The house shrank behind Tom as he tore down the dirt road and grabbed Mary by the shoulders. “Mary, wait.”
Lazarus and Martha stopped walking and turned back to see what the delay was. Their impatience was visible, but they didn’t say a word.
“A lot is happening,” Tom said, as he looked Mary in the eyes. “I don’t know what the outcome will be. I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, where I’ll go, what I’ll do, but I wanted you to know... I just...”
“I already know,” Mary replied.
Then Mary closed her eyes, waiting. Tom didn’t let her down again. He grasped Mary in his arms and kissed her, lingering for a moment to absorb the soft curves of her lips as they spread into a smile. Tom moved back after their lips had separated and became suddenly serious. “If I must leave...will you come with me?”
“Where will you go?”
“I cannot tell you that. Will you go with me?”
“Yes.”
Tom’s shoulder fell as he relaxed. This day might turn out all right.
“Time to go, Mary. Time is short.” Lazarus said with a strong voice, as he and Martha began walking again.
“I’ll see you soon... I promise,” Tom said.
Mary nodded and after a quick kiss on the lips, ran to catch up with her brother and sister.
The sound of David’s feet on the earth announced his approach. David stood next to Tom, watching the three leave. Tom looked at David, his face taut, “Nothing bad happens to her, right?” Tom asked.
“Mary’s fate isn’t recorded in the Bible,” David replied.
“That’s not very comforting.”
“Well, I’m sure it would have been had something bad happened to her,” David reassured.
“And what about Jesus? When does he die?”
“Tomorrow.”
Tom was surprised. “That fast?”
David nodded sadly.
“There’s got to be something we can do to get rid of Roberts until—”
Tom became rigid as his mind wrapped itself around their dilemma. It was always Tom’s belief that the world was composed of a series of problems. Science was the method humans had invented to find the solutions to these challenges. Being one of the world’s most brilliant scientists, Tom believed that there was a solution to every conundrum, and that he could find it if only given the time. And this problem took no time at all.
“We’ve been living here for years. We blend in. We’re natives. Jews. We belong here and he doesn’t,” Tom said.
“What are you thinking?”
“Captain Roberts is about to get a rude cultural awakening. But first we need to get his attention.”
Tom began walking higher up the hill.
“Tom, wait. What are you planning to do? He’s got a gun and we’re unarmed! He’s a trained killer and we’re—”
“In the best shape we’ve ever been in.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“We’re going for a little jog. Think TED can keep up with a couple of old men?”
“I think he might be able to pass us,” David said nervously.
“Don’t worry so much. God’s on our side, right?”
David smiled. He knew Tom was being sarcastic, but he also knew Tom was really enjoying this. He had come up with some masterful plan to beat brawn with brains and wanted David to see it all unfold in dramatic fashion, rather than just detail the whole plan.
“Fine, but keep in mind: my fate isn’t recorded in the Bible either.”
“Don’t worry, David, I’m sure if you died they would have mentioned you,” replied Tom with a grin.
David smiled and let his muscles loosen a bit. “How are we going to let Roberts know where we are?”
After walking fifty feet toward the Mount of Olives, which was just to the north, Tom cupped his hands and yelled at the top of his lungs, in English, “Hey Roberts! We’re over here!”
Tom continued yelling, hoping this wouldn’t take too long. He knew all the screaming in English might attract more than just Captain Rob— “ARGH!” Tom yelled while cupping his arm. He fell to his knee and lifted his hand. It was covered in blood from a tear in his skin. “He’s here,” Tom said. “Go! Run!”
“But you’ve been shot!” protested David.
“It’s only a scratch and we don’t have time to play nurse! Now move it, old man!”
“Old man? You just try and keep up!”
Tom and David sprinted down the hill toward Bethany.
“Where are we going?” David asked as they ran. “Bethany’s too small; we’ll never lose him there!”
“We’re not going to Bethany.” Tom replied.
“Where then?”
“Jerusalem!”
David’s eyes widened. “Jerusalem? That’s three miles away!”
* * * * *
David looked over his shoulder. Roberts was still there, gaining on them slowly but surely. In front of him, David could see the walls of Jerusalem appearing over the hill. They were almost there. If there was more space between them, losing Roberts in the lower city would be no problem, but David knew that wasn’t part of Tom’s plan.
In fact, Tom had requested that they slow down a few times to let Roberts grow closer. They were in better shape then they expected. The three miles to Jerusalem passed quickly and they were able to carry on a conversation the entire way. At one point David even forgot they were being chased. Roberts was only fifty yards behind them, the distance an Olympic sprinter can cover in five seconds, the same distance a bullet could cover in under a second.
“We have to slow down again,” said Tom.
“Are you crazy? He’ll shoot us!”
“Once we get in the city he won’t want to make a scene. He’ll want to catch us someplace private,” Tom explained. “And we need him to see where we’re going.”
“I’m putting my faith in you,” David said, as he slowed his pace.
With a jerk of the neck, Tom looked at David. He didn’t like the way that sounded, but hadn’t the time to make a comment. Roberts had quickly closed to within twenty-five yards. Close enough.
Tom and David entered through the front gates of Jerusalem and merged into the congested streets, which were alive and loud today with the news of Jesus’s trial. Tom and David overheard statements of Jesus’s guilt, arguments of his fate and threats to his life. They ignored everything and continued toward the upper city, toward the temple.
They reached the upper city quickly. David wracked his mind to try to decipher Tom’s plan, but to no avail. They entered the temple with Roberts only fifty feet back, well within shooting range. But the number of people wandering around the outer temple kept his gun hidden.
“Where are we going?” David demanded to know.
“Inside...” Tom replied.
David could see Tom was getting winded. This had better end soon.
The pair entered the Court of the Gentiles, which was unusually placid for a Thursday. David surmised that Jesus’s trial must have been attracting the people’s attention, pausing their worship of God to kill him.
As they neared the entrance to the Court of Women, David noticed a sign above the door that he had never taken notice of before. He read it quickly as they passed beneath: No foreigner is allowed within the balustrades and embankment of the sanctuary. Whoever is caught will be personally responsible for his ensuing death. David smiled.
“Tom, you’re a genius,” David said, as they passed through the gates into the Court of the Women.
They ran across the Court of the Women, up the curved staircase and to the heavy bronze door at the Nicanor Gate. David and Tom pushed with all their strength to open the gate. Roberts had entered the Court of the Women and was running toward them at full speed.
David and Tom spilled into the Court of Israel. The seven Jewish men who were worshiping in the court shot annoyed glances at Tom and David, who had slammed the heavy bronze door behind them. Out o
f breath, Tom struggled to speak. “Quickly brothers...fetch the Levites! A foreigner has entered the inner temple...and wants to spill Jewish blood in the house of God!”
The Jewish men reacted at once, running toward the Court of the Priests, shouting for the Levites.
Tom and David were too tired to continue running and they knew help would soon arrive. They turned toward the bronze door, which had just finished closing behind Roberts. He was out of breath and looked supremely irritated. He walked toward them calmly, like a predator who knows its prey is trapped.
“You don’t have to do this, Roberts,” David said.
“You know my name. How nice for you,” Roberts said, as he continued forward.
Roberts pulled his knife out from under his robe.
“Leave now and we’ll let you live,” Tom said with confidence.
Roberts stopped walking. Tom couldn’t believe it had worked, but he then realized it wasn’t Tom’s command that had stalled Roberts’s advance. Roberts’s eyes were focused just beyond Tom.
The world spun as Tom turned around and came face to face with a massive Levite. The Levite held a grapefruit sized stone in his hand and his eyes were darting up and down Roberts’s body, taking snap shots of every detail: the blond crew cut, the knife’s unusual design, the shining object hanging on his wrist and that Roberts was taking the same mental images of the Levite. The two warriors sized each other up, both knowing what the other didn’t know was about to get him killed.
Roberts slowly reached into his robe. His fingers touched the butt of his gun. This would be over in seconds. Roberts took his eyes off the Levite for a split second and looked at David’s eyes, which were wide, but not staring at Roberts...he was staring...behind Roberts!
Roberts grabbed his gun and spun around. He fired two shots through his robe, which missed their marks. A second Levite, who had crept up behind Roberts raised his hand, which held a large stone. The Levite brought it down quickly on Roberts’s skull.
Falling to one knee, Roberts dropped his weapon. He clutched his knife and lunged at the Levite. Before Roberts could even swing the blade through the air, a second stone struck him between his spine and right shoulder blade. Roberts dropped the knife and fell to the ground again, but refused to scream in pain.
Roberts struggled to his feet again, glaring at the Levites, who had already picked up new stones. The seven Jewish men who had been worshiping stood behind the Levites, their hands armed with stones.
“You will be tried and executed by the Romans for breaking Jewish law,” said one of the Levites.
Roberts’s eyes twitched as blood from his head poured down his face and into his mouth. He looked at David and said through gritted teeth, “Don’t let them take my watch.”
Roberts removed the watch from his wrist and threw it at David as hard as he could. The watch landed on the stone floor, five feet from David. Roberts was obeying his orders to the end, protecting time, but his intentions to hurt David at the same time were clear to everyone present.
“No more!” shouted the bigger Levite. “Lay on the ground, now.”
Roberts’s grimaced in pain and spit at the Levite, who easily dodged the saliva-blood mixture. The spit flew several feet before landing on a tablet one of the men had been studying.
“He has spit on the Word of God!” shouted one of the men.
Roberts stood to run but was barely on his feet when the first of several stones pummeled his body, hurled by the Levites and Jewish men. Roberts staggered forward until a large stone hit his head, creating a sound like a breaking coconut. Roberts’s body went lax and flopped onto the stone floor.
“Quickly,” said one of the Levites, “remove his body before the Romans see what we have done.”
The seven Jewish men rushed forward and picked Roberts up. They carried his body away quickly, supervised by the two Levites. As the group exited into a side passageway, one of the Levites turned to Tom and David and said, “Well done, brothers. Your alert kept the house of God from being defiled by this man. God will reward your service.”
With that, the group of men disappeared with Roberts’s body, leaving Tom and David alone in the Court of the Israel.
David covered his mouth in disgust and sat down. Tom ran to where the fight had taken place and took the knife, watch and silenced handgun. He tucked them inside his own robe and ran back to David. “Let’s go,” he said. “I don’t want to be here to answer questions. Do you?”
“He died to protect time,” David said. “If only he’d have given us a chance to explain. He would have known that time is in no danger.”
“Stupid people die stupid deaths, David, and I don’t want to be next. Let’s go.”
David got to his feet silently. He had never seen a man killed before. Captain Roberts was an evil man who wanted to kill both him and Tom, yet David couldn’t help feel sorry for the man. His stomach turned as the image of Roberts’s death replayed in his mind. But what worried David the most was that he knew he would soon see another man die, the ramifications of which would change the world forever.
Tom and David headed through the Nicanor gate and into the Court of the Women. As the gate opened, a sound hit them, like waves of static. They knew the noise couldn’t be good, as did everyone else in the temple, all of whom began hurrying toward the exit.
The crowd of concerned worshipers flooded out of the Temple, pulling Tom and David with them. Once outside the Court of the Gentiles, the static became clear and they could hear the chanting of hundreds, maybe thousands of people repeating the same word, over and over, “CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY! CRUCIFY!”
—TWENTY—
Verdict
30 A.D.
3:23 P.M.
Golgotha (“The Place of the Skull”), Israel
Tom was horrified by the events of the past few hours. Jesus had been taken and beaten. He had been whipped, beaten again and then made to carry a large wooden cross to a hill, while people who, only a week ago had welcomed him with cheers and palm branches, now taunted him with insults and stones. Then came the clanging of metal upon metal as Jesus’s wrists were pierced by large nails, binding him to the wood like a plank. After hearing Jesus’s screams, Tom had left, knowing that if he heard the tortured sound of his friend again he might go to the future and return with an assault rifle.
Hours later, Tom and David had struggled against the crowd of onlookers to reach Jesus, to see their friend before he died, but the crowd was too thick and unfriendly to recognizable followers of the man they had nailed to a cross. Tom and David retreated to a hillside opposite Golgotha—which resembled the shape of a human skull—atop which the Romans had crucified three men. Even from his distant viewpoint, Tom could see the stained dirt coating the top of Golgotha. He could see blood dripping from Jesus, his friend, hanging on a cross, twitching and dying for teaching his beliefs—how could these people think that deserved death? It was almost too surreal to believe.
Standing beside Tom in equal shock and horror were David, Matthew, Peter, Mary, Martha and Lazarus. They stood silently on the hill, watching, waiting for the inevitable, afraid that any utterance, any disturbance might permanently break their spirits. But when a voice broke through the air, it wasn’t one of them; it was Jesus, pushing out his words with his last breath.
“My God, My God,” Jesus’s voice echoed from Golgotha, “Why have you forsaken me?”
The voice of Jesus was recognizable, but it was coarse, filled with anguish. Then Jesus’s body went limp, hanging tight on the nails in his wrists and feet. Tom found his face wet and his throat constricting. Tom fell to his knees and wept quietly, completely unaware of how his friends were reacting.
Mary crumpled into tears and fell toward the ground. Lazarus saw Mary fall through his clouded, moist eyes and caught her just before her head hit the ground. Martha was wailing loudly into Matthew’s chest as he held her tightly. Peter stormed off in a rage, cursing the Romans and Pharisees under his breath. And D
avid... Tom looked up at David who was crying, but not like everyone else, who had seen a friend die that they would never see again. David was smiling through his tears.
Confused thoughts raced through Tom’s mind in an effort to make sense of David’s reaction. Could David really be so confident that Jesus would rise again that he could smile at Jesus’s death? Did he really have that much hope? Was he really that naïve?
Tom became aware of his surroundings again and heard Mary crying. As he stood and walked to her, she saw him coming and fell into his arms. Tom held Mary as tightly as he could and she squeezed back. They had both felt the pain of loss before, but now they each had someone to share it with. Tom placed his cheek against hers and held her head in his hand.
“Take me home,” she said.
Tom looked toward David, “David.”
David had watched Tom with Mary. He had heard her request. “Go.”
With nothing else to be said, Tom turned with Mary and they left. Lazarus and Martha followed close behind.
David turned his gaze back to Jesus on the cross. Matthew stood next to him. “You’re the most faithful man I’ve had the pleasure of knowing,” Matthew said.
“Not faithful enough,” David replied, as he looked at Matthew, who appeared uncommonly small.
“None of us are,” Matthew said.
The two stared at Jesus for a few moments, watching as the bloodthirsty crowd dispersed. Matthew shook his head. “I better find Peter before he gets into trouble.”
David nodded and placed his hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “Until he rises again.”
Matthew smiled. “Indeed.”
With that, Matthew headed down the hill, leaving David alone.
After a step forward, and then another, David found himself walking toward Jesus at a steady pace. He reached the bottom of the hill, looked up at Golgotha and could no longer see Jesus or the cross. David started up the hill and became aware of how few people were still around. And those that remained were leaving.
The Didymus Contingency Page 22
