Seven Words of the Skull

Seven Words of the Skull

By Royce A Ratterman

Copyright © 2015

ISBN: 978-8293267195

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, transmitted in any way, by any means, or in any form, without prior written authorization from the publisher and/or author.

Cover Photo by ElisabethR

 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

~ Seven Words of the Skull ~

“Hey, you children get off of this hill,” shouted the aggressive looking soldier, forcefully approaching the trio. “Away with you, now!”

Marcus, the most bold of the three youths, replied, “My uncle is a Senator of Rome.”

“Then go visit him,” the man ordered. “Go, get off of my hill.”

“Markus,” Ruth scolded, “your father is not a Sena—”

“That Centurion does not know that.”

Drawing a sharp breath, Ruth protested, “You will get us killed, Markus.”

“Killed? The Romans do not kill children unless they do something extreme. Playing on a hill is not extreme, Ruth.”

Departing as swiftly as lambs from a pack of hungry bloodthirsty wolves, the youths climbed fifty meters downhill over sharp rocks and sparse brush. Marcus stopped abruptly, being in the lead, and looked back up the rocky precipice.

“What are you thinking, Marcus? Do you think that soldier knew we're not Romans and you lied?” questioned Aristarchus, attempting to catch his breath.

Replying sharply, Markus barked, “Do not any of you tire of asking me the same question?”

“Sorry, but I—”

Interrupting his friend, he said, “Ruth, Aristarchus, come, this way. I know a place where no one will discover us. We can watch another area of this hill from there.”

 The two reluctant friends followed Marcus along a sheep trail, crossing rough boulders and crawling on their bellies through holes and crevices. One steep-sided area almost forced the trio to abandon their endeavor, but Marcus’s insistence and tenacity pushed them onward.

“Just a little bit more… here!” exclaimed Marcus.

Leaning over and pointing, Marcus showed his two friends what he previously placed into a small hole in the rocky cliff's side. “Check this out, I found it down the hill about three months ago. Probably rolled out of a bone box.”

The skull lay in the crevice as a grizzly reminder of that location’s purpose. Ruth and Aristarchus stared.

“Look, there,” pointed Ruth, “three of them. Wow!”

From the barely accessible location, the three explorers could clearly observe the area where the Roman soldier forbade them to remain.

“I think I know that man who is helping,” commented Ruth. “He’s the father of Alexander and Rufus.”

Interrupting, Aristarchus affirmed, “It is. They are from Cyrene.”

Marcus stared intently, his eyes fixed upon the man being fastened by large spike nails to a crossbeam, and then hoisted up and attached to a tall stake of wood with a sign written in three languages affixed atop it. They could read that the man’s name was Jesus. An eerie silence permeated the emptiness of their location, only being broken when Marcus stated, “I’ve heard that man speak before.”

“Where?” the curious friends inquired.

The grim silence gave way as the man moaned, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Marcus commented softly, not wishing to miss a word of what was going on in the near distance, “My friend gave that man, the one hanging in the center, his lunch once. He used it to feed thousands of people, and he said there were baskets full of leftovers after everyone ate to their fill. His name is Jesu--”

“I heard about that,” replied Aristarchus. “That man did that two different times I believe.”

“Did what two times?” questioned Ruth.

Trying to maintain the silence, Marcus stated firmly, “Fed thousands of people with almost nothing.”

Ruth moaned, “Oh.”

The boys watched while the soldiers divided up and then gambled for the criminals’ clothes, making snide remarks all the while to the dying offenders. Other men and women arrived and departed from the crucifixion area periodically, stopping only to ridicule those suffering, those souls long on their way to death’s door. The youthful curious trio observed the mockers from the distance.

“If he be the King of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him!” someone shouted.

It was difficult for Markus, Ruth and Aristarchus to hear the arguments that the two other criminals, being executed with the man, uttered, their voices weakened from their plight. The conversations had something to do with the man who fed the thousands and him needing to save his own life. Finally, one of the men asked the man in the middle to remember him.

Markus crouched down when a soldier glanced their way. “Listen,” he commanded, “the man in the middle is saying something."

“Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.”

The young trio heard the reply, but had no idea how that promise could be real.

“Maybe he’s a bit dazed from the drugged hyssop,” Ruth surmised.

“He did not drink from that sponge, only the other two did. You should watch closer,” snapped Marcus.

“Ok, ok.”

“Maybe he will drink later from the other hyssop, the one with only wine in it?” projected Aristarchus.

“Why drink from one and not the other?” Marcus snapped back. “How do you know what is in it, anyway? Just listen and be still.”

Marcus’s two companions decided it was best to only watch and not to offer comment for the time being.

A short period passed before an older woman and a young man approached and stood by the man hanging in the center. As the man called ‘Christ’ looked toward the two below him, he said, “Woman, behold thy son!” He then said to the young man, “Behold thy mother!”

A small zephyr quickly arose and the three youths ducked under a crevice to avoid a gust of dusty wind crossing the hillside. The sky darkened.

After what felt like hours, the youths heard a shout, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” Someone nearby the three crucified criminals claimed that the Christ man was calling for the prophet Elijah.

The three friends crawled out from under the crevice to hear the dying man shout once more, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

“This fellow is quoting one of King David’s Psalms. My father used to read the Psalms to me before he died, may God rest his soul, ever since I was little. I remember this one well,” an excited Marcus proclaimed to his friends. “This is making a lot of sense to me. Everything that is happening right now is written in that Psalm.”

Aristarchus and Ruth did not understand exactly what Marcus was saying, but kept their wonderings in silence just the same, not wishing to be yelled at by their friend again.

The man, Jesus, moaned, “I thirst.”

“I told you he would want a drink from the other branch of—”

“Shhhh!”

After the man, Jesus, said 'It is finished' the ground shook. Some stones tumbled down the cliff’s edge near where Ruth kneeled, but none caused her any injury. Then the dying man said his final few words, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

“This man was certainly innocent,” they heard someone comment. The centurion standing below the man stated, “Truly this man was the Son of God.”

Marcus addressed his friends, “Usually it is sort of boring here, but not today.”

Not wanting to vocalize their feelings of horror, the two friends remained speechless.

“When do the soldiers break their legs?” asked Ruth.

“Soon,” replied Marcus. “They are over there,” he pointed east.

Aristarchus inquired, “Why do they do that?”

“You have been watching for hours,” questioned Ruth, “and you still cannot figure it out?”

Hesitantly, Aristarchus responded, “So they can’t push themselves up with their legs?”

“That is it,” Marcus affirmed.

Not wanting to press the issue further and appear ignorant, Aristarchus kept silent for a long time before commenting, “Hey, they didn’t break the Christ man’s legs. Is that because he already died?”

Marcus conjectured, “It must be. Why would a Roman soldier waste extra time and effort to do any extra work or anything hard?”

The three friends laughed.

“I wish these soldiers were all gone from this land and stayed only in Rome,” lamented Ruth.

“We all do,” agreed Marcus.

After some well-dressed men arrived later in the evening and took the body of Jesus called Christ away, the youth eased their way back along the cliff’s precipices and entered the city gate together. Bidding each other farewell, they parted ways for their homes.

Many days later the three friends came together again. They discussed their previous time's experience on the hill and the rumor of that Christ man, Jesus, came alive again after dying. Marcus seemed to be able to quote from the Holy Scriptures concerning it all, but his two friends could not understand why it all mattered, or why Marcus was so captivated by it.

“This Jesus is the same man that told the Herodians and Pharisees to give to ‘Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's’,” Ruth commented. “My aunt told me he said this when they showed him a denarius coin. And he is the same one that chased the sellers out of the temple grounds a couple of times.”

Marcus stated, “He even used a whip, I heard. Maybe that is why they executed him.”

Ruth mocked, "Not for that."

“Do you believe he’s alive?” questioned Aristarchus. “Actually alive?”

“All of those different rumors about his followers stealing his body while the soldier guards slept outside the sealed tomb, a tomb with a huge rock in front of it," analyzed Marcus, "they just do not fit well together.”

“Yes,” agreed Ruth. “How could that many soldiers all be sleeping when someone rolls a huge rock away from a tomb entrance and carries away a body, especially at night when you can hear almost everything clearly?”

Aristarchus added, “And why weren’t the soldiers executed, since that is the punishment for sleeping at post? My uncle knew a Roman soldier who was execut--”

“People have seen him, I swear,” Marcus asserted.

“Time will tell, I suppose,” commented Aristarchus.

“Hey, let’s go back up to that spot on the cliff again. What do you say?” suggested Marcus.

“Sure, why not?” his two friends agreed.

“Another day,” Ruth added, “is another day to explore. Let us climb the hill again.”

“To the hill!” Aristarchus shouted.

Ruth and Markus pointed into the distance and cheered, “To the hill.”

The End

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The characters and events herein, though inspired in part by historical remembrances and are intended for educational and entertainment purposes.

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Pilate answered, What I have written I have written.”

John 19:22

~ ~ ~ ~ ~