IMMEDIATELY: Chap 2
A Slant Re-Telling of St. Mark’s Gospel Through the Eyes of a Skeptic
CHAPTER 2:
Crashing Through Simon-House Roof
Eventually
Sin-Magician returns to Capernaum
and hides out at Simon-house
But word spreads again — fast
and soon Simon-house is mobbed
— again
with lepers, mothers-in-laws, addicts, cripples
(and lawyers — this time)
So He flings open the shutters and doors
and preaches to them —
till word gets out
that men are clambering
up Simon-house roof — this time
hauling up a cripple —
still in his bed
And ripping open the roof
to lower him down
right before Sin Magician’s feet
But the story gets stranger:
and it is hard to tell it straight
as tree-branches
and beams
and chunks of clay
come crashing
down
around Sin-Magician
and the cripple
and coppersmiths
and cantors
and carpenters
stare up
incredulously
through the mangled roof
But in that cacophony
Sin-Magician points down
to the cripple sprawled before them
and cries out
what only He
could cry out:
Cripple, be clean!
Your crimes against God
are gone!
And as the din and dust settle
cognizant dissonance slowly festers
into angst
and angst into anger
as the Magician’s words congeal
into first-degree heresy
And sin-sayers
and Sadducees
begin to seethe
But He turns to them
and politely asks:
Would it be easier
and more pleasant for you
if I had said
“Be healed? “
And behold
they are
silent
And Sin-Magician turns away,
looks back down
upon the cripple,
then cries out
(more to them
than to the bed-ridden man):
Rise and Walk!
And Cripple rises
picks up his bed
and walks out before them
II
Back at the beach
Sin Magician
(with crowd in tow)
finds Levi
sitting there
in a tax-collection booth
Follow me
He says
and Levi
abandons booth
and follows
Him
(and that’s all he wrote)
And they —
Levi and his posse
of collection agents
and prostitutes
and gang-bangers
recline at “his house”
(Whose house?
St. Mark
only says “his house”)
But word
gets out
to the Legalists
about this
strange confluence
of collection agents, prostitutes, and fishermen
And they subpoena
Simon and Andrew and James and John
(and Levi) — and ask:
Why does your Magician “recline”
with sinners
and collection agents?
But He
answers them
and says
Did you not know
That I am
The prophet for bad people?
III
Later
others point out to him
that John’s disciples fasted
and the Legalist’s disciples fast
But yours
are always eating and drinking
That’s because
Sin Magician says
I am
And therefore
they eat
and drink
But when I go
they will
mourn
And he told them a story
about New wine
which cannot be kept in old bottles
IV
Again on the Sabbath
(always on the Sabbath)
His disciples were caught plucking corn
How dare they pluck
on the Sabbath?
The Legalists cry
Because,
Sin Magician answers
I am
The Sabbath
I am
their Rest
And I am
Greater
than the Sabbath
For
I am
here
