given him a slap in the face. That was unbelievable! How could this Jesus know the words that God had directed to him personally? How could that be? He probably truly was in contact with demons. And demons were after all not dumb. One had to watch out for this boy! And besides in a moment the whole village would know that he, Samuel, would be leaving the village in the near future.
“I think that is enough for today. Let us just pray quickly. May God watch over us and keep all demons far from us. May it ever be thus in Nazareth.”
∞
Today things were very loud in the alleys of Nazareth’s. Simeon and his friends had a new favorite game: Romans against zealots. The Romans got wooden javelins, the zealots their wooden swords. And since weapons had always fascinated humanity in its history, from the day on which this game was first played on they became the favorite toys of the boys. And thus the following of gang-leader Simeon grew more and more. Naturally Simeon always played the leader of the zealots, who waited in a hide-out for the roman patrol and then attacked it. If the zealots rushed them, then things could get dangerous, for from this day on brutality became the trademark of Simeon. If he had a sword in his hands, he often turned into a berserker.
Joshua had been sitting in his rooms the past hours doing his writing exercises as his father had told him to. He thought to himself that he was making good progress. But soon he did not feel like continuing and went out to look for Rachel. But first he saw ten to twenty figures jumping out of the bushes and attacking a group of roughly the same size. And then all he heard was continuous shouting. “Charge! Simeon, take out the Centurion.”
“I was going to do that anyway, Amos. And by the way: I am the only one who gives orders around here.”
“Ouch, that hurt, dumb-ass.”
“Well duh.. we are fighting here and not playing children’s games like ‚Jacob and the Lord’ anymore.”
“Hit. You’re dead.”
“Nonsense, I hit you first.”
“That isn’t possible, my spear’s longer.”
Joshua watched these scenes with disgust, for he was not a friend of violence. He headed up the alley in the direction toward Sepphoris and soon enough spotted Rachel and her girl friends there. And as expected Jesus was sitting there with them and playing flute, which the girls danced to. Joshua sat down next to Jesus and watched the girls hopping about in circle. He smiled at Jesus. After a while Jesus stopped playing and the girls greeted Joshua.
“Doesn’t Jesus play beautifully?”, Rachel asked Joshua.
“Very nicely. Where did you get the flute from, Jesus?”
“I carved it for myself a while ago. You know I love carving things out of wood. The olive trees of Galilee or something very special.”
“Jesus, how did you know what God had told me father while praying? How were you able to know that?”
“Sometimes I hear a very insistent voice, when it is important. I can not ignore it and even remember days later what the voice said. That is just the way it is. I am not sure why either. My Egyptian teacher merely told me that is was important for me to listen to this voice and to say things when the voice asks me to. And I know that the voice comes from God. Where should it come from otherwise?”
“Like my father said, from a demon?”
“What do you think a demon is, Joshua?”
“An evil spirit that does not want anything that is good.”
“Do you really believe that I would listen to an evil spirit?”
“Why are you so sure that you can distinguish the different voices? How doe you want to know for a fact what is a demon and what is God, our Lord?”
“God is my father, just as he is yours. Don’t you know that a father only wants the best for his son at all times?”
“Jesus, sometimes I am not sure about that. On the one hand yes, on the other hand I ask myself if a father is not sometimes also allowed to hurt his son.”
“Yes, I know, that must hurt you very much to think about when you wanted to defend me.”
“Almost forgotten. But I could not always tell the difference.”
Suddenly both of the boys saw Simeon and his friends running toward them. All Joshua heard was that Simeon shouted “Charge! I will take out the blue-eyed one. And you, Amos, take out the scar face“, that the girls hid themselves behind Jesus and that he advanced one step towards the roughly twenty charging boys. Then Jesus made a graceful motion with his hand that tossed something invisible on the approaching horde.
“In the name of God, leave them, ye demons.” The words of Jesus were loud and clear. A moment later the boys stopped, looked at each other, muttered this and that, and slowly walked back along the path which they had just run up.
“Now what was that, Jesus?”
“Joshua, remember how I told you about the grotesque faces that I always see. Just a moment ago, there were hundreds if dark figures all about those children. I merely spoke a prayer.”
“How do you know that God heard the prayer and we were not saved by a demon?”
“Joshua, do you think that a demon could chase away another demon? Only the light has that ability. Never forget that! It will one day be very important for you. For you too will be journeying to a large city. And there are many more of that kind there, believe me.”
Joshua gave Jesus a big wondering glance, shook his head and went home a little confused. That had really been enough for today.
He faintly heard how Rachel admiringly thanked Jesus for saving them from the boys. But he still did not understand one thing. Why could a demon not chase away another demon?
∞
It was time for an extended supper again. The family of the rabbi sat together in harmony, something that truly rarely occurred. Samuel was so light-hearted due to the words of God inside him that he even made little jokes now and then.
“Joshua, Judith and Esther, you can get up now. I have to discuss something with your mother.”
The children left happily, for that meant that they could still play a while outside with the children in the alleyways. “Sarah, my woman, I have to tell you something. You will hardly believe what happened to me this morning during my prayer.”
“I have noticed all day that you are very upbeat today, Samuel.”
“God spoke to me. God told me that I have an exemplary faith and that we will soon travel to a distant land, where I will carry this faith in God into the world. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“God told you that we will be journeying to a distant country?” Sarah was somewhat surprised. “What are we to do in a different country, Samuel? We belong here, our home is in Galilee.”
“You know that the priests in Jerusalem hold me in high regard. I say that with a little bit of pride. Bealja, a priest from the high council, indicated to me some time ago that
