THE GOSPEL OF TRAVIS - Chapter Five

THE THIRTEENTH

That night, as Jesus went alone to reflect and pray, Travis came to the twelve Apostles as they huddled around a fire to keep warm. He placed a very nice mat upon the ground, made of exotic and incredibly soft fabrics from far away lands, and sat in the circle. Though he arrived unannounced and uninvited, Travis fully expected that the other men would soon be very glad of his company, if not for his engaging stories about the merchandise trade then for his comforting, reassuring presence.

“Your cousin is here,” remarked Peter, whom they still called Simon from time to time, to Thomas. “Does he need something from you again? What is this about? Why does he keep turning up?”

Thomas turned to Travis and said, “I thought you were heading back to Tiberias. Surely your business misses you.”

“Don’t worry about the business. Believe me. The business will be fine,” declared Travis. “I’ve set it up so that it basically runs itself. Honestly, I don’t do too much real work anymore. I have decided to join you Apostles, to sit by the side of the Lord and to bear witness to his greatness.”

The brothers in Christ stared at him.

The flames flickered.

“Don’t all welcome me at once,” said Travis.

“Look,” began John son of Zebedee, speaking with as much kindness as he could muster, “the apostles are not some exclusive group that people join on a lark. We are not a social club. The men you see before you have all completely left behind their former lives. We were fishermen and carpenters and tax collectors who have forsaken everything, yes even our families, to follow the King of Kings. We have all given away every comfort and sold every possession we had to be here.”

“Yes, well. That probably didn’t take very long for a bunch of fishmen. How much could you get for a couple of nets and a handful of sardines?” asked Travis with a chuckle.

“’Fishmen?’” remarked Thaddeus.

“This is not a joke to us,” noted James, the other son of Zebedee. “We have sacrificed everything for our devotion.”

“To become one of us, you would need to renounce all of your material wealth. Starting with that luxurious mat beneath your feet,” said Simon Peter.

“Is that what this is about? The mat? I’d sell it to you this instant if you like, though it sounds like your funds aren’t exactly liquid. Or maybe they’re nothing but liquid?” joked Travis, though nobody seemed amused.

“Liquid because of the sea. Because you go fishing for a living. You see? I feel like you’re not getting it.”

But even though they did get the jest still the Apostles showed no outward signs of amusement. Perhaps they were too tired to laugh. And so Travis cast the mat into the fire with a sudden flick of his wrist.

“Though some of these threads come all the way from Kerala, yes from beyond the Indus river, a place known for some very nice threads by the way, I hereby renounce this comfort. Tonight I will sit upon the dirt like some sort of poor field mouse. Are you happy now?” asked Travis.

“No,” replied Bartholomew with some annoyance, “the point is to sell these things and give the money to the poor. Destroying it does nothing. It is worse than nothing, for no good can come of the ashes.”

Travis understood. And so he said, “Very well. Then I promise to sell all of my possessions, yes even my business, as soon as I am able. For my faith in the Lord is more precious to me than a thousand really nice, expensive mats. And they are, by the way, very nice mats.

“I don’t know if any of you got to touch the mat but it was extraordinarily soft.”

And with that, the men sat silently for a while and watched the dancing flames flicker in the night.

“I saw you speaking with others at the sermon today,” said Judas Iscariot to Travis. “What were you talking about?”

Travis’s face betrayed some surprise, for he had not realized he was being witnessed, then with a polite smile he said, “Oh, some of the assembled were elderly and hard of hearing. I simply repeated the Lord’s words so that they could know and understand. Everyone deserves to hear the teacher’s words, even the elderly.”

COMMISSIONING OF THE TWELVE AND ALSO TRAVIS WAS THERE

Then Jesus, who had finished praying and reflecting, returned to his Apostles and gave them the authority to heal illnesses and exorcise unclean spirits.

“Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out the demons...” he said, before noticing Travis.

Seeing the Lord’s quizzical gaze, Thomas shrugged and said, “He was here the other day. After the wedding. Remember? My second cousin...”

Jesus continued, “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Whatever town or village you enter, look for a worthy person in it, and stay there. As you enter a house, wish it peace. If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; if not, let your peace return to you.”

And so the Apostles went forth into the world to do good, and Travis took that to include himself as well.

Before they left, Jesus warned them, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’”

Travis looked up from watching the fire singeing the fringes of his expensive mat just long enough to catch the eye of the Lord.

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