by Jesse Steele
was?
Carl: I don’t have to go through all that, do I?
Jesus: Not if you don’t want me to. I’m a gentleman. But you wanted some terminology to “guide” you.
Carl: Yeah. I just don’t want to get wrapped-up in all this “ooga-booga” stuff.
Jesus: Compulsion.
Carl: Eh?
Jesus: Don’t be compulsive.
Carl: Obsessive-compulsive?
Jesus: That neither.
Carl: So, don’t feel like I have to do this crazy stuff?
Jesus: And don’t let Alexander act that way either… at least not too much.
Carl: What do I do if he starts in with it all?
Jesus: First thing: Don’t freak-out. Don’t loose your cool just because you don’t like him loosing his cool.
Alexander: Why are you guys talking about me like I’m crazy?
Carl: [stands there with his mouth open, incredulous]
Jesus: Have faith in me, Alexander. It makes sense to Carl.
Alexander: I’m glad it makes sense to somebody.
Jesus: You both make sense to me.
Carl: So, don’t let Alex, here, be compulsive?
Alexander: I really like that nickname.
Jesus: But don’t you be compulsive either.
Carl: What?
Jesus: Don’t act like everything and all your friends always have to always, always, always be calm and use big words. I made people different. I didn’t make you special so you could invalidate everyone else by using yourself as the standard for all others.
Carl: My words aren’t all that big.
Jesus: I don’t seem all that big to myself, but from your perspective I AM a different story.
Alexander: Yeah. Carl’s words are big… kinda’ like how Jesus is infinite.
Jesus: You two are going to make great friends.
Carl: Your creative mind is infinite. [to Alexander]
Jesus: Not as infinite as my creative mind. And neither are Carl’s words as infinite as my Word.
Alexander: Had me fooled.
Jesus: I know bigger words than Carl. Trust me.
Carl: That reminds me. Didn’t Alex have a “word” or something?
Alexander: He won’t let me tell it now.
Carl: Huh? It works like that?
Jesus: Alexander is just trying to obey me. When I put something in his heart to tell people, it’s an idea, or a “word,” for the moment… however long the moment lasts.
Carl: So, why did it seem so important to him, but now he says You won’t let him tell it?
Jesus: Maybe I just put the message in his heart so he would come over and talk to you.
Alexander: But I thought it was super important that I tell it.
Jesus: Remember, I AM the one who put that message in Alexander’s heart. When I lead you by my Spirit to do something, you may understand a small piece, but I AM the Author. I understand more about my message than the messenger I give it through.
Carl: What’s with all that, anyhow?
Jesus: We’ll get into that another time.
Scene 6: Soul Food
Alexander: Carl.
Carl: Alex.
Alexander: Why are you beating your head against your desk?
Carl: Well, I’m trying to write a paper.
Alexander: Is your desk in the way?
Carl: It’s about whether man is a trichotomy or a dichotomy.
Alexander: Tri what on me?
Carl: No, tri- means “three.”
Alexander: And di- means “dead?”
Carl: No, di- means “two.”
Alexander: Who’d ’a guessed that?
Carl: I wouldn’t have. I didn’t even come up with those terms.
Alexander: Who did?
Carl: I don’t know, but he’s probably dead.
Alexander: I thought you said di- didn’t mean “dead!”
Carl: It doesn’t, it’s just that the debate is so old, and these words are so Greek, that the first guy to use these words probably lived centuries ago.
Alexander: Well, it’s all Greek to me.
Carl: I’ll put it this way… The question is: Does a human have three parts or two parts?
Alexander: I have many more parts than just two or three!
Carl: It’s not just about your physical body.
Alexander: Your mind also?
Carl: That’s a whole other discussion.
Alexander: You mean a discussion with such confusing words doesn’t even have a mind?
Carl: Kind of…
Alexander: This is way over my head.
Carl: You can see why I was beating my head against my desk.
Jesus: Hey, kids.
Alexander: Lord!
Carl: Why did He call us ‘kids?’
Jesus: Children and my Kingdom.
Alexander: Carl is having a moment of “mental constipation”… he just can’t quite get all his thoughts out.
Carl: Are the spirit and soul the same?
Alexander: Where did that come from?
Jesus: They came from me. I AM the one who created them.
Carl: Are we “spirit-soul-body” with three parts or are we just “soul-body” with two?
Jesus: You are asking if your soul and spirit are the same thing.
Alexander: Why does he care about that?
Carl: I don’t care about it, my professors do. And I’m paying them a lot of money.
Alexander: I have a solution to that…
Jesus: So do I.
Carl: Good, because I’m beating my head against my desk.
Alexander: Perhaps by killing some brain cells you’d do yourself a favor.
Jesus: Or I could just heal the neural pathways and help him connect the dots.
Alexander-Carl: [look at each other]
Jesus: Let me ask you, why would you think your soul and your spirit might be the same?
Carl: My professor says “soul” and “spirit” are used interchangeably.
Jesus: Used where interchangeably?
Carl: In Scripture.
Jesus: What’s another term for a “demon” in the New Testament?
Carl: The New Testament often refers to demons as “unclean spirits.”
Jesus: Are they ever called “unclean souls?”
Carl: No.
Jesus: Then “soul” and “spirit” aren’t used interchangeably.
Carl: It can’t be that simple.
Alexander: It often is.
Jesus: There is more to the question, though.
Carl: What is a soul, then? And what is a spirit?
Alexander: I know who the Spirit is!
Carl: You think you know who the Spirit is.
Jesus: My Spirit knows who both of you are.
Carl: This paper is due tomorrow, so could we get back on topic?
Alexander: Yeah, I want to go eat.
Jesus: I love banquets.
Carl: Please!
Jesus: Has any part of my Word said, “…a soul of fear,” or, “…they were all filled with the Soul together?” or, “Now receive my Holy Soul?”
Carl: No. It almost sounds like You are talking about dead people when You say stuff like that.
Jesus: It seems that you already have this figured out. What’s the confusion?
Carl: I never thought about it like that. Is this a Greek thing? I mean, maybe in the New Testament the words meant one thing, but to us today “soul” and “spirit” mean the same thing.
Jesus: What do sailors often call the people on their ships?
Carl: I never sailed.
Alexander: They call them “souls.” “Cap’n! Steer clear ‘o da reef. Dare be two hundred souls on board.”
Carl: Yeah, I guess sailors do call people “souls.”
Jesus: Do sailors ever call them “spirits.”
Carl: No. If a sailor ever talked about a spirit it would be spooky “sailor” superstition… something about a “ship haunted by an evil sp
irit” or an “evil island with a dark spirit on the wind” or something.
Alexander: People don’t change much over the years. We still talk the same about spirits and souls. So, why learn Greek?
Carl: Because almost a third of the Bible is written in Greek!
Alexander: No it isn’t. I got a Bible right here and it’s all English!
Carl: That’s because seminary students like me translated it for you. Be grateful and don’t pick on my Greek!
Alexander: I won’t pick on your Greek as long as we can go eat. Speak of Greek, how’s about the Olive Dragon?
Carl: That’s not Greek!
Alexander: It’s Greek to me.
Jesus: It isn’t Greek. Believe me—still good though.
Carl: How do You know what Greek food tastes like?
Alexander: He’s been there. He’s two-thousand years old.
Jesus: My body is two-thousand years old. But my Spirit is way older than that. He used Greek to create confusion at the tower of Babble.
Carl: Greek is still creating confusion today.
Alexander: Confusion about what ethnic food actually tastes like?
Jesus: … and you don’t want to know about the confusion that led to the discovery of feta cheese.
Alexander: You guys are making me hungrier!
Jesus: That’s your body talking.
Alexander: It’s my mouth talking.
Carl: And I can hear your stomach talking. Your body must love to eat Greek.
Alexander: Your mind must love to read Greek.
Carl: Is my mind part of my spirit or my soul?
Jesus: Maybe both, maybe your body too.
Carl: My mind part of my body!?
Jesus: Alexander’s stomach is distracting his mind… and if you take the wrong medication… that can do strange things to your thought processes.
Carl: Is that what happened to Alex?
Alexander: You’re the one who needs a padded desk.
Jesus: I always liked eating on a padded floor.
Alexander: I’m starving!
Carl: But which one is the mind a part of then? Body or soul or what?
Jesus: I didn’t put it in my written Word for a reason.
Carl: What’s Your reason?
Alexander: Because it doesn’t matter or He would have told you! I want to eat!
Jesus: Just think about “soul and spirit” for now.
Carl: Okay, so, let me piece all this together… “spirit” means “demon” if it’s an “unclean spirit”… but a soul is part of a sailor?…
Alexander: A disembodied
