A Mother's Burden

There was no email in Jesus’ day, but have you ever wondered what kind of email Mary might have gotten from Jesus if he had sent her honest emails periodically while out doing his thing?

Hey mom. I hope things are good at the shop. I’m great today. Cousin John was baptizing people at the river and I went down to get baptized. When I came up out of the water the sky opened up and the clouds parted and this dove came down and landed on me, and this voice said a bunch of cool things about me. I know my Father is with me, and can’t wait to get started. Gotta run.

Hi mom. You have probably already heard that I tried bringing the message in synagogue in Nazareth for the first time the other day. It didn’t go that well. By that I don’t mean that I stuttered while reading the scroll, or that I realized my fly was open in front of everybody. I mean nobody believed what I had to say at all. They all started talking about dad and how I was just the son of a carpenter, and they got more and more agitated until – well, I don’t want to scare you or anything, but they tried to kill me, mom. They were really serious too. They tried pushing me off a cliff, but my time isn’t coming for a while, so I just walked through the crowd and went home. Gotta go, say hi to James and everybody for me. And mom, please don’t worry. I’ll be alright until my Father brings my number up. And like I keep telling you, mom – I’ll be alright then too.

Hey mom, I haven’t written in a while. Boy are things hectic. Hundreds of people follow me everywhere I go. I have my own disciples now. They’re good men, but they’re a constant headache. They don’t understand who I am or what I’m doing. I healed a guy with a withered hand yesterday. You should have seen the look on his face – my Father is doing his thing, and it’s so great. But the teachers there weren’t very happy. They were actually mad at me because I healed a guy on the Sabbath! I could read their thoughts, and they were trying to figure out a way to kill me. It’s like that’s all they ever think about. When I try to talk to them, they never listen. Life is hard, mom, but I love what I do. I love healing people and traveling and teaching. Not many really want to apply what I have to say to their lives, but some do, and it’s amazing to watch the Father change their lives.

Hi Mom – something awful happened today. Remember my friend Lazarus I told you about a while back? He took sick and died a few days ago. I mean, no real concerns there. The Father brought him back to life, but he died! He came out of the grave still wrapped in his death clothes. I could barely stand thinking about it. Death is a terrible thing, and it’s not what I had in mind when I made this place. The worst thing for Lazarus is knowing that someday he has to die again. What a mess the world is in. I’m gonna fix it mom. It’s gonna be awful for both of us, but I’m gonna fix it. I know that as I do, I’ll think of dad and of Lazarus.

Mother – you know what I have learned? I think the hookers and tax collectors and lepers are my favorite people. Scratch that – all the worst sinners are my favorite people. They listen to me when I talk to them. They have nothing to prove. Every time I help one of them, the religious leaders get mad and either try to kill me, or want to kill me – what else is new? It’s getting old. Today I actually kind of dared them to kill me. I said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days.” Of course they had no idea what I was talking about. They are in for a surprise. People argue with me all the time, and the miracles I do are so often just taken for granted. I miss home sometimes, having a place to call my own, and knowing you’d be there to talk to. As for now, I’m just trying to stay focused on doing the Father’s work day by day. I hope you are well. All is going exactly as planned.