Man in White Page 20

  “I am well, sister,” he said as she led him in. “And I am not a beggar. I ply my trade as always and am very happy in my work. However, my tools, my loom and spindle, are in my room where I left them. I will need my tools to pay my keep.”

  “Where have you been?” she pleaded. “I have heard strange reports of you from Damascus. Is it true? You have abandoned your work and alienated all your friends here?”

  “I have only just begun my work, Sarah,” he said. “You, of all people, must understand me. I have come to know the fulfillment of the promises of the Covenant. I have become a teacher and a preacher of the new testament of our Messiah, who has come as promised. I am a man of peace, Sarah, and the peace is of my Lord.”

  Levi entered the room. He did not approach Saul to embrace him but only stared at him as if he were an intruder.

  “You are a brave man for returning to this city. Not only the Temple authorities, but the Greeks, the Gentiles among whom you wreaked havoc, will try to kill you. Your life isn’t worth a shekel.”

  “Levi,” Sarah cried, “you are talking to my brother.”

  “He is no brother,” said Levi. “You are a traitor!” he shouted at Saul.

  Sarah clung to Saul and wept. “Please, Levi,” she said.

  “Where is my nephew, Jacob?” asked Saul.

  “Fortunately, he is in school at the moment,” said Levi. “And I’m sure you would be more welcome in the congregation of your friends.”

  Saul turned to Sarah. “I shall be at the house of Simon Peter, the one they call Cephas. Come there to see me,” he said.

  “I remember his trial and his scourging when he mocked the elders in the judgment hall. It is a matter of time for all of them in this city,” said Levi.

  “My dear brother-in-law,” said Saul, smiling, “how is it that you are now concerned with the sect of the Nazarene?”

  “Because you are one of them!” shouted Levi.“And don’t call me brother,” he said with hostility as he turned and walked out of the room.

  Sarah again embraced Saul. “Be careful,” she said. “I will come.”

  With a heavy heart he left for the house of Simon Peter. “I regret losing Levi, but I cannot cast my pearls before swine,” he murmured.

  Simon Peter’s oldest son was named Jesse, the youngest David. Jesse at twelve years old showed a wisdom beyond his years. He had the wiry, copper-colored hair of his father and the dark eyes. He was square-shouldered and strong. David favored his mother, Leah, with his straight black hair and slim features.

  The Temple torches had been lit and the water-clock had sounded the twelfth hour. The family held hands around the table and recited the prayer. “Give us this day our daily bread . . .”

  Barley bread it was, the round, heavy loaf of the common people. Peter broke the first piece and gave it to Leah. Then each one took a piece of bread and dipped it into the lentil stew. Jesse was the first to speak after the prayer.

  “I had a strange dream last night, Father,” he said.

  “What did you dream?” Peter asked. Streaks of gray were beginning to show in Peter’s beard, but his eyes were quick and youthful, his hands and face deeply tanned from traveling in the sun.

  “I dreamed,” said Jesse, putting his bread down and looking into his bowl thoughtfully, “that a man was praying in the Temple, and everyone wanted to kill him.”

  “Was I that man?” Peter asked, smiling.

  “No,” said Jesse.“He was a stranger. Yet I seemed to know him. I told him in the dream that he could come to our house.”

  Peter studied his son. “That was kind of you,” he said, then continued eating.

  “It was just a dream, I guess,” Jesse said, passing it off. “Lots of people pray in the Temple.”

  “Yes,” said Peter. “And many people have been killed there. Perhaps it isn’t just a dream. Many have come to this house in the past as a place of refuge.”

  Leah got up from the table to close the damper on the brazier, and there was a knock at the front door. Peter started to rise, but Leah said, “I’ll go.”

  The room where they dined served as kitchen, dining room, and sleeping room. Leah crossed the small courtyard and went through the foyer to answer the front door. In the courtyard were the stairs to the roof, where it was custom for families to spend their evenings after supper.

  “Jesse,” said Peter as they waited for the boys’ mother to return, “and David, always remember to welcome guests who knock on your door. Though it may be dangerous to receive those who come after the doors are bolted, angels have been entertained unawares. And especially in this house, where . . .” Peter stopped, for Leah stood before them with her eyes wide and her face pale from fright.

  Peter was immediately upon his feet. “What is it, Leah?” he asked. “Who is it?”

  “I think it is Saul of Tarsus,” she said. “The persecutor. He is at our door.” She was trembling.

  “Stay here, my sons,” said Peter as he walked past Leah to the door. “Sit with the boys,” he said to her. “I will see.”

  “So it is you, Saul,” Peter said, studying the face of the Pharisee who stood at the door. “Is it true? Have you come in peace?”

  “The peace of the Lord Jesus be upon all in this house,” said Saul.

  Suddenly Peter knew. “The chief persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, has come to know the Lord.”

  “Barnabas sent me,” said Saul. “I come as a brother. May I come in?”

  “Have you seen the Lord as is rumored?” asked Peter.

  “Yes,” said Saul. “I have come to share with you my joy in him.”

  “Leah, Jesse, David,” Peter said, bringing Saul to the table, “make a place for our brother Saul. Sit at my right hand and dine with us.”

  “What fine boys you have, Peter,” Saul said. When he looked into the questioning eyes of Leah, he said, “I realize that you felt fear upon seeing me, mistress, but please know that I come in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

  Peter nodded to Jesse and said, “I think my son expected you. He had a dream.”

  Saul studied the boy. “Many times the Lord has spoken to his people in dreams and visions,” he said. “His hand is upon this household.”

  When they had finished, Peter said,“Bring a pan of cool water, Leah, that I might wash our guest’s feet.

  “This is a humble household, Saul. I have no couch for you to recline upon, but if you will turn your feet around where you sit, I will wash them.”

  Saul said, “You do me a great honor, Peter.”

  “No, my brother,” said Peter. “I honor my Lord with an act of humility.”

  Leah brought the water and knelt beside Peter.

  “I am not a man of great learning, Saul,” said Peter, “and I was slow to understand much that the Lord said to me. It was on that last night with him and the other disciples that he knelt and washed all our feet. When he came to me, I tried to refuse him. He told me that if he did not wash my feet, then I would have no part with him in his kingdom. He even told me that I did not understand why he was doing it, but that I would later.”

  Peter paused and looked up at Saul. “It was a great lesson that he taught me. All must humble themselves as a little child to come into his kingdom, and how better to humble ourselves than to wash each other’s feet.

  “But the deeper lesson I have come to realize,” said Peter, “is that he is the living water, and to be washed in him is to be spiritually cleansed. So it is he who washes you, Saul. I do it in remembrance of him.”

  Leah, kneeling beside him, dried Saul’s feet with her hair. The boys gently brushed Saul’s hair and beard, adding a few drops of olive oil to make it glisten. The warmth of the family feeling touched Saul deeply. How beautiful the boys were, laughing and taking turns with the brush. Leah was softly singing a psalm at his feet.

  Peter kissed his family good night, and he and Saul mounted the stairs to the rooftop, for there was much to talk about.

  The stars
were out on the clear, warm night, and the giant torches on the Temple pinnacles cast an orange glow over the city. The two men sat facing each other, and Saul took a long time explaining his experience on the Damascus road. He described in as much detail as he could the glory of the Man in White. Saul paused, then said, “Peter, you first saw the Lord in flesh and blood. I saw him come in glory from the right hand of God.”

  “I saw him in glory also, Saul. I was with him on the holy mountain when the Voice from glory declared, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,’” said Peter. “I also saw him after the resurrection.”

  “His glorified countenance,” Saul said. “I was blinded by the pure glory of his countenance. I can still close my eyes and see his afterimage behind my eyelids.”

  “But we must remember that he was very human,” said Peter. “He ate, slept, and laughed. He got tired, thirsty, and angry, and his feet hurt. He felt pain as you and I do. And there was one particular human thing that he had to do, Saul—bleed.”

  “The blood,” said Saul. “I saw his blood in dreams.”

  “Yes,” said Peter, “the blood of redemption. Our divine gift brought about through grace by the shedding of his blood.”

  “And in my case,” said Saul, “the Lord, like a skilled physician, healed me when my fever was at its worst—my fever of zeal.”

  “Never has a man spoken as my Lord has spoken,” said Peter.“He had the words of life.

  “The Sabbath is coming, Saul, and our brother James will be here. With him we will read the words of the Master to the congregation.”

  “Read?” asked Saul.

  “Yes,” said Peter. “Once when he was teaching and healing at my house in Capernaum, a scribe came and told the Lord that he would follow him wherever he went. He had a bag of parchment and wrote down every word that the Lord said as long as he could keep up with us,” Peter laughed. “The Lord told him that foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head. We went on to the lake then, and a storm came up. The scribe watched from shore as the Lord stretched out his hands and calmed the sea.”

  “And you have those sayings of the Lord that the scribe wrote?” asked Saul.

  “Yes,” said Peter. “Matthew Levi recopied his sayings, and James now keeps that copy. He will read from it on the Sabbath.”

  “He has revealed many things to me,” said Saul, “but it will be good to hear his own words read.”

  “He often taught us in parables,” Peter said, “because his message was so new and profound. Once when some Pharisees came testing him, asking him to give them a sign from heaven, he answered them by saying, ‘When it is evening and the sky is red, you say it will be fair weather tomorrow, and in the morning if the sky is red, you say it would be foul weather.’ Then he said, ‘You hypocrites! You can discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times.’ They were puzzled by this, so he told them, ‘You shall have no sign from me except the sign of the prophet Jonah.’”

  “The three days in the belly of the fish,” said Saul.

  “Yes,” said Peter. “Symbolic of his coming death and three days in the grave before his resurrection.

  “He was extremely kind to the poor wherever he went. And if a person humbled himself before him, he made no distinction between Jew, Gentile, or Roman, male or female, bond or free.

  “Once a Canaanite woman came to him, asking him to heal her daughter. We asked him to send her away, but he replied by saying, ‘I am not sent just to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ She fell at his feet, worshiping him. He tested her by saying, ‘It is not meant to take the children’s bread and cast it to the dogs.’”

  “What did he mean by that?” asked Saul.

  “He was the bread, and we were the children,” said Peter. “Then she said, ‘Lord, let the dogs eat just the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.’ The Lord answered, ‘Great is your faith, woman.’ And her daughter was healed . . . just a few crumbs of the bread of life from the Master’s table.”

  They were silent for a moment, then Saul said, “I was privileged to witness your vision on the rooftop in Joppa.”

  Peter was amazed. “You saw the sheet and all the animals?”

  “Yes,” said Saul. “The Lord has made it clear to us that the door to his kingdom is open to all who will come in, Jew and Gentile. But there are problems we must discuss. We must not offend our own people, yet we must not let new converts feel that they must be bound by the traditions of the Law.”

  “The Lord was of the house of Israel as we are, Saul,” said Peter. “The Lord did not make null and void the Law. He came to fulfill the promise of the Law and the Prophets. As a matter of fact, he told us that we must keep the commandments, for in keeping them is the love of God, and in keeping them is to be like him, for as the fulfillment of the Law, Jesus was the perfection of the Law.”

  Saul paused for a moment. He closed his eyes, and there, behind his eyelids, was the image of the Man in White.

  “I know the way of salvation, Peter,” said Saul. “It has all been revealed to me, and not by man, lest any man should boast, but by the Lord himself, through angels, through divine visitation of the Holy Spirit, and by his very voice itself.”

  Peter studied Saul for a moment, then smiled.“Then we were both taught by the Lord himself.”

  “Yes,” said Saul, “we are blessed above all men.”

  “There were twelve of us,” said Peter, “whom he publicly and personally called to minister with him. But he sent out many others and called many others such as yourself. And, Saul,” said Peter, “no man should boast, even if he did receive direct revelation from the Lord himself.”

  Saul thought for a moment about what Peter was saying, then said, smiling, “I suppose that was a rather presumptuous statement I made, implying that I had a higher calling.”

  “We all have a high calling, Saul,” said Peter.

  “Will the other apostles be here to worship on the Sabbath?” asked Saul.

  “Only James,” said Peter, “and probably Barnabas. Many come here to worship who once went to the Synagogue of the Libertines or the Synagogue of the Isles of the Sea.” Peter smiled. “But now, Saul, we have talked long enough. Let us pray, then we should retire.”

  Peter’s household was very busy very early. First the boys were up with their talk and laughter. Then they were off to school, Leah following them to the door with a hairbrush in her hand, grooming as best she could the wild locks on Jesse’s head.

  “Uncle James is here, Father,” he called out before closing the door.

  Saul had said his morning prayers and was dressed to meet James. As he came in, Peter started to introduce them but stopped as they stared at each other.

  Finally Saul said, “I have seen the Lord in glory, James. He has called me to be a witness of him to the Gentiles.”

  James looked around to Peter, who smiled at him, and said, “I am sure that if Cephas has received you as one of us, then it is so.”

  “I know my reputation as a persecutor, James, and I am prepared to face the congregation today. If I will be allowed to speak, I will convince them that I have seen the Lord.”

  “Very well,” said James.“But I doubt that you will convince them all.”He turned to Peter. “I must put these scrolls in the ark. It is a blustery, windy day. Perhaps the inner court would not be a good place to meet.”

  “We shall use the upper room,” said Peter.

  Suddenly there was a clamor outside, and Peter went to the door. There at the gate stood a donkey and a cart carrying a woman, her young son, and certain pieces of furniture.

  “What brings you here?” asked Peter.

  “I am Sarah, sister of Saul of Tarsus, and this is my son, Jacob.”

  Saul came out the front door, and upon seeing him, Sarah leaped from the cart.

  “Saul,” she said, crying, “I had to come. I feel that you need me as I need you, for now I have
no one, only Jacob.”

  “Where is your husband?” asked Saul.

  She hesitated to answer, first looking shamefully at Peter, then back to her brother. “He has gone to the temple priests and scribes to obtain a bill of divorcement.”

  “Divorcement!” cried Saul. “Why?”

  “When I told him I was coming to find you, he went into a rage. He said I, too, would become a polluter of the Covenant by befriending this outlawed sect. But you are my brother, Saul. I didn’t mean to desert my husband and my home.”

  “Perhaps when his temper subsides, he shall change his mind, Sarah,” said Saul comfortingly.

  Peter put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her kindly. “The women in my house are preparing food for the coming Sabbath. We have many people to feed. Perhaps you will join them, then stay for the worship service this evening.” Then looking at Jacob, he said, “Your son can find a corner to sleep in with my own sons. Welcome to my home and to the congregation.”

  “Thank you,” she said. “I hired a donkey and cart,” said Sarah, “in order to bring you your tools, Saul. I have your loom, your shuttle, spindle, needles, and pliers, plus the cotton and flax that you left with Baanah ben David.” She paused, looking at Saul.“He asked about you.”

  “I will go to see him as soon as possible,” said Saul.

  He set about bringing his equipment in and set it up in a corner of the courtyard. He began to make a curtain for the inner courtyard. His fingers flew at the task, and the long piece of material expanded. Jacob helped him while Sarah busied herself with the other women.

  Later in the afternoon she came out to talk to him. “Saul,” she said, “regardless of what Levi is doing,my home is still my home. You should go back there with me, for it is dangerous for you to stay here.”

  “Why is it, Sarah?” he asked.

  “Through my husband,” she said, “word will reach the Temple authorities that you are here. They will come for you.”

  “I do not fear men,” he said. “I must commune with my fellow apostles.”

  “I am concerned for your safety,” she said.