branch that hung over the porch and held on tightly.
While perched in that awkward position, he caught a glimpse of Anamin the beggar passing by laughing and praising God. The crowd began to tighten around the prophet as excitement and anticipation grew.
“There’s another guy hollering, ‘I can see!’ What do you make of that, Shem?” Eber was mystified. “All this shouting, dancing, and laughing. Some people are reaching out to touch him – strange.”
Shem stared at another man who he seemed to recognize.
“Is that the blind beggar we passed on the way here?” he asked.
“One and the same,” Eber replied.
Unpredictably as always, Eber decided that it was time to leave. It was getting too uncomfortable and awkward for his taste. If somebody recognized him, anything could happen. He wanted to remain anonymous.
It’s too crowded, no room to run or hide, he thought.
“Let’s move on, it’s getting crazy here!” Eber shouted above the commotion.
He grabbed Shem by the arm and started walking away. As he passed, Shem overheard a Pharisee at the edge of the gathering speaking to one of his companions in a loud and irritated voice:
“He does that by the power of Beelzebub!”
“Something must be done,” his cohort answered. “The Council will figure out what to do.”
Their verbal exchange was bitter, hostile and noxious.
Shem could not believe what the religious leaders were saying about this man Jesus. They, with their parrot-like prayers, demands and religious hypocrisy never convinced Shem of their sincerity.
Shem figured that the spiritual leaders wished to remain at the center of religious thought in Jerusalem and the nation of Israel. Jesus was disrupting everything they’d worked for, threatening to break their religious control over the people, so they needed to stop him at all cost.
“They can’t even come close to doing what that man from Galilee did,” Shem commented. “I thought the Nazareth guy was helping people when he healed them. Everybody looks happy. Wow!”
Shem did not realize that he had stopped walking and was gazing back at the Pharisees. Eber pulled him by the arm, and out of his reverie.
“So what,” Eber cried, “let’s go!”
And off the two went.
Shem tried to put the thought of the prophet out of his mind as he walked away with Eber, but to no avail.
That night, as Shem tried to sleep on the straw mat, turning left and right, the notion that Jesus was more than a mere man flitted to and fro in his thoughts.
Thieves Page 2