INNER-CITY JESUS

Jesus was strollin' uptown lookin' for the cross-town bus when he spotted this cat named Zacchaeus who was hanging over the fire escape.

Now Zacchaeus was this guy who used to rip off the brothers. He had his posse who would beat up anybody that didn't come across with the goods. He'd sell pot to the kids at the school and provide prostitutes for the whites who came uptown.

Jesus spied Zach and called up to him. "Yo, Zacchaeus. Come on down. You and me at your crib, tonight!"

Astonished, Zach rushed on down. "I heard about you. Your the cat been doing all them miracles and stuff. Word, man, you trippin? And you wanna hang with me at my crib? Don't you know who I am? Aren't you, like, scared or something?"

But Jesus didn't flinch. "Dude, I ain't trippin'. Tonight I come to bring you salvation."

Zach thought to himself, Who is this dude that wants to hang with me?

Meanwhile the rest of the hood was gathering around the two men on the street. A woman shouted out, "Jesus, how can you sleep over at that hoodlum's house. He terrorizes us and holds us hostage. This used to be a decent neighborhood, now it's a slum and it's because of scum like that!"

But Zacchaeus just kept looking at Jesus who never wavered. Suddenly he fell to his knees and bowed down. "Jesus forgive me, a sinner," he cried out. "From this moment on I swear I will never hurt these people again. I will repay everybody I have stolen from twice what they lost, and I will give half of what is left over to the community center. And those kids, I swear I'll never do anything to hurt them again. And those white women that did tricks for me, I'm going to get them straight so they don't never have to do that again! I swear it!"

Jesus reached down and embraced Zach. "You have traded in one kingdom for another, my brother. Freedom is yours! You were lost and now you have been found. Go in peace!"