The True Israelite
Stories
Scenes of Glory
Subplots of God's Long Story
Object:
Emphasis or special occasion: Doubt
Chapter 21
The True Israelite
John 1:43-51; Genesis 28:10-12
The last two months had been difficult for Nathanael and all those around him. The first month he was away from Cana working at Sepphoris; the second month he was back home. At Sepphoris he'd plied his trade plastering cisterns. He'd already spent half his life below ground, working in lamplight, breathing foul air.
When he'd arrived at Sepphoris, Galilee's administrative capital, everyone expected the job to last at least a year, sealing the cisterns being hewn to wind like a labyrinth in the city's bedrock. He worked under both upper and lower Sepphoris, finally leading his crew of nine to the cisterns directly beneath the city's theater.
Nathanael had gained the job because he was the best at plastering cisterns, underground silos, and storage rooms, and only the best could work at Sepphoris, including the city's chief builder, Timaeus of Miletus. Timaeus was, as he said, "In charge of construction from top to bottom." A huge man, he was supported upon thin but flabby legs that had large brown and red splotches. In Aramaic, Nathanael and the crew called him "pig leg" or "pig face," or compared other parts of his body to a pig; yet, they must be careful, because the man seemed to learn their language as fast as he heard it. If he thought they didn't understand his orders in Greek, he was already repeating them in Aramaic.
Timaeus panted down the ladder into the cavern, "Get more over there." It made no difference that they planned to plaster more "over there"; he just yelled. Also, it didn't matter that Nathanael had instructed them where to go next. Timaeus said, "You village Jews! Keep working north. North is that way."
Nathanael tried to do the talking with Timaeus, because Nathanael spoke Greek well. Yet when they spoke, Timaeus seemed to enjoy insulting him: "Take your bunch of village Jews to the southern section," or "Get your stupid village Jews to work."
Nathanael produced only one quality of work: superb. His father had taught him, "Plaster a cistern as though you're the one who'll haul water to it. Prepare it as though you must drink from it. Do the same job for friends, neighbors, or strangers. Not just anyone can be a plasterer. Not just anyone will work honestly for everyone. But you must, because you're a true Israelite artisan."
Three sabbaths passed and Nathanael had endured working for Timaeus. He'd labored for disagreeable people before. But one day, Timaeus came puffing down a ladder into a cavity three times taller than a man. Nathanael was holding himself by one foot on a ladder's rung, the other leg wrapped around the ladder's pole. He grasped a lamp with his left hand and plastered with his right. Timaeus shouted from his ladder to Nathanael, "Hey, you ignorant village Jew, get your men up to the theater fast. They need laborers on the eastern wall."
Nathanael dropped his trowel. "I'm not ignorant," he said as he swung swiftly down the ladder. Timaeus also descended his ladder. Nathanael's crew cringed. If Nathanael were punished for insulting the city's chief builder, they'd suffer, too. Nathanael walked up to Timaeus and held the lamp between them, distorting Timaeus' features. The fat man didn't move. He said, "You sure are. You're an ignorant, illiterate village Jew."
Stepping even closer to Timaeus, Nathanael said through gritted teeth, "I can read," thinking his statement and his expression would silence the Greek. Yet, Timaeus stepped so close to him that his flaccid chest almost touched Nathanael's lamp. "Because you can count Roman mile markers, you think you can read? What language do you read?"
"Hebrew."
"Well, if everyone learned Greek, you wouldn't need another language. Besides, what does reading do for village Jews?" The dim light made Timaeus' sneer look uglier. "What good is it for peasants and rustics to read, above or below ground? Do Jews care about art, beauty, philosophy, or a refined life?"
Nathanael hadn't thought about such things. He made no reply.
"I stand on this hill and admire this beautiful town," Timaeus said, pointing up through the ladder hole. "Sepphoris is the ornament of all Galilee, perched up here like a bird. At the same time, I know that over the hillock to the south you and the other yokels like you in Nazareth won't avail yourself of the enjoyment or the enlightenment of Greek learning."
"I'm not from Nazareth. I'm from the north, Cana."
"No difference," Timaeus said. "You're just like the village Jews in Nazareth -- ants working but never changing, destined only to pay taxes to the Romans who'll step on you without a second thought because you're ignorant, village Jews."
"I can read," Nathanael said, raising his voice even higher.
"So what's there to read in your Hebrew language?"
"I read the Torah, God's instruction for holy living."
At this the builder stepped back. If he hadn't, his stomach would have knocked the lamp from Nathanael's hand. He laughed so hard he almost fell, his great bulk tottering upon his tiny, multicolored legs. His laughter echoed through chamber after chamber. "You ignorant village Jew, you ever read anyone else's holy scrolls?"
Nathanael as usual told the truth. "No."
"You read Plato?"
"No."
"You read Aristotle?"
"No."
"You even attend the theater, like the one they're building above your very head, to hear music or behold a tragedy?"
"No," Nathanael said, his voice softer now.
"You foolish village Jews think you're so superior with your one God. Our philosophers figured out there's one God 300 years ago. Did you know that?"
"No," Nathanael said. He'd finished arguing, but Timaeus hadn't.
"I suppose you also scan the horizon daily for your king-messiah to come, and if you don't find him, you scurry up to every teacher with your 'rabbi, rabbi.' But, let's talk about Israel and your holy Torah."
Nathanael's men moved their lamps closer to their work and picked up their pace, granting Nathanael the respect of pretending not to hear.
"You want to brag about Israel. Well, his name was first Jacob, right? Your people are named for Jacob, whose very name meant 'cheat.' He cheated his own brother. And he was a coward and ran away. Of course, that's what your people were always like. I've read the scrolls," he said, pointing to his eyes, "in Greek, of course, and I found that Abraham was a coward and liar. Rebekah helped her son, Jacob, deceive his father and cheat his brother, so that Jacob, whose name finally became 'Israel,' was deceitful all his life. Once Rachel married Jacob, even she stole from her father and lied to him.
"Why would angels ascend and descend upon a ladder -- like that one you were working so slowly on -- for someone like Jacob, who was fleeing the brother he defrauded? And if angels truly descended for him, why didn't he become better, since you think Jews are so good? How'd you like, as a neighbor, a Jacob who lies, or a Moses who murders, or a David who also commits adultery? Seems they didn't do very well with your holy commandments, did they?"
Nathanael finished the day's work, said, "Good-bye," to his crew, and walked to Cana, arriving by midnight. He didn't go back to work. Daily he sat outside the family's house in the shade. His eyes, accustomed to years of working in lamplight, always hurt in the sun. He squinted or simply closed his eyes. He didn't appear to be doing anything, but he was consumed in thought -- although he couldn't decide what his effort was recovering from or preparing for. Continually he tossed doubts and questions in his mind and then wondered if a true Israelite would have such doubts.
A month after Nathanael's return, his sister, Shoshanna, came to him, "Nathanael, I brought a baked pigeon."
Nathanael kept his eyes closed. "No, thank you."
"You've got to eat something."
"No, thank you."
"Please, for me."
Nathanael grabbed the dish but closed his eyes again and didn't eat. Shoshanna stood beside him for a while, shuffling her feet occasionally, Nathanael sat motionless, saying nothing.
"You can't let this Greek bother you so much."
Nathanael opened his eyes. "It's not the Greek."
"Then what is it?"
"He's right."
"The Greek? Right about what?"
"About our Torah. I've thought about it. He's right. I didn't know anything about his faith, yet he was right about ours. You and I were taught to be honest and brave. We've been told to do our best and to help our neighbors. But I've searched for good examples in our scriptures, and I don't find many. I don't know what to do."
"Right now, why don't you eat something?"
"No, I don't want to eat." He set the dish down beside him. "I need to figure this out."
"You don't have to understand everything about faith. Faith means not having everything figured out."
"I need some things decided, and right now I have none."
"But what about your crew? You can't just leave them."
"If they tell people they've worked for Nathanael of Cana, they can get a job anywhere in lower Galilee." Nathanael picked up the bowl and handed it to Shoshanna then closed his eyes.
"Will you at least come with me to synagogue on the sabbath?"
"No."
That afternoon, Philip arrived from Bethsaida. He'd visited every other week for half a year. Neither he nor Shoshanna were betrothed. Their families were considering their marriage, and Philip and Shoshanna seemed to be helping their families make up their minds.
Philip invited Nathanael to travel with him to the Jordan to hear John the Baptist. At first Nathanael refused, but Philip told of the huge crowds gathering from all of Judea and Jerusalem. Philip said, "Let's find out if John's really a prophet or even the Messiah promised in Moses and the prophets."
"You're chasing a mirage," Nathanael said.
"Well, come on. Let's find out for sure."
"Is there really anything that's sure?"
Philip lifted Nathanael, helped him pack food, and they set out together. On their way, Nathanael told Philip all he could remember that Timaeus said. "It seems Greeks are much more aware of all of life and God than are we Israelites."
"Don't get carried away about how smart the Greeks are."
"Why are you telling me to forget the Greeks? Your grandfather was Greek. You carry a Greek name. You live in a Greek city."
"I trust the almighty God of Israel. Let's go hear John anyway."
The two-day journey exhausted Nathanael. He couldn't decide if by leaving Cana he was seeking or fleeing. He went to the Jordan that afternoon to hear the Baptist preach. The next morning, saying his eyes hurt, Nathanael told Philip that, instead of joining the crowd, he'd pray alone instead.
He was fortunate. He spotted fig trees in the distance, and after a slow, hard climb, he sat down in their shade. He wouldn't be bothered. In Israel, when someone sat under a fig tree, it meant: Join me in pondering God's instruction or leave me to do it alone. Nathanael intended the second. He must solve his problem about Jacob. How could Jacob be the first Israelite when he was so deceitful?
Crowds were gathering to John the Baptist at the Jordan's shore, but that was a long walk away. Here no sound, no rustle of leaves, not even the bleating of goats or sheep grazing near. Sitting among the fig trees was like sitting in a cistern. Nathanael closed his eyes to concentrate. If he talked to Timaeus again, how could he defend Jacob? And the angels ascending and descending near Jacob, what of them? What explanation could Nathanael honestly give, especially for such a deceitful Israelite as Jacob?
Nathanael, eyes closed against the sun, mind tired by questioning, slept and dreamed of angels ascending and descending the ladder in Sepphoris, angels climbing from above ground to beneath, but no one was at the bottom of the ladder. He woke to Philip shaking him. "I've been searching upstream and down for you. We've found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."
Nathanael was groggy. He said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
When they neared the Jordan, Jesus spotted them approaching him. He opened his arms wide and said to Nathanael, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"
Nathanael was dumbfounded. Through half-closed eyes, he scrutinized this man in front of him, this man whose smile beckoned like a blessing.
"Where did you get to know me?"
"I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you."
No one had seen where Nathanael sat. Even Philip hadn't known where he was.
"Follow me," Jesus said.
Nathanael felt instantly that Jesus was opposite of Timaeus. Jesus wasn't attacking his doubts, but complimenting his honesty. All Nathanael's feelings and wishes of the last month, all his thoughts and prayers burst from him. "Rabbi, you must be God's Son! You should be Israel's king!"
Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these. Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and God's angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
Nathanael endured further trials of faith when Jesus was killed in Jerusalem. After Jesus' resurrection Nathanael was with the disciples at Galilee Lake when Jesus appeared to them and they gained a new understanding of Jesus.
Nathanael didn't return to plastering cisterns and slowly his eyes became used to the sunlight. He trained for a new job and did it well: teaching that Jesus honored people who had honest doubts and questions. His new, happy labor was to receive others as Jesus had received him. He explained that despite the imperfections of their Jewish forebears, all the dreams of their scriptures came true in Jesus whom Nathanael, the true Israelite, worshiped as God's Son, Israel's king.
Discussion Questions
1. What immediate responses do you have to the story?
2. Do you identify with a character in the story? If yes, how and why do you identify with the person? If no, why don't you identify with anyone in the story?
3. Would you like to have a conversation with a character in the story? What would you say, ask, or suggest to the person? Why?
4. How does the story bring the biblical text into a clearer focus for you?
5. How would you improve or modify the story? Why?
6. Have you met a non-Christian who knew more about Christianity than you did about his or her religion?
7. What's it like to believe in Jesus (which means to believe in a particular religion) when so many people believe that all religions are the same?
8. Has someone helped you with your doubts? What doubts have you learned to live with?
9. What further depths of meaning, symbols, connections with, or applications of the biblical faith do you find in the story?
10. Since Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is alive among us through his Holy Spirit, what of this story would you like Christ to activate in your life?
Chapter 21
The True Israelite
John 1:43-51; Genesis 28:10-12
The last two months had been difficult for Nathanael and all those around him. The first month he was away from Cana working at Sepphoris; the second month he was back home. At Sepphoris he'd plied his trade plastering cisterns. He'd already spent half his life below ground, working in lamplight, breathing foul air.
When he'd arrived at Sepphoris, Galilee's administrative capital, everyone expected the job to last at least a year, sealing the cisterns being hewn to wind like a labyrinth in the city's bedrock. He worked under both upper and lower Sepphoris, finally leading his crew of nine to the cisterns directly beneath the city's theater.
Nathanael had gained the job because he was the best at plastering cisterns, underground silos, and storage rooms, and only the best could work at Sepphoris, including the city's chief builder, Timaeus of Miletus. Timaeus was, as he said, "In charge of construction from top to bottom." A huge man, he was supported upon thin but flabby legs that had large brown and red splotches. In Aramaic, Nathanael and the crew called him "pig leg" or "pig face," or compared other parts of his body to a pig; yet, they must be careful, because the man seemed to learn their language as fast as he heard it. If he thought they didn't understand his orders in Greek, he was already repeating them in Aramaic.
Timaeus panted down the ladder into the cavern, "Get more over there." It made no difference that they planned to plaster more "over there"; he just yelled. Also, it didn't matter that Nathanael had instructed them where to go next. Timaeus said, "You village Jews! Keep working north. North is that way."
Nathanael tried to do the talking with Timaeus, because Nathanael spoke Greek well. Yet when they spoke, Timaeus seemed to enjoy insulting him: "Take your bunch of village Jews to the southern section," or "Get your stupid village Jews to work."
Nathanael produced only one quality of work: superb. His father had taught him, "Plaster a cistern as though you're the one who'll haul water to it. Prepare it as though you must drink from it. Do the same job for friends, neighbors, or strangers. Not just anyone can be a plasterer. Not just anyone will work honestly for everyone. But you must, because you're a true Israelite artisan."
Three sabbaths passed and Nathanael had endured working for Timaeus. He'd labored for disagreeable people before. But one day, Timaeus came puffing down a ladder into a cavity three times taller than a man. Nathanael was holding himself by one foot on a ladder's rung, the other leg wrapped around the ladder's pole. He grasped a lamp with his left hand and plastered with his right. Timaeus shouted from his ladder to Nathanael, "Hey, you ignorant village Jew, get your men up to the theater fast. They need laborers on the eastern wall."
Nathanael dropped his trowel. "I'm not ignorant," he said as he swung swiftly down the ladder. Timaeus also descended his ladder. Nathanael's crew cringed. If Nathanael were punished for insulting the city's chief builder, they'd suffer, too. Nathanael walked up to Timaeus and held the lamp between them, distorting Timaeus' features. The fat man didn't move. He said, "You sure are. You're an ignorant, illiterate village Jew."
Stepping even closer to Timaeus, Nathanael said through gritted teeth, "I can read," thinking his statement and his expression would silence the Greek. Yet, Timaeus stepped so close to him that his flaccid chest almost touched Nathanael's lamp. "Because you can count Roman mile markers, you think you can read? What language do you read?"
"Hebrew."
"Well, if everyone learned Greek, you wouldn't need another language. Besides, what does reading do for village Jews?" The dim light made Timaeus' sneer look uglier. "What good is it for peasants and rustics to read, above or below ground? Do Jews care about art, beauty, philosophy, or a refined life?"
Nathanael hadn't thought about such things. He made no reply.
"I stand on this hill and admire this beautiful town," Timaeus said, pointing up through the ladder hole. "Sepphoris is the ornament of all Galilee, perched up here like a bird. At the same time, I know that over the hillock to the south you and the other yokels like you in Nazareth won't avail yourself of the enjoyment or the enlightenment of Greek learning."
"I'm not from Nazareth. I'm from the north, Cana."
"No difference," Timaeus said. "You're just like the village Jews in Nazareth -- ants working but never changing, destined only to pay taxes to the Romans who'll step on you without a second thought because you're ignorant, village Jews."
"I can read," Nathanael said, raising his voice even higher.
"So what's there to read in your Hebrew language?"
"I read the Torah, God's instruction for holy living."
At this the builder stepped back. If he hadn't, his stomach would have knocked the lamp from Nathanael's hand. He laughed so hard he almost fell, his great bulk tottering upon his tiny, multicolored legs. His laughter echoed through chamber after chamber. "You ignorant village Jew, you ever read anyone else's holy scrolls?"
Nathanael as usual told the truth. "No."
"You read Plato?"
"No."
"You read Aristotle?"
"No."
"You even attend the theater, like the one they're building above your very head, to hear music or behold a tragedy?"
"No," Nathanael said, his voice softer now.
"You foolish village Jews think you're so superior with your one God. Our philosophers figured out there's one God 300 years ago. Did you know that?"
"No," Nathanael said. He'd finished arguing, but Timaeus hadn't.
"I suppose you also scan the horizon daily for your king-messiah to come, and if you don't find him, you scurry up to every teacher with your 'rabbi, rabbi.' But, let's talk about Israel and your holy Torah."
Nathanael's men moved their lamps closer to their work and picked up their pace, granting Nathanael the respect of pretending not to hear.
"You want to brag about Israel. Well, his name was first Jacob, right? Your people are named for Jacob, whose very name meant 'cheat.' He cheated his own brother. And he was a coward and ran away. Of course, that's what your people were always like. I've read the scrolls," he said, pointing to his eyes, "in Greek, of course, and I found that Abraham was a coward and liar. Rebekah helped her son, Jacob, deceive his father and cheat his brother, so that Jacob, whose name finally became 'Israel,' was deceitful all his life. Once Rachel married Jacob, even she stole from her father and lied to him.
"Why would angels ascend and descend upon a ladder -- like that one you were working so slowly on -- for someone like Jacob, who was fleeing the brother he defrauded? And if angels truly descended for him, why didn't he become better, since you think Jews are so good? How'd you like, as a neighbor, a Jacob who lies, or a Moses who murders, or a David who also commits adultery? Seems they didn't do very well with your holy commandments, did they?"
Nathanael finished the day's work, said, "Good-bye," to his crew, and walked to Cana, arriving by midnight. He didn't go back to work. Daily he sat outside the family's house in the shade. His eyes, accustomed to years of working in lamplight, always hurt in the sun. He squinted or simply closed his eyes. He didn't appear to be doing anything, but he was consumed in thought -- although he couldn't decide what his effort was recovering from or preparing for. Continually he tossed doubts and questions in his mind and then wondered if a true Israelite would have such doubts.
A month after Nathanael's return, his sister, Shoshanna, came to him, "Nathanael, I brought a baked pigeon."
Nathanael kept his eyes closed. "No, thank you."
"You've got to eat something."
"No, thank you."
"Please, for me."
Nathanael grabbed the dish but closed his eyes again and didn't eat. Shoshanna stood beside him for a while, shuffling her feet occasionally, Nathanael sat motionless, saying nothing.
"You can't let this Greek bother you so much."
Nathanael opened his eyes. "It's not the Greek."
"Then what is it?"
"He's right."
"The Greek? Right about what?"
"About our Torah. I've thought about it. He's right. I didn't know anything about his faith, yet he was right about ours. You and I were taught to be honest and brave. We've been told to do our best and to help our neighbors. But I've searched for good examples in our scriptures, and I don't find many. I don't know what to do."
"Right now, why don't you eat something?"
"No, I don't want to eat." He set the dish down beside him. "I need to figure this out."
"You don't have to understand everything about faith. Faith means not having everything figured out."
"I need some things decided, and right now I have none."
"But what about your crew? You can't just leave them."
"If they tell people they've worked for Nathanael of Cana, they can get a job anywhere in lower Galilee." Nathanael picked up the bowl and handed it to Shoshanna then closed his eyes.
"Will you at least come with me to synagogue on the sabbath?"
"No."
That afternoon, Philip arrived from Bethsaida. He'd visited every other week for half a year. Neither he nor Shoshanna were betrothed. Their families were considering their marriage, and Philip and Shoshanna seemed to be helping their families make up their minds.
Philip invited Nathanael to travel with him to the Jordan to hear John the Baptist. At first Nathanael refused, but Philip told of the huge crowds gathering from all of Judea and Jerusalem. Philip said, "Let's find out if John's really a prophet or even the Messiah promised in Moses and the prophets."
"You're chasing a mirage," Nathanael said.
"Well, come on. Let's find out for sure."
"Is there really anything that's sure?"
Philip lifted Nathanael, helped him pack food, and they set out together. On their way, Nathanael told Philip all he could remember that Timaeus said. "It seems Greeks are much more aware of all of life and God than are we Israelites."
"Don't get carried away about how smart the Greeks are."
"Why are you telling me to forget the Greeks? Your grandfather was Greek. You carry a Greek name. You live in a Greek city."
"I trust the almighty God of Israel. Let's go hear John anyway."
The two-day journey exhausted Nathanael. He couldn't decide if by leaving Cana he was seeking or fleeing. He went to the Jordan that afternoon to hear the Baptist preach. The next morning, saying his eyes hurt, Nathanael told Philip that, instead of joining the crowd, he'd pray alone instead.
He was fortunate. He spotted fig trees in the distance, and after a slow, hard climb, he sat down in their shade. He wouldn't be bothered. In Israel, when someone sat under a fig tree, it meant: Join me in pondering God's instruction or leave me to do it alone. Nathanael intended the second. He must solve his problem about Jacob. How could Jacob be the first Israelite when he was so deceitful?
Crowds were gathering to John the Baptist at the Jordan's shore, but that was a long walk away. Here no sound, no rustle of leaves, not even the bleating of goats or sheep grazing near. Sitting among the fig trees was like sitting in a cistern. Nathanael closed his eyes to concentrate. If he talked to Timaeus again, how could he defend Jacob? And the angels ascending and descending near Jacob, what of them? What explanation could Nathanael honestly give, especially for such a deceitful Israelite as Jacob?
Nathanael, eyes closed against the sun, mind tired by questioning, slept and dreamed of angels ascending and descending the ladder in Sepphoris, angels climbing from above ground to beneath, but no one was at the bottom of the ladder. He woke to Philip shaking him. "I've been searching upstream and down for you. We've found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth."
Nathanael was groggy. He said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"
Philip said to him, "Come and see."
When they neared the Jordan, Jesus spotted them approaching him. He opened his arms wide and said to Nathanael, "Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!"
Nathanael was dumbfounded. Through half-closed eyes, he scrutinized this man in front of him, this man whose smile beckoned like a blessing.
"Where did you get to know me?"
"I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you."
No one had seen where Nathanael sat. Even Philip hadn't known where he was.
"Follow me," Jesus said.
Nathanael felt instantly that Jesus was opposite of Timaeus. Jesus wasn't attacking his doubts, but complimenting his honesty. All Nathanael's feelings and wishes of the last month, all his thoughts and prayers burst from him. "Rabbi, you must be God's Son! You should be Israel's king!"
Jesus answered, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these. Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and God's angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
Nathanael endured further trials of faith when Jesus was killed in Jerusalem. After Jesus' resurrection Nathanael was with the disciples at Galilee Lake when Jesus appeared to them and they gained a new understanding of Jesus.
Nathanael didn't return to plastering cisterns and slowly his eyes became used to the sunlight. He trained for a new job and did it well: teaching that Jesus honored people who had honest doubts and questions. His new, happy labor was to receive others as Jesus had received him. He explained that despite the imperfections of their Jewish forebears, all the dreams of their scriptures came true in Jesus whom Nathanael, the true Israelite, worshiped as God's Son, Israel's king.
Discussion Questions
1. What immediate responses do you have to the story?
2. Do you identify with a character in the story? If yes, how and why do you identify with the person? If no, why don't you identify with anyone in the story?
3. Would you like to have a conversation with a character in the story? What would you say, ask, or suggest to the person? Why?
4. How does the story bring the biblical text into a clearer focus for you?
5. How would you improve or modify the story? Why?
6. Have you met a non-Christian who knew more about Christianity than you did about his or her religion?
7. What's it like to believe in Jesus (which means to believe in a particular religion) when so many people believe that all religions are the same?
8. Has someone helped you with your doubts? What doubts have you learned to live with?
9. What further depths of meaning, symbols, connections with, or applications of the biblical faith do you find in the story?
10. Since Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and is alive among us through his Holy Spirit, what of this story would you like Christ to activate in your life?
