Crossroads At the Day of Bapticost

by Jesse Steele

Jesus!

  Jesus: Carl is your friend.

  Alexander: I know.

  Carl: I am?

  Jesus: I AM.

  Carl: He is? [to Jesus]

  Alexander: He IS. [to Carl]

  Carl: But, Jesus, he scares me.

  Jesus: I AM not scared of Alexander. Alexander, don’t scare your friends.

  Alexander: Okay. But I’m just so excited that I heard from You, Jesus!

  Jesus: I’m excited that you heard from me too, but we also want Carl to be excited.

  Carl: Would someone please explain what’s going on here.

  Jesus: Carl, this is Alexander.

  Carl: We’ve met, and I’m not sure it’s a good thing.

  Jesus: It is good.

  Carl: But what’s with all this strange stuff he’s saying?

  Jesus: He’s just expressing himself. Can’t you understand him?

  Carl: Nope.

  Jesus: I can.

  Carl: Can he understand himself?

  Alexander: It doesn’t matter. I just want to understand more of Jesus.

  Jesus: And I want both of you to understand more of me. That’s why I brought you together.

  Carl–Alexander [together]: [look at each other, then Jesus] We’d much rather know You by ourselves.

  Jesus: See! That’s my Spirit!

  Carl: Huh?

  Alexander: Wait.

  Carl: What just happened?

  Alexander: We actually said the same thing to Jesus.

  Jesus: You often do.

  Carl: Sorry, but, I just can’t be in the same place as him. [looking up]

  Jesus: What’s wrong with me?

  Carl: Not You, Jesus, I meant Alexander.

  Alexander: I agree, this just won’t work.

  Jesus: I think it’s working quite well.

  Carl: How is it working?

  Alexander: I have a word to deliver!

  Jesus: You two are talking—together.

  Carl: But the only thing we agreed on was that we disagree.

  Alexander: It was a “divine coincidence” that the Lord inspired our words to be the same.

  Carl: See! He just said “inspired.”

  Jesus: I’ve done a lot of that in my Life.

  Carl: But only the Bible is inspired!

  Jesus: Yes, the Bible is inspired, but I also inspire people—people aren’t Bibles. Where do you think creativity comes from?

  Carl: But when he says his message is “inspired” he’s adding to the Bible!

  Jesus: I don’t see his Bible getting any bigger.

  Alexander: There he goes talking all of that gobbledygook! Does he always have to make everything so complicated?

  Jesus: It seems simple to him.

  Alexander: He doesn’t seem simple to me.

  Jesus: That’s because you didn’t make him.

  Alexander: That’s You, not me.

  Jesus: Just like I made you.

  Carl: Would someone please go back to what I was talking about?

  Alexander: You just want to talk about yourself.

  Carl: You should talk.

  Alexander: Thank you, I have a word from the Lord that I need to deliver.

  Carl: That’s not what I meant.

  Jesus: Alexander?

  Alexander: Yes, Lord?

  Jesus: What is this word you have? Go ahead, tell us.

  Carl: Um, I’m scared.

  Jesus: I AM not.

  Carl: But I don’t want to start rolling on the floor, frothing at the mouth!

  Alexander: Jesus, what is he talking about?

  Jesus: He’s never met someone like you before.

  Carl: Oh, yes I did, for two minutes at this one street light. This lady was shouting…

  Alexander: He just called me a woman!

  Carl: That’s not what I meant.

  Jesus: For an intellectual, you sure did overlook that detail, Carl.

  Carl: But it wasn’t the fact that she was a woman that made her crazy.

  Jesus: If you keep talking like that you are going to get into trouble with all the women I created.

  Carl: Yeah, well, You made them!

  Jesus: Yes. Yes I did. So, Alexander, your word I gave you…

  Carl: But I’m scared!

  Alexander: What’s he scared of?

  Jesus: He’s sacred because of the way you started talking.

  Carl: You mean the strange way he started talking.

  Alexander: What about the strange way you were talking about perspiration and adding to the Bible.

  Carl: Inspiration!

  Alexander: Whatever. Same difference.

  Jesus: Alexander, you are going to cause Carl to have a heart-attack. Those words are very important to him.

  Alexander: And Your word is important to me. That’s why I want to deliver it.

  Carl: His Word is important to me too! I study it all the time.

  Alexander: Does he think that You don’t talk to us today?

  Carl: Does he always add to Scripture like this?

  Alexander: I’m not adding anything to the Bible.

  Carl: But you were talking about a word!

  Alexander: I never said Bible!

  Carl: But the Bible is the Word!

  Alexander: Not the one I have from the Lord.

  Carl: The Bible is from the Lord!

  Alexander: So is this word I have.

  Jesus: It’s so nice to see you two having fellowship.

  Carl: Which one of us is right?

  Alexander: There he goes again.

  Carl: I mean, technically speaking… if we disagree, then at least one of us has to be wrong. It’s a simple permutation of logic.

  Alexander: Jesus, does he know English?

  Jesus: Better than he knows Greek.

  Alexander: Everything he just said was Greek to me.

  Carl: Don’t you know Greek?

  Jesus: Neither of you know Greek well enough to talk. I gave the two of you English.

  Carl: What’s with that English language nonsense? It’s one of the most disorganized languages…

  Alexander: Yer tellin’ me.

  Carl: Yeah, I think we might agree on something. English is crazy.

  Alexander: Lord, if You are so smart, why is English such a disorganized language?

  Jesus: I didn’t give anyone English at the Tower of Babble. My languages actually made sense. English—that was a mess you humans made.

  Carl: But You said You made English.

  Jesus: No. I said I gave you English. Your ancestors were the ones who “made” it.

  Alexander: Ah, sins of the fathers, visited on the sons.

  Carl: That expired with the New Covenant.

  Alexander: Shekinah Glory!

  Carl: That expired too!

  Jesus: No. My glory is still here.

  Alexander: What’s this stuff about God having expiration dates?

  Carl: I never said that.

  Alexander: But you said generational sin expired.

  Carl: That’s cause you were saying God would curse innocent children with the evil of their parents. God doesn’t condemn people like that anymore.

  Jesus: I never did.

  Alexander-Carl: Huh?

  Jesus: If the parents make a mess, it will affect the kids. Kind of like English.

  Carl: I don’t like English.

  Alexander: Speaking in tongues makes more sense to me.

  Carl: You know… [shaking finger] he might actually have a point there.

  Jesus: Ah! Unity is coming…

  Carl: As long as he doesn’t speak in tongues around me.

  Jesus: He speaks in tongues around me.

  Alexander: You can’t speak in tongues because you don’t have the Holy Spirit!

  Jesus: My Holy Spirit.

  Alexander: Ah! He certainly is! Selah!

  Carl: I do to have the Holy Spirit!

  Jesus: My Holy Spirit.

  Alexander: Why can’t you speak in tongues t
hen!?

  Jesus: Guys… My Spirit is the Spirit of unity. If both of you speak in “defense” it will seem like grater gibberish than speaking in different languages.

  Carl: But he just said I don’t have Your Holy Spirit.

  Jesus: He’s not being super-technical.

  Carl: But I try my best to be smart about this stuff. We should be technical.

  Jesus: Then be smart and figure out what his meaning is.

  Carl: Here goes… Alexander, what is your “meaning?”

  Alexander: Ask and ye shall receive.

  Carl: See! He’s not making any sense!

  Alexander: That’s ‘cause you don’t ask.

  Carl: I just did ask you!

  Jesus: Boys! Please.

  Alexander: Lord, there’s nothing I have against him. I have a great friendship with You and I want him to have as much fun as we do.

  Carl: I do too have a friendship with Jesus! Don’t you tell me I don’t know the Lord!

  Jesus: He never said you didn’t.

  Carl: Sounded to me like he just said he knows You better than I do!

  Alexander: Who’s comparing? I just want more of the Lord, for both of us! And you cry, “Bloody murder!”

  Jesus: I was.

  Carl: It just isn’t tactful.

  Jesus: Alexander, are you trying to insult him?

  Alexander: No, I’m trying to save him.

  Jesus: Only I can do that. But you don’t want to undermine him by telling him there is more to know, do you?

  Alexander: No. I tell people about You because I care about them.

  Jesus: Okay, Alexander has walked with me and seen some of my miracles. They excited him and he wants to share them with you. Is that so bad?

  Carl: No, not when You put it like that. But he doesn’t put it that way. He makes me feel invalidated.

  Alexander: I don’t want you to feel invalidated.

  Jesus: He doesn’t want you to feel invalidated.

  Carl: You both said the same thing.

  Jesus: I inspired him.

  Carl: He’s not the Bible.

  Jesus: I never said he was a Bible. It was merely a good idea for the moment.

  Carl: So that’s what he means when he says he has a “word” from You? It’s just a “good idea for the moment?”

  Jesus: Something like that, maybe.

  Alexander: Why does he have to make this complicated?

  Jesus: It isn’t complicated to Carl. Besides, he sees you as complicated in your own way.

  Alexander: Me!? He’s the one using all the big, strange words.

  Carl: Do you ever use a dictionary?

  Alexander: At least I don’t read it like a novel.

  Jesus: Neither of you use your Greek dictionaries like you could.

  Carl: Getting back on topic…

  Alexander: Does he always talk like that?

  Jesus: I made him that way. Tickles me to no end.

  Alexander: Infinite-eternal.

  Carl: Do you even know what those words mean?

  Jesus: Alexander is not ignorant. He just isn’t as passionate about the same things I made you passionate about.

  Carl: So why does he say I don’t “have” the Spirit?

  Jesus: My Spirit.

  Alexander: His Spirit.

  Carl: What does he mean!?

  Alexander: Can I just pray for you?

  Jesus: Alexander, that sounds bad. Don’t say “for” say “with.”

  Alexander: It matters?

  Jesus: It matters to Carl. He’s the one you’re talking to.

  Carl: Sure, you can pray for me.

  Alexander: It doesn’t seem to matter to him.

  Jesus: That’s because he’s beginning to understand what you mean. He’s looking past your words and seeing you more of the way I see you.

  Alexander: Well, if he understands, then why do I need to be so technical with my prepositions?

  Carl: He knows what a preposition is?

  Jesus: We’ve been through this.

  Alexander: If Carl understands me, then why do the words matter?

  Jesus: The words matter to his friends. It’s good practice.

  Alexander: Now that makes sense.

  Carl: Now you’re both making sense.

  Jesus: Glad I AM making sense… to you both.

  Carl: Are we going to pray already?

  Alexander: I can’t wait!

  Carl: I’m not going to hit the floor and start rolling around for like five hours or anything am I?

  Jesus: I did most of that for you.

  Carl: I’m kind of scared. What if he is wrong about this?

  Jesus: AM I bigger?

  Carl: Yeah. I suppose.

  Jesus: I AM. And even if Alexander is wrong about his ideas, my Spirit is in you and I protect you. Nothing evil can hurt you, but you can hurt yourselves with disunity.

  Carl: But he just said I don’t have Your Spirit.

  Jesus: He’s being figurative, not “exact-technical” like you, when you talk.

  Carl: What’s wrong with being technical?

  Alexander: Lots. It’s really confusing.

  Carl: I didn’t ask you!

  Jesus: Nothing’s wrong with being technical… so long as I made you that way.

  Alexander: Okay, fine. I’ll try to understand that Carl needs to be technical, even though he doesn’t always make sense.

  Jesus: … to you. He makes perfect sense to me.

  Alexander: Does he make sense to himself?

  Carl: You’re the one who prays in a language he doesn’t understand.

  Alexander: All of us are speaking English, and that doesn’t make sense to any of us.

  Carl: [shaking finger] He’s got good point there.

  Jesus: You guys agreed on that before.

  Alexander-Carl: Really?

  Jesus: You agree on a lot more than you know.

  Carl: Okay, I’m going to let Alexander, my new “friend” here, pray for/with/whatever me. I just want to make sure… I’m not going to start levitating or anything, right?

  Jesus: You’re seeking me with your whole heart, right?

  Carl: I hope so.

  Jesus: If I tell you to stop, you’ll obey me, but still be kind to Alexander, right?

  Carl: Right.

  Jesus: Then, do like Peter, and step out of the boat.

  Carl: But Peter got all wet when he did that.

  Jesus: That’s ‘cause it was already raining.

  Carl: No I mean he fell into the water.

  Jesus: That’s ‘cause he didn’t keep his eyes on me.

  Carl: NO! I mean the time he jumped out of the boat and swam to shore to greet You.

  Jesus: And he didn’t care about getting drenched one bit.

  Carl: Was Peter kind of like Alexander here?

  Jesus: Alexander doesn’t fish for a living.

  Carl: I mean in other ways.

  Jesus: I made each of you different… just like everyone else.

  Alexander: Can we stop talking and start praying?

  Carl: Don’t you talk when you pray?

  Alexander: Give it a rest, would yah!?

  Carl: But we can’t just pray all the time!

  Alexander: You can’t do anything without prayer!

  Carl: But you still have to think!

  Alexander: No, just pray and God will lead you!

  Carl: But you still have to use your brain!

  Alexander: You use your brain too much. Just pray and obey!

  Carl: God gave me my brain! I need to use it!

  Alexander: Use it, don’t abuse it! Just pray.

  Carl: But we still have to think!

  Alexander: Then think about praying and do it!

  Jesus: Fellas.

  Carl: Fine, okay, I understand what he means.

  Alexander: Good, I’ve said it so clearly. It’s about time you listen!

  Carl: He’s awfully feisty.

  Jesus: I made him that way.
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  Carl: Why?

  Jesus: The devil can’t lead him.

  Carl: Can anyone be his leader?

  Jesus: I AM.

  Alexander: I’ll follow Jesus anywhere.

  Carl: Back on topic…

  Alexander: There he goes again.

  Carl: Let’s just pray and get this over with. I don’t care if I turn into a giraffe! All this waiting has me in suspense.

  Alexander: Me too! More fire Lord!

  Jesus: Carl, patience. Alexander, calm down, I AM not burning the earth until I get you and the rest of my Church outa’ here.

  Alexander: I mean the fire of Your Spirit.

  Jesus: Yes. My fire won’t hurt my Church… but the evil fungi… they won’t survive the coming global grass fire.

  Carl: How do You plan to do all that?

  Alexander: Does he always ask so many questions?

  Carl: Inquiring minds want to know.

  Jesus: Weren’t you going on about how impatient you were about praying?

  Carl: Oh, yeah, that. Alex, hurry-up, before we start talking about something else.

  Alexander: “Alex” …I kind of like that nickname.

  Carl: Just hurry up, would you!

  Alexander: Oh, right. [puts his hand on Carl’s shoulder, closes eyes, looks up]

  Carl: [bows head]

  Jesus: [smiles and looks at both]

  Alexander: [looks at Jesus] Give him Your Spirit like I have Him.

  Jesus: Okay. Done.

  Alexander: [takes hand down]

  Carl: That’s it!?

  Alexander: What were you expecting?

  Carl: Well, I do feel a little warm and calm, but I’ve had that in church before. I thought I was going to melt into a puddle of slime or something and roll around in the aisles.

  Alexander: How could slime roll?

  Carl: You know what I mean.

  Alexander: No, I don’t.

  Jesus: Do you feel any different?

  Carl: I feel… really calm… and… kinda’ happy.

  Jesus: That’s my peace.

  Carl: What just happened?

  Alexander: Oooo! He’s got the Holy Ghost! Shekinah!

  Jesus: My Holy Ghost.

  Carl: Shekinah is a kind of “glory.”

  Alexander: “Glowraaah!” Halelooooooyah!

  Jesus: Isn’t he scaring you?

  Carl: Not really, I’m kinda’ getting used to him.

  Jesus: It’s because you prayed together.

  Alexander: More fire!

  Jesus: …in a few years, Alexander. That’s part of what I came for. How I wish it were already kindled.

  Alexander: Let Your fire be kindled in me!

  Jesus: Truly.

  Carl: I’m all of a sudden curious about this whole “tongues” thing. How does that work?

  Alexander: You just gotta’ do it!

  Jesus: Alexander, don’t confuse him. He needs details.

  Alexander: Oh, yeah. He’s one of those people.

  Jesus: One of my people.

  Carl: What’s with all that tongues stuff, anyways?

  Jesus: First, “tongues and languages” aren’t the main thing. I AM the main thing.

  Carl: Okay, I’m just curious, though. Do You, like, control my talking or… how does all that work?

  Jesus: It’s like a dance. You actively follow my lead.

  Carl: Okay, but we aren’t supposed to dance as Christians.

  Jesus: David danced with me.

  Carl: That sounds wrong.

  Alexander: Your mind’s in the wrong place man! You just gotta’ think “Holy Ghost!”

  Carl: Do I have to start acting like him?

  Jesus: Nope. And he doesn’t have to start acting like you. But, Alexander, please, do calm down a little. I know you’re excited, but you don’t want to scare people who don’t see things the same way you do.

  Carl: What’s with this whole “tongues” thing? I want to know.

  Jesus: That’s for private time between just us.

  Carl: Can I do it in church.

  Jesus: As long as you’re decent, others understand, and you aren’t making a show of me. It’s supposed to be either between us or else a language others can understand so you and your friends can grow closer to me—together.

  Carl: Okay, so it really isn’t that big of a deal either way.

  Jesus: I AM the Way. Language is a tool.

  Alexander: He’s starting to make more sense.

  Carl: And Alex seems more calm.

  Alexander: I thought I was more excited.

  Jesus: Alexander isn’t scaring you as much.

  Carl: I thought he was the one who changed.

  Jesus: I AM the one who changes both of you.

  Carl: Why are we getting along better? Is it because I’ve been “Drenched” in Your Holy Spirit?

  Alexander: Drenched. Dunked. Submerged. Lord, pour it on me! More!

  Jesus: Maybe. The key is that you are talking, having fellowship, and mostly, you are talking with me—together.

  Carl: Now that makes sense.

  Alexander: It’s about time! Praise Jesus!

  Jesus: I AM fine with that.

  Carl: I feel like I need a word of caution. Like, I need some kind of guidebook on dealing with my new friend here.

  Jesus: Carl likes terminology, so, Alexander, remember the term I gave you?

  Alexander: Compulsion!

  Carl: He does know big words!

  Jesus: I teach him.

  Alexander: He tied me to the floor and forced it down!

  Jesus: You were slain in my Spirit.

  Alexander: Is that what it