Two Parades

This is a story I wrote for Palm Sunday. I hope you enjoy it.

Even though I was very young, I can still remember that day clearly. At the time it was confusing and I did not understand, but the memory is crystal clear. I suppose I really should introduce myself, though, I am Benjamin Ben Yaacob. Benjamin son of Jacob. You have probably never heard of me. I have not written any books. I lived my life in the time of Jesus. I was one of the faceless ones in the crowads that hung around Jesus. Well, I did not hange around Jesus and follow him every where. I was too young to do that, but I did see him twice within a few days of each other.
The first time I saw him was at one of the gates into Jerusalem. My father had brought me with him to celebrate Passover at the temple, where the lamb had been brought to be sacrificed. We were poor people, but every year my father would make the walk from our home near Jericho to the temple. This year, my little brother was sick, so my mother had to stay home with him, so it was just my father and me. We arrived a few days early and stayed with a cousin that lived in Jerusalem. The cousins name was David.
When we arrived at my father’s cousin’s house he was very excited. He said that some of his friends had been talking about this Rabbi named Jesus from Nazareth. The rumor had it that he was coming to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. He was supposed to arrive tomorrow. David said that some of his friends believed Jesus as the Messiah. Others said that he was Elijah come back to herald the Messiah. David was not sure, but he knew that Jesus was something special and he wanted to see him. My father said that he too would like to see this Jesus for himself. The next morning we got up and went down to the gate that Jesus was going to enter Jerusalem through. I was expecting only a few people there, but the crowd was huge. There were men, women and children there. Some were talking about how Jesus had raised a man named Lazarus from the dead. Others were talking of how he had healed so many people. There was even two people there, that I heard claim to have been touched by Jesus and healed. Many of the people had cut down Palm Branches and were waving them in the air.
I have to admit, that I was a little scared, but very excited as well. There were so many people there and I was very little. I was afraid that I would get lost, so I held tightly to my father’s hand. I tugged on his arm once and asked him, “Father why are there so many people here and what are they excited about?” He said, “Many people believe that this Jesus is the Messiah, that when he comes into Jerusalem he will overthrow the Roman government and set us free.” I was young and was not real sure what being the Messiah meant, but I knew the Romans were bad and if Jesus was going to fight the Romans, then I liked Jesus.
You see ever since I can remember, the Romans have ruled over my people. They were pagans and did not worship the Lord as we did. Also, they were always coming around and collecting taxes. These men with big roman soldiers would come to our house and demand money. Most of the time it was more than we actually owed, but father had to pay it or they would put him in prison. My friend Yosef, his father could not pay his taxes once and the soldiers took him and his family away. I never saw Yosef or his family again, so I really don’t know what happened to them. I bet it wasn’t good whatever it was.
Anyway, we waited there for a little while, I listened to the crowd talk about Jesus. There were several people there, my father called Zealots. These were people who believed we needed to fight the Romans and win our freedom back. They were some of the loudest calling Jesus the Messiah and telling stories about him. Then a murmur went through the crowd, Jesus was coming. Some people ran in from outside the gate and announced that he was coming. A Chant went up from the crowd: “ ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!Hosanna in the highest heaven!’”
The people were shouting and praising Jesus. Many of the people were waving the palm branches they had cut earlier, some were laying them down on the ground forming a sort of carpet for Jesus to walk on. I was having trouble seeing, so my father put me up on his shoulders. Other children ran out into the street. Then Jesus came through the gate, but he was not walking. He was riding on a young donkey. At the time I just thought it was incredible that he was important enough to ride and not walk, but later I was told that this was a part of a prophesy that the King would come riding on a donkey. Most of the crowd must have recognized this, because the shouts got louder and crowd roared. I was so excited, I started shouting to : ‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!Hosanna in the highest heaven!’
Then I saw a few men on the edge of the crowd that were not shouting. In fact, they looked rather angry. As soon as Jesus got through the gate, they approached him. “Father,” I said,” who are those men?” He shook his head and said, “ those are some big shots from the temple. They fear Jesus and do not believe that he is the long awaited for Messiah.” I wasn’t sure how anyone could fear this loving and gentle man, but I understood that they did not like Jesus, so I did not like them. One of them asked Jesus to make the crowd stop. They understood very clearly that the crowd was proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus refused to tell the crowd to be quiet. In fact he told them that if he did, then the stones would cry out.
What a great day. Jesus went straight up to the temple and entered the temple. Some of the crowd followed him, but my father and David decided to go home. They talked excitedly about what had happened. Even at such a young age, I knew that something wonderful and awesome had happened here today. This parade was a celebration of the king coming to Jerusalem.
There was a lot of talking about Jesus that Passover time. I heard that Jesus had kicked the money changers and sheep sellers out of the temple. My father said good, because they were all thieves, robbing good people who were trying to do the right thing. He and David talked a long time about this. Father said that even though the thieves were back the next day, the act was symbol of how Jesus the king was going to purify Israel.
It seemed to make sense then, but we kept waiting for Jesus to act again, but nothing happened. He and his disciples were at the temple everyday. Jesus taught about the kingdom of God and loving all people, but it seemed many were waiting for something more. My father kept saying it was time for action, but Jesus would never take any action.
I don’t remember how many days later it was, but several days later David came and my father just came home from the market and they were talking about Jesus again. They said that last night Jesus had been arrested. They wanted to go see the trial, so the they grabbed me and went down to the temple. The crowd had already left the temple and someone told us that Jesus was being judged by Pilot. When we over to the Praetoriam, we stood outside with the rest of the crowd. None of us wanted to go inside, because it was very close to Passover and we did not want to be unclean. Pilot came out several times and it almost sounded like he was trying to talk the crowd out of punishing Jesus. He had Jesus whipped in front of all of us, but led by the chief priest the crowd started yelling that they wanted Jesus crucified.
Finally Pilate gave in and sent Jesus to be crucified. The brought a big cross out and put it on Jesus’ shoulders. He was very weak from lack of sleep and the beatings. He struggled a lot with that big cross. I looked around at the people. They were yelling and cursing, some were even spitting on Jesus. A Few people broke through the crowd and punched or hit Jesus. Then I noticed something peculiar. These were the same people who had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. Over there I saw a man who had put his coat on Jesus’ donkey. There was another man who had begun the shout of Hosanna. There was one who had laid palm branches in front of the king. Now he is shouting vile names. I don’t understand, please Daddy hold my hand. I am scared.”. Jesus was so weak he could not walk with the cross anymore. It didn’t matter how many times the soldiers hit him or whipped him, he simply could not do it. After quite some time the soldier pulled a man out of the crowd and told him to carry Jesus’ cross.
Oh what a horrible parade this was. They were taking Jesus outside of the city to kill him. I couldn’t figure out why these people were being so mean to Jesus. What had he ever done. He preached about love and forgiveness, but I saw nothing but hate in the other people. Jesus never said anything. No matter how they taunted him or hurt him, he said not a single word.
I was crying, I was so scared. At last, my father picked me up and held me close. He was crying too. He understood as well. They were killing the Messiah, the king of kings and Lord of Lords. I kept thinking something was going to happen, something or someone would save Jesus, there had to be hope, there had to be.
Nothing happened, though. He was led to The Skull and he was nailed to the cross and crucified. Jesus was put to death like a common criminal. What were we to do now.