7I

7I

"Sister mine," said Yeshua, "you would only become a gatekeeper yourself." Yeshua drew near to her with a closed  fist. When he opened it, silver coins fell into  her lap to be  caught by her robe, the plain disks  issued by Herod  Antipas with  no images stamped thereon, so as not to  offend Jews. There was far more money than could  have  fit  in his  fist. He said, "Take  no thought, beloved  sister, for what  you shall eat, nor  what you shall wear. Life  is so much more than food  or raiment. Our God knows you have  need of those things. What kind  of father would he be, if  his daughter asked for  a loaf of bread,  and he gave her a stone, or  if she asked for fish and he  gave her a snake? God knows  all this, and he  will give good things  to those who ask. Seek first the kingdom of God, and nothing shall hinder you from receiving what you need!"

"The kingdom of God?" asked Hifai. 'And what do you imagine that makes you? His prince?"

Yeshua said nothing in reply immediately. Instead he went over to a shelf where Hilfai kept his scrolls of the prophets in clay pots and found the one  containing the words of  Isaiah. Yeshua unspooled to a certain place and  read aloud, "On that  day the deaf shall  hear the  words of  a scroll, and  out of  gloom and darkness the  eyes of  the blind shall  see. The  desperate ones shall again find joy in Ha-Shem, the poorest rejoice in the Holy Redeemer of  Israel." Yeshua gathered up the scroll and  put it back in its place. "I tell you this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing this night."

Hilfai uttered a low, gutteral moan as he held his fist near his ear. "They tell me you can  now heal the sick,  Yeshua, but can you heal  yourself? You  suffer the  same mind-sickness  of this Yonanan you  follow. It  makes you say  the scriptures  speak of yourself. It is  a plague. Many have suffered the  same and came to no good end, including, I am told, this baptizer."

Shimon said to Hilfai,  "You haven't seen  what Yeshi  can do!" Though perhaps he had. Salome was still picking up coins.

"I have no wish to see what Yeshua can do, if  he leads you and all who  follow him to  be beaten with  rods, or even  stoned to death! How would your mother bear the news of it?"

"That is enough, father, please," said Yakob. He turned to face his step-brother and  speak  to  him in  a  voice  as calm  and measured as he could make it. "Tell me, Yeshua, is this kingdom of God you teach really better than the rule of the Gentiles if it divides your own family in the very beginning?"