Upheld In Confusing Truth

Amos and Jacob packed their bedrolls and readied them for the trek home. It promised to be a hot one today and Amos wanted to get an early start before the heat would be unbearable for travel. 

“Father, do you hear it? That roar?” Jacob halted rolling and grasped the material tightly. “What do you think it is?” 

Amos paused, too. He wanted to be home tonight before Passover began, but the noise compelled him to investigate. Jacob ran to the door and Amos followed more slowly—his bones were not so agile these days. 

Outside, another crowd shoved a man shouldering a cross. As Amos reached the door, he saw the man fall and the Roman soldiers prod him with sticks and whips ordering him to get up. As he slowly pushed himself up with the aid of the cross, Amos gasped. It was Jesus. He was hardly recognizable. Jacob backed into Amos. 

The crowd moved forward again. Amos and Jacob just stood inside their door and watched. Then, as the last of them went by, Amos grabbed his staff and pushed Jacob. “Come, we must go, too.” 

“But Father! They are going to crucify Him. Shouldn’t we go home?” 

But Amos was driven. He MUST know how this circumstance came to be and what it meant. He could not let go of the angels and the baby he saw long ago. Somehow, this condemned Man and the baby were connected. Amos knew it. He had to follow. 

From the back of the crowd, they could see Jesus’ struggle to climb the hill—Golgotha. The Skull. By the time they reached the top, Jesus had been nailed to the wooden beams and a cry escaped Him as they raised the cross and dropped it into place. Amos winced. His own legs ached, but that was nothing now. Soldiers roped off the area and extended their arms to keep the crowd outside the barrier. Amos and Jacob pressed to the rope, ignoring the shouts and ducking swinging arms. There they stood quietly, Amos’ hand on Jacob’s shoulder, witnessing the agony of Jesus. Adjacent, soldiers played a game for the belongings of Jesus and the two men suffering on either side of Him.  

“You still think He’s Messiah, Father?” Jacob’s voice dripped disappointment. “It seems we’ve waited so long for deliverance and now we are lost again.” 

“I don’t understand, my son.” Amos wrapped his arm around Jacob as Jesus shouted, “Forgive them, Father, they know not what they do!” 

“All I know,” Amos murmured, “is that angels told us a Savior was born to us. I remember something from the Scriptures in Isaiah at the synagogue: we like sheep have all gone astray, but our iniquity was laid on Him. I can’t altogether remember the rest, but what I see reminds me of those ancient prophecies. We will have to trust God, Jacob.” 

“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all…” Isaiah 53:6.

“Therefore I will give Him a portion among the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors” Isaiah 53: 12.