Eyewitness To The Messiah

LENTEN ADVENTURE
ASSIGNMENT #3

Eyewitness to the Messiah

I have been privileged to be a part of a Lenten Adventure which allows its participants to actually step into 28 AD Israel and walk around the Sea of Galilee and rest in the orchards outside Capernaum. The journeyers of this Adventure take on the persona of a Biblical Character who lived during the three-year ministry of Jesus.

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A diverse collection of travelers join our group. Some are Romans of high political status. Some are poor Jewish fishermen. There is a woman among us of questionable character, a well educated man who claims to be a member of the elite Sanhedrin, a holy woman with a touch of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. There’s even an opinionated, yet charming camel named Rufus who happens to have a taste for wine and apples. And then there is me, Antonius. I am the slave of a kind master. My master is Marcus, a Centurion of the Roman Empire.

We have been called together, Jew and Gentile, free man and slave, male and female, believer and non-believer, and all sinners in the eyes of God, to witness the ministry and the persecution of a man named Jesus. Some Gentiles will find healing and salvation from the darkness of their stone gods. Some Jews will see the true, uncorrupted Law of their God for the first time. Some Romans and Sanhedrin will find themselves gripped in fear and hatred as they plot crucifixion. All will be affected.

Our journey began at Bethany, across the River Jordan, just north of the Dead Sea in the region of Perea. Jesus approached a man named John who was baptizing penitent believers and preaching of the coming of the Messiah. Many in the crowds laughed and jeered, calling John a mad-man. Many were astonished as John publicly berated King Herod for his adulterous behavior.

I watched Jesus step into the water. He allowed himself to be submerged in the river as a voice from the heavens declared, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” A white dove appeared above Jesus as the words were spoken. The voice of God? I wondered. If this man is the “Son of God,” why would he need to be baptized? What sinful deed could he have committed? And who is this God? Jesus emerged from the Jordan and walked quietly through the crowd into the entrance of the great desert. I would see this man again in a few months, in a different light, at the hour of my death.

Messages were sent to the Adventurers, discreetly during the night, informing us that Jesus had been fiercely tempted in the desert by Satan, but Satan did not win that battle. We learned that Jesus had emerged from the wilderness and journeyed to Cana where, it is said, he turned water into wine at a friend’s wedding. Then he went to Jerusalem for the Passover and drove the money-changers from the temple, calling it “My Father’s House.” He traveled to his hometown of Nazareth for a time where he made quite a scene in the synagogue. He almost got stoned to death for his remarks that God loved all men—Gentile and Jew.

I had grown to love my fellow travelers, their kindness and care for me and the other Gentiles. Rufus, my faithful camel, became a delightful treasure to all of us. We spoke of many things as we waited for news of Jesus and his whereabouts. We spoke of sin and temptation, of the corruption of the Jewish Law by Scribes and Pharisees who twisted the meaning of the Torah to accommodate their greed and political gain from the Roman occupiers. We spoke of Angels and Demons, of creation and the Word of God who was there from the beginning of time. We spoke of the many miracles we were hearing about which Jesus was performing. He touched lepers and they were healed. He cast out demons and restored sight to the blind. I was beginning to see there was something much more to this Jesus than just preaching. My belief in him became unquestionable when I became the recipient of one such miracle.

I had to leave my fellow journeyers and return to my master’s home. I was near death when Rufus arrived at the villa with me sprawled over his hump. I could not move and was in great pain. I was carried into my chamber. The house physicians reported there was nothing they could do. I remembered the words of my friends who believed Jesus was truly the Son of God, the promised Messiah, words of conviction and faith. I laid aside my pride, my disbelief, my scholarly logic. I called out for Jesus. Then all sight faded. I fell into a deep, black abyss. I called again and again for Jesus to save me, but no sound escaped my lips. I knew I was dying. I knew there would be no reward for me in Hades, only eternal darkness. I wanted to live forever, like Jesus promised on the Mount to those who believed in him and in the One who sent him.

Suddenly, a great light shown in the abyss. A form emerged from the light and approached me as if on a breeze. A man. He was tall and muscular, about my age. His skin was an olive color, like the complexion of the native Jews. His long brown hair fell across his shoulders in soft waves. His face was shadowed by the short beard on his chin, unlike the clean-shaven Romans or the long bearded Pharisees. He seemed to have his own unique style and appearance. I looked through the light and sank into his eyes. There is no other manner to describe how his eyes drew me comfortably and safely into his very being. A feeling of unimaginable love overcame me. A love meant exclusively for me. A love stronger than the bond between a child and his mother. A love deeper than that of a man and his betrothed. I felt complete peace, complete oneness with him. He spoke to me through the light within the abyss.

“I am Jesus. I am the One you doubted. I am the One your friends whom you journeyed with are professing to be the Messiah. Your friends are blessed. Your friends are correct. I am the Messiah, the One who is to come. I am here. Do you believe, Antonius? Do you feel my love, my child?”

I replied to him immediately, without hesitation, without doubt. “YES!!! OH YES, LORD. I BELIEVE!! I AM YOURS. DO WITH ME AS YOU WILL. JUST DON’T LET ME DIE IN DARKNESS.” The strange thing was…no words were actually spoken. The interchange was between our minds, our souls.

“You will walk again, Antonius. You will live,” came the words into my soul. “Return to your friends, your fellow travelers. Tell them what I have done here. Tell them I am coming to them, and assure them that all is as it should be. What is to come has been planned since the beginning of time. Tell them not to fear.” He raised an eyebrow, smiled at me, laid his hand on my forehead for a moment, and his image faded from my sight. But the light remained. And the LOVE remained.

I awakened from the darkness, and, to the astonishment of the house physicians, I arose from my bed and walked about my chamber. There was no bone-crunching-bone pain. I was later told that Jesus had not come to my chamber. He only spoke the words from afar, and, at the moment that he spoke, I awoke. I learned later that while I lay dying, my dear master made haste to find the Worker of Miracles and humbly ask him for help. Marcus was distraught and desperate. He knew Jesus could save me, but felt unworthy to have this Son of the Hebrew God enter his house. So Marcus only asked that Jesus say the word, and he knew I would be healed. Marcus told me that Jesus was deeply touched by his faith. He told Marcus to return home. His servant was healed. It was at that moment that I arose.

I left the villa to seek out my Savior and found him baptizing and teaching along the Jordan. He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me, and he smiled at Rufus. I knew it was the same man I had seen in my dark abyss of pain. Jesus. The one who healed me. He nodded an acknowledgment of understanding between us. I returned the nod. My heart pounded with the light and the love shone in his eyes. I continued my journey to seek out my friends and carry out Jesus’ instructions: “Tell them what I have done here. Tell them I am coming to them, and assure them that all is as it should be. What is to come has been planned since the beginning of time. Tell them not to fear.”

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Having this kind of interaction with other participants in this Bible-based study of Jesus’ life as He walked the earth is a new experience for me. I never really thought about all the aspects of this era in history—the mindset of the people of the region. I feel as if I have stepped into another realm when I post comments in the forum as Antonius, my character. Not only am I learning of the different life-styles, historical backgrounds and beliefs, and geographical areas of the Roman occupiers and their slaves and the Jewish people and their religious leaders. I am, in a real sense, there—witnessing the man Jesus. This is a unique opportunity to learn and feel what life was like two thousand years ago which is a necessary experience in order to understand who this man, Jesus, was. That education and realization, for me, is just beginning. We haven’t been to the Garden of Gethsemane yet. We haven’t witnessed the trials and questioning before Herod and Pontius Pilate or walked the road to Calvary as Jesus carried His cross. But we will.

My character, Antonius, and I are together discovering Jesus as a man, a very special man with a very difficult mission. He laughed and cried. He slept and maybe even snored. He washed his hair and cut his toenails.

He taught a New Law of love and forgiveness. He touched lepers, comforted prostitutes, drove out demons, raised the dead, forgave sins, ate with tax collectors, calmed storms, walked on water, healed the blind, and ultimately was tortured and died for me so that I might enter into eternal life with Him.