Feeling the fatigue in his back and arms, Jesus began to guide another bundle of rebar to the left side of the east wall. The crane did the lifting, but he had to carefully stabilize each 500 pound bundle as the crane held it near the place it had to drop. It was the eleventh hour of another twelve hour day, and there was still much to be done.
As he unhooked the main block to get ready for the next bundle, he heard a faint groan come from the ally below.Curious, he looked down and could see a man laying face down on the concrete behind a dumpster, looking like he was barely conscious. Could he be drunk? As he looked closer he could tell his shirt was ripped, his shoes were missing, and the back of his head was red with blood.
The next bundle was on its way now, but Jesus couldn't look away from the scene. His heart was full of compassion for the man. He desperately yearned to help but there was nothing he could do at the moment. He steered the rebar to the wall, doing his best to concentrate on his potentially hazardous task, but he looked over his shoulder towards the injured man at every opportunity. All he could do was watch and hope that someone passing by would notice that the man needed help.
After a few minutes, a man passed the ally spotted one of the injured man's legs behind the dumpster. He stopped briefly and turned to get a better look. Jesus saw that he was holding a large book in one hand. Could it be a Bible? Jesus whispered silently to himself as the crane lifted another bundle, "Please...please...please. Help him." The man paused a moment, but decided to continue down his sidewalk to his destination.
The same thing happened a second time and Jesus couldn't bare it any longer. He reached down to unclip his safety line, but just as he began to call out to the crane operator, another pedestrian stopped to take a closer look. He wasn't dressed like most people and his left arm was covered in a sleeve of tattoos. He carefully turned the man over, placing his jacket under his bleeding head. Tears came to his eyes and Jesus watched and clipped himself back into his safety harness.
This was really interesting to read. I really liked the fact you took it into a modern perspective and you made Christ a bystander. Especially a somewhat helpless bystander, that he had other things to do and had to focus on his work. I wonder how many times that happened--Christ took every opportunity to serve, but there definitely were more than what he could do on his own in his mortal life. I think this is a really creative piece, thank you for writing it!
ReplyDeleteThis was awesome. I loved that you set this in a contemporary setting, and I also love how you kept Jesus from being able to interfere in the situation. That's what makes this parable cool--it's the person you DON'T expect who ends up saving the man. Your description and everything in this was beautiful. Thanks for writing
ReplyDeleteThis was awesome. I loved that you set this in a contemporary setting, and I also love how you kept Jesus from being able to interfere in the situation. That's what makes this parable cool--it's the person you DON'T expect who ends up saving the man. Your description and everything in this was beautiful. Thanks for writing
ReplyDelete