Every town has a man like Rueben. Unhappy and disagreeable. A man, were it not for Eli’s mother and the few who met in her home, disliked and avoided by all who knew him. The issue making him particularly unpleasant at the moment is one he has mulled over for weeks, now a flood-tide of emotion that had to overflow into the ears of someone who hadn’t avoided him.
That someone was Naomi, a patient soul who was everything Rueben wasn’t – happy and agreeable, and kindness personified.
Rueben, with nothing so much as a ‘hello’ started with: “I have to talk to you about that Gentile girl who comes to our fellowship”.
‘You mean Sophia, the girl staying with Eli and Hannah?” Naomi asked.
“It is not right that Gentiles meet with us, they have no understanding of the Law … they are not our people” he said indignantly.
Naomi just held him in her gaze, which someone other than Rueben would have taken to mean ‘be careful’. But having missed it, he continued.
“Yahweh is going to restore his kingdom to Israel, and it cannot happen if foreigners keep getting in the way. Take the way Greek language and culture has taken over our ways … even the Romans are swept up in this tide of ungodliness. I cannot stand the way Hannah speaks to her in Greek. It is supposed to be ‘our’ fellowship; not a place for worldly influences to parade around in front of us”.
“But Rueben, Yeshua has broken down those barriers between people and he …”
“Let’s keep him out of it,” Rueben interrupted. He doesn’t have to put up with what we are facing, like the way it is looking more and more unlikely the kingdom will ever be in place.
The tirade continued. Naomi listened to it all, although somewhat distractedly, enough for Rueben to notice. “You don’t seem to be saying much, has that Greek girl worked her way into your favour too?”
“Well yes she has, but I have been quiet since you said to leave Yeshua out of it. If he is not part of the discussion, I won’t be either. I am sure you know me well enough by now. Come, let me rub your neck, those muscles are way too tight”.
Naomi massaged Rueben’s thick neck like she would knead the barley loaves she is well known for making. He felt the soothing touch on tense muscles and let his flow of indignant grievances ebb sideways. Naomi didn’t bring Yeshua into the conversation straight away, well actually she did but Rueben didn’t recognise his being with them.
“Yes, restoring the kingdom to Israel, as though the golden age of David will just magically appear and make everything rosy again” she said with a sigh. “People forget what happened after David died, they forget the reign of his son; the kingdom torn apart and divided into exiles, captives and slaves. That kingdom is never going to be restored, and while people hang onto a futile hope that it will be, they miss the kingdom that replaced it”.
“But the prophets of old made that very promise, and if the Romans could be conquered it would happen. What we need is a real warrior-priest with God on his side”.
Naomi was aghast. “But Rueben you know Yeshua is the sent one, you believe he was who he said he was!”
“Yes of course, it is just that things haven’t changed in the way they should have, in fact things are getting worse”.
“Yeshua didn’t come to change ‘things’; he came to change us,” Naomi countered, her firm hands emphasizing that word across Rueben’s broad shoulders. She continued.
“I think it is a ‘man’ thing to want to change other people and their surroundings, instead of themselves; They want to get angry and fight for their beliefs, even if they get killed or wounded in the process. Women are designed to look after their children, so they are always prepared to change themselves, to adapt to what is needed because it is not just about them”.
“Is that why Yeshua made such an impact on women” Rueben asked in a moment of rare contemplation. Naomi understood the connection between tight muscles and rigid thinking, or to be more precise, she saw the way to counter his fixed ideas was by soothing gentle touch. And a hot drink.
“If you have a cup of tea with me, I will tell you what he told us about the kingdom he brought us” she suggested. He agreed, although one can’t be sure about with how much enthusiasm. He was more comfortable with talking than listening. A hot drink and pieces of a loaf baked that morning helped settle Rueben even more, and Naomi began.
“You see Rueben, I am good friends with Yeshua’s mother, his aunties, and the other women, including my special friend Mary from Magdala. He talked with us a lot. I am not saying we knew more than the men, but we processed it differently. They wanted to set up structures with someone in charge; to talk about it and write about it and argue about what he meant. Whereas we just pondered these things in our heart. And when we got together, we talked about what he told us. Like what we do each Sabbath here”.
“So what did he say about restoring the kingdom?” Rueben asked.
“The kingdom he talked about was the reign of Yahweh in people’s hearts. More like a family with a father who loves them, lives with them, and wants the best for them, always. And all his children, not just some” Naomi replied.
While Rueben was grappling with that unfamiliar idea, Naomi continued.
“A lot of people, even those close to him, just didn’t get Yeshua; didn’t understand who he was and what he came to do. And because of this misunderstanding, they made stuff up which was mostly their own ideas, not his”.
“I can see that has happened” said Reuben. “The arguments over what part of the law we have to still keep to be a true follower gets me confused. When I listen to Eli I get the impression he gets it. Like when he talked about Yeshua being God’s word in human form, speaking God’s mind to us. The law becoming something else, although I am not quite sure what exactly. So what did Yeshua come to do?”
“Well when John the Baptizer saw Yeshua he said ‘Look, there is the Lamb of God, he will take away the sins of the world’. He came to be a sacrifice to end all sacrifices, and the sins of the world have been taken away” Naomi answered.
“I don’t think so!” exclaimed Rueben. “Just look at how the Romans live, and what they are doing to us, sins are everywhere”.
“One thing Yeshua talked about with us was the people of the new kingdom know who they are, and are secure in this authentic identity. They know they are loved and they live as they were meant to live. They are part of a wonderful family, a family that includes the Romans” Naomi said before continuing.
“Sin is not knowing who we are and believing, and living as though our identity is something else” Naomi continued. “Yeshua took that away, but many either refuse to believe it or are simply not aware of it. I know this because I asked him after he came back from the dead if my son being a cripple was because of my sin. He said the notion of sin being what people think of themselves, of having done or not done certain things, was now taken away completely. What has not been taken away, what you say is everywhere, is the pointless futile behaviour going against their creator’s intention”.
Naomi let that settle in Rueben’s mind, then added, “Yeshua also told us how disappointed he was that the idea of sin would become defined not as identity, but behaviour and actions that are either on target or off-target. A sort of organizing idea that becomes a distracting appendix and a foundation of its own building with Yeshua’s name on it. I see signs of that already underway”.
Rueben was confused but didn’t say anything. Naomi continued.
“The signs are the move away from the beautiful unity Yeshua lived and taught, toward division. The idea of sin is being used to separate people into groups such as those who follow the law and those who don’t; those who know about the law – us – and those who don’t; Romans”.
Reuben thought he saw an inconsistency in Naomi’s thinking.
“But surely there is division between Yeshua’s followers who know their identity, and those who still sin; a division of his making”.
“Yes, however the difference is not in the division, but how people react. His followers think kingdom, with a confidence in all being related and one day as family. Whereas those who don’t embrace this idea think a kingdom for only them that excludes people. An ‘us and them’ approach that gives them a liberty to judge and exclude people they don’t agree with or simply don’t like” said Naomi, refilling Rueben’s cup.
Just then Sophia, the Greek girl and subject of Rueben’s indignation came into the room without knocking. She embraced Naomi where she sat, and nodded to Rueben cheerfully. Then an awkward silence, for neither at the table spoke Greek, and Sophia could not speak Aramaic. But she could sing. And sing she did, folk songs, with an amazing combination of voice and tapping sounds that enthralled Naomi and especially Reuben.
He had never heard anything like it, for this was music from a child’s heart, a joyful melody learned from years of wandering, not living in the one place. It was music from desert travellers, and people like them who manage to find pleasure in difficult circumstances. The songs were both poignant and cheerful; like a lament filled with hope, and, as quickly as it started, it ended. Sophia looked at Rueben in a way that discomforted him enough to wonder if the songs were saying something about him he didn’t understand. Then she was gone.
Rueben was discomforted. And perplexed, because something deep within him had changed. He went to the door and looked both ways along the alleyway– no Sophia. Only a lone kestrel hovering, its wings outstretched, its body suspended motionless and its eyes looking all around. Naomi placed her arm on his shoulder but said nothing. Neither did Reuben.
A girl he didn’t like did something that thrilled his soul; she sang travellers’ songs he didn’t understand. Yet the music snuck past his usual disagreement, and beautifully settled something in his heart.
Yes, every town has a man like Reuben. The hope of the world is for enough followers like Naomi to speak truth in love, for it can relieve the tension and bring happiness and agreement. So can a song from an unlikely singer; especially one spirit-guided.
