The Ultimate Jesus Novel for Deconstructing Christians
Nazareth has been cruel
to my mother, more cruel than any village ever was.
All the village says
that my blood father is not the man who married my mother.
They have shamed
her on the matter all my life.
Every woman asks
which man of the village is my blood father.
Every man scowls
and says he was not the one my mother seduced.
My mother
will not tell who is my blood father.
will not speak on the matter.
bears her shame in silence.
Some righteous man,
a prophet, said a word over me when I was a babe in arms. He told how I will redeem Israel when I grow to be a man.
Now I have grown
to be a man, but I do not know how to redeem Israel. The scriptures do not explain the matter.
My people say
that the man who redeems Israel must take up the sword and throw off our enemy, Rome, which we call the Great Satan.
My family says
I must take up the sword.
Only I am
no man of the sword. I wish with all my heart to redeem Israel, but HaShem, the God of our fathers, must tell me how.
Lately,
there came a new prophet to Israel, who immerses for repentance at the river Jordan.
I went to ask
the prophet how I should redeem Israel.
He said
I am to smite the four Powers.
I asked
what are the four Powers.
He could not say,
but he said HaShem will reveal the matter to me.
I wish HaShem
will reveal the matter, only I am not a prophet. Not yet.
But
I will be.
Here is what I know.
Every hour of every day, I feel the Presence of HaShem.
I do not know why
I should feel the Presence always. My mother does not. My village does not. Even the prophet of HaShem does not.
I think
the Presence will teach me the way to redeem Israel.
But I am afraid
to redeem Israel.
To redeem Israel
is to leave my mother to the scorn of the village.
The rage
of the village.
My mother begs
and cries on me to make a justice for her.
To make a justice
on the village.
I do not know
how to make a justice on the village.
how to redeem Israel.
But HaShem
will show me the way.
I will learn
how to be a prophet of HaShem.
how to make a justice for my mother.
I will smite
the first Power.
Or I will die
in the trying.