by Sarah Earlene Shere, ©2024
(Mar. 23, 2024) — I heard yelling in the streets, another fight, I supposed. Or perhaps it was another prisoner, sentenced to death, being brought in. The crowd seemed unusually happy. Then again, the sight of someone else’s blood being shed has always attracted a crowd. But now the shouts sounded like those of victory, as if they were the winners of a long battle. I saw cloaks being thrown off shoulders and onto the ground. Date pickers effortlessly shimmied up palm trees, hacked off the large fronds and handed them down to outstretched hands beneath them.
Curious, I ran to join the crowd. At first, I listened to those at the back. No one quite seemed certain what was happening. I rolled my eyes, as I made my way through the throng, at the gossip I heard of what was coming – so many extreme presumptions. But, as I drew closer to the road, and what seemed to be the front of the crowd, the truth became clear: the great Teacher the world had heard about was coming!
I became afraid. So many things had been said of Him. Our leaders seemed to have mixed feelings about Him. Those more vocal called Him blasphemous, but I had seen others of them quietly following Him from a distance. Incredible stories had been told about Him, while others merely said what a kind man He was. Some had recounted fantastic things He had said that had confounded and troubled many.
I didn’t know what to think. I pulled my cloak tightly around myself and held my lips shut. I was determined to not blindly follow the crowd. But then I began to wonder. What if all the good things I had heard about this Teacher from Nazareth, called Jesus, was true? Shutting my ears and closing my eyes to such a possibility would be just as unwise as following the crowd; either way, I would be refusing to use the intellect with which I was born.
As clouds of dust, swaying palm fronds and waving cloaks approached from down the road, I decided I would keep an open mind, listening and watching for myself, over the next few days.