A5- PART W

PART W: Final instructions
The stranger who’d first hailed them, called again.
Would they bring with them some of what they’d caught?
Then there he was, tending a charcoal fire:
some fish already cooking: and he’d bread.
Dawn broke as Peter stepped upon dry land.
No second look was needed. A new day
confirmed what John, and he alone, had sensed.
It was indeed the resurrected Christ,
Jesus himself, their master and their friend.
When all had left the boat, Jesus himself
served to each one the breakfast he had cooked.
Yet no-one sought to question him at all.
His presence and demeanour were enough.
Meanwhile someone had totted up the score
to see how many fish they had just caught
with not a hint of damage to the net.
Five score and fifty three there were: but what
significance that has, is hard to guess.
Eleven disciples went to Galilee.
They gathered on a hill-top in a place
where Jesus had directed them to meet.
He came to them, and some knelt at his feet,
though others were unsure how to behave.
He told them they must spread out, far and wide,
to take the promise of eternal life
to all they met, to every clan and tribe,
baptising as they went: and they must use
the names of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Those thus baptised would all be saved, but those
who disbelieved would stay in jeopardy.
This course of action could not start at once.
They must await new powers they’d receive.
These would be given in Jerusalem.
His Father had decreed this would be so.
Then, in the name of Jesus, they would speak
in foreign tongues and heal the sick: then too,
they’d cast out devils, master dangerous snakes,
and have their lives protected from attempts
to poison them. As far as Bethany
he stayed with them: then raising high his hands
proclaiming that he’d always be with them,
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