“Matthias, he has never departed. He is with me always. He guides me even this moment, as I speak with you. He promised that when we were brought before gentiles, for his sake, we were to give no thought as to the words we spoke, for they would be given us in that same hour by the spirit of our Father, who would speak through us.”

Somehow the meaning seemed different, coming directly from Matthew, than it had read in any of the biblical translations I owned. “He is speaking through you now?”

“Yes. I believe it!”

“From all I have been able to learn, Jesus was unquestionably a wise man. If that is true, why did he recruit the most despised of Jews, a tax collector, to help him in his mission? Were you not a millstone around his neck?”

“That very same evening of the day I was called, before I had time to ponder such questions, I learned of his plans for me directly from his own lips.”

“Will you share them with me?”

“After the sun had set, on that day I became a follower, I tendered a feast in my home to celebrate the most happy event of my life. Jesus and his few disciples were my guests of honor. After we had dined and the hour had grown late, three respected men of the law, Pharisees, passed through the crowd and approached the disciples Peter, Andrew, James, and John. They inquired of the four why their master made himself unclean by eating in my defiled house among publicans and sinners. Jesus, who was sitting next to me, overheard their question and raised both hands until the room was silent. He repeated what the Pharisees had asked, loud enough for all to hear, and then he answered by saying, ‘Those that are whole do not need a physician, but they that are sick do. Go and learn what is meant by the prophet who said, “I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” ’ ”

“Did that satisfy the Pharisees?”

Matthew sighed. “They are never satisfied. They murmured among themselves, and then the boldest asked Jesus directly, ‘Why do the disciples of John the Baptist fast often and make prayers, as do we and our disciples, while you and yours fast not?’ I remember Jesus replying patiently, ‘Can you make the children of the bedchamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.’ Hearing this the Pharisees quickly departed from my home.”

“You are positive that he said the bridegroom would eventually be taken away from them? You heard him?”

“I am positive.”

“When did he tell you of his plans for you?”