1/6/2016
There shall come forth a
Rod from the root of Jesse. And a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The
Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the
LORD. ---Isaiah 11; 1-2
When the Romans came into the land of Israel, they
brought with them great terror and misery. All the inhabitants of the land were
utterly uprooted and scattered. Our temple was defiled and burned down. Before
this, a horrible Caesar actually went into the holy of holies, inside the
temple, and sacrificed pigs upon the altar. This was after the city was laid siege. The siege lasted so long that before the great city wall was destroyed,
the people inside resorted to the eating of each other’s flesh, even the flesh
of their own children.
So once these horrible armies took over, we prayed
constantly to our holy God that he would take vengeance for his people. Yet all
the while, we could not hold our heads up or find a word from the LORD. Many of
the older prophets had spoken of a time of “Jacob’s troubles” because we had
forsaken the LAW of the LORD.
Our land that was given to our forefathers, Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, was in utter ruins because of the Romans. They laid a heavy burden on all of us Israelites. We were all sold as slaves to the Roman
government. Our streets were lined with criminals who were part of this new
kind of execution, called crucifixion. On those crosses laid men, women, and
even children for crimes against the Romans, both large and small. They were
signs to us of the terror that they used against us.
God extended minimal mercies to us in that we were
allowed to retain our ideology. We were also allowed to practice the strict
sects of our Jewish religion, so long as it did not offend the Roman Empire.
Caesar took from our own people, all of whom we considered traitors, officials
to be magistrates over us, tax collectors, and even spies to report all
behavior to Caesar himself.
I came from the small town of Nazareth. I lived with my
small family of a wife and two children. I worked hard in the fields while my
wife did her best to sell her crafts in the market. Our most sincere prayer was
that we could live to the end of our lives without seeing our young children
die of hunger or cold.
The Roman society was one based on slavery. Over 30
percent of the people were slaves. The rest were full-fledged citizens with
rights to own property, vote, and run their own businesses. The Romans used all
their captives as slaves. Although such a large portion of the society was
slaves, the average age of death for those slaves was 22. Their mortality rate
was more than double the rate of their birthrate. Even though the Romans were
conquering this part of the world at an astonishing rate, they were killing off
their own workers with cruel punishments.
They even took the Greeks as prisoners. From the Greeks, they had their doctors, scribes, great warriors, and philosophers. Even the
educated ones were slaves unless they could prove their worth to be freed from
their bondage.
We looked elsewhere towards redemption. We prayed up to
the sky, in the hopes that Yahweh would hear us, even though his holy house was
demolished. The priests would talk about the almighty having promised that
through the seed of David, we Israelites would see our deliverer through the
might of his messiah.
That’s when life began to get interesting, even though
this terrible land of death and darkness that we now occupied. There was a man
named Jesus. Some of my relatives remember him from when he was a carpenter. He
grew up in our small town of Nazareth. There were rumors about him that spread
all through the country. It was said of him that he was the deliverer.
We had heard that he was on his way from the northern
territory of Tyre. He was preaching a message about God’s kingdom at hand. That
it was time to rethink our lives and consider the kingdom at once. He was doing
miracles. He was healing the sick, raising up the lame, opening the mouth of
the mute, giving sight to the blind and even casting out demons who begged him
not to torture them.
I decided it was time to go find this man. I was hoping
for sure that he would end this injustice of the Roman rule. I left with my
wife and kids towards the Sea of Galilee. Jesus was a friend of fishermen and
was known to have walked on its waters. He also cast out the demons that
possessed a very dangerous man who lived among the tombs. If he was coming
through Nazareth, he would for sure stop by the lake.
After many hours of looking, we did see the multitude of
a crowd that was following him. So we followed him for two days straight as he
taught in the synagogues, people’s houses, and finally when he taught that
wonderful sermon on the mount just on the edge of the Sea of Galilee.
On the third day, we sat down on that glorious hill and
heard him speak about the kingdom. He spoke as one with authority, and not as
one of the teachers of the law, of whom Jesus called hypocrites many times.
Jesus spoke in parables. He talked about how the kingdom
of God is like a man who had 99 sheep but lost one. He left those 98 in search
of that one, and when he found it, he rejoiced greatly. This was how he spoke
about God’s love for man as he came to search for and to save what was lost.
He also talked about the law. He said that he was not
there to abolish it, but to actually fulfill it. He spoke of the commandments,
but when he spoke of them, it was like he opened our minds and made our hearts
understand them. He said things like hate was the same as murder, and that if
you looked at a woman with lust, you have already committed adultery with her
in your heart.
Our books from Moses told us to sacrifice an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a tooth, yet this Jesus was telling us to forgive and pray for
our enemies. He said that God blesses both the just and the wicked. If we hate
our enemies, are we not doing as the Gentiles and heathens do?
After those three days, we were hungry. Jesus had intended
to send us on our way but I overheard him tell his disciples to feed all 5000
of us. Was this a joke? I heard the disciples tell Jesus that they only had 5
fish and two loaves of bread. That did not make sense to me because not long
afterward, Jesus passed out food for every single man, woman, and child who sat
on that hill as we could see the warm sun glaring on the lake that Jesus had
once walked on.
We all had our fill. No one was hungry, although I asked
Jesus if he could bring me something to drink. I thought I was being cheeky
when I tossed him an old lemon that I carried in my pouch in the event that I
came across some fish and wanted to add flavor to it. When I tossed that lemon
to Jesus, he tossed something back to me. It was a long skin of lemonade.
Enough for me and my family and anyone else around us who needed to wash their
fish and bread down as well.
We traveled back home that night, to our small living in
Nazareth. Was this indeed the Son of God? Was he the seed of David? Was he
going to overthrow the Roman government? Many of us who knew and followed him
were let down and terrified as we would later hear that he was unjustly
punished, held on false charges, and then eventually crucified. He was tortured
and murdered just outside of the city. He was not treated like a general, but
like a slave full of shame and scorn.
What was more puzzling is that Jesus himself said that he
must die in this way, but on the third day he would rise. I miss Jesus. I’m
going to travel down to Jerusalem to see if he is alive like he said he would
be.
The End.
