The Pilate Scroll

by M. B. Lewis

  Her mind whirled, processing what he was saying.

  “Well, yes.”

  “So, it takes a lot of faith to believe those theories and support them. You don’t know that they are factually correct. You use partial science as a justification for your position. And you’re putting your faith in the person who started that theory.”

  “I don’t have faith.”

  “You do, it’s just a little misguided. You think everything that exists on earth, in the universe, is by chance. But that’s impossible.” Duke was getting louder but caught himself. “The fact that everything that exists is for a reason. Somebody had to create this.”

  Kadie sat back in her seat and fell silent. She wouldn’t discuss science for the rest of the trip. She was willing to indulge Brian in his fairytale, but not Duke in his.

  13

  Jerusalem, Israel

  The Garden Tomb

  * * *

  The taxi dropped them off on Sultan Suleiman Street just north of the Damascus Gate of Old Jerusalem. The area appeared like any other part of the city; billboards, bus stops, shops and offices, and cars along the street. If this were the site of the Resurrection, Kadie understood why there were skeptics of the faith. Undoubtedly, the location would be just another tourist trap with rides and shows. Whatever, if it made Brian happy, that’s all that mattered.

  Kadie, Brian, and Duke purchased their tickets to enter the Garden Tomb. The musty scent of the busy streets gave way to flora and fauna within the walls. A variety of trees, plants, and flowers were scattered throughout, and numerous areas for prayer or reflection were set up with benches for small groups.

  It was like they had transported to a different time and place.

  The three of them weaved their way through the garden to the back. A tiny arena faced outside the garden toward the side of a small hill. They walked to the rail and gazed across the two-lane road at the rocky slope.

  “There it is,” Brian said. “The skull!” He raised his hands in triumph.

  His enthusiasm made Kadie curious. “What are you talking about?”

  “Gol—gotha.” Brian stood captivated by the sight. “The place of the skull. It is w-where Jesus was crucified.”

  “What skull?”

  Brian pointed at the hillside, his face glowing with joy. “There—on the side of the mountain. It looks like a skull.”

  “Brian, that’s not a mountain. I’m not sure I would call it a hill.” Kadie surveyed the top of the small hill and tried to visualize three crosses. “I suppose this could be the place. It’s possible three crosses could fit up there.”

  Duke chimed in. “Some scholars believe that the crosses may have actually been on the road. Crucifixion was the Roman’s way of not only torturing someone before they died but humiliating them as well. This road would have been well-traveled back then, so crucifying Jesus here would have been the ultimate in humiliation.”

  Brian fidgeted at the knees, up and down. “I want—to see—the tomb.”

  Duke patted him on the shoulder. “Me too, Brian. Let’s go.” They turned and walked out of the seating area and meandered along a concrete pathway. Kadie followed behind them. The uneasy feeling she had in the car had long since gone. She had a sense of calm for the first time in days, perhaps even years.

  What is it about this place? she thought. So peaceful, so pleasant. And in the middle of a bustling city. You’d never realize what lay inside these walls.

  They came to a clearing in the garden where a section sat below their level. Kadie shuffled to the rail and looked over the edge. A small line of eight people waited to enter a tiny doorway carved into the side of a hill.

  “You coming?” Duke said as he and Brian walked toward the stairs.

  Kadie shook her head. “No, you guys go ahead. I’ll watch from here.” She scanned the area as her brother raced down the stairs. Duke trailed close behind. A smile crept over her face. She was glad Brian came here, particularly since it made him so happy. His faith was strong enough to make her question why she ever lost hers.

  “Joseph of Arimathea offered this tomb for Christ,” a voice said. She turned to see a man with dark, curly hair, a beard, and a deep complexion standing next to her. “A tomb in a garden where no one had ever been laid.”

  Kadie studied the man who focused on the entrance to the tomb. Where did he come from? He wasn’t here a moment ago. His voice was calm and soothing.

  “Joseph wrapped the body in linen, laid it within the tomb, and rolled a large stone across the entrance.” The man paused as Kadie stared at the large stone near the entrance. She imagined the scene the man described.

  “The Pharisees went to Pilate,” the man continued, “and said that while he lived, Jesus had said, ‘after three days I will rise again.’ They were concerned that Jesus’ disciples would steal his body in an effort to say he had risen from the dead.

  “Pilate assigned guards to the tomb and directed the Pharisees to make the tomb secure. A seal was placed across the stone to ensure it was not moved. And yet, Jesus rose.”

  Kadie shivered at the stranger’s words. Thoughts of the most impactful moment in the history of the earth swirled through her head as she stared at one of the two sites that claimed the event. The other site, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was the site recognized by the Catholic Church as the true Resurrection site. It also had the stations of via Dolorosa, the route Christ marched through Jerusalem as he carried his cross to Calvary. Maybe they’d go there another day. For Brian’s sake, she told herself.

  She shifted her focus back to her brother and Duke, who were next to enter the tomb. Duke waved at her, then turned to take Brian’s picture at the entrance to the cave. Kadie returned the gesture, but Duke had turned before he saw it. Brian ducked inside, and Duke followed. The stranger next to her was silent.

  She waited for several minutes. Long enough for her to start to worry. How far deep into the hill did the tomb go? Could they have gotten lost? Kadie began to walk toward the stairs to find them when Brian exited. She whipped out her phone, but as she snapped a few pictures, she noticed something peculiar. No, not peculiar. Different.

  Lowering her phone, she stared at her brother.

  He did look different.

  He looked like a typical, happy teenage boy.

  “It’s how God sees him,” the stranger said.

  Kadie blinked and rubbed her temples. Did her eyes play a trick on her? Was the lighting in the garden playing tricks on her? She glanced to her right, but the stranger was gone. Turning to search around her, he was nowhere in sight. Such a man would have stood out in this crowd of brightly dressed tourists, but he had somehow vanished in their midst.

  Hmm, must have been in a hurry.

  Brian and Duke walked back toward the stairs, where Kadie moved to greet them. She stood at the top of the stairs and waited.

  “Are you coming up?” she asked. Kadie couldn’t believe the smile on Brian’s face. She hadn’t seen joy and happiness in him like this in years. If ever.

  Brian shook his head. “No, Kadie. Come down.”

  “I don’t want to come down.”

  “Please—Kadie. For me.” His eyes drooped. It wasn’t a ploy—he genuinely wanted her down there.

  He wants me to go inside.

  But I don’t want to go inside.

  She shook her head, still hesitant.

  “Kadie . . .” His voice had that dragging, pleading tone.

  She sighed deeply. “Okay, I’m coming.” She marched down the stairs, and Brian beamed. The twinge in her knee came back for the first time today, and it slowed her pace down each step. It didn’t really hurt, but it became her excuse. Intellectually, she had no reason to enter the tomb; it made no sense. But her brother tugged at her heartstrings. A glance at the gruff pilot showed he sported a subtle smile. Kadie wasn’t sure why she checked him—his opinion didn’t matter.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Brian grabbed her hand. “Kadie, I w
ant you to come into Jesus’ tomb with me.”

  Her mouth opened to rebut his request, but as she locked onto his eyes, an overwhelming sense of joy stopped her. “Okay.”

  Brian smiled wide and pulled her to the back of the line. She peeked over her shoulder at Duke, who also had a big smile. Outside the tomb, a sense of warmth overcame her. And as the line moved forward and she inched closer, the warmth grew more comforting. She couldn’t describe it or quantify it, but emanating from deep within her, it burst outward, bringing joy.

  The small opening in the side of the hill appeared to be chiseled out of the rock. To the right of the entrance, a repair job at some point over the years was evident. Blocks of stone, six to eight inches square, were six or seven across and stacked seven high. Outside the tomb, a small trough ran along the front, which would have guided and supported the massive stone once used to cover the entrance.

  Two small steps, built from metal and wood, led over the trough into the roughly four-and-a-half-foot tall opening into the tomb. They both ducked as Brian led her through the entrance. Inside the tomb, the area was small and confined, not like anything she had imagined while Brian and Duke were in here. On the right side of the tomb, metal bars protected the area where Jesus had been laid. The area where she and Brian stood held five or six people comfortably, but only two or three could see Jesus’ resting place.

  The ambient light from outside was the only light source inside the tomb. Kadie’s eyes scanned the inside walls, attempting to recall any information from her childhood about the Resurrection. As a child, she had seen Mel Gibson’s movie The Passion of the Christ. The film focused on the Crucifixion, only touching on the Resurrection, as far as she remembered. But the tomb in the movie did kind of look like this.

  Brian prayed silently. A smile spread across her face. She was grateful he could be here. The doctors weren’t sure how much longer he had on this earth, but if coming here made his last few months better, it was worthwhile.

  When he finished, he turned to her. “Okay,” he said, “we can go now.” He led her outside, and the two stepped into the light, the sunshine partially blocked by the trees in the garden. “I pwayed for you, Kadie. I pwayed you would love Jesus like I do. Because even though you don’t, he loves you.”

  Her eyes watered, and she pulled a Kleenex out of her pocket to clear them. She hugged Brian and turned to walk toward the staircase where Duke stood, the twinge in her knee was gone.

  “It’s true,” Duke said. “Even though you don’t, Jesus does love you.”

  Kadie gritted her teeth. She struggled with her emotions, which welled up inside. “This isn’t right.”

  “What?” Duke seemed surprised.

  “I thought Jesus had been crucified elsewhere. Everything is enshrined in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Crucifixion, the Resurrection . . . everything. Christ carried his cross through Via Delarosa to Calvary. I was taught that at an early age. None of that leads to here. How can anyone say, with confidence, that this is the location where Jesus was resurrected? How do you know he wasn’t resurrected in the Holy Sepulcher? Even National Geographic investigated and said that is the true location of the Resurrection.”

  “I can’t say this is the place for sure. But it doesn’t matter.”

  “How can you say it doesn’t matter?”

  “Because you’re arguing where the Resurrection took place. You’re not arguing if Christ was resurrected. You’re acknowledging that Christ rose from the dead, and isn’t that what’s important?”

  14

  Jerusalem, Israel

  The Mahane Yehuda Market

  * * *

  Kadie, Brian, and Duke strolled through the Mahane Yehuda Market. Duke led the way again, saying he had heard of a good restaurant. She hoped he was right. Brian said he wanted a cheeseburger when they’d left the Garden Tomb, and she didn’t know if they’d find one.

  “Cheeseburgers aren’t kosher,” she said, but he didn’t quite understand the concept. He thought kosher was a punchline from television.

  Duke glanced over his shoulder and smiled. “I think we’re going to be all right.” He stopped in front of a moderately sized restaurant with a welcome sign over the door: Burger Market.

  “Brian, how’s this?” he said.

  His eyes grew as wide as his smile. “Yes, yes, yes!” He thrust his hands skyward as if he just scored the winning touchdown.

  Duke just laughed as he held open the door.

  “He’s been wanting a burger for three weeks,” she said.

  “Me too.” Duke led the trio inside, where they were taken to a table.

  Duke and Brian each ordered a Coke, while Kadie had a bottle of water. As she scanned the menu, she thought about some of the arguments she’d heard over the years about how the Bible should be interpreted.

  When the waiter brought their drinks, she took a sip. “Duke, if the Bible is supposed to be taken literally, why don’t we follow it as written?”

  “Oh boy, here we go.” Duke grinned and sipped his Coke. “Give me an example.”

  She paused. “Well, the Old Testament has many rules. Rules none of us follow.” Her mind raced for a moment. “Shellfish. Somewhere in the Old Testament, it tells us not to eat shellfish, but we eat shrimp, crab, and lobster. Isn’t that sinful? And somewhere it says for women not to wear the same clothes as men, but women wear pants and blue jeans.”

  Duke’s smile grew larger as he set his drink down and relaxed in his chair. The cocky pilot seemed confident.

  “When I first began my Christian journey, I had similar questions. I didn’t let it hamper me as I explored my faith, and I found the answer quite by accident.”

  “Okay, I’ll bite. What was your accident?”

  “Are you familiar with the covenants God made with man throughout the Scriptures?”

  Covenants? She had heard the term as a child but ignored the context. “No.”

  “That’s okay. Most people aren’t. About two years ago, I found a book entitled, When a Jew Rules the World by Joel Richardson. Joel outlines the covenants God made with the Jewish people. There are specifically four he mentions, the first three being the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant.”

  Kadie’s head tilted. The names were familiar, but this concept was new to her.

  “The Abrahamic Covenant was made by God to Abraham and his descendants. It was unconditional. A one-way promise. God told Abraham he would give the land of Israel to the people of Israel forever.”

  “Okay,” she said, leaning forward. This was interesting. There’s more to this Duke guy than she suspected.

  “The Mosaic Covenant was conditional. It was made to the corporate nation of Israel.”

  “Moses.”

  “Yes, during the time of Moses. God made regulatory conditions for Israel to maintain permanent occupancy of their land.”

  “But Israel was banished from this land until 1948.”

  “Yes, they were. The Mosaic Covenant was a two-way agreement, and eventually, the Jews failed to keep their part of the agreement. This is the section of the Bible that contains the blue jeans and shrimp argument.”

  She smiled. “You’ve heard that before.”

  “Not in those words, but yes.”

  “What’s the third covenant?”

  “The third covenant is the Davidic Covenant. It was an unconditional, one-way promise made to King David. God told David one of his descendants will rise and sit on the throne of Israel.”

  “Jesus.”

  “Yes, which leads us to the fourth and final covenant, the New Covenant. It doesn’t replace the other covenants—it builds upon them.”

  She had yet to hear anything that would change her mind, no matter how interesting this history. “So, back to the blue jeans and shrimp argument. The New Covenant built upon the old ones, yet we eat shrimp.”

  “You forgot—the Mosaic Covenant is a conditional, two-way agreement with the Jewish peo
ple. If you do this, I’ll do that. I never asked, but I’m relatively sure you’re not Jewish.”

  Kadie hated to admit it, but Duke was right. She’d never thought of it like that. Kadie leaned back in her seat, her mind reeling. “Good discussion.”

  “I am hungry,” Brian said.

  “Me too.”

  “Duke—I would like you to come to my birthday pawty.”

  The pilot smiled. “Thanks, Brian. I’d like that.”

  Kadie cringed at the invitation, but knowing it was so far away, she didn’t want her brother to be disappointed. She looked over Duke’s shoulder and saw the waiter heading toward them. Good, she thought, that should make Brian happy.

  “Hamburger!” he said when his food arrived.

  The trio dug in and ate voraciously. Kadie contemplated their conversation during the silence. This stranger, Duke, had sparked questions within herself. Made her look at religion in a different light. Perhaps she had been wrong all these years.

  “Duke, how is it that a military man like yourself is a Christian?”

  The pilot swallowed his food. “Meaning?”

  “I mean, after the last conservative president left the White House, the new administration forced the military to remove all forms of religion from the service. Is that why you left?”

  Duke shook his head. “No, though I probably should have. The politicization of the armed services accelerated after he left.” He paused. “When I was in the military, I was a little too focused on my job. Way too focused. I thought everything was fine. My wife and kids were in the panhandle of Florida while I was deployed. We had a house close to the beach. I thought they would stay occupied while I was away. I thought everything was okay.”

  “But it wasn’t?”

  “I-I guess not. It may not have been just that. When I was home in garrison, I wasn’t around much either. The commanders always wanted us to work twelve-hour days. I didn’t seem to think that was abnormal. It’s the way we always did it.”