Dear Friends,

This week is Episode III in a five part short-story set in ancient Palestine. To read the first 2 Episodes follow the links below and once you are caught up read this weeks installment!

Episode I "Mad Dogs and Romans"
Episode II "How to Stop a Murderer"

Now enjoy this week's episode!

Episode III "It's All Greek to Me"

Vitus ran as if Cerberus the hellhound were at his heels. “Who could have recognized me?” The only woman who came to mind was Pilate’s wife Claudia Procles. She knew him, and due to her position would not hesitate to address him openly. Vitus ran south from the Temple, through the Probatica gate. A poorly timed miscalculation. He had intended to cut through town to the east and then make his way back south where Jesus was. Now, as he frantically checked over his shoulder for pursuers, Vitus ran into two lines of soldiers accompanying Governor Pilate.
“Halt!” a soldier shouted at him in Greek. Vitus stopped but did not look up. The soldier called the company to stand on guard, the situation looked much like an assassination attempt earlier in the year. “Look at me you coward,” a stern voice ordered him but Vitus did not obey. He stood stock-still without lifting his eyes from the ground. The soldier closed the few feet that separated them. Time seemed to slow. Vitus watched an insect make its way across a rock the soldier was about to step on. The shadow of the man’s foot eclipsed the sun and all hope for the poor witless creature. Time stopped for Vitus. He couldn’t move.
Vitus thought of a time twenty years prior. He was standing in front of his sister’s home in Rome with a dead man at his feet. A soldier approached in the cool of the evening. Vitus had paid a visit to his sister with the intention of encouraging her Syrian born husband to stop hitting her. The monster had beaten his sister nightly because of a two-week affair she had while he was on a business trip in Egypt. He told her the month of beatings was her payment for what she had done. Vitus confronted his brother-in-law with the simple logic of debts and credits. His sister had created a debt by being unfaithful, a month of beatings paid double for the length of the affair. Since his brother-in-law had incurred his own debt of two weeks because of the extra beatings, Vitus took the two weeks out of him at once. A few minutes later Vitus had beaten his brother-in-law to death with an ebony walking stick.
The sound of the soldier stepping on the unsuspecting insect brought Vitus back to the present. In a flash, Vitus hatched a plan. He swung his helmet out from the hiding place under his robe and nearly took the soldier’s face off. Vitus ran towards the temple. He may not be able to murder the Syrian who owed him, but there was a slim chance he could get the soldiers on his tail to do it for him.

Next Week, "The Quick and the Dead”

Judgement and Grace are prominent themes in the bible. Jesus told the parable of the barren fig tree in Luke 13:6-9 and over the years many have interpreted it in different ways. Watch Sean to see our modern adaptation of the parable of the barren fig tree. http://www.36parables.com/buy/downloads/sean

Illuminating Understanding,

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