The crucifixion (part 1)

People of jerusalem shouted the roman chancellor. He had no other go but to stomp his authority on the massively turned out croud through his vocal chords and nothing else. The massive crowd which was busy in discussing rumors and talking mundane things suddenly turned out silent. The crowd is good at anticipating important events and today was no different. They were not sure if they could change it, so they decided to take the next best course, which was to witness it. The roman chancellor was nervous himself, but he tried his best to hide that through his sullen face. He quietly observed the crowd since silence creates tension and fear in the room, and he knew that if there was one day where the romans needed to induce the fear in these lowly jews, it was today. Not that the jews were not afraid of romans any other day, but today he needed it more than ever, since it would make or break his career in rome. Jerusalem was by no means a reward for someone's capabilities, but it was more of a punishment zone and he certainly didn't want to live in this scum of a place when he could nicely be settling down in the finesse of rome.

Chancellor was not a bad man. He was a fine, learned gentleman and he was simply following the norms of the society in which he was brought up. Every culture on this planet tries to put down other cultures and nations more than it tries to put its own culture up. Romans were no different and hence they were taught that they were the 'civilized' ones and the rest were barbarians. They were also taught that roman were born to rule the world and show it the right way whereas others were there to 'serve' them. Chancellor also was brought up with this feelings and even if he had other ideas, what could he do? He was not the emperor of rome to reform and hence he decided not to trouble himself much with the questions of morality. But, no matter, how hard he tried, his conscience was troubling him about the decision he had to make today. How could he possibly kill this jew for no apparent reason? Not that the chancellor had never ordered jews to be killed, but somehow, this one guy was different. He did not see fear in his eyes when the words 'kill him' were uttered. He did not see the anger or the loud, pompous words that were uttered by the revolutionaries who were caught for treason. Instead, he saw contentment and peace in his eyes. He stood there standing with no slight movement as if he knew that it was bound to happen. He paid no attention to what others were saying about him as well as paid no attention to who were saying it. He did not show the slightest hint that he was afraid of death. This troubled the chancellor as he had never come across such a man, not even in rome. Besides, there was a crazy cult that followed him and believed him to be their messiah, their delivery boy who will free them from the clutches of the evil empire and make them rule all over the world. The chancellor had heard so many crazy stories in his rich life as well as in his sojourns around the world, but this topped the list. The jews who had no military stratagem were destined to conquer the mighty, roman army with this crazy messiah as their lead. Nah, this is some crazy talk inspired by these village folks was the general impression of the chancellor. However, he knew that this man was no simple human being and whether he would conquer rome or not, he would definitely bring an upraising against the jewish authorities who were suppressing their own people and were full of corruption. He very well knew that it was the main reason for them trying to get rid of him. However, he was not sure of why he couldn't just use that as a pretext for killing him. Something told him to stay away from this and let the man be freed so that he can choose his own destiny, but he hesitated. Could the jews use this as a tactic to fire up the revolution and cause trouble? He surely didn't want to invite trouble when he was thinking of impressing the authorities and going back to rome. This thought settled in the chancellor's mind and drove out all the other pious thoughts the chancellor's mind was brewing at that time. Besides, it was the jewish mess and let them deal with it, was the thought that the chancellor's mind conviniently settled upon. 

"People of jerusalem", the chancellor shouted again. He looked at them intently and started speaking out slowly. "Rome respects your individuality and your own religious sentiments." he shouted. "Hence, we decided to let you decided to let you choose for yourself which prisoner you want to release on this auspicious day".As he said this, the soldiers brought forward two people chained in iron completely in front of the crowd. The chancellor was a wise, learned man and could hardly be considered naive, but his facial expressions were completely changed for when he saw the reaction to the prisoners arrival. On one hand, there was this notorious criminal who looted the jews and on the other was this preacher who wanted to reform this religion to make it more accessible to commoners. However, the so called commoners were not very supportive of this reformer or the messiah and were booing him big time. The chancellor recovered from his initial set back and he saw that the chances of the messiah being freed upon have hit a new low. He addressed the people saying that on one hand he had a notorious criminal who terrorized jerusalem and on the other he had this person called jesus of nazareth who didn't appear to be very sane and was awarded crucifixion as a punishment.He said it was upto the people to decide whom they want to be freed and to whom the punishment should be awarded. The people didn't hesitate for a moment to say barabas, barabas and there were a loud wave of protests against jesus and shouts for crucify him, stone him to death were going up. A few of the vociferous ones threw stones at him and some of them hit him hard. Blood started flowing down at which point the chancellor decided to speak to the crowd. He realized the irony of situation where he, a roman was trying to defend the culprit who claimed to be the son of god and was above the roman emperor himself. He tried to calm down the people by raising his hands, but they were in no mood and hence he decided to stomp his authority by shouting at them again. He shouted saying, " this jesus of nazareth may be guilty of violating the roman authority but a punishment of crucifixion sounds too severe." However, the people shouted back saying, "he deserves this, he deserves this". The chancellor remarked that the romans  would not be held accountable for this and the people retorted by saying that let his blood be on us and our future generations. At this point, the chancellor felt it was a futile attempt to talk to these people. He somehow felt very sad at his own helplessness and motioned the soldiers to take the prisoners away. He could see amusement in barabas eyes about how he was saved from a certain death and looked away from jesus since he felt there was some unexplainable calmness in his eyes. The chancellor himself decided to walk back and each of his steps from that place back to his residence were heavy and shook his heart.

Meanwhile, the soldiers who were awaiting this very opportunity took their heart content in dragging jesus away and gave him an earful of their choicest abuses and mockery. Jesus meanwhile was looking like the evening sky with blood stains all over his body. However, something told that it was nothing when compared to the torture that awaits him later in the day. The crowd were still shouting with anger and jerusalem was waiting as a rabid blood hound ready to pounce on its prey. Of course, not all of jerusalem was bursting with joy, there were a very few whose heart were bleeding, out of love, out of affection, out of shame and out of guilt.

(P.S: I will try to write the next part in the following week describing one of the most definitive events in modern history...this is only possible if Christ be willing)

Amen!