Page 36 of Unveiled Tamar’s Story (Mysteries & Wonders of the Bible #1)
“And I am Simon, her younger brother.”
Tamar’s smile went even brighter. “He too saw our risen Lord yesterday—Jesus walked with him and his friend to Emmaus.”
Hope bubbled up and spilled over in Valerius’s chest. “You are followers of Jesus?”
Both men nodded, exchanging a glance over Tamar’s head, grins playing at the corners of their mouths. “I, openly,” Simon said. “Much to our older brothers’ dismay.”
“I hadn’t proclaimed it, for fear of losing my position in the temple,” Levi admitted. A sheepish look flitted over his face, but it swiftly dissolved. “No more. Now I know He is no mere teacher, no simple rabbi. He is the Son of God.”
Simon eased forward a step. “Tamar has told us all that happened to her since Friday—and the roles both of you played in helping her. We owe you a debt of gratitude.”
“You owe us nothing,” Mariana said, her voice at once meek but sure. “It was our privilege to help your sister.”
“But,” Valerius added, squeezing her hand again, “there is something we crave, if it is at all within your power to grant it.” He looked down at his wife, who looked up at him in the same moment.
When he shifted his gaze back to Tamar’s family, he saw that a question had entered their eyes, but no caution. “Fellowship. With other believers.”
“Bithnia invited us to a gathering.” Mariana leaned into his side. “We want to go but weren’t certain we would truly be welcome.”
Tamar renewed her smile. “We are headed there now. Join us, please.”
“Truly?” His wife’s excitement thrummed through her, traveling from her fingers to his and up his arms as well.
“Truly.” Tamar held out a hand toward Mariana, and in the second it took for his wife to release his arm and take Tamar’s hand, the enormity of it hit him.
Two days ago, Tamar had recoiled from touching her.
Two days ago, there had been disgust on her face as she considered entering a house, much less breaking bread, with Romans.
Today, no clouds marred the welcome in her eyes.
The light of the Son had burned them all away.
Neither Simon nor Levi went so far as to offer a hand to clasp, but their faces were bright. Even so, Valerius leaned closer to them and asked in a hush, “Are you certain? We do not want to cause any discord. I know this is a frightening time.”
“We cannot live in fear forever,” Levi said.
The look on his face was more determination than anything.
“We are waiting for the Lord’s next instruction, but in the meantime, we must do what He taught already.
We must live as He lived. My cousin told me that Jesus praised your faith.
He healed your servant. He welcomed you. So how can we do otherwise?”
They were the right words, the words he needed. “I pray the others will feel the same. But if not, please know we will not be offended.” Disappointed but not offended. “I am quite aware that life is rarely about what ought to be. We are all ruled by frailty and failure and fear.”
They began moving, and Simon offered him a warm smile. “It is too true. So I suppose this, too, is a step of faith. Trusting that the fellowship will act as our Master wished and not on our fears.”
Valerius breathed a laugh. “An act of faith as great as sending that message to Jesus, I think.”
“I want to thank you,” Simon said in an undertone after a few steps of contemplative silence. “You could have turned her in. You could have ignored her. Instead, your family went far out of your way to help her. You had no reason to do that.”
“We had every reason.” Mariana and Tamar had ended up ahead of them, and Valerius watched the way they walked together.
Not so different from how they had on the Sabbath, except that now one could see at a glance how different they were.
Yet the memory of that other image, of his wife and Tamar both dressed in Roman finery, just served to make him more aware of why this was so important.
“Perhaps our clothes are different, our cultures,” Valerius said.
“But if you change your garments, the style or cut of your hair, if you put your feet on a new street, in a different house, a different situation…are we really so different? When we find what we have in common, like our love for the Lord, what do other differences really matter?”
They were bold words, words that challenged the way the world worked. They were a risk, those words, perhaps even a test. Would these men keep walking beside him, or would the thought of being alike be too difficult for them to swallow?
Silence walked with them for another few steps, and then Levi gave a slow, thoughtful nod.
“I think the opposite is often true too. That the people who by rights ought to be most like us—our families, our neighbors—can be strangers.” He moved his gaze to his cousin.
“Jesus foretold that He would come between families. That is no small thing, to break the bonds of blood.”
Simon sighed. “He promised new families though. Families built by His blood.”
The very thought filled Valerius with awe. God had shaken the earth on Friday. In the moment His Son died, all of creation had reacted. The sky had gone dark. The rocks had split. The veil had torn. The divide between heaven and earth, obliterated.
Had He taken down the divide between people too? Male and female? Slave and free? Roman and Jew? Was this a new era they were walking into, one that would allow them to look beyond social status, beyond culture, beyond citizenship?
He shook his head. “I want to believe it is possible. Want to believe God has worked this miracle already too. But…” He motioned to a few Jews who moved to the opposite side of the street to avoid them and cast dark looks their way when they realized their group mixed Jew and Roman.
This time, Simon’s sigh crossed with a humorless laugh. “How sad it would be, if it were easier for a man to be resurrected after days in the tomb, than for beating hearts to accept as friend someone society said should be an enemy.”
The thought resonated deep in Valerius’s spirit. How horrible to think that God could open up a path to His arms, a path to heaven, and yet mankind would dedicate their time to pushing others from the path, saying they were unworthy.
May it not be so .
Levi mustered a smile. “God can make a way. He can make it possible. I know He gives us each the freedom to choose, but He is paving the road for us. We only have to have faith enough to step onto it.”
That, Valerius supposed, was why each step felt like a leap of faith. He and Mariana had made their choice. They’d taken the steps onto the path. But it was yet to be seen who beyond these three would join them on it.