Jesus went on. “Which, then, do you think is the more enduring, more honorable, and significant act: to murder a person or to nurture one? Whose action possesses the greater strength: the mother’s or the murderer’s?” When no one answered, he said, “You say nothing because the answer is as plain as the stars above us!”

Frustrated, a man shouted out, “But what should we do then? Surrender to the violators? Admit our inferiority?”

Jesus lashed out. “Inferiority?!” he cried. “You need to clean out your ears! Have you not heard a word I have said?”

The man sat back, startled at the gentle healer’s sudden abruptness.

“There is nothing powerful nor redeeming about the violators’ actions. On that we can agree. Unfortunately, many men would rather possess easily what is false than hazard the journey to what is real,” he said, echoing the words Ruth had once spoken to him. “You, on the other hand, are farmers. You generate life where there is none. You tend what is precious and living. And in so doing you cultivate and sustain miracles that honor the source of life. Why then would you degrade yourselves to be like them?” he demanded.

The crowd grew uneasy at his words, seeing, for the first time, their foolishness.

“That they have no honor for life is evident in their decision to steal a woman,” Jesus continued. “Does not this very act dishonor every female? Does it not reduce her to the status of mere property rather than a miracle before us? Does it not show a preference for destruction over creation? For coin over breath? And does it not also show confusion over the true nature of power?”

An older man stood up. “Healer, what you say may be true, but what about the words of the priests? And our great Lord? What about an eye for an eye?”

Jesus laughed and shook his head. “Where is the balance—or the hope—in such a counterfeit philosophy? If I cut out your eye, then you will cut out mine. But then I, who struck first, will feel that justice has been snatched from my jaws and so, to right the wrong, I must cut out your second eye. And, in retaliation, you must cut out the second of mine. Enraged, I will prepare to take another, but as I stand before you, what am I to do? My enemy has run out of eyes!”

A laugh rippled through the crowd.

Jesus laughed, too. “It is humorous, I know. But the outcome is far from glad. Think of it. What will I do? I must have an eye for the one I have lost! What then is my solution? Only this: to steal the eye of another! Perhaps from my enemy’s son. Perhaps from his daughter.”

The crowd stopped laughing. The healer’s story had cut close to their hearts.