Bread and Stones — A Transgender Messiah is Tempted in the Wilderness
“Are you not the Son of God?”
The dust stretches out as far as Yasha can see, hot and dry. The sun beats upon his head like a living thing digging its claws into his scalp. He kneels in the sand, waiting — for what he is not certain.
Yasha has lost track of the time he has spent here in the wilderness. At first, he counted the days by the sun’s rising and setting, but around thirty-some days, his count was lost in the heat and the dust.
“How long, Oh Lord? Will You hide Yourself forever? Will Your wrath burn like fire?” He means to cry out the Psalmist’s words into the hot parched air, but his dry throat allows only a hoarse whisper. His head falls back onto his shoulders and he closes his eyes.
“Are you not the Son of God?”
Yasha opens his eyes. A person stands before him, so close as to be silhouetted against the sunlight. A sense of knowledge falls over Yasha: this is what he has been waiting for. “My name is Yasha,” he says.
The stranger’s face is hidden in shadow, but somehow Yasha knows that he is smiling. “You may call me Loukios.” He crouches in front of Yasha, and his face comes into focus. It is ageless and beautiful and perfect, but there is something malevolent in the…
