Monday, January 12, 2009

Matthew

I was walking through a market street in Jerusalem and I met an old man who wanted to tell me a story. "Fourteen generations passed after Abraham's birth. And so Jacob fathered Joseph," began the old man. I sat down on the dusty and cracked street corner and listened to his story.” Joseph was a noble man. He married Mary, a virgin.
Before Mary and Joseph "came together" Mary saw the Holy Ghost and he told her that she would soon be pregnant with God's baby. A short time later Mary was with child. Joseph immediately got worried. But the Ghost of the Lord appeared before him. He told Joseph that Mary was carrying God's baby and that he was to name the baby Jesus. And so it was."

"In a land far from Bethlem a prophet prophesized that a virgin would give birth to a baby and his name shall be Emmanuel." He paused and looked deeply in my eyes. And he continued "Emmanuel means God with us. Anyway during the time that Jesus was born Herod was the king. After Jesus was born some wise men from the east arrived in Jerusalem to inform the king, Herod that the King of The Jews had just been brought forth. Troubled by this news Herod sent these wise men to find this said "King of Jews" and bring him back. These men traveled for days and arrived to Bethlem and they saw Mary and Joseph with Jesus. They immediately began to worship Jesus. That night God came to them in a dream and warned them to not go back to Jerusalem because they would put young Jesus in danger. These men parted back to their home on another route in order to not pass through Herod's home."
"The night before the Holy Ghost appeared in Joseph's dream and waned him that Herod would try to find and kill Jesus and told him to flee in to Egypt. And that was exactly what Joseph did. He took his wife and his baby to Egypt. Herod killed all the children thought Judea and Jesus remained safe back in Egypt." He let out a small chuckle and looked down at his torn up shoes.
"Some years passed and Herod died and after his death the Holy Ghost appeared in Josephs dream and told them to go back. When they arrived they got scared that Archelaus did reign so they kept on going and arrived in Nazareth. "
" In those neck of the woods John the Baptist was baptizing people in the wilderness and freeing them from their sins. Jesus heard about this and went out to find this man and got baptized. Jesus was exempt from all his previous sins but was about to be tempted by the devil. Can you imagine being put to test by the devil himself? I sure wouldn't have been able to pass that test." Said the man in a sarcastic tone. "Well anyhow Jesus passed all of Satan’s tests and went on and began to preach the word of God. He began to become more powerful and famous. He healed the sick and went to the top of a mount and gave a long sermon on hoe hate should of been abolished. His sermon was so touching that when he came down from the mount, a huge crowd of people came around him and began to follow him. In that crowd a leper approached Jesus and with just one touch, Jesus cured him."
"Jesus’ fame grew more and more and he began to cure many, he even brought Jarius' daughter back from the dead. His miracles astonished many and he grew so popular that he decided to choose 12 men and make him his apostles to spread his preachings. These men would be the most loyal to him. Everything was going so well for Jesus but where there is good there always has to be something bad. A group of unfaithful quickly formed and called themselves Pharisees.”

I was so dumbfounded by this mans story that I couldn’t stop thinking about it. He suddenly stopped and began to cough. I took some water out of a small canteen I had and offered him some. He smiled and drank. “Even though Jesus had enemies. He kept teaching and as he traveled his crowd of admirers grew he began to teach with parables which were stories that he made up with a message to teach people a lesson.

Herod had put John the Baptist in jail and eventually beheaded him because his wife wanted John’s head for her birthday. So Jesus apostles heard of this and went to look for john’s body to burry it. So they did and went to tell Jesus about the tragic incident. Jesus went into the dessert alone and when his disciples heard of the happening they followed him. When Jesus saw the enormous crowd that followed he healed the sick among the crowd. When it got late his apostles told Jesus it would be a good idea to send the disciples to the near by cities to get food but Jesus said it was not necessary that he would feed them. He only had 5 loaves of bread and two fish. And all tighter there was 5000 disciplines but Jesus miraculously multiplied the loaves and the fish and fed all the people. His followers could not believe this but to top things off,” said the old man, “ he walked on water after that little meal.” He suddenly stopped and said, “ I’m sorry I am old and I get confused a lot, first he walked on water and then he fed the 4000 followers. He smiled embarrassed. But I quickly comforted him telling him that it was all right. And he began, “ After these miracles he moved on into another city, I cant recall it’s name, and he healed a lunatic. His fame kept on growing and he taught many how to forgive and how to love.

But not everyone was happy with Jesus. The rulers began to conspire against him and he fore saw his horrid future. That night he went into the garden and began to agonize, I remember so well who I heard I herd his cries.” He looked up at me as if he had known what I was about to ask. “ You knew Jesus?” I exclaimed he looked back at me and nodded. “My name is Matthew. Well let me finish this story.”

In the end Jesus was falsely accused and delivered to Pilate bound and ready to be crucified. He was nailed to a wooden cross that said, “This is Jesus, The King Of The Jews. Jesus then died and was buried but when Mary Magdalene went to look for him she saw that he was missing from his tomb. Jesus had come to find us and ask us to please spread his message all over the world.

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