Johann Quisumbing

An Adventure Story of Yeshua bar Yosef by JQuisumbing

“You are mad! How can you say that I promised to follow you? Until you hailed me, I had never laid eyes on you.” Sy stood up angrily and said, “You are trying to stop me from doing my duty.” He turned and started to walk away.

“You were twelve years old,” Yeshua said. Sy paused. “It was in your dedication to be a true Israelite. Your mother made you a new robe of many colors just like the one given to the legendary Yosef.¹ Your favorite story of old that you loved to hear over and over. Your father gave you your first dagger. The very same one that is sheathed on your back.” 

He slowly sat back down, his mouth agape.

“When your father and his friends were conversing about the Messiah and how he may be already walking in their midst, you listened so intently. So, that very night, and a few other nights after, you made this vow, ‘Lord Adonai in Heaven, if you would lead me to the Messiah, I would follow him to the ends of the world.’ ”

Sy’s eyes were wide. “I was alone when I made that vow and I have never told anybody. I had dreamt that I would be a general in his army to claim back the land from the invaders.”

“I know,” Yeshua chuckled. “You so wanted to scale the fortress in Jerusalem and capture the Golden Eagle of the Legion and present it to the Messiah.”

Sy stared for a long time, staying silent, afraid to speak.

“Sy, what do you know of the Messiah?”

“That he would come from the line of King David and that the Prophet Micah wrote that he would… Hold! ” Sy’s face showed that he just realized something. “Nazareth! You said you were from Nazareth. You cannot be the Messiah for Micah said that he would be born in Bethlehem.² Hah! I got you!”

“You are correct…” Yeshua said, watching him prop up as if he successfully unveiled a fraud. He smiled. “… if I was born in Nazareth. But in truth, at the time of the Roman census, I was born in Bethlehem. And yes… both my parents were of the line of David.”

“You are about my age. Some twenty nine years or so ago, the mad King Herod ordered the slaughter of every male child under the age of two. It was reported that the slaughter was complete. So, how could you be the one?”

“Sy, you are not being consistent,” Yeshua said, looking seriously at him, eye to eye. “For you to believe that the slaughter was totally absolute would mean that the Messiah had been long dead. This means that you dedicated yourself to him who is no more, but you and I know that you don’t really believe it. So, speak and bring it out into the open.”

“I admit that you are not what I expected as the one who will lead the army of Israelites against Rome and bring to us all freedom. I mean you do not look like a general or even a King.”

Yeshua could not hold his serious look any longer, he broke out laughing. “I have been waiting for you to say that,” he chortled. “Sy, you have forgotten what the Scriptures said about assumptions especially in the Lord Adonai’s choice of who the Messiah would be. Isaiah wrote, ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.’³  

“Once, Samuel had your same expectation when he went to Bethlehem to anoint a king. When Jesse brought out his eldest son, he saw a man who was tall and strong, but he was corrected by the Lord. ‘Adonai does not see as man sees, since man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’⁴ ”

“Sy, my Father in Heaven has set me on my task and I have very little time to accomplish everything that needs done. I would love to have you with me, but I will not force you. However, if you come with me, you will be able to do more with your faith and zeal than with a sword.”

“What can I do with no weapon to fight with?”

“Rome is not the real problem of Israel and the world. It is a symptom, just like the Helenes, the Persians, Babylonians, Assyrians, Egyptians and every human empire since the time when man was casted out of Paradise. Though many Israelites including yourself would argue that they are a free people, in truth, though they wear no chains, your lives are still enslaved!”

“To what, Rabbi?”

“To SIN!” 

There was long silence between them. Yeshua then stood and started walking toward Capernaum. After ten minutes, the sound of crunching gravel behind him told him that Sy made up his mind. 

“May I at least keep my knife?”

Yeshua broke out laughing.

TO BE CONTINUED

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Footnotes: [1] Yosef – Joseph, 11th son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Rachel (Genesis 37:3); [2] Micah 5:2; [3] Isaiah 55:8; [4] 1 Samuel 16:7; 

Author’s Note: Chapter 5 of this story covers that part of Jesus’ biblical timeline from after He changed water into wine until He clears the Temple of greedy hawkers.

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