Threat

Extract 56
News of the miracle spread quickly. No-one thinks of him as my son anymore, everyone wants to claim him as theirs. Everyone has an opinion about who he is, what he should do, whose side he is on. Everyone thinks they own him. It's so dangerous. He offends our own religious leaders yet some of them openly follow him. Even the wife of Herod's Chief of Staff supports his work. Already there are rumours that the Romans are fearful of his influence. They've put down so many rebellions, killed so many 'Christs'. In truth, I'm frightened for him.

They killed John, if they could find a way, I'm afraid they'll kill my son.

Extract 57
I couldn't stand it any more, I told James and the boys to come with me, to reason with him, help him understand that the way he is going will get him killed. That there must be a way of accomplishing his mission without this. But when we got to where he was I was shocked, the crowd was larger than I had ever seen – it seemed as if the whole of Israel was listening to my son. Jesus looked exhausted, we tried to push our way through, but we couldn't get to him. In the end we passed a message from hand to hand pleading with him to come home. When he heard the message that his mother and brothers were in the crowd, he looked up and sadly shook his head. 'My mother and my brothers are those who understand God's word and allow me to fulfill it'.

I understood, our eyes met and my heart broke one more time.

Extract 58
We stayed a while, to listen, to watch the crowd I suppose. But soon, Jesus and his disciples moved through the crowd towards the lake and got into a boat. We all followed them. Sometimes I knew, Jesus would preach from a boat so that more people could crowd around and hear. But not this time, he really was exhausted and as soon as they were ready, Jesus lay down in the back of the boat and the fishermen in his group set sail to give him some rest. The crowd gradually turned away, realising the show was over. But just as we were leaving someone shouted 'Look over there!' We turned and my heart stopped. The sky over the lake had darkened, a howling storm was sweeping towards the boat. I know lakes, I know storms and I had never seen anything like this. We stood transfixed as the storm hit the boat. They had almost no time to do anything. It was far from the shore now – almost half way to Gerasa and all we could see was the sail come down and the boat turn towards the waves. It didn't seem anything like enough. Two or three times we saw it swamped by waves, almost overturned, and with each larger wave the boat sank a little more. Minutes ago I had tried to save Jesus from men, now it seemed the very powers of hell had been unleashed.

And then it stopped. Not gradually, not a normal abating of wind and waves. It just stopped. And there standing in the prow was Jesus.

He's my son, but who is he?