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Chapter Twenty One
DREAM
Phil's mother had fed them,
listened to them and sent them all off to bed. They needed plenty of rest before starting
off on this new venture, she told them. No further encouragement necessary; they all fell
into an exhausted sleep.
"Now where am I," Dan murmured to himself as he
observed the crowd or was it a mob?
Laura, Phil and Jeremiah were jammed against him in a tight
knot from the press of the milling, screaming crowd. They exchanged confused glances.
People were dressed in clothes familiar from Renaissance paintings of Biblical times...and
so were they!
"I hear some ancient Hebrew being screamed as curses,
but I do not understand any of the other languages," Jeremiah observed. He was taller
than the others and had a better vantage point to see what was going on. He nodded in a
direction and pulled Dan and the others with him as he fought his way through the crowd.
One man refused to move and growled a question at them.
Jeremiah looked confused for a moment.
"What does he want?" Dan asked.
"He asked if we are deciples of the convicted
man?"
"Ask him what the convicted man's name is?"
Jeremiah asked the question. The man grimaced, made a
comment and disappeared into the crowd.
"What was that about?" Laura wanted to know.
"He said if we were so stupid we had to ask, never
mind, ...not exactly in those words, but the meaning was clear enough. He had a few choice
swear words sprinkled in, too." Jeremiah continued to lead them to a place where they
could get above the crowd and see what was going on.
Jeremiah helped the others up into a window ledge that
overlooked the narrow street below. "There is something familiar about this place.
Look!" He pointed to the end of the narrow street.
Even above the noise of the crowd, the noisy clatter of
horses' hooves could be heard on the cobbled street. Roman soldiers with swords and armor
clanging marched two abreast on horseback, making a path for whatever or whoever came
behind. The soldiers brandished their swords at the crowd to drive them back from getting
too close.
Shouting angry commands the soldiers moved forward
revealing someone walking behind them carrying...a huge cross beam. The crowd shouted as
if at a sporting event, hurling curses and taunts at the one walking behind the soldiers.
The ones close to the edge of the road spit and threw things at the one who walked bowed
over from the weight of the cross beam.
"Oh, my God!" Phil said. "Do you know who
that is? Just look...look at his face, his body( what's left of it)...."
They all stared intently at the scene before them.
The man's face was so swollen and bloody he did not even
look human. His shoulders and back were cut in shreds exposing the bone. Blood covered him
like a cloak, dripping down his legs and leaving bloody footprints on the cobbled street.
The circle of thorns on his head dug cruelly into his face and almost into an eye.
Laura covered her eyes."He looks like he's been
through a meat grinder. It makes me sick to even look," she wept.
"No," Phil said lifting her face. "You must
look. We must all look and burn it into our memories."
The man was pushed forward by the Roman foot soldiers
behind him. He stumbled and fell. After a few shouts from the soldiers and crowd, a tall,
well muscled, man was brought forward from the mob to carry the heavy cross beam. The
wounded man got up slowly and looked into the eyes of the man carrying the beam. The big
man gasped and tears came to his eyes. The soldiers pushed them both forward.
Phil began to quote Isaiah. "He was despised and
rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and
like One from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His
worth or have any esteem for Him.
Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows and
pains of punishment, yet we ignorantly considered Him stricken, smitten, and afflicted by
God.
But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our guilt and iniquities; the chastisement needful to obtain peace and
well-being for us was upon Him, and with stripes that wounded Him we are healed and
made whole."
"Dan and Jeremiah remained speechless. Laura wept and
tears trickled down Phil's face as he choked out the final few words of the Scripture.
"Most people think all His suffering was on the cross,
but see what He suffered before He even got to the cross!" Phil whispered.
"So it was more than for forgiveness of sins. It was
for disease, pain, sorrow and everything else a person can suffer, too." Dan looked
on with sudden and complete realization.
Jeremiah remained silent, deep in thought.
"Will we see the crucifixion, too, do you think?"
Laura raised her tear stained face to Phil.
As if in answer to her question, the scene faded and they
all woke from their dream.
At breakfast, no one spoke except for Laura. She asked them
all. "Did anyone have a special dream last night?"
No one answered.
Chapter 22
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