It was Muhammad, after all, who told his followers things like “Jews and Christians are the ones whom God has cursed, and he whom God excludes from His mercy, you shall never find one to help and save him” and “Kill them wherever you may come upon them, and seize them, and confine them, and lie in wait for them at every conceivable place.”
Yet it was Jesus who told His disciples, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
A few more cars passed. No military convoy.
David began to think more about Najjar. He still couldn’t believe how radically the man had changed in just a month or so. He had grown up a devout Twelver. Over the course of his life, Najjar had even met the Mahdi several times and had seen him do signs and wonders, for crying out loud. Yet now he had turned his back not just on Shia Islam and the Twelvers but on all of Islam. Now he was telling his story on worldwide television, preaching the gospel, and telling his people that “Jesus Christ is calling you to Himself because He loves you — so receive Him by faith while you still have time.”
Was Najjar right? Was it true? Did Christ really love him? Was Jesus really calling him to follow?
David had read the transcripts of Najjar’s conversations with Eva three times, and now he’d even watched on the Christian satellite channel as Najjar told the story of meeting Jesus on the road to Hamadan. He practically knew the story by heart, but had he really thought about what it meant?
Najjar said he’d seen a man wearing a robe reaching to his feet. Across his chest was a gold sash. His hair was white like the snow that surrounded them. His eyes were fiery. His face shone. At that point, Najjar said he fell at the man’s feet like a dead man, but the figure had said, “Do not be afraid.”
“Who are you?” Najjar had asked.
“I am Jesus the Nazarene,” the man had replied. “I AM the first and the last and the living One. I am the Alpha and the Omega, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Come and follow me.”
Najjar said the first sentences were uttered with a measure of authority such as he had never heard before, not from any mullah or cleric or political leader in his entire life. Yet the last four words were spoken with such gentleness, such tenderness, that he could not imagine refusing the request.
Najjar went on to describe seeing the holes where spikes had been driven through Jesus’ hands. As a devout Muslim, he had never considered the possibility that Jesus had been crucified at all, much less to pay the penalty for all human sins. No Muslim believed that. At that point, Najjar’s mind had been filled with questions, and for David, Najjar’s questions were his own.
How could Jesus be appearing as a crucified Messiah? If the Qur’an were true, wouldn’t it be impossible for Jesus to have nail-scarred hands?
One thing seemed clear to David, just as it had to Najjar: Jesus wasn’t claiming to be the second-in-command to the Mahdi. He was claiming to be God Almighty.
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life,” Jesus had said, “and no one comes to the Father except through Me. I am the Light of the World. He who follows me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the light of life. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
At that point, Najjar said, he had fallen to the ground and kissed the scarred feet of Jesus. He said that at that moment, something inside him had broken. “I wept with remorse for all the sins I had ever committed. I wept with indescribable relief that came from knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt that God really did love me and had sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise from the dead for me. I wept with gratitude that because of Jesus’ promise, I knew that I was going to spend eternity with Him.”
In some ways, David wanted to dismiss the story as a fairy tale, an anxiety-induced hallucination from a deeply disturbed individual. But nothing about Dr. Najjar Malik seemed mentally imbalanced or unstable. The guy was not only one of the most highly respected scientists in all of Iran but a man willing to face a $100 million bounty on his and his family’s heads to tell the world what he believed to be true. He clearly wasn’t doing it to get rich. He wasn’t doing it for power. Though it cost him everything, Najjar Malik was now a follower of Jesus, a most unlikely turn of events.
And in the darkness and the solitude of that night, David realized that he, too, believed. Najjar was right. It was all true.
David had not seen a vision or had a dream or any other sort of supernatural experience. But maybe not everyone had to. David was an intelligence operative, wasn’t he? He was supposed to hunt for the truth and follow the evidence wherever it led him. And the evidence pointed to the fact that Jesus was who He claimed to be. Not only that, David knew that Jesus was asking him to come and follow Him, whatever the cost, however high the price. In some ways, it was hard to imagine coming to this point. One moment he did not believe, and the next he did. He couldn’t explain it, but he knew with absolute, inexplicable certainty that it was true, all of it, and that he believed it.
In the stillness of the moment, David looked up into the night sky, at the twinkling stars sprinkled across the heavens. He tried to imagine what God looked like, tried to imagine meeting Jesus face to face one day. And then, feeling compelled in his spirit, he got down on his knees on the pavement of Route 56 and put his forehead on the ground.
“O God in heaven, One True God, most kind and merciful God of the universe, maker of heaven and earth, my Creator, my Master, please have mercy on me tonight. I am the worst of sinners. I have been given so much, but I have squandered it all. You have been calling me, but I have been going my own way. I have been resisting You for so long, yet You have not given up on me. Thank You, O Lord. Thank You so much. Please forgive me for everything I have done in my miserable, godless, selfish life. I am so sorry. I know You are there. I know You are calling me. My heart is racing. I can feel Your hand on my life.”
David looked up briefly as two trucks went by, but they were not the ones he was looking for. So he bowed down again to keep praying.
“But far more important than what I feel, O Lord, is that I now know that the Bible is Your Word. I know it alone contains the true words of life. And I know, too, that Jesus is Your Son and the only true Messiah. I know it because You have revealed it to me. I don’t pretend to understand it all right now. But I believe. And if You will accept me, I want to follow You. Please accept me, O God. I believe Jesus died on the cross for me. I believe He rose for me. I see what He has done — what You have done — to save my friends Najjar and Dr. Birjandi, to change them so completely, and I want what they have. I want to know that I’m going to heaven when I die. I want to know that all my sins are forgiven. I want the joy and peace and sense of purpose and direction they have, even when life is hard — especially when life is hard.”
He was quiet for a moment. All was quiet.
“I don’t know what else to pray, Lord. I just want to say that… well… I love You, and I need You…. And as of tonight, I promise to follow You forever, so long as You will help me and lead me all the way. Amen.”