NOTE: I got a review asking about the time period in which this story takes place. In a way, it isn't meant to be in a modern-day setting that has never known Christ's influence. A better way to describe it would be an alternate universe story where the modern technology of today meets the poilitics of 2000 years ago. America is yet to be discovered. Islam is yet to be created. Democracy is unknown. However, we have cell phones, the internet, and algerbra. If this confuses you, try not to think about it too hard. The setting itself isn't the most improtant thing in this story.

Chapter Three: Judas' Questions

Jesus and I always sat beside each other at lunch. Most of the time we ate out food in five minutes and spend the rest of the time to talk, but today was different. Jesus was eating his food very slowly and he wasn't even looking at me. He eyes were pointed straight ahead at a large group of kids sitting at the next table.

"What about them fascinates you?" I asked.

"Not them," Jesus muttered. "Look behind them."

I shifted my head a little bit and saw a girl sitting at the table behind them. This was Mary Magdalene. Normally Mary sat with the people in front of her, but now she was sitting all alone.

"Do you think she's pretty?" Jesus asked.

I studied her. It was obvious that she put a lot of pride in her outward appearance. Lipstick, several layers of blush, eye shadow, and mascara adorned her face. Her rose red hair had been neatly combed down her shoulders.

"A little bit," I said. "Do you?"

Without taking his eyes off of her Jesus nodded.

I laughed. "Well, she's sitting all alone today. Now's your chance to go talk to her."

"You don't mind?" Jesus asked.

"Not at all," I said.

Without another word, Jesus left his lunch tray on the table and went over to Mary's table. This was the first time in two years that Jesus and I hadn't sat with each other in school. I finished my food and looked around for somebody else to talk to. Everybody was talking with somebody except for one guy on the far end of one table. Just as he was on the bus this morning, Judas was reading the Torah

He sat down beside him and asked, "So which book are you reading?"

"The Torah," Judas said.

"I know. What book in the Torah?"

Judas didn't even look up from reading. "Genesis."

"Anything speak out to you?"

Judas immediately closed it and said, "Actually, yes. I've discovered many details within the creation story that just don't make sense to me. I've been reading it over and over again, but I can never understand it."

As somebody who had read Genesis four times all the way through, I was excited to help. "What doesn't make sense?"

"Okay, God punished Adam and Eve for eating the forbidden fruit by kicking them out of the Garden of Eden, right?"

"Yah."

"Well, if God didn't want them to eat the fruit, then way did he create the tree in the first place?"

I had the answer. "God wanted to give Adam and Eve a choice to obey him or not. He wanted them to live in Eden forever, but he wasn't going to stop them if they didn't want to."

"Technically it wasn't their fault that they disobeyed God," Judas said. "They were lied to by the serpent. The serpent was an outside force who promised Adam and Eve knowledge and power. It seemed to be telling the truth to Adam and Eve."

"Of course it was their fault,' I said, surprised that he made such a claim. I was trying to understand what Judas was getting at. "If you listen to Satan and believe his lies and act on them, then it's your own fault."

Judas closed his eyes for a moment then opened them again. "God created everything, right?"

"Yah."

"So then technically, God created evil."

"Satan created evil," I said quickly.

"Who created Satan?" Judas asked.

I had never heard anyone speak like this before, much less a fellow student of mine. I was shocked that I had to defend my faith to this extent. Choosing my words carefully I said, "God allowed the potential for evil to exist. That doesn't mean that he created it himself. God didn't stop it from coming into existence. Satan is the source of all evil."

"But if God created matter, space, and time, then he would have had to create the concepts of good and evil. He couldn't have just created one of them. If you create one of them then you have to have the other. And supposedly God created the laws of physics that hold the universe together. If you create an existence where something has the potential to exist, then you're technically creating it."

For the first time in my life I didn't have an answer to a theological question presented to me. "I don't know."

"These are the types of questions that nobody can answer," Judas said. "When I asked a rabbi these things he told me to not question and to fear God or else I'll go to Hell. I asked my parents and they just told me to have faith in God.

Just then the lunch bell rang. As everyone left the lunch room I told him, "I want you to sit with me and Jesus tomorrow. Jesus might be able to give an answer." Judas nodded, and we went our separate ways.