Putting the 'man' back in Emmanuel



Can you imagine him
When nobody else was around

In those quiet moments
Where he had a brief opportunity
To put his sandaled feet up
Or to snack upon a fig or two

It is hard to think of him
Without also envisioning
A cohort of loyal disciples and skeptics alike
Flanking him from either side
Unendingly pandering him with questions
And requests for miracles

The Gospel writers never talked about
The 'private Christ'
The man he was behind closed doors
When he had time to gather his thoughts
And reflect upon
A busy day's work

Though I suppose
These must have been the points at which
He was his truest self
Completely removed from the hype of celebrity
Along with all of the pressures that accompany it

And what if you just so happened
To stumble in on this lonely messiah
Reclining on a chair near a simple kind of bed
In an otherwise empty mud-brick room

What would you do?

Would you sit on the bed by his chair
And listen intently
As he revealed to you
Universal truths
Pearls of wisdom
From the clam of Heaven himself

Then again,
You could make small talk
“How about this weather we've been having”
And, “So what does your father do?”
(Little would you know, these questions are inextricably linked)

Or perhaps you would simply sit there in silence
With Jesus Christ
On this dusty March afternoon
Eating figs and thinking about
How agreeable it is to be doing very little at all