On waking he remembered the dreams and did not know what to make of them. Even at that hour, many were arriving at the shores of the lake to be healed, and after a hasty breakfast of bread, soaked in honey, his master began to address the crowds.
He took some bread in his hand, and said to them. ‘You eat bread to feed your hunger, but your souls need something else, your souls need what I teach, which is the bread of life. Unless you eat of my teachings, you have no life in you! Nothing everlasting, for the bread and water of ordinary life are not meat and drink for heaven!’
Murmurs came from the crowds and someone said to him, ‘Are you not Jesus, the son of Joseph? Why should your teachings be like bread, and why should we eat of it?’
‘Those who know me, also know that if they eat of my teachings they shall have life even after death!’
Simon-Peter saw red beard, Judas Iscariot, making a mocking face to a number of people who were shaking their heads. Thomas was frowning and so were others.
The crowds became restless.
A man, no doubt a scribe sent from the Pharisees, stepped forward.
‘When you tell ordinary people these hidden things without preparing them, it is like letting them eat bread without washing their hands!’
Jesus did not speak, but waited. The crowds grew noisome and angered, and it was a long time before his calm voice caused a well of silence to form, ‘Well did Isaiah prophecy of you hypocrites…’ he said, ‘for you concern yourselves more with who is listening and care nothing for the teaching that I give you. It is not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, but what comes out of it…for your teaching, Pharisee, is like putrid meat!’ he said.
Offended and angry, he and those who had come with him made to leave with much hatred in their hearts.
Later, when the master and his disciples walked on the shores of the lake again, trailing behind those few who had remained with him, Simon-Peter deigned to ask him a question.
‘Those folks were offended at what you said. They did not know what to make of what goes into the mouth and what comes out of it. Come to think of it, I don’t know what to make of it myself, but that is because I am ignorant and stupid!’ He looked askance, ‘But there are others…clever men, who do not love you as I do. They follow you with disdain upon their faces. What you say offends them.’
He looked at Simon-Peter without anger and raised one quizzical brow, ‘Do you say this because it offends them, or because it offends you, my brother?’
Peter felt shame rise to his cheeks and he averted his eyes. ‘My rabbi, all your followers will go if you keep with such talk, and you will be left with nothing but scraps…’
‘I have you. Is this not true?’ he said, looking at Simon-Peter and others who were gathered about.
Simon-Peter’s face opened up. ‘Yes, of course, rabbi, always shall you have me, a thousand times shall you have me, but how must the few of us who are true to you, gather in the harvest?’
‘Yes, rabbi,’ Andrew added catching up, ‘how are we to do it? After all, we are a sorry lot!’
His master regarded Andrew. ‘The blind cannot gather a harvest, this must be left to those who see…if a blind person leads a blind person into a field, they will both fall into a hole. Let all those who are led by the Pharisees, who are blind, go after them…they shall not reap much together that is certain. They are not my concern.’ Then, ‘Andrew, tell me, what do you see?’
Andrew could not hold the master’s eyes. ‘I am only a fisherman, Lord. I understand about fish and nets and the sky and the sea. I know very little of these things you tell, but I believe in you.’
The master clapped him on the shoulder and gave it a shake. ‘You have always asked me to speak plainly to you, and yet, is there one of you who hears my words? What shall you do when I am no longer with you, hmm? What shall you do, when you have no one who can tell you how to live?’
The day had turned hot as they had walked along the lake’s edge. His master brought up the cowl of the robe without a seam and put it over his head and sat down on the sand with his feet touching the cool water. The others all did likewise, except for the red beard, Judas.
‘I have spoken plainly to you, but you don’t listen. Listen…the Pharisees give the people something they can take hold of, laws, traditions, but these are not eternal, they are only for the body, you see? What I give you is something that you can never take hold of, but once you have it, you can never lose it because it will have a life in your soul, it is eternal. Do you understand?’
He looked to Judas and to Thomas. ‘I see that there are some of you who do not believe in my words. And I say to you that you are in this circle because it pleases God…even those whose hearts are hardened against me.’