J
Juan1234
Guest
Sunset:
I never thought I would die alongside these people. There are forty-seven of us, and we are like family now. Tomorrow we will be crucified outside the Benjamin Gate.
We were arrested late this afternoon as we gathered in Thomas’ home to share a meal and to read a letter from our dear friends in Antioch. Since then we have been hauled before magistrates, questioned, condemned, and locked in this large underground cell together. Four guards then collected our names and painted them on our tituli – the sign boards that will label us as Christians as we hang on our crosses. Now they are gone, and we have been singing together.
We feel none of the despair we ought to feel. We are smiling, holding one another’s hands, singing to Jesus, our Lord, ready to meet Him face to face, thanking Him for how he has transformed our lives and made us one.
Thomas was a tax collector – a stooge of the Romans and a traitor to our people, the Jews. What’s more, he cheated us, and we all hated him. Especially Laben, the zealot, who had worked to stir up insurrection against the Romans. Now they sat beside each other as brothers, singing, ready to die side by side.
Two guards have just ordered Mary to go with them. She gets up from her place next to me and follows them out of the cell and into an adjoining room where the guards congregate. I feel a stab of grief now. I know what they’re doing to her. Just a year ago, it would have filled me with vindictive pleasure to think of it. Not now.
I never thought I would die alongside these people. There are forty-seven of us, and we are like family now. Tomorrow we will be crucified outside the Benjamin Gate.
We were arrested late this afternoon as we gathered in Thomas’ home to share a meal and to read a letter from our dear friends in Antioch. Since then we have been hauled before magistrates, questioned, condemned, and locked in this large underground cell together. Four guards then collected our names and painted them on our tituli – the sign boards that will label us as Christians as we hang on our crosses. Now they are gone, and we have been singing together.
We feel none of the despair we ought to feel. We are smiling, holding one another’s hands, singing to Jesus, our Lord, ready to meet Him face to face, thanking Him for how he has transformed our lives and made us one.
Thomas was a tax collector – a stooge of the Romans and a traitor to our people, the Jews. What’s more, he cheated us, and we all hated him. Especially Laben, the zealot, who had worked to stir up insurrection against the Romans. Now they sat beside each other as brothers, singing, ready to die side by side.
Two guards have just ordered Mary to go with them. She gets up from her place next to me and follows them out of the cell and into an adjoining room where the guards congregate. I feel a stab of grief now. I know what they’re doing to her. Just a year ago, it would have filled me with vindictive pleasure to think of it. Not now.