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A Reflective Fictional Story for Lent
The sky is dark, as if there is an impending doom that is to be brought upon the face of the earth. It\’s about 11:34am in Golgotha, the hill of the skull, but it seems forever since the sentence was pronounced on these three men about to die. I\’ve been an avid observer of what happened, and how it happened, and it has brought me not just tears, but hope for a world to come.
Then 12:00am comes to pass, no celebrations, or shouting out, just pure agony from the women I saw by the sides. They\’ve been following this particular man, Jesus of Nazareth as I recall, ever since Pilate\’s palace. The soldiers and rabbis seem to be giving him a hard time.
What was his crime? Is he really a dangerous criminal?
I try to look upon the eyes of this so called trouble-maker, and am able to get a glimpse of his eyes, and within those eyes, I do not see vengeance or anger, but sadness and a forgiving heart. It penetrates my heart to see a man who seems innocent like this in agony, to see a man so peaceful and calm as he is forced to suffer and be mocked upon.
12:43pm The soldiers play with his clothes, casting lots to see who gets the best part, the part without the man\’s blood of course. I hear the man mumble as if he is thirsty; the soldiers, rather than giving him water to drink, give him vinegar, sour vinegar, and this man accepts it faithfully without disgust. After he drinks he looks at the soldiers and gives them a smile, a warm fatherly smile that would make me cry in that very moment if not for the screaming man on the cross to the left being pecked upon by a crow.
1:27pm It seems darker than ever, as if the whole of nature is lamenting together with the woman for the man in the middle. It looks like the sun has already been set even though it is blazing over the horizon, as if it were crying together with the birds of nature. Everything in nature is silent as of the moment, and I see the man, the man in the middle, promising happiness and paradise to the man on his right. This man in the middle seems to be assured of what he\’s doing, he seems convinced that he is in control of what is happening, his blood just dripping like a broken faucet in the sink.
1:53pm There is no blood coming out anymore from the man in the middle. He is not screaming in pain or struggling to get down, he looks as if he is in deep thought, in deep prayer, and I hear words of forgiveness that he is imparting to the people in this area. And the moment the words \”forgive them\” leave his mouth I feel my heart twist and pull out from my chest, I feel the pain of being enslaved in guilt. A gush of wind suddenly gives me peace, and I feel a warm embrace, a sign of love, and when I look up and see the man, he is looking straight at my eyes, as if he is saying I\’ve forgiven you.
2:47pm I leave the hills to look at the people gathered at the foot of them. Some are celebrating, while others are lamenting. As I walk back to the hills of Golgotha, I see the criminals and the man in the middle dying in agony. The man in the middle looks like he is trying to catch his breath, he is using his arms even if without strength to drag himself upward to catch every wisp of air into his nose. He is breathing heavily…
…for the next thirteen minutes.
3:00pm \”Father into your hands I commend my Spirit.\” At this very moment I am stunned, I look around to see if everyone sees what I see, but instead I see the whole of the sky open up and thousands of angels sound the trumpets as if there is a funeral in heaven. I see the whole of nature bow down in respect to this man in the middle who just died. Now the soldiers are making sure the criminals are dead and break their bones, while a certain soldier, seeing that the man in the middle is dead, pierces the side of this dead man on the cross, and not blood, but water comes pouring out of his sides. The water hits the soldier on his left eye, he kneels down and proclaims God\’s glory.
3:13pm The vision was over ten minutes ago, and it has been ten minutes ever since my life changed. I saw an innocent man, although I was not able to hear his words, die in front of the people that I could see in his eyes he loved, and yet they betrayed him. I saw the whole of glory of God flash before my eyes as this man died, and I saw God himself, on that cross dying. Yes I boldly proclaim this man to be God.
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews
The Man in the Middle
The Christ
© 2013. David Quiambao. All Rights Reserved.
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“That a good man may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already, but that God could have His back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents forever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point — and does not break. In this indeed I approach a matter more dark and awful than it is easy to discuss; and I apologize in advance if any of my phrases fall wrong or seem irreverent touching a matter which the greatest saints and thinkers have justly feared to approach. But in the terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay (the matter grows too difficult for human speech), but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.”
― G.K. Chesterton
Well-described meditation. Write more about what you see and hear. You have the direction of a film-maker.
“That a good man may have his back to the wall is no more than we knew already, but that God could have His back to the wall is a boast for all insurgents forever. Christianity is the only religion on earth that has felt that omnipotence made God incomplete. Christianity alone felt that God, to be wholly God, must have been a rebel as well as a king. Alone of all creeds, Christianity has added courage to the virtues of the Creator. For the only courage worth calling courage must necessarily mean that the soul passes a breaking point — and does not break. In this indeed I approach a matter more dark and awful than it is easy to discuss; and I apologize in advance if any of my phrases fall wrong or seem irreverent touching a matter which the greatest saints and thinkers have justly feared to approach. But in the terrific tale of the Passion there is a distinct emotional suggestion that the author of all things (in some unthinkable way) went not only through agony, but through doubt. It is written, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” No; but the Lord thy God may tempt Himself; and it seems as if this was what happened in Gethsemane. In a garden Satan tempted man: and in a garden God tempted God. He passed in some superhuman manner through our human horror of pessimism. When the world shook and the sun was wiped out of heaven, it was not at the crucifixion, but at the cry from the cross: the cry which confessed that God was forsaken of God. And now let the revolutionists choose a creed from all the creeds and a god from all the gods of the world, carefully weighing all the gods of inevitable recurrence and of unalterable power. They will not find another god who has himself been in revolt. Nay (the matter grows too difficult for human speech), but let the atheists themselves choose a god. They will find only one divinity who ever uttered their isolation; only one religion in which God seemed for an instant to be an atheist.”
― G.K. Chesterton
Well-described meditation. Write more about what you see and hear. You have the direction of a film-maker.