Visit #4: Henry
This is the fourth of the visits by young deVan to the building behind the unlocked door.
deVan was so excited that, when he opened the door to the back of the church building, he almost tore it off its hinges. Actually, he didn’t come close to tearing it off its hinges because the door to the back of the church building was large and thick, and, even in his excited state, he struggled to open it wide enough for his body to slip in. The point is, deVan was excited.
He entered the church sanctuary and walked immediately over to what he now knew were the Stations of the Cross, 14 pictures telling the story of the death of his newest friend. As was his practice, deVan stopped at each one of the 14 Stations, read the accompanying explanation of what was going on, and just thought about it for a few seconds.
When he circled back to Picture #12, the man on the cross was first to speak. “You kind of rushed around the Stations today, deVan.”
deVan didn’t think so, but that can happen when you are excited to meet up with a good friend; you don’t even know you are rushing. “Hello, Jesus.”
This was becoming a thing. If one of them forgot to start with a “hello,” the other would gently say it first. “Good morning, deVan,” Jesus said. “Now what has you so animated this morning?”
“I made NJHS!”
“That’s exciting, deVan. Do those letters stand for something?”
“Yes, they stand for something.”
Jesus waited.
“They stand for National Junior Honor Society. You probably didn’t have one back when you went to school.”
“No, school was different then. I did become an apprentice mason when I was your age, though. That was a kind of junior honor.”
“You were a bricklayer?” deVan’s attention often shifted to what became interesting at the moment.
“Much more than that. There’s no word for it today. I was a tekton. I did carpentry, working in wood, but I also was a stonemason. My Dad and I worked on the homes of the wealthy. That paid well.”
“That doesn’t sound on brand for you.”
“On what?”
“On brand. It means kind of matching up with who you are supposed to be.”
At times deVan caused Jesus some annoyance; this was one of those times. “I don’t think I have a brand, deVan.”
At this assertion, deVan could not hold back a chuckle. “Are you kidding? Live in love; feed the hungry; heal sick folks; yell at rich people.”
“I never yelled…”
“The point is, you have a one hundred percent definite brand.”
Rather than succumb to exasperation, Jesus decided to go with deVan’s faulty logic. “All right, but how is doing masonry for wealthy people off brand.”
“Because you’re helping people who don’t need your help. I don’t know all that much about the Bible…”
“Understatement,” Jesus muttered.
“…but I bet there isn’t a story about how great it is to build houses for super rich people.”
“How about if I told you that the experience taught me how differently the rich and poor live?”
“Yeah…”
“And that experience helped a lot when I was creating my brand.”
“I can see that.”
“So?”
“So,” deVan said jauntily, “back to the NJHS.”
“Right.”
“I never thought I’d be selected.”
“Why not?”
“I thought I wasn’t taking enough honors courses. But my grades were good, so I got in.”
“I am happy for you.” Jesus meant it.
“You know the best part?
“I assume the best part was being selected.”
“Nope.” This is where deVan’s smile shaded ever so slightly toward wickedness. “The best part was the look on Aubrielle’s face when they announced that I got in.” Aubrielle Vinly was a very smart classmate of deVan’s; she was, in deVan’s words, a “five-star Christian” and someone deVan could always count on to explain the bible to him.
“She was surprised you made the Honor Society?”
“She was flabbergasted. She came up to me afterwards and said congratulations, like it was a question.”
“So Aubrielle is talking to you now?” Aubrielle, being a five-star Christian, had told deVan she had to shun him because he was transgender.
“She goes back and forth. If I pass her in the hall she shuts her mouth till it becomes a little line and nods at me.”
“Will she still talk about the Bible with you?
“That’s the thing. If I just say the word “Bible” to her, she’ll sit and look me in the eye and not just talk but listen. Like on Wednesday, when she punched Henry Slacken in the mouth.”
Jesus was frankly caught off guard by this sudden pivot. “She what?”
“Henry Slacken is a big beefy bully, and he has at least four nasty looking zits around his nose.”
“And?”
“He comes up to me last Wednesday. I was alone with Aubrielle outside during lunch — we’re allowed to go out after we eat — talking about the Bible. Do you want to hear what we were talking about?”
“No, I want to hear about this Henry.”
“Oh. Okay. So Henry must have seen us by ourselves. He comes up to me and does that thing bullies do where they get right in your face. Those zits are not pretty. Then he calls me names, you know, because I’m trans, tells me I don’t belong here. Right then, Aubrielle tells him to back off me.”
“She did?”
“Yeah. Aubrielle is a lot of things but a coward isn’t one of them.”
“What happened then?” Jesus was intensely interested.
“Then Henry turns to her and laughs. I think he was going to say, ‘What are you gonna do about it,’ but he got just about to the word ‘do’ when, wham! She jabs him right in the mouth.”
“Hard?” Jesus said.
“Oh, yes. Aubrielle is some sort of black belt in karate. She could have punched him even harder if she wanted.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because she said after, ‘I could have punched him harder.’”
“What happened then?”
“Not much. Henry ran off with his sleeve against his mouth.”
“Didn’t he report her?”
At this deVan could only laugh. “Definitely not. It would be totally off brand for Henry Slacken to be punched out by a girl.”
Jesus mused, “I’m getting the hang of this brand concept.”
“Right?” deVan said. “Not everyone has a brand, but every bully does. That’s why, when a bully shows up in a movie, you always know exactly what they’re going to do.”
“Were you shaken up by all this?”
“A little, but Henry I’m used to. He says something mean every time he passes me in the hall.”
“How was Aubrielle?”
“Fine. After she said she could have hit him harder, she just sat and said, ‘I really hate bullies.’ I thought that was pretty obvious. Now, are you ready for this?”
Jesus was wary. “deVan, I’m never ready for what you’re going to say next.”
“So I ask her, ‘Hey, Aubrielle, are there any bullies in the Bible?’ She gets snooty right away and says, ‘I assume you are referring to the New Testament. Well, the answer is yes.’ And she told me about a girl who was caught committing the sin of adulthood, I think she said.”
“Close enough,” Jesus affirmed.
“This girl, she’s dragged to Jesus by the bullies, and they tell Jesus they are going to stone her. You know what that is?”
“Yes.”
“It’s bad. Really bad. They want to kill her right there because that’s the law. So, Jesus says, fine, the man with no sins can throw the first stone. But there’s no one with no sins so the bullies all slink away. Then Jesus asks the woman, who’s around to condemn you to death? She looks around and says, nobody, and Jesus says that he, you, won’t condemn her either. Then you tell her to leave and don’t do any more sinning.”
“That’s an excellent summary.”
“Then Aubrielle says, that’s the point of the story, that the girl should not do any more sinning.”
“What did you say?”
“Ha. I said, ‘what? That wasn’t what I got out of it.’”
“What did…”
“What did I get out of it? First of all, saying not to sin is not the main point. What else are you going to say, like hey, lady go and sin like crazy! No. It’s just the obvious thing to say. The point is that you did not condemn her. You forgave her, right?”
“Yes.”
“Aubrielle said sure, that’s important, but it’s more important not to sin.”
“Did you disagree?”
“Nope. What I said was, ‘what if the same girl did the same sin a week later and was dragged to you again? What would happen?’”
“Hm,” Jesus said. “Interesting.”
“Oh, yeah. Aubrielle really had to think about that. Finally she said you’d forgive the girl a second time. I said how about a third time. Then she said something about seventy times seventy times, which I guess is a lot of times.”
“What does all that mean to you, deVan?”
“It means you’re on my side against all the bullies in the world.”
“That’s true.”
“That’s the part I like.”
“Is there another part?”
“Yeah, I think. It looks like I’ve got to forgive Henry Slacken and keep forgiving him.”
“I think you are right,” Jesus said.
“But I don’t have to feel extra bad that he got a nice smack in the mouth.”
“I’m not going to argue with that.”
deVan laughed out loud. “I’m not sure that’s on brand, Jesus.”
“Oh well,” said the man on the cross.
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