Jesus

[Fist and Faith]

Well, here goes nothing. It's a short story about a guy who travels back in time to meet Jesus. I think this is a little longer than the typical contribution here. 6 pages on my Word program. My gratitude to anyone who, like it or hate it, actually reads the whole thing!!

I really don't like doing this, because I'm never done "correcting" myself. But I guess I'll stop now. And awaaaaaaay we go!!

____________________________________________


Almost there, I had thought.

I had been sure that I was close. Just a few more adjustments and I would have it. I knew it!

There’s no way I can fail this time!

I’d been over everything, literally, dozens of times since my previous attempt. And that was the seventeenth attempt! Each time, I had improved everything, bringing it closer to a reality.

At least I think I’ve been improving everything. Maybe all the revisions in the world won’t make it work. Maybe I can do this forever, and I’ll never time-travel. Maybe it’s impossible for reasons that we aren’t yet aware of. But I’m not going to worry about that. Maybe I’ll eventually get too frustrated, and give up. But not today! I’m going to time-travel, dammit!

In just a few minutes too, if all goes well. August 17, 2203 will be a big day for humanity.

I had been at it for twenty-five years. You might say I’d been obsessed with it. I had eaten, slept, and breathed time travel. Almost nothing else had ever been of much interest to me. Not even women, so I have no wife or kids.

Which was just as well. You see, I couldn’t take much back with me. I wasn’t going to be able to take back anywhere near the amount of stuff it would take to make a vehicle that could travel near enough to the speed of light to do the trick.

So, I’m going to be stuck some 2200 years in the past. Of course, I’m leaving notes and a holorecord of the entire event. Maybe someone will review it all and decide that they believe what it all says - that I did, indeed time-travel. Maybe they’ll come back and join me. That would be nice. "Hey, let’s go see Wesley." Ha!

It would also be nice if someone recognized my accomplishment. Ego isn’t, by any means, the only, or even biggest, reason I’m doing this. But I sure wouldn’t mind being mentioned in the same breath as Newton, Einstein, and Po.

In any event, I’m just about ready to go.

I had packed some things that would help me get along very nicely in 12 A.D. Medicines, vitamins, a compass, a very high-quality knife, and some other things.

Why had I picked that particular year? Well, the only thing outside of physics that had really interested me was religion. I’d always been very concerned about it, but I hadn’t been able to figure it out. Despite having put a lot of thought and research into it, I’d never been able to find anything that I firmly believed in. I could see the argument for atheism, and I could see the argument for a creator. Aspects of Hinduism always rang true for me, as did aspects of Buddhism, and many others. But no religion ever made complete sense to me.

So I needed a way to learn which one was the right one, despite the problems that I had with whichever it was. And it seemed to me that the best way to find out would to be to ask someone who had to know the answer. And so, time-travel. By themselves, the intellectual joys of trying to achieve time-travel would have been sufficient to keep me going. But the thought of using it to answer such a burning question...

Anyway, I could travel back to see Buddha, but he’s supposed to be just a man who became enlightened. Mohammed is also believed to be a normal human, although one who Allah spoke to. I hadn’t been sure if any human would be able to give me the answers I needed. Krishna is supposed to be a god, but he's so shrouded in legend and myth that I'd never be able to find him. I could be off by 500 years.

But Jesus… Jesus is believed to be a superior being, even God himself, by many people. If either was true, he might be able to answer my questions. I would be profoundly happy to know the truth about religion!

Of course, he could turn out to be just a very good, smart man. It’s a calculated risk, but one I’m willing to take. If you ignore anything of any kind of supernatural nature from the Bible, Jesus still had some wonderful things to say. I could do worse than meeting him, and learning whatever I can from him. I’ll be disappointed to not have the answers to my biggest questions, but you gotta take chances sometimes.

The only real problem would have been if there never had been any Jesus at all. If I just ended up stuck 2000 years in the past, I’d have been pretty annoyed that I hadn’t gone to meet Einstein instead. But I had thought that the most influential figure in the history of the world was probably not entirely fictitious.

In any event, Jesus’ supposed dates and locations were relatively easy to figure out. With some margin of error anyway.

So here I am in Jerusalem. Or, rather, the top of a hill outside of Jerusalem. When I go back in time, this is where I want to be. The book of Luke places Jesus in Jerusalem on Passover when he was twelve years old. So that’s where/when I’ll go. If I’m off by even a few years, I’ll track him down eventually.

So everything was set to go. Equipment all operational, settings all correct. I took one last look around me. If all went well, I’d never see this
time again. I had felt a little sadder than I had expected to.

But I’m not turning back now. The two driving forces of my life might be fulfilled in an instant. So…

I pressed the button.


And there I was - still standing on the top of the hill. The countryside was all wilderness, but I recognized the lay of the land. It seemed that I had been successful. I couldn’t believe it! I had time traveled! I couldn’t contain my joy!

I literally jumped for joy, and screamed, "Yahooooooo!"

"Hello Wesley," I heard from behind me.

"AAAAA!" I screamed in surprise. "Jesus Christ! Don’t scare me like that!" I said as I turned around to see who was talking to me.

"Sorry. Hello."

There I saw a boy of about twelve years.

"I’m sorry," I said as I recovered from the fright. "I didn’t know anyone else was here." It dawned on me that he had called me by name.

"I would think not. You planned well. I came to meet you. Don’t worry, I’m alone."

"Right," I said, not knowing how to begin the conversation that I thought I was about to have. "Uh… Jesus?" I asked.

"Yes, Wesley, it’s me. And congratulations. You’ve accomplished something rather extraordinary. Something to be very proud of."

"Thank you." I replied. I was thunderstruck. And I had a case of chills up and down my spine that made it difficult to stand still. I could feel the hairs on my neck standing straight out. It seemed to me that Jesus had already proven that he was a bit more than an average human. "The facts that you knew what language I speak, that you happen to speak it, you knew where to find me, and you knew that I…" I paused here, looking at him expectantly.

"time-traveled…" he filled in.

...and I finished, "seem to answer one of my biggest questions. The one about your nature."

"Actually, it only speaks of my knowledge. In any event, I am afraid I cannot allow this. I am sorry."

"Can’t allow what?"

"Time-travel. I cannot allow you to be here. Your brilliance and hard work have earned it, but I cannot allow it."

It was very strange hearing these things coming from a boy. Even this boy. But I was confused. "What do you mean ‘cannot allow it’? I already did it."

"True. What I mean is that I cannot allow you to stay. I have let you stay this long only because you chose such an isolated spot. Since nobody has seen you, and won’t for several minutes, things are relatively safe."

"Safe from what?"

"Oh, you know. Time paradoxes. That is why nobody can be allowed to time-travel."

"Oh. I just figured they would somehow work themselves out."

"Yes, by constantly rewriting reality! If you did something that prevented you from time traveling, you’d never be here now. Which means you couldn’t do whatever it was that prevented it, so you would be able to be here now. Which means you would be able to do whatever you did. Or somebody could go back to prevent one war or another. Then they, or someone else, might be unhappy with what happens after that, and change something else. Each time, the timeline changes. That is no way for a reality to operate."

"Wow! So that’s what happens."

"Yes. If we let it."

"Then why make it possible? Why not have reality set up in a way that doesn’t allow it?"

"It would not matter. As you know, any system has its own limitations built into it. And there will always be someone who figures out how to exploit those limitations. Just as you did."

"So what are you going to do? I’m already here. And I have no way of getting myself back."

"I can send you back. Again, I am sorry. The best I can offer you is my congratulations."

"I understand. But why not change just this one aspect of this reality so that you don’t have to deal with this kind of thing? I can’t be the only person who ever figures out how to do it."

"No, you are not. But things are not that easy. How could you change this one thing? To make time travel impossible would require doing away with time itself. And that would change this reality beyond recognition."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Yes. Well, you must be off before others see you. Goodbye."

"Wait!" I cried. "I have so many questions to ask you! Is there no time at all?"

"I suppose we have a few moments."

"A few moments? I travel backward in time to meet Jesus so I can ask him about the nature of us, him, God, and reality, and when I meet him, I have a few moments???"

"So you had better get to it," he said with a grin.

"Right!" Then I had to pause. Now that I was there, I didn’t know where to begin. "Okay. Is the Bible the truth of existence? Uh, you know what the Bible is, right? I mean, I know it doesn’t exist yet, but, from what we’ve been talking about so far, I assume…"

Jesus held up his hand and smiled. "Yes, I know what the Bible is. And the answer is yes and no. Some parts are the ‘the truth of existence’, and others are not."

"Which parts are?"

Jesus paused, apparently deciding which approach to use with me. "The soul, the true self, the core, the psychological make-up, or whatever you want to call it, of each one of us is love. It is as simple as that. Your most fundamental self is love. Your highest potential is love. Your goal should always be love. That is every lesson I have, or will, ever teach. Nothing else. It is also the only lesson that many others have and will teach. Lao Tzu, Buddha, Krishna, and Mohammed, to name a few of the more well known ones. We all teach the same lessons: Love each other, and love yourselves. Give up petty desires and selfishness, and fill your life with love and happiness. These are the common teachings of the Bible, the Tao Te Ching, the Qur’an, the Bhagavad Gita, and many others. Love is the basic teaching of so many religions and philosophies because love is the basis of each of us. The divine spark in all of us, if you will."

"But why don’t we all know this? If it’s the core of each of us, shouldn’t we be able to feel this truth? Doesn’t this divine spark speak to all of us?"

"Yes. But not everyone listens," he replied. "For various reasons, each person has other layers built up around their core. These layers make it difficult to perceive your core being. Hard to hear through all those layers, as it were."

"What about the rest of the Bible? Damnation; sin; Hell; blood sacrifices; you being the only way to salvation. That kind of thing."

"I am not the only way. My teachings are. Love. If you cannot find love in any section or aspect of the Bible, then it is not Truth. People have added a lot to my teachings, and the teachings of many others, between the time they were spoken and your time. It will always be that way. Some of it is unnecessary, some of it is wrong, and some of it is lies. Before it was written down, it was passed by word of mouth. That system does not maintain accuracy very well. Translations are also faulty at times. And some people change things intentionally, for one reason or another. So things become very complicated even though the message, the truth, is very simple: Love."

"That’s it?"

"That’s it."

"No religious dogma?"

"No religious dogma."

"No commandments?"

"No commandments."

"No worship?"

At this, Jesus wrinkled his nose in distaste, and shook his head.

"You're kidding!"

"To my knowledge, no being who you might possibly consider worthy of worship is asking for any. Personally, I cannot imagine why I would want to be worshipped."

"No nothing?"

"No nothing. The answer to every question is love."

I smiled. "Love is the answer? John Lennon was right?"

"Yes," Jesus laughed. "Another one delivering the message. At least sometimes." He paused. "It is not a commandment of any sort. But it is the way of your being. Your eyes are on the front of your head, so it makes sense to walk forwards. Why would you walk backwards? It is counterproductive. Denying love is like walking backwards. It does not make sense. You will live more naturally, more fully, more easily, if you walk forwards - and if you love."

"But that doesn’t explain you. How could love give you your knowledge of me, time travel, and things that haven’t happened yet? Or the ability that you claim to have to send me back?"

"It does not. Nor does it allow you to time travel. There are other lessons that can be learned. And, although it is not always the case, we should all hope that no one applies those lessons without first learning the lessons of love."

"But ‘love’ doesn’t seem to be enough. Things get very complicated at times, and it doesn’t seem that ‘love’ is a sufficient answer."

"It is. If you try it from now on, you will see. Let your answer to every question, your response to every situation, your every action and every reaction, be, and come from, love. If we had more time, I would explain how and why it works like this. But we do not have more time. Others are coming, and you must go very soon. But you do not need my help. Nobody does. You have been concentrating on using your brain most of your life. And you have been using it extremely well, as your presence here and now shows. But now it is time to use another part of you - the part that already knows the answers you seek. At times, you might wish I was there to talk to, because you need the knowledge that I have. But in fact, you don’t need me, because you possess the same knowledge. It lies within. You just have to look for it. And as you devote yourself to love, you will see that it is sufficient. It is the answer to every situation."

"How can I know if I’ve found the right answers? Different people find very different answers. Otherwise the Bible would only have your teachings. Right?"

"As I said, not everyone is listening. But those who look for love will find it. If the answers you choose come from love, they are the correct answers. And now, you must leave." I heard people walking among the rocks, approaching us. "Goodbye."

"Um… Goodbye Jesus."


And instantly, I was back home. Not just back to August 17, 2203, but back in my house! At least Jesus had saved me the trouble of getting back. "Thanks," I said. I hadn’t really expected a reply, even though I was sure he heard me.

That had all happened two weeks ago. As you might imagine, since then, I’ve thought quite a bit about what happened and what that little boy told me. Continually. Every waking moment. I’ve tried to dig out every tiny scrap of knowledge and wisdom that I could.

I was surprised that I got answers to so few of my questions. The origin of the universe; whether or not there is an afterlife. I didn't even learn Jesus’ true nature, even though I had brought it up. I’m convinced he’s not human. Sure, he told me that his knowledge did not necessarily prove that he was anything other than human, but that’s not the same thing as denying it. For him to have known everything that he knew, and done everything that he did… Well, I can’t imagine a human being able to pull off such an act. Sure, I suppose sending me back to my time and home could have been nothing more than technology.

But Jesus did much more than that. It didn’t seem like he was merely reciting facts that he learned by researching the future. He understood jokes that book-knowledge doesn't give you. So maybe he was from the future too.

But that's not good enough either. He knew me. It felt real, not as though he had read a biography of me. And if nobody knows about my success with time-travel (I see no point in trying to publish the information), what possible reason would there be for writing a biography of me anyway?

No, I'm sure I met a being who is other than human.

Yet Jesus didn't care what I thought about his nature. It wasn't at all important to him. He could easily have convinced me that he was whatever he wanted me to think he was. But he didn't. I brought up the topic, and he ignored it. I guess I should take my cue from him. If my knowing his true nature isn't important to him, it shouldn't be to me. Same with so many aspects of so many religions. As far as Jesus is concerned, none of that is important.

What is important to him, the one thing he told me about in the limited time we had, was love.

[Furls Fire]

oh Fist, WOW!

That is extraordinary! I had to read it twice. Way COOL!! You need to send that out to a mag or something. Great!!

Your sure alot braver than I am. send it out!!!

[[Syl]]

Very good, Fist.... or should I say Wesley? haha.

Y'know, there are people who would string you up by your toes for putting words in Christ's mouth, but I'd say you probably understand Him better than they do.

So, does he rebuild the time machine and go see Buddha?

[Fist and Faith]

Well thanks Fire! I wasn't expecting an "extraordinary"! I couldn't imagine where to send it though.

Way to go, Syl!!! Now I need to come up with a different sequel!!
As for stringing me up by my toes, I guess that kinda thing is good for the back, eh?
btw, did you know my name is Eric? Not sure who knows that.

[[Syl]]

I knew, but I wasn't gonna go blabbing about it to the whole world... maybe Wesley's your middle name, then?

Seriously, man, let me borrow your time machine. I neeeed it.

[Fist and Faith]

Anybody want to guess where the name Wesley came from?

Seriously, man, let me borrow your time machine. I neeeed it.

Have you learned nothing from Jesus?? You can't change things!! lol

[[Syl]]

Hmm... I'm going to say Wesley Crusher, the child prodigy and general annoyance of ST:TNG. Perhaps because, as Jesus said, we must have child-like faith to enter the kingdom of heaven.

(stab in the dark)

[Fist and Faith]

Right Wesley, wrong reason. Because he becomes a time-traveller at the end of the show. And yeah, he was annoying at times, wasn't he? He did some really amazing things, but I guess being the only kid around most of the time made him seem real whiney next to most of the others.

[birdandbear]

Oh yea! I can post again! I read this remarkable story last night, and I absoloutely loved it, and I wanted to post and tell you how wonderful it was and how much I enjoyed it, and for some reason I couldn't post! (Or get into my profile for that matter ) But now I can again and I just wanted to say Great Job Fist!!! I really liked this story! I think if we could talk to Jesus Christ that's exactly what he'd have to say. Forget about everything else, John Lennon had it right all along.

[Fist and Faith]

Wow! Thanks b&b!!

[Hellfire]

It is great. But did he say anything about Heaven and the afterlife? I know hell and damnation was in there. But one of the top q's on my mind has been "what happens when we die" Maybe Wesley's last adventure will let us know.

[Ryzel]

Well, here goes nothing. It's a short story about a guy who travels back in time to meet Jesus.

Good work Fist.

I include a link to a book with a similar subject here: (I have not read it myself, but I think that is's conclusion is very different for yours. )

www.sfsite.com/08a/bm86.htm

Won the Nebula in 1968.

[Fist and Faith]

Well, Hellfire, there wasn't time to ask about the afterlife. On hindsight, maybe Wesley would have asked something different first, but nothing can be done about that now, I'm afraid. He wasn't prepared for only having a few minutes to talk.

But it could be that Jesus would have steered the conversation to love, regardless of the question. And MY answer is that we should love while we're alive. And if there's an afterlife, we should love there too!

Thanks Ryzel. That could be a fun book!

[Earthblood]

Nice work, Fist. I will post a thought again later, but this is a very good work!!!

[Fist and Faith]

Thanks.

[Earthblood]

Our Pastor (retired now) used to always preach about Love. Pretty much every sermon & message he ever spoke had a base message of Love.

Your story brought me back to his words, which were always very comforting & inspirational.

Again, I say - good work Fist!!

[Skyweir]

I am very impressed .. I really enjoyed reading this work .. but more so the topic truly resonnated with me. I too think if we could speak to God or any god .. or higher being .. their answer would be this .. love!

I know this was purely a work of fiction but it has a depth and a substance that I really enjoyed ..

It seemed more than a story .. and more like the actual recitation of an experience had .. lol .. which is a credit to its author

[Fist and Faith]

Earthblood,
That's an amazing compliment to have brought you back to such feelings. Thank you!

Skyweir,
That's the second time something I've written has resonnated with you. I'm very pleased. And thank you for your words. I'm not sure I've ever heard of a stronger compliment to an author than:

It seemed more than a story .. and more like the actual recitation of an experience had .. lol .. which is a credit to its author

[Furls Fire]

I second that Sky. I thought this was so wonderful. I told him he should send it in somewhere.

[Skyweir]

I think you both should prepare them for sending to a publishing house .. a magazine .. anywhere at all you can get someone to publish them ..

Remember ..even SRD had to endure the trial of getting his magnificent literary masterpiece published .. it took him some time .. but he just kept sending it out there .. till finally someone picked it up and put it into print.