Call Me Josh Chapter 25
They head out of town. He needs to expand his ministry. Taken the twelve, they head to the big city of Pittsburgh. Mary worries but, she knows her son has his work to do. “Mama, don’t worry so. My Father is with us.” She lets out a shaky breath and hugs him close.
“I know son. A mother frets. It is what we do.” He kisses to top of her greying hair.
“I love you mama.”
The enter the city, finding rooms in a fairly run down motel. It wasn’t a vacation, nor was it about creature comforts. No, they are here to find and help the least of these. Joshua sends them out in groups of two.
“Heal the sick, unbind the prisoners of Satan’s traps. Anyone who rejects you, shake the dust off your feet and leave them to their fate, going on to find someone hungry for the truth you give”
He spends the time they are gone in concentrated prayer. Knowing his time is coming, he prepares by talking to his Father. He prays not for himself, but for his disciples, those here and now and those that will come. He pleads for his family. Leaving them will be hard. It is why he came, his true purpose, still, he is human enough to feel the ache of his impending departure from them.
They return at the end of the day, full of joy and excitement.
“We cast a demon out of a lady bond for many years.” Peter excitingly says. “Through the power of God’s name.”
“So many people came up to us for healing. They knew us through you, Josh.” Judas adds. He smiles at them. He is proud of them. They are about the Father’s work.
The next day he keeps back John, James and, Peter. They head up to a hill in the edge of the city. There, the three watch, slacked jawed and wide eyed as he is transfigured, glowing as bright as the sun, as he is joined by Elijah and Moses. The three fall to their knees, their faces to the ground. A voice, as loud as a million thunders, calls out, “This is My Son, obey Him.”
They lift their heads in time to see Joshua talking with the ancient ones. John stampers out, “Joshua, should we make shelters for you, and the others?”
He hugs the other two and they disappear, in a blink and he stands, just Josh again but, they will never be able to see him that way again. “Don’t speak about what you saw until I am fully glorified. I will be put to death but, will raise anew, so you can too.”
They don’t understand him, not then, and are to awed to ask. They simply nod as he leads then back into town. There they are meet by a bit of chaos.
The others gather around a young boy. His father and a group of people surround him. Jude comes up to them, the father with him.
“Joshua, I brought my son to your followers when I heard they were in town.” He wipes his sweaty brows, his dark skin glowing in the hot sun. “He has fits, has them since he was a baby. They are getting worse, he has ten or more a day now. My wife and I fear he will die or be brain damaged. Your followers couldn’t free him.”
“We tried Josh. It is to strong for us.”
He sighs looking up to heaven. “Where is your faith? For this type is only unbound by deep prayer.” Turning back to the father, “Take me to him.”
The child lays, still as death, in his yard. When Joshua approaches, he starts to seize. Joshua orders sternly, “Come out of him and torment him no more!” The child relaxes laying still again. A lady, his mom, kneels down beside him.
“Is he dead?” He places his hand on her shoulder.
“No mama, just free. Lift him up.” She does and he opens his eyes, their soft caramel color free from the haziness that usually is present after a seizure.
“Oh my baby! My Tyrone!” She weeps out as the crowd, their neighbors mumble in excitement.
Her husband joins her after hugging Joshua close. “Thank you! Thank you! We can’t pay you much but…” he reaches for his wallet. Joshua is shaking his head.
“No, just take him in and love him, teach him about God and His goodness.”
“That is a promise!”
They get a phone call that evening. Larry is sick. He has a fever and the doctors are doing tests.
“We shall head back then?” Tomas asks.
“Not yet.”
They stay a few more days despite the increasingly frantic messages from Maria and Marta.
On the third day they head back. As they drive back into Bethlehem, he tells them, “Larry has died.” Gasps greet his announcement. “But for your sake I am glad we weren’t there. For now you shall see who I am.”
Marta is told, “Joshua is here.” She leaves the shiva and hurries out to greet him. Her face is transformed by grief. “You! If you were here, he wouldn’t have died! But, even now I know you can do whatever the Father wills.”
He stands in their front yard. “Your brother will raise again.”
“I know in the Resurrection in the last days.
“I am the Resurrection and the life. Those that believe in me, even though they die, they will live again as they are granted eternal life. Do you believe this Marta?”
“Yes Lord, You are the Messiah, the Son of God, come into the world from Him.” She goes to get Maria. The grief sickened woman joins them.
She falls down at his feet, weeping bitterly. “You could have kept him alive!”
Joshua feels their grief and anguish and it moves him to tears. “Where has he been laid?”
They take him there. At seeing him weeping, they, those helping the sisters sit Shiva say “He loved him so.”
But others rebuke him. “He could have healed him. Why didn’t he?”
They stand around the grave. “Unearth him.” Shocked faces greet this order.
“My Lord, he has been dead four days.”
“Didn’t I tell you if you believe you will see God’s glory?”
A hesitate nod and then she instructs the men to fetch shovels. The casket is reached and he looks upward. “Father, thank You for hearing me. I know You always hear me but I say this for the sake of those standing here, so they will know You sent me.” Then he looks back down at the top of the casket. “Larry, come out!”
The casket lid moves and moans of terror and awe go through the crowd. He sits up and then stands up. Joshua helps him out. He hugs him and they all head back to the house so he can get cleaned up.
His neighborhood is full of the wonder of it. It doesn’t take long for the story to reach Rabbi Leary, who confirms it through the grave keeper and some of Larry’s neighbors. That is when he calls another emergency meeting and they make plans to have him killed.
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