“No one is above anyone else” from the Adventures of the Boy Jesus
“Why would a disciple be above his master?” Jesus asked Abba.
“Where did you hear that?”
“I didn’t. I was thinking.”
“Being above or below makes no sense,” Abba said. “Everything anyone does comes from somewhere else. There is no credit given.”
“Nothing is owned? No one rules?”
“Exactly.”
“But people do own and people do rule.”
“Yes, but it is not the truth. What is finally not true dies. Along with what is not beautiful or free or loving.”
“We all die, Abba.”
“No. What is true survives. It overcomes. So does what is beautiful. So does what is free. So does what is loving.”
“Are we lies then?”
“No.”
“We die.”
“Yes.”
“That’s a contradiction.”
“Love doesn’t die, Jesus. Freedom doesn’t. Nor truth. Nor beauty.”
“We die regardless.”
“Yes.”
“Is that not tragic?”
“No.”
“What is it?”
“Part of truth. Part of beauty. Part of freedom. Part of love.”
“How?”
“It’s the only one way to the source.”
“To die?”
“Yes.”
Jesus shook his head.
Abba continued:
“Jesus, explain to your friends in Jerusalem that a disciple is not above his master. Everyone must come to know themselves. That’s the only way to truth. To love. To freedom. To beauty. They are all a gift. They belong to no one. No one is above anyone else.”
Jesus thought all the way home. Remarkably, none of it took the form of words.
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Stephen C. Rose writes daily. Medium is his drafting board. Kindle his marketplace. You the reader his hopeful supporter. He promotes his thought and art on Twitter and has his own publication on Medium called Everything Comes which any new writer can join on the way to finding his or her way. Drafts of his fiction completed and in progress can be found on Coffeelicious which is also a Medium publication.
