In the novel The Temples, three young women being chased across Israel stop to eat in a restaurant along the Sea of Galilee. They decide to dine at one of the numerous restaurants serving Saint Peter’s fish. Seating is European style (communal at large tables) and the women are seated across from an interesting man who strikes up a conversation. The following is an extract from the novel:

The young man had longish hair and wore jeans and a shirt of faded cotton. He said he was one of the thousands of Christian pilgrims who toured Israel. The listeners introduced themselves, afraid that the man might try to proselytize them; but then again, this was a different reality.

“A lot of positive things can come from meditation,” he began. “We spend too much time not thinking, but just responding to the aimless chatter around us, never really concentrating on what’s being said, never focusing on one idea, one topic, until it can be explored thoroughly. It’s almost like you’re being pelted with sleet and it melts before you even realize it has hit you. Meditating on one train of thought can be very valuable. The mind can deviate from your original experiences and go in other directions, allowing you to go farther and farther out to where your mind is opening one door after another, and behind each is a burst of new insight, new understanding. The secret is, I believe, to meditate on something that draws you emotionally.”

Shannon felt compelled to discuss Christianity with him and felt she could speak openly. “Like my two friends, I was raised in a Christian church; but I drifted away from it when I got into college and came up against a lot of cynicism from students who were away from their parents’ influence and encountering new ideas in their courses. I like the basic ideas of Christianity—peace and love.  Who wouldn’t!—

“I didn’t mind that, but it was the way it was presented in the gospels that bothered me. Here you have a messiah going around and performing one miracle after another:  raising the dead, feeding more than five thousand with a few loaves and fishes, healing the sick, making the lame walk, awing his apostles by walking on water, and on and on. The question is, did they follow him because of what he preached or because he was a powerful magician who could do things no normal man could? 

“I just didn’t understand what the gospels were trying to tell us. If Jesus was a great mystical magician who could do all that, why wouldn’t you hang out with him? Why wouldn’t you listen to what he said and try to stay in his good graces? Someday you might need his help. It seemed like God, or maybe the men who wrote the gospels, took the easy way out. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to insult Christianity. I just think it could’ve been presented better.” She finished lamely and sat back, feeling that she hadn’t done a very good job of expressing herself.

“I hear this a lot,” the young man began. “I always tell people I don’t think it’s a matter of how it was presented, but how it has been interpreted. People get caught up in the magical power of Jesus and not what the writers of the gospels were telling us in their metaphors, their stories. They would not have held their readers’ interest if they just made a few simple statements about how powerful Jesus was:  He was your savior, He died for your sins, and you should follow Him as a matter of faith. It probably wouldn’t catch people’s interest. They told the story of Jesus primarily in the form of metaphors. They were told as simple stories for simple times; but they can be interpreted with much greater depth in more sophisticated times—something like “Gulliver’s Travels” that can be read as a simple children’s story or as a profound political satire. It was presented as stories full of symbolism.

“Each story in the Bible, each symbol, each fantastic occurrence built a Messiah brick by brick. The story of his birth and the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist links Jesus to mankind. In the so-called Transfiguration, he appeared with Moses and Elijah, linking him to Jewish history but also exhibiting mastery over history and time. Walking on water and calming the storm linked him to nature and exhibited his mastery over it. 

“In other metaphors the Bible gives Jesus mastery over time and distance and fear, as in the story where he exorcizes the demon that says ‘I am Legion,’ linking it metaphorically to the Roman legions. Jesus was showing that he did not fear the most fearful thing in Israel at the time, the legions of Rome. Raising Lazarus from the dead, and indeed His own rising from the dead after His crucifixion, showed mastery over death. He forgave us our sins and he gave us mastery over our sins. 

“In the story of the lepers, Jesus is walking by and some lepers run out and beg to be cured because they’ve heard he can do such things. Listening carefully to the scripture, you learn that Jesus cleansed the lepers. All but one ran back to their village rejoicing in the fact that they were cleansed. One remained behind and praised Jesus for what he had done. The scriptures say he was healed, meaning his soul, not only his body. Jesus was not a magician so much as a healer of souls. Our bodies are ephemeral, our souls are eternal.

“Remember the story about feeding the multitudes, the loaves and fishes? Was that about not magic, but about sharing? About encouraging people to contribute the little they had to help everyone? Jesus healed their souls and thus they shared.

“I’m just a man like everyone else here; but I have my opinions and, looking at Christianity this way, I believe you start breaking through to the true meaning of the Gospel stories, who Jesus really was. I’m sorry, but if you give me an opening like that ….”

Shannon said, “I’ve never heard the gospels interpreted that way before. ….”

“That was extremely interesting,” Jennifer agreed. “I’m with Shannon; I never heard Christianity explained like that before.”

“I would like to take credit for it,” the young man said, taking out his wallet, “but I’m just paraphrasing what much better Christian philosophers have said. It was nice talking to you and I hope you enjoy your trip.” He put down some money and drifted away.

From The Temples: book three of the Blue Plane series