I'd heard of Jesus, that he was one of those healers that come through the city now and then. But I never saw him till that Sunday he arrived at the East gate...I'd been doing some business with my brother-in-law who lives round there when we'd seen people gathering in the street and talking about someone coming who was going to save them from their troubles! We got caught up in the crowd and went to see what was going on for ourselves.
From all the talk in the crowd, I was kind of expecting to see a finely clothed man with many servants, being carried above them or at least riding a good horse...however, he came along riding on a donkey of all things...that was enough to know he was different, I tell ya! He had some men with him, but they didn't look much like servants, more like companions or friends I should say. He didn't have the build you'd expect of a great champion, but he was smiling and he did have this kind of presence about him.
All the people started cheering, and the guy next to me took off his cloak and ran forward to lay it in his path. There was a great atmosphere and more people arrived to watch the spectacle, waving palm branches and shouting stuff like 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' Man, they were really into this guy!
He caused a bit of a stir in the temple, you know? I'd gone off by then, but I heard later how he apparently marched in there, ordered people to stop their trading and selling and went about with quite a temper, pushing over tables and upsetting things until people started to move on and clear up. Said it was holy ground or something...oh that's right, he reminded all the people that it was meant to be a 'house of prayer', not a 'den of robbers'. Quite a statement, but I guess he's right - the temple should be a sacred place. I wonder why the high priests have never seemed to mind about the traders there...?
Hmmm...yes, Jesus was hot gossip that week really...next thing I knew, he'd been taken in by the chief priests and I was caught up in a crowd again...this time outside Pilate's place where the priests were handing Jesus over to Pilate. They said they'd found him guilty of making wild claims about his identity...anyways, I couldn't really hear all that was being said...it was so noisy in the crowd and the people near me were jostling me and getting very het up...shouting 'crucify him, crucify him!' I thought how quick things seemed to have happened...one minute this bloke seems harmless enough, riding his donkey in to the city, next minute you know, he's been arrested and handed over to the Romans. It was all a bit alarming.
I wanted to wait around to see what actually happened to Jesus...I found him intriguing I suppose. He was different to other prisoners I'd seen. He handled the whole thing with amazing composure. He didn't struggle with his guards, in fact, he didn't look much like a criminal at all. They took him off and he got crucified, like they all wanted...nasty business that, excruciating they say, the worst form of death. And the lashes and torture beforehand of course...they break you one little bit at a time. But you should have seen Jesus...the way he took it, I can't explain it but there seemed such dignity, or something just different in how he endured it all.
I watched him up there on the cross. He died long before he ought to have done...I know, I've seen other crucifixions before and I swear I've never seen one go so quick. It was like he chose when to go. The whole thing was odd...it felt really important to stay and watch, like something else was gonna happen. When he died it, that was quite a moment. It was literally like the earth shuddered. It turned dark and seemed cold.
There's rumours going around now...people seem to be expecting something...he's been taken off to a tomb of course, but people have been talking about that sign the soldiers put above his head. It read 'King of the Jews' and they're saying what if...? I mean, even that centurion standing by the cross was overheard saying he was pretty sure Jesus was the son of God. If a Roman soldier was convinced, what does that mean? What if the chief priests have made an awful mistake? They're saying there's trouble up at the temple too, someone's meddled with the temple curtain or something. I don't know what to think.
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