The Semitic born man stumbled down the street driven on by his executioners. His beaten and bleeding flesh left a trail of fresh blood that was greedily licked up by the neighborhood dogs. The watching crowd for the most part, cheered on the executioners. Many of the onlookers had been followers of this innocent man’s agenda just weeks before. Several of the women along the crowded street could be heard tearfully wailing with grief. “Aww shut-up with your carrying on””, said a scornful man to the women, “He brought this on himself with all of his high and mighty speeches about love and forgiveness.” As the weak and bleeding man passed by, he spoke with amazing strength in his voice and compassion in his eyes as he turned to them, “Ladies, don’t cry for me. Cry for yourselves and your children. There is a time coming where you will wish you didn’t have children as the executioners turn on you. You’ll wish there was someplace to run and hide from the dangers surrounding you.” When the destination for execution was reached, the tough uncaring guards stripped the innocent man of his finely tailored clothes and further tortured this now naked man’s body with hellish instruments that would finally bring death. The worldly guards flipped a coin for the privilege of keeping the tortured man’s clothing. Their selfish concerns centered on getting enough good food to eat, nice clothes to wear and looking good in the eyes of their bosses. The people stood around staring, jeering and shouting at the man who was now near death, “You were so high and mighty when you were bringing the dead back to life and curing the sick. Now let’s see you do that for yourself. How dare you claim to be the son of God and then die and leave us behind without rescue.” Amazingly, a reply could be heard from the tortured man, “Father, forgive them; they don’t know what they are doing. My work is now finished.” Several days later a small article was found buried in the mid section of the town newspaper concerning this innocent executed man. The headline of the article stated, “Grave of Executed Political Dissident Found Empty.” The news piece went on to say that sympathetic grave robbers were thought to have stolen the body to support the dead man’s claims. Those claims included statements that he was the son of God, that his mission on this earth was to show mankind God’s love for all people and that he would have to die for all the wrongs committed by all people. The article ended with this, “The most fanatical claim this man was heard to say was he would come back to life three days after his execution. He would then go back to live with his Father having satisfied the payment necessary for all wrong doing and restore a loving relationship between man and God.”
