The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ (44 page)

The guards at the gate had been excited. Jonas had heard one of them telling the other that the body of the Nazarene had been stolen from the tomb during the night, but he was too distraught and too weak from hunger to pay much attention to their gossip. Hardly anyone was on the road this morning, and when he turned off along a path that wound up the hillside, he and the mule were alone. He had noticed a number of dead thornwood bushes in this area when he had gathered the green thorns for Abiathar several days before. At this season, there were not many dead thorns left, so it took longer to gather a load unless one was lucky enough to find a cluster of them.

Eleazar took the familiar path ahead of Jonas, the lead rope tied to his pannier for there was no need to guide him here. Jonas walked along behind, his head down, still sick with the grief that had assailed him when the crown of thorns had been pressed down upon the Nazarene’s head. That he had saved Elam’s life did nothing to mitigate his guilt and shame.

Suddenly Jonas realized that a man had fallen into step beside him. He had not seen the stranger appear nor heard footsteps overtaking him, but had been trudging along with his eyes to the ground and could easily have failed to see anyone approaching.

“Shalom,” Jonas greeted the stranger courteously.

The man did not speak but when Jonas raised his head, he found himself looking into deep-set eyes in which shone such a kindness and warmth that he felt an answering feeling rise within him.

“I did not observe you on the road, sir,” Jonas said. “You see, I am sad because I gathered thorns here for the crown they put upon the head of the Nazarene.”

The stranger smiled as if He understood and somehow Jonas did not find it odd that He still had not spoken a word.

“I tried to reach the Teacher and beg His forgiveness,” Jonas went on, “but I was kept back when Elam was stabbed. If Jesus had forgiven me, I would not be sad now.”

Just talking to the stranger who walked beside Him without speaking seemed to bring peace to Jonas’s troubled mind. And when the other man reached out to put His arm across the great hump on his back in a gesture of friendly assurance, the little woodseller felt an inexplicable warmth flood his soul. Most startling was not the stranger’s gesture nor its effect upon Jonas, but the fact that now he distinctly remembered having had this same sensation once before.

It had been a long time ago when, cold and afraid, he had looked up in the sky above the courtyard of an inn in Bethlehem and had seen the brilliant star hanging there and felt its warmth drive all fear and pain from his body. The feeling was as distinct and as comforting now as it had been on that night more than thirty years ago.

The stranger’s arm was like a protecting mantle about Jonas there on the hillside. When the little woodseller turned his head, he could see the other’s hand where it rested upon his shoulder and, as plainly as if he had seen them himself on the hill of Golgotha, Jonas detected the print of the nails which had fixed the outstretched hands to the patibulum.

“You must be the—” Jonas stopped for he was alone. In fact, there was not even the print of a sandal in the dusty track beside him to mark where the stranger had walked.

Standing in the roadway, Jonas shook his head slowly. “I have been dreaming.” he told himself finally. But the feeling of peace that flooded his soul and the touch of the stranger’s arm which it seemed he could still feel about his bent and gnarled shoulders were not a dream.

“The Nazarene claimed He would rise from the dead,” he said, unconsciously speaking aloud. He did not finish the sentence for it was incredible that the man to whose shameful death he had contributed should have risen and come here today to comfort him in his grief. Such a thing could not happen to Jonas the woodseller. He was not even a follower of Jesus nor had he ever spoken a word to the Nazarene—unless it had been just now.

Noticing that Eleazar had gone on ahead and was out of sight around a turn of the path, Jonas hurried to catch up with the old animal. As he rounded the hill and saw stretching before him the broad patch of burnet where he had gathered the green thorns he stopped with a feeling of awe and joy. Now, at last, he knew who had comforted him a few moments before on the road. What he was seeing could only be a sign that Jesus of Nazareth had indeed risen from the dead and had forgiven him his own part in the shameful death of the cross.

In the center of the patch of thorns, exactly where Jonas had gathered those for the crown, a mass of the green burnet had bloomed overnight with thousands of blossoms shaped like drops of blood making a scarlet slash of color across the green hillside that was like a burning beacon in the dawn.

Long, long ago, Jonas had been allowed to give the first gift to a child who, the shepherds had said, was announced to them by the angels as the Son of God. Now, many years afterwards, he knew he had also given the last gift, a crown for the King who would rule forever in the hearts of men.

The Crown and the Cross

© Copyright, 1959, by Frank G. Slaughter.

Previously published as a World Publishing edition in March, 1959

1st printing: February, 1960

P
ERMABOOK
edition: April, 1960

First printing in 2012 by eChristian, Inc. as a derivative work, ©
Copyright, 2012 by Frank G. Slaughter, Jr. and Randolph M. Slaughter.

eChristian, Inc.

2235 Enterprise Street, Suite 140

Escondido, CA 92029

http://echristian.com

Scriptures in the text are adapted from the King James Version.

Scripture quotations at the beginning of the chapters are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior design by Larry Taylor.

Produced with the assistance of Livingstone, the Publishing Services Division of eChristian, Inc. Project staff includes: Dan Balow, Afton Rorvik, Linda Washington, Linda Taylor, Andy Culbertson, Joel Bartlett.

ISBN EPUB: 978-1-61843-066-3

ISBN MOBI: 978-1-61843-067-0