Tag: Savior

Episode NT32 – The Soldier’s story

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based upon the crucifixion accounts in the Bible

Episode NT32 – The Soldier’s story

‘I saw it all. You see, I was in the Roman army at the time and I lived in Jerusalem. We’d ‘eard about Jesus and many of us ‘ad seen ‘im. ‘E didn’t look anything special, but they kept telling us about the miracles’e’d done, and the things ‘e’d said about God. We thought everyone loved Jesus – but we were wrong!’

‘In the middle of the night we got ordered to go and arrest Jesus, and one of ‘is followers, a man named Judas, took us to ‘im in some kind of garden in the middle of nowhere so we could arrest ‘im! Why ‘e needed arresting I’ll never know! It’s not as if ‘e ever did anything wrong. Still, orders is orders, so me and me men went with Judas and some of the Jewish guards to this garden – and there was Jesus. (P) Judas was scum! ‘E led us right to Jesus, ‘is own friend – someone ‘e’d followed and lived with for three years, and then shows us in the darkness exactly who ‘e was by giving ’im a welcoming kiss – the kiss of a friend … becoming the kiss of betrayal!’

‘Well, at that point we arrested Jesus and took ‘im to the Jewish leaders who hate ‘im. We went back to our barracks for some sleep. But apparently, when ‘e gets to the Jewish leaders, they accuse ‘im of all kinds of rubbish – an’ no one can agree with what anyone else says! It’s a shambles. But then the ‘igh priest asks Jesus if ‘e’s the Son of God? ‘N Jesus says – Yeah, ‘e is! This makes the leaders go potty and they demand ‘is death. Mind you, I reckon they’d already decided they wanted ‘im dead before they even asked that question. – And anyway, what worried me a little was, what if Jesus was telling the truth? What if ‘e really was the Son of God?’

‘Anyway, then, we ‘ear that Jesus was kinda beaten up by the Jewish leaders and taken to our boss, Pilate and Pilate starts to question Jesus about all the false things that the Jewish leaders have said about ‘im. Pilate’s not stupid, ‘e knows that they’re just jealous of Jesus and want ‘im out the way so they can keep their own privileged positions. Then ‘e asks Jesus – ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’

‘Jesus answers that one and says that his Kingdom is not of this world! (P) And Pilate gets a little worried about that answer. And as Jesus hasn’t shown any signs of being either dangerous or guilty of anything, Pilate starts to think, ‘I better let ‘im go!’

‘Now, it was the time of a special feast in Jerusalem called Passover when each year Pilate lets one of the prisoners, who we’ve worked really hard to catch, go free! So we’re none to ‘appy about this idea, but apparently it keeps the Jews ‘appy! Anyway, Pilate doesn’t want to execute Jesus, so he goes before a ‘uge crowd and tries to make them agree to let Jesus go! But they refused! I think the Jewish leaders were down in the crowd telling the people to shout against Jesus. And then, the people start to demand that someone else, a murderer no less, called Barabbas, be set free! It made no sense to me!’

‘So Barabbas – the murdering scum that ‘e is – gets released and Pilate starts asking the crowd what ‘e should do with Jesus! At first ‘e suggests that ‘e has ‘im whipped and set free. But as I watch I see those religious leaders out in the crowd shouting as loud as they can for Jesus to be crucified! Crucified! ‘E’s innocent and they want to kill ‘im with one of the nastiest deaths that’s ever been thought of? Pilate didn’t like the idea of that, you could tell, but when the Jewish leaders started to say they’d tell the Roman Emperor that Pilate wouldn’t execute a rival king – because Jesus had claimed to be the ‘King of the Jews’ and Rome considered anyone who claimed to be a king to be an enemy of the Emperor – Pilate ‘ad no choice. It was more than ‘is job was worth to say no! So ‘e ‘anded Jesus over to us – to crucify ‘im.’ (P)

‘But all the time I was wondering, if ‘e really is the Son of God, then why is ‘e going through all this? Why doesn’t ‘e just walk away, call down a legion of angels or do … something? Why’s ‘e letting them treat ‘im like this? An’ after a while I think, well, maybe ‘e isn’t the Son of God after all? Coz surely God wouldn’t let all this ‘appen to ‘is own Son – would ‘e?’

‘Anyway, first thing we did, so that the whole crowd could see, was whip ‘im. An’ as it was Pilate’s order, we whipped ‘im good n proper. (P) Still nothing! Still no calling down of angels to help, not even after we turned ‘is back to – jelly!’

‘So then we took ‘im away to our barracks – we liked to have a little, er, fun with the condemned, remind them who’s boss so to speak. Now, one of my soldiers ‘ad an old purple cloak, the kind of thing only really important people use, an’ ‘e came up with a wicked idea. Jesus was supposed to be some kind of King or something right? So we wrapped ‘im up in the purple cloak while a couple of me men rushed outside to get some branches from a thorn bush and twist them together to make a kinda crown, which we ramed it on ‘is ‘ead and laughed as the blood flowed down ‘is face.’

‘Then, someone else gave ‘im a stick to hold, so that ‘e looked kind of like a king with ‘is royal robe, crown and sceptre! Then the lads laid into ‘im and with howls of laughter we knelt before the ‘king of the Jews’, and then grabbed the stick and whacked ‘im round the ‘ed with it. It was a laugh! And boy, did we give ‘im a good beating – we beat ‘im until we were bored! (P) And still, in the back of my mind I was thinking, ‘surely ‘e can’t be the Son of God?’ Coz as we beat ‘im up, if ‘e was the Son of God, ‘e could’ve called down angels, or struck us dead or something! And yet, ‘e just took it, like I’d never seen before. Anyway, as I said, after a while we got bored of it all and took ‘im off to be crucified.’

‘‘E was real weak by now. I guess ‘e’d already lost a lot of blood, and as we put the cross on ‘im to carry up the ‘ill to be crucified, ‘e stumbled and fell over, it was all too much. (P) Funny really, I think maybe this would ‘ave been the time to call it a day. ‘Ed proved ‘is point! ‘E could take it, ‘e was special, we could see that. So why didn’t ‘e end it now? – One of me lads got a bloke who’d just arrived in town and made ‘im carry the cross for Jesus – we certainly weren’t going to carry it for ‘im! Cross’s are for scum – the only time we touch ‘em is when we nail villains to ‘em. And so Jesus carried on up the ‘ill, along with another couple of scum bags we were going to crucify with ‘im.’

‘When we got to the top of the ‘ill, we made the bloke carrying the cross put it on the ground.  And then, we laid Jesus on it and rammed the nails through ‘is hands and ‘is feet so that ‘e wasn’t going anywhere. Then we stood the cross up and let it drop into it’s hole in the ground. We did the same to the other two criminals. – And then we waited! It takes a long time to die when you’re crucified. Some of the others started to divide up Jesus’ clothes, but when they got to the undergarment, it’s an all in one job and they didn’t want to rip it up, it was too nice for that, so they cast lots to see who’d get it. Well at least one of ‘em was ‘appy.’

‘All of this ‘appened early in the morning and the people and the religious leaders came to gloat at the death of their enemy. They kept shouting at Jesus again ‘n again, telling ‘im to come down from the cross to prove ‘e was the Son of God. Yet ‘e stayed there! Surely if ‘e was the Son of God ‘e’d ‘ave come down? Surely?’

‘Then one of the criminals started ‘aving a go at Jesus as well. Why couldn’t they just leave ‘im alone? But before I could say anything the other criminal told the first one to shut it! ‘E said something like, ‘we deserve to die coz we’ve done bad things, but Jesus, ‘e’s not done anything wrong, ‘e’s innocent’. And then ‘e looked across at Jesus and said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into Your Kingdom.’ It sent chills down my spine. And Jesus said to ‘im, ‘Today, you will be with me in paradise.’

‘A funny thing ‘appened then. Not funny ha ha, but funny strange. At about noon, just as we were beginning to think about our lunch, it went dark – as if the sun ‘ad just stopped shining! We carried on anyway, got some torches and kept watch. But there was a lot less noise, less people passing through or saying anything. I began to feel really uncomfortable. Coz somehow I knew what Jesus had told that criminal, about paradise and all that, was true!’

‘It stayed dark till about 3 in the afternoon and then, all of a sudden, Jesus shouts out in a really loud voice, ‘My God, My God, why ‘ave you forsaken me?’ It chokes me up just to remember the pain in ‘is voice, it was enough to break your ‘eart. And then, ‘e shouted again, ‘It is finished!’ And ‘e died – just like that!’

‘But as ‘e died, there was an earthquake and the rocks split open. And I found out later that a really important curtain in the Jewish temple, the curtain that’s supposed to keep the people separated from God, was torn in two from top to bottom.’

‘’N as I saw all this, at last I knew it really was true, so I said it, coz I didn’t care who heard. ‘Truly – this was the Son of God.’                  

Episode NT31 – The Crucifixion

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based on Mark chapter 15 verses 16 to 47 & Luke chapter 23 verses 39 to 43

The Crucifixion

What a victory! The religious leaders could hardly believe it was true – Jesus, the One they’d hated – the One who’d been nothing but a … but a pain in the neck since He’d first arrived, showing them up and embarrassing them with all His talk about the Kingdom of God, was finally going to get what He deserved – death!

It was almost too good to be true! This Jesus, who spoke so much about God, was now going to die the most disgraceful death imaginable. He was going to be crucified! Crucified with the scum of society; a death so horrible it was reserved for the most vile villains and murderers! Surely now, everyone would see what a phoney Jesus was because, if He’d been considered even slightly important, then the very least the Romans would have done for Him was give Him a quick death by the sword – but now He’d have to face the disgrace of dying like a common criminal. He was finished, and His teaching could be forgotten along with Him. In fact, it was almost funny! Didn’t the Bible say that anyone hung on a tree was under the curse of God? Now Jesus, who claimed to be the Son of God, was to die nailed to a tree – on a rough wooden cross!

As Jesus was led away after being whipped, the Jewish leaders started celebrating. At long last they’d won, Jesus had lost – it was over! (PAUSE)

After whipping Jesus, the Roman soldiers took Him to their headquarters. They wanted to have a little fun with the condemned man! The charge had been that Jesus was ‘the King of the Jews’, so now the all-conquering Romans – who bowed the knee to no one except their own leaders – would show just what they thought of anyone who claimed to be a king.

Stripping Jesus of His clothes, the soldiers took a purple robe, the kind of thing only rulers and leaders wore, and draped it around His shoulders – laughing at how pathetic He looked. But this wasn’t enough; surely a king deserves a crown? So taking some thin branches covered in long vicious thorns, the soldiers carefully weaved a makeshift crown and rammed it on His head until the blood poured down His face. And as Jesus stood before them, weak from the whipping, a crown of thorns on His head and a purple cloak over His shoulders – they took it in turns to salute their defeated enemy, then spit in His face and beat Him on the head with a stick – on and on until they were bored, bored of the beatings and ready to get on with the execution. So, removing the purple cloak, they put Jesus’ own clothes back on Him, put a cross on His back and forced Him to start the climb to Skull Hill – or as it was known in the local language – Golgotha, where the crucifixion was to take place.

But after His whipping, beating and humiliation, Jesus was too weak to carry His cross very far. (P) A man called Simon, who was from a place called Cyrene, found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time and the soldiers grabbed him and forced him to carry Jesus’ cross the rest of the way to Skull Hill. (P)

The soldiers had executed many people before, they knew how to crucify, they also knew how painful it was and so offered Jesus some drugged wine to ease what was to follow, but Jesus refused to take it. Then, with a shrug of their shoulders, they laid the cross on the ground, put Jesus on top and stretched out His hands, put His feet one on top of the other and nailed His hands and feet in place. Above His head they nailed the charge He’d been found guilty of. It said simply: ‘King of the Jews’. (P) The cross, with Jesus, nailed on, was raised up and secured in place. Then, leaving Jesus for a moment, they laid out two other criminals who were to be crucified that same day and put one up on either side of Him. And then, to pass the time, they divided Jesus’ clothes into four piles, one for each of them, and tried to work out what to do with Jesus’ undergarment. It was a nice piece of clothing, and they didn’t want to rip it up and ruin it, so after some discussion, they decided to cast lots for it, which is like throwing dice, where the one who gets the highest number wins! So they cast lots for His clothes and then waited – because death by crucifixion can be a long, slow process. (PAUSE)

It was nine o’clock in the morning when Jesus was crucified, and Skull Hill was near enough to Jerusalem for many people to pass by and see what was happening. Of course, everyone already knew what had taken place and some just came to gloat over the end of this so-called Holy Man – this person who was supposed to be sent from God and yet ended up being executed under the curse of God! But it was the religious leaders who enjoyed it most, standing by the cross they shouted out for everyone to hear, ‘He SAVED others, but look at Him now! He can’t even save Himself! Let this ‘Messiah’, this ‘King of the Jews’, come down from the cross so that we can all see it with our own eyes! Only then will we believe anything He’s said!’ (P) And then, everyone was hurling insults at Him, even the criminals being executed on each side started mocking Him. At least, one of them did while the other one began to take notice of this special man nailed between them. And reading the charge nailed above Him – ‘King of the Jews’ – he began to wonder – or God began to speak to him even as he was being executed for his many crimes.

But the first criminal hadn’t seen anything special in Jesus, ‘So you’re the ‘Messiah’ are you?’ he mocked. ‘Well come on then!’ he continued, ‘Don’t just stay there, prove it to us all and save yourself! (P) Oh! And while you’re at it, you can save us too!’

At this, the other criminal could take no more. ‘Shut up, will you! Don’t you fear God even when you’re dying? We deserve what’s coming to us for what we’ve done, but this man,’ he nodded in Jesus’ direction. ‘This man hasn’t done anything wrong.’ At this, he turned his head as best he could to look at Jesus. ‘Jesus,’ he called, and Jesus looked his way. ‘When you, come into your Kingdom, please, remember me’. (P)

‘I will tell you something that’s absolutely true,’ Jesus replied as He looked into the eyes of the dying man. ‘Today – you will be with me in paradise.’ (PAUSE)

At 12 midday, it was almost as if the sun could no longer bear to look upon Jesus as He was dying on that cross, and darkness spread across the whole land until 3 in the afternoon. And then, after 6 hours on the cross, Jesus raised His head and called out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ Which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’

Then Jesus let out another loud cry and died. At that moment, the large thick curtain in the temple in Jerusalem, the curtain that separated the people from the Most Holy Place where they could not go because of their sin, was torn in two from top to bottom. And the Roman officer who stood watching Jesus die exclaimed, ‘Truly, this man was the Son of God!’ (PAUSE)

As evening drew near, a member of the high council called Joseph from the town of Arimathea, plucked up the courage to go and see Pilate to ask for Jesus’ body. Pilate was surprised that Jesus had died already and, after calling in the Roman officer to confirm He was dead, Pilate allowed Joseph to take the body. There wasn’t much time before the Sabbath day began because, for Jews, the day starts at sunset and sunset was close at hand. On the Sabbath day, no working could take place. So quickly taking Jesus’ body down from the cross, Joseph wrapped it in a long linen cloth and laid it in a new tomb carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a large stone over the entrance and went sadly away. Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus’ disciples, saw where the body had been left.

Episode NT1 – The Silent Priest

tale2tell original Bible Stories series – New Testament

Based on Luke chapter 1 verses 5 – 25

The Silent Priest  

For four hundred years the Lord had been silent. No prophets had been born in Israel and even though many things had happened, the Lord hadn’t sent anyone to tell the people what He thought – all they had was what we call the Old Testament – with all God’s law and the wonderful stories of what the Lord had done many years before. 

But the Old Testament had left the people wanting more. God had promised Israel a Saviour, a Messiah, who would one day come as a descendent of the great king David, and rule forever and ever. And to make matters worse, the Israelites no longer ruled themselves! Some time ago the Romans had invaded their land and taken it over, so the people now lived under Roman control and longed for the coming of the Saviour – the Messiah – who they thought would save them from the nasty Romans! 

But they didn’t understand! God HAD promised to send the Messiah, the mighty Saviour, but God wasn’t thinking about the problem of the Romans! What did it matter who ruled over the people – if the people could never be set free from the guilt of all the bad things they’d done? If the people couldn’t be forgiven, then they could never be friends with God! This was the problem God had in mind when He talked about a Messiah, to deal with the real problem of sin and death once and for all – but it was going to take a long time for the people to realise that they’d got it all wrong! (PAUSE) 

There was a man and wife who lived in Israel at that time. The man’s name was Zechariah and he was a priest who served God in the temple for 2 weeks every year. His wife’s name was Elizabeth – she was also a member of the priestly tribe called the Levites. 

Zechariah and Elizabeth loved the Lord God and were good as far as God was concerned, always being careful to do all the things the Lord had commanded. But like many people at that time, Zechariah and Elizabeth were longing for the time when God would send the Messiah, the Saviour – to save the people, and they would often pray to the Lord that He would arrive soon. 

But even though Zechariah and Elizabeth loved the Lord and tried to please Him in every way, the Lord had left them without any children. (P) To be childless was seen as a terrible disgrace, because people often thought that when a woman couldn’t have children – it was a sign that God wasn’t happy with her! And now Zechariah and Elizabeth were very old, well beyond the time when they could normally have children. (P) 

During the 2 weeks of service at the temple in Jerusalem which Zechariah and his priestly order, the order of Abijah, did every year, the time came to chose someone to go into the temple sanctuary and burn incense at the incense alter! There were many priests in the order of Abijah, and the way of choosing someone to go in was by casting lots! Casting lots is kind-a like throwing dice – the one who gets the highest number is the one who’s chosen to go in. (P) This job, of burning incense, was a very important job that if you were lucky enough to be chosen, you could only do once in your lifetime, and many priests never got the chance to do it at all! In all the years Zechariah had been serving at the temple, he’d never been chosen, and now he was very old. 

But this was to be Zechariah’s year! For as the lots were cast, Zechariah was chosen – and carefully he made his way into the temple sanctuary to burn the incense at the incense alter, while a great crowd waited outside, praying! 

As Zechariah stood in front of the incense alter, suddenly an angel from the Lord appeared standing at the right side of the alter. Zechariah was terrified, but the angel said, ‘don’t be afraid Zechariah. For God has heard your prayer …’ Which prayer did the angel mean? His prayer for the Messiah to come soon? Or, his prayer for a son? The angel continued, ‘your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son! You are to name him John. You will be overjoyed and many will rejoice with you when he is born for he will be great in the Lord’s eyes. Now your son must not touch wine or strong drink for he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. He will persuade many Israelites to turn to the Lord their God, and he will be a man with the spirit and power of the mighty prophet Elijah from many years ago. (P) And, he will come before the Lord, preparing the people for His arrival.’ 

All this was too much for the old man! Could he really believe all he was hearing and seeing? Had the angel really promised to answer both his prayers at once? That Elizabeth and he would have a child, but even more importantly, this child was a sign, a messenger sent to prepare for the arrival of the long awaited Messiah? 

Zechariah shook his head, it was all too much to take in – surly this couldn’t all be real. ‘How can all this happen?’ He said, ‘I’m an old man and my wife’s an old woman?’ 

That’s when things started to go wrong for Zechariah. While the crowd outside started to wonder what was taking Zechariah so long, the angel responded to Zechariah’s un-belief. 

‘I am Gabriel!’ He said, ‘I stand in the presence of God Himself. It was Him who sent me to you to bring you this wonderful news. But now, since you won’t believe what I have told you, you will be unable to speak a word until the child is born! For my words will come true at the proper time.’ 

Meanwhile, the crowd outside were beginning to get a little anxious, why was Zechariah taking such a long time to do this simple job? Then, as Zechariah appeared they breathed a huge sigh of relief – only to become worried again as the old man made gesturing motions, unable to speak! It was then that they realised he’d seen a vision. (PAUSE) 

For the remainder of his 2-week of service, Zechariah stayed at the temple performing his duties as best he could, – bearing in mind that he couldn’t speak since his conversation with the angel Gabriel. (P) Then, after the 2 weeks were up he went home, and not too long after – his wife Elizabeth became pregnant! (P) For the next five months Elizabeth lived in seclusion, out of sight of prying eyes, while at the same time she rejoiced, saying, ‘The Lord’s so kind, He’s taken away my disgrace at not having any children.’