“For he taught them as one who had authority”

The fox knows many things,
but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
(Archilochus)

The authority of the fox runs in many directions;
centrifugal, it leaves
the burrow with cunning,
while the hedgehog burrows centripetally,
knowing one thing
and knowing it
deep.

And the scribes and the Pharisees, burrowing law,
are amazed to see
one who leaves
the centre and the limelight to go elsewhere,
to sheep of other folds
and to walk upon the
seas.

The demons know who He is, for they know the depths,
but not the heights
or the width;
they burrow into souls and feed upon duplexity,
robbing the double-minded
of heart and wealth
within,

while scribes and Pharisees declare that this is so:
a vision planted once
in truth, yet with no
power to make it so, fed only on tenacity,
a stubborn clinging to
the way it’s always
been.

But now a teacher stands who sees the motions of the seas,
and in His voice
are manifold
truths that spoke the stars to be, and turns the shrivelled
joints and bones
to wholeness; many,
one –

He holds both in His depth and breadth, for, one with
Father, Spirit,
grasps the whole
yet sees the many parts – a fox, a hedgehog,
knowing both
one and many
things,

the cunning of the fox who knows and sees complexity,
who, being God, has
complex core,
yet pure in heart, single in vision: the Kingdom,
with its manifold glory
and unity in this
richness.