A shrill voice cried out from behind me so that I turned to see. It was a ragged man with cuts on his arms and a wildness in his face. I was surprised that he was so near to me as he walked in from the door. He walked directly toward the Rabbi, deliberately, menacingly.

His voice was high and bitter as he asked, “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?”

I came to my feet and took the wild man in hand. Several neighbors helped me wrestle him to the floor. He screamed and fought with his might but four of us were stronger. We held him down on his knees. He was a stranger. I had never seen the man before that day and I remember that he had the stench of the stables about him. He leaned back and stared at the ceiling with wide wild eyes.

“I know who you are,” he said with a laugh. Jesus knelt before him and the man looked at the Rabbi. Then he said, “The Holy One of God.”

Jesus immediately commanded, “Be quiet! Come out of him!”

The man lurched up and back with a strength we could not hold. He fell and we fell under him. Then, the strangest thing happened. I heard a shriek of agony but it did not come from the stranger. It was near the ceiling and it fled, as it were, through the door. To this day, I get a chill at the remembrance. Well, the man was unconscious. We stood wondering what to do. I stood shoulder to shoulder with my neighbors, Aaron and Ephraim, both merchants. They spoke to each other as if I did not stand between them.

Aaron asked, “Is this a new teaching? What authority is this?”

Ephraim said, “He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.”

Two men lifted the body and took him out with the healers. The rest of us spoke like startled housewives. The building buzzed like hornets in a rattled nest. None of us could believe our eyes. We were a sea of roiling tongues, tossed and tormented by a strong wind. Much was froth and spray with each man holding his mast for balance. I looked up and could not see the Rabbi. I turned and made my way out through the door and into the street. The women outside clucked like old hens as I spotted Jesus down the street. He walked toward the lake. Amazed, I followed the man who could bully demons and my heart pounded in my chest.

He sat on a rock facing into a fresh breeze. I stood beside him as he covered his head from the sun and looked up into my eyes. A small overturned boat became my seat. It was still where we sat. I felt vaguely guilty for having left the Synagogue early but I was more curious why the Rabbi had left early. I watched him without speaking and his mind seemed far away. I noted the simple wrap over his head, the striped overcoat, and the seamless undercoat. His leather sandals were scuffed and worn. His Tefillin dangled loosely from his hand. He startled me when he spoke.

“I go to Cana to wed. Will you join me?”

I answered without thinking, “Yes, Rabbi. Of course. May the union be blessed.”

“I must speak beyond the Synagogue, Simon.” He said, “I will take the word out to the people on highways and on hilltops. I will travel by ship around the coast.”

Rabbis just didn't do such things. Well, they were Rabbis wherever they went and spoke as such, but to go beyond the walls of the Synagogue was new to me. And then, one could not walk very far on the Sabbath. What he spoke of was the imposing of Rabbi and Synagogue matters into the days when men worked and lived. I was not sure that would go over well. As if he knew my thoughts, the Rabbi answered my doubts.

“Simon,” he said, “I offer a truth to the people that no other Rabbi, no priest, no Pharisee offers. I offer God in man, not just on the Sabbath but in every day of the week.” He cocked his head to one side and smiled at me. Then, he said, “What do you think, Simon? Shall the Father's works be hidden? Do you not think that word of the possessed man will run to other towns? Men talk. They will go to all the cities nearby and say, a Rabbi cast a demon from a possessed man. A Rabbi took a man's mother out of the hand of death. A Rabbi told a fisherman where to drop his net and he caught.”

I answered and said, “True, Rabbi. These are wonderful things you have done. We are humbled in the face of God's might.”

He stood then and faced the lake. He said, “The Father lives in every man, Simon. The Father lives in you. I can show you how to heal another. I can give you authority over demons.”

Startled, I asked, “Me?”

“In your heart, Simon,” said the Rabbi, “in your mind, the Father is alive. I have come with a message to you and men like you.” He turned to me with a fire in his eyes and said to me, “Repent from your sins. Your worldly thoughts are a bar across the door through which your heavenly Father would enter. I would build a new temple in every man that God may fully possess. I will build a new Synagogue from such temples. I would lay the foundation stone in you, Simon.”

“In me?” I found that I was standing. I was dumbfounded. I began to speak, stammered, and fell silent. Then, I found my voice. I answered, “I'm just a fisherman. I have to work all week just to feed my family. I'm supposed to run around and do a Rabbi's job?”

He cocked his head to one side and asked, “You want more fish? You struggled to pull in the net.”

He had me there. Humbled, I said, “True, Rabbi, but I am still no one to teach others. Even if I wore a Rabbi's vestments, even if the very stones of the Synagogue were my home, who would listen to me?”

Jesus came and sat on the small boat. I sat with him. The cover fell from his head and he turned to look in my eyes. The noises of Capernaum drew closer. Birds cried overhead. The sun was on our backs as the Rabbi leaned in close and spoke softly. I found that I was holding my breath. I was as a small boy anticipating the words of an adult, hoping for that which would comfort and direct.

Jesus said to me, “I know you, Simon. There is not a man in the city who does not listen to you and respect your words. You are a man who gets the job done. I will give you the words of the Father. They will be heard. I will build my church on you and men will call you Cephas. Join me and we will fish for men. We will cast our net and catch so many hearts and minds that it will strain the net. You and I will catch men for the Father and draw them up into the light.”

I was hooked. My blood raced. A man had spoken to me of God like no other I had ever heard. He told me that God was in a humble fisherman. He told me the power of God could work in me for all that was good and right. He made my heart burn for the need in all men. My desire reached out toward the light he offered and, while I could not imagine the years ahead, the joys, the sorrows, the trials, I can tell you now, there is no greater purpose for a man than mankind.