Page 122 - The Book of Rumi

Escaping the Fool

young man was walking to work when someone unexpectedly whizzed
A by him with such great speed that he felt a rush of air brushing against
his face. He turned around and saw Jesus of Nazareth running like the wind,
prompting him to wonder whether a hungry lion was in hot pursuit. The man
noticed that in fact no one was chasing Jesus, and he felt obliged to inform
him. After a long sprint, when he had almost caught up with Jesus, he called

out breathlessly: “Stop. Stop please! You’re flying as fast as an eagle! But no
one’s following you!”
Jesus was in such a rush that he didn’t hear a word. The man, though,
did not give up and continued to chase him, screaming as loud as his lungs

permitted: “For God’s sake stop for a moment and tell me who you’re fleeing!
No enemy or wild beast is after you, so why this fl ight?”
“Don’t stall me, I’m in a hurry to save myself!” confessed Jesus as they
both continued to run side by side.
“Aren’t you Jesus of Nazareth, who cures the blind and the deaf?” asked
the man, looking perplexed.
“I am,” asserted Jesus.
“Aren’t you the prophet who sees the unseen, who breathes life into the
dead?”
“Indeed, I am capable of all that.”
“Isn’t it you who can turn a lump of clay into a living bird?”
Again, Jesus admitted that he could indeed bring life to the lifeless.
“With your unrivaled gifts from the spirit world,” continued the breath-
less man, “who would choose not to serve you?”
“As God is my witness, I whispered the sacred word entrusted to me by
God to a blind man and a deaf man, and both were miraculously healed. I
shouted the word at the mountain, and it shattered into millions of tiny little
pebbles. I breathed the word onto a corpse, and he was given back life! But a
thousand times I’ve wished it on the fool, and it’s never had the slightest effect!
That’s who I’m fl eeing to save my life!”

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