam paused for a moment to reflect upon the truth of her words again. “Yeshua is not like other children. He is more serious. And simultaneously he is also like a normal child, for he does a lot of nonsense and silly things at home. And this combination enables him to fulfil his task. But sometimes his physical condition worries me. He often appears to be much weakened.” Miriam winked at Sarah and nodded in the direction of Joshua. Both noticed that Joshua was hearing every word and hardly breathed due to suspense.

“Miriam, I am now going to tell you something that I have never told anyone else before.” Sarah took a deep breath of air and slowly exhaled. “And it happened around the time of the birth of your son. Samuel was in Jerusalem with other men and their sons while you, as I have know heard, were barely an hour away in Bethlehem. Miriam, I had a dream. Or rather a vision, for shortly before waking up I saw an angel that told me that the Messiah was going to be born that night. I could hardly believe it, however I wanted to, for our land urgently needs a saviour.” Sarah looked deeply into Miriam’s eyes. Miriam had doe brown eyes that gave her a love and a sense of comfort that she had never before received in her life. Not even from her mother. “Miriam, is Yeshua the Messiah?”

“Yes“, Miriam whispered and underlined it with a nod. “When we had travelled to Egypt after the birth we lived with Bakenor, a wise man residing in Alexandria. Bakenor was also present at the birth. He said that a messenger of light had told him to take us with him to Egypt for a while. There Yeshua would be taught and gain some strength. He said that he would only speak with Yeshua in Greek, since he had to learn that language. Greek is the language of trade and of the future, he said. Yeshua was also instructed in the wisdom teachings at a very early age. After all he required this knowledge for his life. He would not have been able to receive these teachings if we had returned to Nazareth directly after the birth.” Miriam raised her shoulders. “There is no one here who could teach Jesus the real things.”

“I can imagine that.”

“Not even Samuel.”

“Miriam, I know Samuel is very strict and stuck in his ways. He closes his heart off from other people through his strictness. Even a goat reaches their hearts better than my man.” She smiled. “Who doesn’t smile when looking at a bleating goat?”

“Oh how right you are. God bless your sense of humour.” Miriam placed both of her hands on her heart.

“He will not be able to learn much from Samuel here,“ Sarah added, “at best he will realize how stuck in their ways and strict rabbis tend to be. You too are aware of how my husband is by now. He certainly has knowledge, but unfortunately that is not the most important thing in life.” She winked at Miriam.

“It’s a good thing that Yeshua’s heart is stronger than his spirit.” Miriam gazed in the direction of Joshua, who still seemed to be eavesdropping. “As saviour Yeshua will hardly be able to learn much from most of the grown-ups here in the village. But from the children who play with him in order to distract him from the premonitions of his future life which sometimes catch up with him. Sometimes he feels so heavy, as if he had to fight with thousands of demons in his mind. “

Miriam had not completed the last word when there was a quiet knocking on the door.

“That ought to be Yeshua. He wanted to catch up with me here. As far as I know he has a little surprise for Joshua with him.” At this instant Joshua turned his head to both of the women, his eyes began to shine and he sat up straight in bed in no time at all.

This was the first time that had happened in two weeks. Sarah went to the door full of wonder. A moment later she returned with Yeshua, who was full of joy. He seemed to be hiding something behind his back.

“Greetings, Joshua. I have brought you something.” He took the right hand from behind his back and handed Joshua a roughly hand-sized piece of wood. It looked like a cross and at the same time also like a figure. The upper part featured a face emerging from the grain of the wood. The lower part of the cross became wider, so that it might just as well have been a gown. It was not carved evenly, but was sanded very smooth, so that it was easy on the hands.