Dear Friends:

The long promised series, “Illuminating Understanding” begins.

This week, Episode I, “Mad Dogs and Romans”.

Captain Vitus ardently hoped the crazy Rabbi Jesus would say something stupid enough to deserve punishment. Vitus knew how to handle crazies and this one was costing him a lot of money.
In early summer, the Romans had stomped out a slew of rabble-rousers. Vitus was privately proud of participating in the sting operation on the notorious criminal Barabbas. His unit was continuing to gain a reputation for busting up Jewish rebels. They etched a palm branch with a strike through it on the inside of their armor for each nut job they imprisoned or dispatched. Barabbas had earned two palm branches after he smashed a tenderfoot’s face with a candlestick while cornered at the temple. Now the summer had worn on and a new Rabbi was apparently raising an army for himself. Just a few weeks earlier, the charlatan had convinced a crowd of a few thousand he had fed them all with only a handful of fish. Now they were ready to make him king. The intelligence the local Centurions had gathered was sufficient to warrant Vitus and his men’s involvement. They were ordered to watch and listen and only interfere if the situation called for it. Today, to Vitus, the situation called for it.
When Vitus had risen that morning, he hoped to kill two birds with one stone. A two faced Syrian who owed him three months wages was going to be at temple. So was Jesus. He’d go to the temple, listen to Jesus, have one of his guys grab the Syrian, accuse him of starting a ruckus and throw him in jail until he paid up. There was only one problem. Jesus had decided to teach out on a hill, not at temple. So while the Syrian prepared to slip away, Vitus was stuck in the relentless heat, listening to a carpenter turned performance artist because Rome wanted to be sure the quack didn’t start a revolution. The helmet Vitus was boiling his brain under didn’t help his cognition one bit but the truth was, Jesus was making no sense. People had told Vitus he only spoke in riddles. Jesus even insisted no one would understand him. Vitus chuckled to himself, “No wonder Rome is conquering the world.”
Almost reading his mind, Vitus’ second in command Mustius, a former shot put champion from Antioch, walked over and muttered to Vitus, “What sort of King would this Jew make?” Vitus didn’t shift his gaze from Jesus. “Today?” he looked at his second in command, “A dead one.”

Next week, “Illuminating Understanding: “How to Stop a Murderer.”

Illuminating Understanding,

The Cinematographer
Stewart H. Redwine
C: 310-770-0448
E: sredwine@36parables.com