Could this be the Messiah?

Dr. Park laughed in his American religious history classs as he asked his students what their plans for the weekend were. Nearly all of them were going to Wakulla County to see Odd John, aka John the Baptist.

"C'mon, REALLY?" he said snickering. "There's the FSU vs. Miami game Saturday, and you want to go hear some weirdo who in between eating his strange diet of grasshoppers and honey insists that some powerful deity is coming..to Tallahassee? Oh, what is that deity, is the god of the Gators angry that we beat them in the last game?"

The class started laughing. Dr. Park took another sip of his coffee and leaned on the podium.

"But..ya know..I have to admit I'm a little curious, too." Dr. Park twirled his mustache. "I was reviewing my notes for my lecture on interpretations of modern Judaism and came across this in their scripture. It's from the Prophet Isaiah, in chapter 40, verse 3. Listen to what it says."

"I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way, a voice of one calling in the desert.' How might one interpret this, young scholars?"

A redheaded Jewish freshman raised his hand.

"What's your name?" Dr. Park questioned.

"Andrew. And maybe..he's the Messiah?"
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"I'm not even worthy to tie his shoes!" John cried, baptizing a young frat boy in Lake Ella. The kid had come clean about his wild sexual escapades, his addiction to alcohol and use of steroids. He said he wanted the new life, the one only God could bring.

"Are you the one that will save the world?" the frat brother had asked. But his face turned bright red when John the Odd couldn't stop laughing and had blurted that out.

 But just after John finally gained control of his laughter, another man entered. He was skinny and awkward looking, but his eyes shone brighter than anything the people had ever seen.

"Baptize me, John."

So John gave in and baptized the man who just walked in. But the focus was no longer on John the Odd, but on this mysterious man. Was he on drugs? No, for he was too sane and had a look to him that implied he knew everything about you without you even knowing it. Was he a spy? No, because that guy didn't look intimidating in the least. There was something different in that man, all right. Was it how captivating his eyes were?

Just then a loud voice echoed into every corner of Lake Ella:

"You are my Son, whom I love," a voice cried from above the earth somewhere. Everyone immediately took off screaming in fear.

"I always knew John was odd!!!!!!!!"

But the scrawny redhead Jewish boy didn't run away.

"Could this be the Messiah?" Andrew asked himself.
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Dr. Nicodemus "Nick" Park stood outside Bellamy Hall at 2:30 one Friday night. This was just an FSU crime bulletin waiting to happen.

But Nick didn't care, for there were much bigger things to consider. Students didn't just give up huge football games to hear religious fanatics. So maybe this man the called Jesus was onto something. Because after all, completely otherworldly things had been happening. Either that, or everyone was hallucinating.  Because voices just didn't pop out of the sky after the religious ceremony of baptism. Water couldn't turn into wine by itself. Jesus was a weirdo. Normal people didn't have weird groupies headed up by John the Odd following them all of the time. But most of all, normal people didn't kick people out of the temple for selling Seminole gear instead of worshipping Yahweh.

Who was Jesus? Was he an incarnation of the Buddha or a Hindu god? A lunatic? Most of Nick's colleagues went with the latter. Nick had arranged a meeting with this strange man so he could decide for himself. But he wanted to meet Jesus at night so no one would know he took this man (somewhat) seriously.

In fact, there was one option that seemed more likely than a reincarnated being or a lunatic. He could be the Messiah.