The Colosseum crowd was going wild with the brilliant, gruesome spectacle of Christians being ripped apart by wild beasts and gladiators. But down near the front one spectator confided to the stranger beside him: “I’m so ashamed. I feel I should jump over the fence and into the arena, because I’m a Christian.”

“Me too,” his neighbour replied. “In fact Jesus healed my blindness outside the temple.”

“No way!” (or a first century equivalent) said the first: “He healed my blindness too, over at Capernaum. It was fantastic! He spat on the ground, made some mud, wiped it over my eyes and I could see!”

“Well he only had to touch my eyes with his hands. Why would he need mud? You couldn’t have been healed by Jesus!”

The two men never jumped into the arena, and they never spoke to each other again, for that day saw the birth of two rival sects: the Muddites and the Anti-Muddites!