Yosef felt like a vegetable, well, he was a 'vegetable': he couldn't
move his arms, or legs or any other part of his body for that matter. He
just lay there on his mat, limp and hopeless, except his head and it's
parts- his mouth and eyelids that had some life in them.
The temperatures were high, it was hot and moist. The saving grace from direct sun rays was the top roof of the big passage where he and others lay in the public facility.
He blinked his eyes again to avoid dust which was falling down freely. He cursed under his breath, how he hated these festive seasons. Trice every year, his already terrible life got worse with the great influx of people into Jerusalem. As the atmospheric dust raised by stampeding Jewish pilgrims increased, so did the number of careless passersby who often stepped on him unwittingly as he lay there on his mat. 'Those yam legs and panned feet in chopped over-trekked sandals!' He cursed again under his breath.
He, would have asked to be taken elsewhere to spend the rest of the miserable days of his life, somewhere less open. But here, where the pool was situated, was his only hope. Once in a while, the water in the pool bubbled,Legend had it that the bubbles were caused by an angel who supposedly stirred the waters and that once the bubbling of the pool water stopped, any sick fellow who jumped in first, was cured of his disease, whatever it was! Accordingly, a large number of sick hopefuls: blind, lame, deaf, etc camped around the five roofed colonnades, waiting for the bubbling of the Bethesda pool. Yosef tried to spit out, it landed on his top right arm, he sighed, his had been a tale of woes, no one there to help him clean up or throw him in the bubbling pool. After thirty-eight (38) years of suffering this ailment, no family member around to help. He felt bitter about them, everyone had given up on him and finally gone on with their lives. Leaving him to fate.
The huge stone columns stood to the right of where he and other sick folks lay, lining the edge and creating a little passage in the middle for passersby. He was still thinking when he noticed a young man, of not more than 32years he reasoned, standing beside his mat, looking right down at him. The man had thick eyebrows, looked ruddy and was of average stature, with deep brown eyes. The stranger looked directly at him, in fact, 'too directly', Yosef thought to himself.
'Do you want to be healed?' The stranger asked simply.
The area was still busy with people moving around and talking- the whole ruckus of a public place, but a few men stopped too as the stranger stopped, they seemed like his companions or something.
He hesitated about answering the question. What kind of a question was that: 'Do you want to be healed?' Then he looked up again at the stranger. The man just stood there with an uncanny confidence about him. His gaze, piercing, almost like he looked through Yosef's eyes into his very soul. Yosef blinked as he thought of a summary of his situation to give the concerned stranger.
'Well, I have no one to throw me inside the pool when it bubbles, other sharp guys always jump in first...' he paused, not sure whether to say more.
'Get up! Pick your mat and walk.' The stranger replied.
The next few seconds will always be a fuzzy memory for him. First he was lying paralyzed, then the stranger instructed, and his limbs responded and he saw himself standing! He picked his mat and took his first steps, not believing his eyes, he felt strong, stronger than he had ever been. The stranger moved away with his bunch, disappearing into the crowd before he could ask him any question or say 'thank you.' Yosef, didn't know who he was...
Screeeeeeeccch! Pause the story there. Let me take you back to the beginning of the movie script.
The scene opens after Adam has lost his authority over the earth to the Lucifer, the con master and father of all movie villains. Lucifer's take over and reign over mankind for millions of years was marked by brutal and undefiable oppression. God could have let man suffer the consequences of his rebellion, but in his love, he hatched a plan to save man. But there were legal issues God had to settle first. After all, it was he, God, who fixed the rules of the universe, he had to play by them.
The Soter, who was to save mankind from Lucifer's tyrannical reign and domination had to match up on two technically impossible grounds. First, he had to be a human like the oppressed mankind to qualify as their replacement and then he needed to be sinless to be capable of redeeming them. It was impossible to find both qualities in anyone human person because every born human was contaminated at conception in it's mother womb. One ancient king affirmed this when he said: ' Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me' (Psalms 51:5, NIV.)
It seemed like an impasse at the very beginning of the rescue mission.
Lucifer's face furrowed with an evil grin for he thought, there's no way God would bypass that hurdle; human and sinless? Impossible combination! Angels, who were sinless couldn't come to do the job because they weren't human and all humans were imbued with sin at conception when the sperm hit egg- it was hopeless! Just then, God invented an unprecedented, never-before-heard-of-exclusive, virgin-birth: a Jewish virgin girl, fondly called Mae, got pregnant! And so our hero is born human and sinless; qualified and capable!
At his birth, in the physical realm, just a few scattered groups get the hint of his alleged personality as the 'Soter of the Kosmos'; a few shepherds, some weird sounding magi-astrologers from the East, a couple of old people who hang around Jerusalem's temple, not much broadcast after that. In sharp contrast, the news spreads quickly throughout the spirit realm, especially underworld of darkness. Anticipations, anxieties, what would he do and how would he go about upturning the tyranny of Lucifer. Only speculations. The prophecies in the scrolls seemed too vague and scattered to understand. Many top ranking arch-demons from DBI (Demons Bureau of Investigation) were assigned to duties of monitoring the baby boy. They had strict orders to report all suspicious non-human manifestations by the child, to Satan himself. It was top priority, they were on red alert. Disappointingly, monitoring the virgin's son was monotonously boring. The baby did nothing special, it cried, ate and suckled- just like thousands of other Jewish babies around Nazareth. They called him Yeshua, Yeshua Ben Yosef -Jesus son of Joseph, or so they thought.
The more the child grew, the more doubtful the monitoring spirits became of his identity. Rumors amongst spirits had it that, the virgin's first born son was Jehovah's very own son. Incredible! The least the demons had expected, knowing how powerful his alleged father, God, is, was that the baby would be able to walk by himself from the day of his delivery or something spectacular! Disappointingly, the child, as it grew, did nothing of note, except ask too many questions, that temple nerds thought were quite intelligent whenever he was at a synagogue or at Jerusalem's temple. Then eventually becoming an exceptionally skilful carpenter. He also took over 'Joseph and Sons Upholsteries' when his guardian father died. 'Was this God's plan? The DBI agents reasoned amongst themselves, 'of all the super fast and ultra powerful angels on standby in heaven? An ordinary carpenter is sent to save the world? Was this God's best? Maybe good old Jehovah wasn't as wise as he used to be millions of years back when he and Moses snuck the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt!' The plan seemed wholly laughable, a grandiose waste of resources -all that power channeled into orchestrating a virgin birth, just to send a skilful carpenter to earth? Super lame idea!
Just when you thought the story was boring, Yeshua aka Jesus, the son of the virgin turned 30.
'What about that?' You may ask, 'Does turning 30 years of age have any special saving significance?'
Well, not really, except you receive the Holy Spirit without measure upon your life at that age.
'Holy Spirit? Who in Rabbi Nwokoro's name is that?'
Let's just say, he's another character in the movie script, what script writers usually call the 'Deux ex machina!'
For the next one month and ten days (forty days and nights), customers who wanted new tables, chairs and other wooden items couldn't get it at their favourite carpentry shop within the Nazareth community. The chief carpenter of Joseph and Sons Upholsteries, Yeshua was nowhere to be found. The rumour was that he went to hear some crazy preacher, John, who taught his adherents impromptu swimming, dipping them in water, a crazy ceremony they called baptism! The carpenter went too and was baptized, only to return later -totally different. It was also rumoured that he hung out in the desert during the period he was 'missing'; probably side effects of the baptism ish, some people said.
The previous red alert that the DBI had placed over the whole area, at his birth, was removed and the many demons assigned to the territory were even reposted, as the situation seemed totally inert and posed no risk to the reigning universal oppression.
Then things changed faster than when you turned on a switch; the carpenter-cum-preacher gained much fame, with never before seen large crowds following him everywhere. Now lucifer was beginning to get concerned. The reports about activities in Nazareth submitted by the monitoring spirits operating there, at regional board meetings at the HellQuarters, were totally distressing.
'The hitherto harmless carpenter, just like other rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, showed up at synagogues to teach from the scrolls. Only one difference, he talks with authority and kicks out evil spirits with just a word!'
'Kick us out?!' Lucifer howled at the spirit who was reading the report, 'What new stunt is that? No prophet ever did that! Check through those miserable Moses and Prophets' scrolls they read every Saturday -not one single case of casting any of us out! This is our territory, I personally took the control from Adam, that's not fair!'
In fact, field demons operating in Carpernaum, that specialized at inflicting bodily afflictions came up to testify: 'The carpenter seemed to have no problem curing every and any ailment: deaf ears, blind eyes, crippled, maimed limbs even grew out -pretty cool stuff to watch!'
Even with the very many encouraging progress reports coming in from all over the world, the distressing reports from Nazareth and environs totally dampened the usual fun of the meetings with Lucifer and the supreme ruling council of darkness and spiritual wickedness in both high and low places! The carpenter didn't travel at all outside Israel's boundaries, so technically the rest of the world was still under the firm grip of darkness yet he had to be curbed. Curbed before he got more ambitious and have bright ideas about taking his fancy preaching to Rome, the world's capital. The resolution of Parliament, Yeshua the carpenter-cum-rabbi, was declared Most Wanted on terrorist list, to be 'brought in' dead ONLY, taming him while alive was useless.
'Yeshua must be assasinated!' The demons left with more reinforcement, headed for Jerusalem to arrange to kill the rebel!
.....
The temperatures were high, it was hot and moist. The saving grace from direct sun rays was the top roof of the big passage where he and others lay in the public facility.
He blinked his eyes again to avoid dust which was falling down freely. He cursed under his breath, how he hated these festive seasons. Trice every year, his already terrible life got worse with the great influx of people into Jerusalem. As the atmospheric dust raised by stampeding Jewish pilgrims increased, so did the number of careless passersby who often stepped on him unwittingly as he lay there on his mat. 'Those yam legs and panned feet in chopped over-trekked sandals!' He cursed again under his breath.
He, would have asked to be taken elsewhere to spend the rest of the miserable days of his life, somewhere less open. But here, where the pool was situated, was his only hope. Once in a while, the water in the pool bubbled,Legend had it that the bubbles were caused by an angel who supposedly stirred the waters and that once the bubbling of the pool water stopped, any sick fellow who jumped in first, was cured of his disease, whatever it was! Accordingly, a large number of sick hopefuls: blind, lame, deaf, etc camped around the five roofed colonnades, waiting for the bubbling of the Bethesda pool. Yosef tried to spit out, it landed on his top right arm, he sighed, his had been a tale of woes, no one there to help him clean up or throw him in the bubbling pool. After thirty-eight (38) years of suffering this ailment, no family member around to help. He felt bitter about them, everyone had given up on him and finally gone on with their lives. Leaving him to fate.
The huge stone columns stood to the right of where he and other sick folks lay, lining the edge and creating a little passage in the middle for passersby. He was still thinking when he noticed a young man, of not more than 32years he reasoned, standing beside his mat, looking right down at him. The man had thick eyebrows, looked ruddy and was of average stature, with deep brown eyes. The stranger looked directly at him, in fact, 'too directly', Yosef thought to himself.
'Do you want to be healed?' The stranger asked simply.
The area was still busy with people moving around and talking- the whole ruckus of a public place, but a few men stopped too as the stranger stopped, they seemed like his companions or something.
He hesitated about answering the question. What kind of a question was that: 'Do you want to be healed?' Then he looked up again at the stranger. The man just stood there with an uncanny confidence about him. His gaze, piercing, almost like he looked through Yosef's eyes into his very soul. Yosef blinked as he thought of a summary of his situation to give the concerned stranger.
'Well, I have no one to throw me inside the pool when it bubbles, other sharp guys always jump in first...' he paused, not sure whether to say more.
'Get up! Pick your mat and walk.' The stranger replied.
The next few seconds will always be a fuzzy memory for him. First he was lying paralyzed, then the stranger instructed, and his limbs responded and he saw himself standing! He picked his mat and took his first steps, not believing his eyes, he felt strong, stronger than he had ever been. The stranger moved away with his bunch, disappearing into the crowd before he could ask him any question or say 'thank you.' Yosef, didn't know who he was...
Screeeeeeeccch! Pause the story there. Let me take you back to the beginning of the movie script.
The scene opens after Adam has lost his authority over the earth to the Lucifer, the con master and father of all movie villains. Lucifer's take over and reign over mankind for millions of years was marked by brutal and undefiable oppression. God could have let man suffer the consequences of his rebellion, but in his love, he hatched a plan to save man. But there were legal issues God had to settle first. After all, it was he, God, who fixed the rules of the universe, he had to play by them.
The Soter, who was to save mankind from Lucifer's tyrannical reign and domination had to match up on two technically impossible grounds. First, he had to be a human like the oppressed mankind to qualify as their replacement and then he needed to be sinless to be capable of redeeming them. It was impossible to find both qualities in anyone human person because every born human was contaminated at conception in it's mother womb. One ancient king affirmed this when he said: ' Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me' (Psalms 51:5, NIV.)
It seemed like an impasse at the very beginning of the rescue mission.
Lucifer's face furrowed with an evil grin for he thought, there's no way God would bypass that hurdle; human and sinless? Impossible combination! Angels, who were sinless couldn't come to do the job because they weren't human and all humans were imbued with sin at conception when the sperm hit egg- it was hopeless! Just then, God invented an unprecedented, never-before-heard-of-exclusive, virgin-birth: a Jewish virgin girl, fondly called Mae, got pregnant! And so our hero is born human and sinless; qualified and capable!
At his birth, in the physical realm, just a few scattered groups get the hint of his alleged personality as the 'Soter of the Kosmos'; a few shepherds, some weird sounding magi-astrologers from the East, a couple of old people who hang around Jerusalem's temple, not much broadcast after that. In sharp contrast, the news spreads quickly throughout the spirit realm, especially underworld of darkness. Anticipations, anxieties, what would he do and how would he go about upturning the tyranny of Lucifer. Only speculations. The prophecies in the scrolls seemed too vague and scattered to understand. Many top ranking arch-demons from DBI (Demons Bureau of Investigation) were assigned to duties of monitoring the baby boy. They had strict orders to report all suspicious non-human manifestations by the child, to Satan himself. It was top priority, they were on red alert. Disappointingly, monitoring the virgin's son was monotonously boring. The baby did nothing special, it cried, ate and suckled- just like thousands of other Jewish babies around Nazareth. They called him Yeshua, Yeshua Ben Yosef -Jesus son of Joseph, or so they thought.
The more the child grew, the more doubtful the monitoring spirits became of his identity. Rumors amongst spirits had it that, the virgin's first born son was Jehovah's very own son. Incredible! The least the demons had expected, knowing how powerful his alleged father, God, is, was that the baby would be able to walk by himself from the day of his delivery or something spectacular! Disappointingly, the child, as it grew, did nothing of note, except ask too many questions, that temple nerds thought were quite intelligent whenever he was at a synagogue or at Jerusalem's temple. Then eventually becoming an exceptionally skilful carpenter. He also took over 'Joseph and Sons Upholsteries' when his guardian father died. 'Was this God's plan? The DBI agents reasoned amongst themselves, 'of all the super fast and ultra powerful angels on standby in heaven? An ordinary carpenter is sent to save the world? Was this God's best? Maybe good old Jehovah wasn't as wise as he used to be millions of years back when he and Moses snuck the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt!' The plan seemed wholly laughable, a grandiose waste of resources -all that power channeled into orchestrating a virgin birth, just to send a skilful carpenter to earth? Super lame idea!
Just when you thought the story was boring, Yeshua aka Jesus, the son of the virgin turned 30.
'What about that?' You may ask, 'Does turning 30 years of age have any special saving significance?'
Well, not really, except you receive the Holy Spirit without measure upon your life at that age.
'Holy Spirit? Who in Rabbi Nwokoro's name is that?'
Let's just say, he's another character in the movie script, what script writers usually call the 'Deux ex machina!'
For the next one month and ten days (forty days and nights), customers who wanted new tables, chairs and other wooden items couldn't get it at their favourite carpentry shop within the Nazareth community. The chief carpenter of Joseph and Sons Upholsteries, Yeshua was nowhere to be found. The rumour was that he went to hear some crazy preacher, John, who taught his adherents impromptu swimming, dipping them in water, a crazy ceremony they called baptism! The carpenter went too and was baptized, only to return later -totally different. It was also rumoured that he hung out in the desert during the period he was 'missing'; probably side effects of the baptism ish, some people said.
The previous red alert that the DBI had placed over the whole area, at his birth, was removed and the many demons assigned to the territory were even reposted, as the situation seemed totally inert and posed no risk to the reigning universal oppression.
Then things changed faster than when you turned on a switch; the carpenter-cum-preacher gained much fame, with never before seen large crowds following him everywhere. Now lucifer was beginning to get concerned. The reports about activities in Nazareth submitted by the monitoring spirits operating there, at regional board meetings at the HellQuarters, were totally distressing.
'The hitherto harmless carpenter, just like other rabbis, scribes and Pharisees, showed up at synagogues to teach from the scrolls. Only one difference, he talks with authority and kicks out evil spirits with just a word!'
'Kick us out?!' Lucifer howled at the spirit who was reading the report, 'What new stunt is that? No prophet ever did that! Check through those miserable Moses and Prophets' scrolls they read every Saturday -not one single case of casting any of us out! This is our territory, I personally took the control from Adam, that's not fair!'
In fact, field demons operating in Carpernaum, that specialized at inflicting bodily afflictions came up to testify: 'The carpenter seemed to have no problem curing every and any ailment: deaf ears, blind eyes, crippled, maimed limbs even grew out -pretty cool stuff to watch!'
Even with the very many encouraging progress reports coming in from all over the world, the distressing reports from Nazareth and environs totally dampened the usual fun of the meetings with Lucifer and the supreme ruling council of darkness and spiritual wickedness in both high and low places! The carpenter didn't travel at all outside Israel's boundaries, so technically the rest of the world was still under the firm grip of darkness yet he had to be curbed. Curbed before he got more ambitious and have bright ideas about taking his fancy preaching to Rome, the world's capital. The resolution of Parliament, Yeshua the carpenter-cum-rabbi, was declared Most Wanted on terrorist list, to be 'brought in' dead ONLY, taming him while alive was useless.
'Yeshua must be assasinated!' The demons left with more reinforcement, headed for Jerusalem to arrange to kill the rebel!
.....
Comments
Post a Comment