THE GOSPEL OF TRAVIS - Chapter Two

THE WEDDING AT MAGDALA

Not long after in the village of Magdala, but a stone’s throw away from Tiberias, a wedding was set to take place and word passed among the goatherds and olive growers that none other than Jesus would be there.

Once Travis heard of this wondrous news, he realized right away that this was his chance to see the holy man in person. And though he knew neither the groom nor the bride, nor indeed had he any connection to Magdala whatsoever, and even though he didn’t particularly like weddings because they reminded him of his own failed marriages, he knew that he could not let this chance pass him by. For even still, he had an in.

As it so happened, Travis was second cousin to the Apostle called Thomas, who had set aside his trade as a carpenter to follow Jesus with eleven other devoted men. Using his family connections and promising to bring a fabulous wedding present, Travis managed an invite.

He found himself wandering the dirt goat paths of Magdala looking for a proper gathering hall, something befitting a tasteful and elegant wedding ceremony. After asking several people for directions, he finally found the site of the celebration which, to his horror and dismay, appeared to be a lowly converted barn.

“How...” wondered Travis aloud, “Oh how could they possibly manage to clear the smell of goat shit in time for the nuptials?”

Setting aside his expectations for a good party, which were now dashed, Travis finally came to be at the wedding. Even though he knew nobody, he would try to make small talk, sample the food, and deflect any questions about how he knew the couple with charm and vagaries.

Finally, the people there were asked by the father of the bride to take their seats. With some difficulty Travis found his designated table, for he assumed that as a guest of honor he would be sat at the front of the hall with the close family of the bride and groom, where he might charm them with his wit and with decent manners. Yet Travis discovered his seat assignment towards the very back of the barn, sitting among the groom’s fellow tradesmen and their wives.

“Greetings,” Travis said to the others at his table. “I hope they plan to serve something other than mutton tonight. I saw the goats on my way in and they looked quite harried and tough. One of them had a longer beard than Methuselah. It would not bode well for the bride and groom to have no fish option. Although, I had the finest food for my first wedding and look where that got me.”

His table companions only nodded, because they knew not the quality of man to whom they spoke, and soon Travis began to impress them all with his extensive knowledge on the art and business of merchandising. In this way he passed the evening, eating and drinking and speaking of his work, all the while keeping one eye on the entryway that he might spot the arrival of the so-called Messiah.

FASHIONABLE LATENESS

As the meal dragged on Travis felt a growing sense of dismay, for the Lord had not arrived yet and so he was forced to repeat amusing anecdotes about his business around the table. In truth, he had not prepared enough stories for a full night of impressing other guests, as he had hoped to spend more time with this itinerant preacher and had not counted on his table mates being so boring. Briefly he even considered inventing tales from whole cloth, for his audience would not know any better and pulling one over on strangers always gave Travis a small thrill.

However, just as he began to give up hope that the Lord might attend at all, there came a loud commotion at the front of the barn. A cheer spread among the guests and a great many pleasantries were exchanged, for Jesus had arrived.

When first he laid eyes upon the Lord made flesh in the flesh, Travis was unimpressed.

Here was a man dressed in simple garments, unadorned, his hair barely kempt and his beard unshorn. Though some called him the King of the Jews, he wore no jewelry and bore no crown. Neither did he bring a fabulous wedding present. Travis had nearly broken his back lugging a plaster bust, one of his most popular models, all the way from his showroom in Tiberias and yet Jesus seemed to bring only his blessings and twelve extra mouths to feed. He seemed to Travis’s eye to be a bit of a mooch, and though he was not close enough to catch a whiff of his musk, he feared Jesus’s scent may indeed be unsavory too.

He remarked as much to the other guests at his table, though the guests knew not how to respond and so they busied themselves with muttering and picking at their plates of food.

Travis resolved then to watch Jesus from afar that he might know what made the Lord so special.

It became clear to him that, where other mystics and prophets were indeed dour, Jesus exuded kindness. He was clearly well liked by many. He radiated love. But besides this, to Travis’s eye there was nothing exceptional about him.

At his table, he scoffed and began to make snide comments about Jesus to the other guests, so greatly disappointed was he. His table mates either pretended not to hear or tried to switch subjects to other more boring topics of conversation, for indeed they were there to celebrate the love of their friends and family, not to talk poorly about a reasonably well liked itinerant preacher.

WATER BECOMES WINE - AGAIN

And so, the wedding festivities wore on into the night, with much mirth shared among the celebrants but much griping and consternation from Travis, for indeed the mutton was as tough as he had feared and the side dishes, while passable in taste and quality, were hardly plentiful.

However, soon the moment came for the Lord to make clear his true miraculous power, much to the amazement of all who had gathered there.

As seemed to happen every time that Jesus was invited to a wedding, the wine ran out. And, as also seemed to happen every time, the fathers of the bride and groom turned to the Lord.

“Oh dear teacher, our guests have somehow drank through our last casket of wine. We swear that we even brought more than we thought we would need and yet here we are, bereft of beverage. Is there anything that can be done?” they asked, as though they had never before heard of the famous wedding at Cana.

But if the Lord was annoyed by their presumptuousness or their impertinence, he did not betray it. Jesus turned to the servers and said, “Fill your jars with water. Draw some out and take it to the head waiter.” And as sure as had happened at Cana, and every other time he was called upon since, the water became wine!

A popular wedding guest indeed.

When Travis had seen this feat with his own two eyes, he was most astounded. He stood up from his seat and said, “Who is this man, who with a word from his lips can turn turgid water into sweet, delicious wine?”

And he may have had an answer except Travis was by then sitting alone, for no other wedding guest had enjoyed his company and all had found excuses to move to other tables.

REKINDLING AMONG KIN

Late in the evening, as the feast drew to a close and as the guests departed, Travis saw Thomas heading for the exit and caught him by the arm.

Though second cousins from birth, Thomas at first behaved as though he did not recognize him. Indeed, it had been no small amount of time since last they saw one another, yet Travis chided him, saying, “would you doubt our kinship? Behold how we have the same dangly earlobes.”

“Of course! Travis,” said Thomas, “I was told by the bride’s father that somebody was using my name to obtain a seat at the wedding, although he did not say who. I wondered who among my relations would be so audacious. And in fact, I thought I recognized the statuette from the wedding gift table. Who is that? Herod...?”

“Antiapas,” said Travis. “It’s one of my best sellers, despite our people’s prohibition against idols. Such are the benefits of being a Roman Client state. Hail Caesar, so long as the money spends, eh?”

“I knew it had to be a Herod of some kind,” remarked Thomas politely but tersely, for he was trying to end the conversation quickly. Their kinsmen had among them some bad blood, and Thomas was quite generally suspicious of anyone from his family. Besides, Jesus and the other Apostles were heading on to where they would spend the night and he did not want to be left behind.

But Travis pressed on. “This man, this Jesus whom you follow, he works wonders. The wine that he conjured up from water was astonishing and not half bad tasting either. I prefer something a little more full bodied, but after several cups of it I hardly knew the difference. You know him well. Is he the healer and teacher that people claim him to be?”

A gleam flashed in Thomas’s eyes. “All this and more, for he is the word of God made flesh, come to show us the path to salvation.”

When he heard this, Travis knew that Thomas had been changed. No longer was he the awkward quiet child in the corner of the dining hall, suspicious of all others. A new fire burned inside his kinsman’s chest.

And when Travis saw the other Apostles, and when he saw the many other disciples who hung on Jesus’s every word, Travis knew that no matter the impoverished style of dress or the smell or anything else, all of these people believed in the Lord. This gave Jesus a sort of power.

Travis met Thomas’s gaze. “Then I must be an apostle too.”

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