The Good News Poem by Daniel Brick

A week later, when Jesus had withdrawn
with the Twelve to the far side of the River Jordan,
my younger brother shouted my name from horseback.
of a fifth horse...

My father sent me to supervise our vineyards
in the north. My brother was delighted we were
living and working together. The grapes harvested
that year became a superb wine that made
our father proud of us. How could I abandon
a father so fulfilled in his eldest son
and a brother for whom I was the image
of the man he was becoming? I stayed with my family.

A year and a half later, I heard rumors of unrest
in the south. Jesus had been accused of blasphemy.
Travelers told me he was betrayed and dragged
before the Temple priests, and humiliated at
King Herod's court. Three Zoroastrian priests
quietly arrived and with suppressed emotion told me,
the Romans intervened and crucified that best of men.
I cried for three days and nights. On the morning
of the fourth day I awoke before dawn, and I saw a sign:
a perfect circle of brilliant yellow light, within a nimbus
of flowing white. I knew in a flash of truth -
My Redeemer lives. And I knew the days to come
would be sweeter and harder than ever before.

He dismounted and fell into my arms, with a cry of joy
that shook my heart. Three servants nearby stayed
on their horses, and one of them held the reins of a fifth horse.