The Day Before

They were scared, they felt alone, a little betrayed and scared.They were locked in a room where the slightest noise made the grown men jump. They had crept in one at a time not making eye contact then sitting quietly, each one afraid to be the first to speak, afraid to put into words what they all were feeling.As the time passed and they looked into each other faces, they saw the same disbelief and sadness. One by one they began to tell stories, stories they all knew and heard repeatedly for the past three years. Now the tales brought a sense of peace and a moment of forgetfulness, forgetfulness until one of them would look at the two empty spots around the table and then the pain would hit them again.The pain of losing two friends, one a betrayer and the other their beloved teacher. The men looked at each other and wondered how they could have been so wrong? Had they missed something,had they been mislead? Even as these thoughts crossed their minds each one remembered the miracles, the water to wine, making the blind to see,the lame to walk, casting out demons, and even raising the dead.One even had the special memory of walking on water, that memory would live forever in the heart and mind of the fisherman who had been blessed with that gift.It was the women who looked after the men, they brought the food and prepared the chamber for them.As the group considered these women, it occurred to them that the master always had a special love for women,he treated them as he treated the men.with dignity and respect and they loved him for it.The women listened to the stories just as intently as any man and now as even as they were suffering just as much as any of the men, they still saw to the needs of the eleven.Some of the women were even gathering supplies to take to the tomb in the morning. Supplies that were necessary to prepare the body for burial. Burial that is word they never thought to use for the teacher. He was always so alive and vibrant not one of the men had ever considered that he could actually die. The fact that he allowed himself to be taken prisoner still had them confused and no matter what had happened on that long Friday, they kept waiting for a miracle. They stood in the shadows and the background their faces covered,hoping and praying for a miracle.They prayed for God in heaven to rescue the teacher, they waited for the angels to descend or for the rabbi to rise up and break his bonds and declare his kingdom and kill his enemies. When this did not happen and indignity after indignity was heaped on this one man, the followers began to look away.They did not understand and could not bear to watch as their beloved friend was beaten beyond recognition, stripped of his dignity, mocked and spat upon.They had traveled separately up the streets behind the bloodied and battered man, their tears blinding them as they stumbled up the hill to the place of execution, the place where their friend would die, where he would die a horrible and painful death, a death he did not deserve for crimes he did not commit . The hammering of the nails drove some of the men away, it was almost like they could feel the pain of the spikes being driven into their flesh.The ones remaining witnessed the final degradations, the thorn crown being pushed onto an already bleeding head, the blood flowing down to obscure even more of his face,the sign placed above his head to mock the dying man and make him even more of an object of ridicule.The process of crucifixion is a long painful ordeal, you are awake, you can hear and speak,but unfortunately you can also feel, you can feel the spikes through your hands and legs you can feel the thorns digging into your flesh, and you can feel your breathing become more shallow as the hours pass, you can feel the lack of oxygen as you slowly suffocate.The day passed with nightmarish slowness, as the friends and family of the teacher gathered at the foot of the cross, each praying for a miracle and then finally just praying for his suffering to end.When the end came there was relief for the followers of the teacher and fear for the executioners it seems a series of "coincidences" had the officials and religious leaders stirred up. At the exact moment of the teachers death the temple veil ripped and when the sun disappeared the ones who orchestrated the execution felt a deep terrible sense of foreboding. They decided to place guards around the tomb of a dead man.Guards who knew it meant their death if anything happened to the body.Strange precautions for the son of a carpenter, especially over the Sabbath when no one was allowed to walk more than a few steps.The men in the locked room discussed all this as they settled in for another long night. The room grew quiet as each one drifted off to sleep, each one to dream their own dreams, some of fond memories and peace, one of the new responsibility of caring for an elderly woman and at least one to relive the nightmare of denying a friend and watching him die.As the candles died down and the men slept a presence filled the room. A presence that brought a feeling of peace and love to everyone in the room, it brought with it a sense of hope, even though the sleeping men had no idea what the future held, the spirit knew that in a few short hours all would be made known and that these men and women, these chosen few would understand all and then begin the greatest adventure of all time!Now, we only have to have to wait for sunrise!