Hey Jude

It's 56 A.D. and things are a'stirring in Jerusalem. The Foxhole News is reporting strange happenings in and around the Mediterranean. Prime Time (any time other than the Sabbath) is dominated by the new media darling, Ben O'David, who sets up his interview table every evening (except the Sabbath) about a block to the east of the Temple. It's called the O'David Reactor and the crowds are growing nightly. The night before some poor wretch who was trying to find an advantageous spot to hear what was going on fell 12 feet from an adjoining wall. He didn't survive the fall but that hasn't deterred another poor wretch from locating in the same spot. Let's hope the same fate doesn't befall him.

O'David's guest tonight is Jude, one of the new sect called Christians that are proliferating in Hellenized Judea. Jude has just written a rather short, fiery epistle that has the town buzzing. O'David, who simply claims that he's just "looking out for the folks", plans to grill Jude on what O'David calls "Jude's outlandish statements and shibboleths".

BO: Welcome to the Reactor, Mr. Jude.

JUDE: Thank you, Mr. O'David, and Shalom and all that.

BO: The Reactor staff did a little background check on you and found out your real name is Judas. Any particular reason you go by the name Jude instead?

JUDE: That's pretty obvious, isn't it? No Christian wants to be called a Judas.

BO: Good point. Now let's get straight to this latest publication of yours. It's only been out a week and it's already on the Damascus Times Best Seller List. I have to say I'm impressed. My latest book, 'Killing Caesar as Well as the Next Caesar as Well as the Next Caesar and So On' took at least two weeks to make the list.

JUDE: I'm very humbled by it all. And, of course, all the glory goes to God.

BO: You say you are humble but yet you don't mind taking a pretty large swipe at the folks. You call them irreverent and wanton. You accuse them of prostitution and lying and defiling the flesh. Pretty harsh words, wouldn't you say Mr. Jude?

A loud boo went out among the crowd.

JUDE: I call 'em like I see 'em.

BO: Hey, that's my line.

JUDE: I thought you might appreciate it. Look here, BO, I don't have time to be a wallflower. This nation, this group of people, is flirting with disaster. Somebody has to call a spade a spade.

BO: How about that fellow - what's his name? Saul or Paul or something like that.

JUDE: He's an OK guy. But he's teaching a slightly different message.

BO: Oh, you mean the Gentiles.

JUDE: That's right. They don't have a lot going for them. We Jews have the oracles of God, etc. and God just expects a little bit  more out of us.

Another loud boo went out from the crowd.

BO: Hey, Jude! I don't think you're playing too well with the folks.

JUDE: Do I seek to please God or men?

BO: That's rhetorical, right?

JUDE: I'm not a politician. I'm a prophet. I speak truth not rhetoric. But you know what, BO, these people are my friends, my relatives, and my countrymen. If I don't try to get them to repent and change their evil ways, who will?

BO: What are you predicting?

JUDE: I got this funny feeling these knuckleheads will keep on going the wrong way. Who knows, in fifteen years or so, the Romans might just bring the whole thing down.

The loudest boo yet went up from the throng.

BO: You're one tough little unleavened cookie. I'll have to hand you that.

JUDE: Thanks, BO. I'm just looking out for the folks.

BO: That's it for the Reactor, folks. See you tomorrow night.

THE END