From the Angels over Bethlehem to three crosses on Golgotha, a story of one failure after another on the way to Paradise: A story from the sanctified imagination of one that has walked these broken pieces of an incomplete story.
By the teaching Pastor of Agape Christian, Herb Pinney.
“What on earth am I going to do with you?”
This was almost a daily cry of a heart broken widow that lived in the small village of Naim in what is the hill country about eight miles south of Nazareth in Galilee. Her husband and two older sons had been killed in an Zealot uprising in Galilee as the Romans had taken their land, livestock and their only sister in a tax invasion, leaving her almost destitute and with a eight-year-old son that was eaten up with anger at the Roman world for what they had done and at the Jewish world for what they did not do to help in this crisis. He was angry at the world and was taking it out on everyone near by, especially mama.
The widow of Naim, as she had become known by her neighbors, sat down to send a written message to Uncle Benjamin that was a shepherd and land owner in the hill country of Bethlehem.
Uncle Benjamin, her only brother, was the only one that came to her help when her family was attacked by the Romans. He had felt the lash of Rome when nearly half of his flock was taken when he and a Bethlehem neighbor were targeted as trouble causers and Rome attacked their flocks. There was no love lost for Rome or the Jewish temple leaders that were in bed with Rome. Uncle Benjamin would understand her hurt and he was tough as iron with his shepherds, no slack was allowed. He would be just the right one to get her son in line with what ever God had in mind for the rebellious boy.
Uncle Benjamin had answered back and sent a servant to Naim to get the hard headed youth with the assignment, “Make a shepherd out of him; lots of luck.”
When Uncle Benjamin’s steward arrived in Naim to take the lad to the hills above Bethlehem, Dan was excited. He was glad to get away from mother; she was always on his case for one thing or another. He liked Uncle Ben, he understood the evil of Rome and Jerusalem. He would make a place for the youthful fighter against political evil. Dan envisioned himself as the leader of a political revolt that would bring an end to Rome as well as the end to Jerusalem’s temple crowd. Youthful Dan was not sure how, but he felt Bethlehem was a step in the right direction.
Beneath a pile of rocks behind their house Dan had hidden a short sword that he had stolen from a drunk Roman that had passed out on the street. He retrieved the short sword and wrapped it in his bed roll as he readied for the trip to the hill country. He thought to himself as he started walking behind Uncle Benjamin’s steward. “With that sword, I will make a difference; if Gideon was the ‘Sword of the Lord’, so much more and with more might, I will be Dan of Naim.”
Dan was assigned to the sheep camp near Bethlehem that grazed in the pasture land that had one time belonged to Boaz and Ruth. It was hilly and there was an abundance of good grass and quiet places for the sheep to graze and rest to grow strong.
Dan worked with older men that had grown cranky and to whom nothing was funny, life was serious and there was no room for any nonsense. This was to be a critical problem for Dan, he was not only a rebel, he was an prankster. Soon watching the sheep became boring and Dan to amuse himself began to pull practical jokes on the older shepherds. He aroused them from deep sleep with the cries of wolf when there was no wolf; just to see them hurry about, getting dressed, grabbing their weapons and then finding no wolf, it was not funny and Uncle Benjamin was informed of the breach of shepherd ethics that demanded no false cries of wolf would be allowed.
For punishment, Uncle Benjamin sent him into the high country to find stray sheep that had wandered off from he herd, the count showed that 5 sheep were missing, and Uncle Benjamin could little afford to loose any sheep, let alone five of them. So Dan was off to the high country, with his sword in hand, this was punishment, but Dan was excited, this was a man’s job and he was up to it. He was nine-years-old now, and he could decapitate every bush he came to with his sword.
Uncle Benjamin had a pack animal loaded with supplies for him to use in the high country and Dan was off. In three days he had found and put in shackles three of the lost sheep, He shackled them so they could not run off as he climbed ever higher into the country above the Judean country side.
Dan, in spite of himself, had learned a lot about shepherding, even if his nick name was the Bad Shepherd. In two more days, he had rounded up all five of the missing animals and had made the last night time camp of his adventure. He had found a small box canyon with a narrow ravine entrance and steep rocky sides that were impossible for the sheep to climb. He made a campfire and rolled his bed roll out in the ravine to block any escape and fixed the last of the food that Uncle Benjamin Had sent. That was okay, by noon tomorrow we will all be back to the main camp.
With a full tummy, Dan pickup up his sword and began to stone the blade to sharpen it to be ready for anything.
Rebel boys with a sword are subject to day dreaming even in the middle of the night. With in moments Dan was attacking a whole regiment of Roman soldiers and the sword fight that followed was an hour long battle of skill and wits with Dan leaving the whole regiment dead and dying in the dust. Some how the dreamed cries of the Romans were mixed with the very real squeals of sheep being attacked by a hungry lion leaving five half eaten sheep to clutter the ravine behind the bed roll of our bad shepherd, Uncle would not be happy at this report tomorrow. He had lost all five of the found sheep.
The report brought full anger and true proverbial, Solomon punishment with the belt that Uncle Benjamin kept in his work cabinet.
Dan was reassigned to the night watch with the older shepherds with the firm warning, one more prank, and I will sell you to the High Priest to be a slave in his bazaar in the market place in the Temple.
As the night grew darker and darker, and the stars came out neck and crop; The Bad Sheppard was given the midnight watch, with a firm warning, not to pull any pranks on the older shepherds, don’t wake them unnecessarily and no jokes or lies tonight. Or I will sell you to the priests in the temple to be their slave. Your mother was right, you are a pain in the behind, and I am adding, a Bad Shepherd.
Sometime after midnight Dan was sitting on a rock embankment watching the sheep graze in the moon light and he drifted off to sleep and it became very quiet.
Suddenly Dan was awakened by a brilliant light in the heavens and distant singing and a heavenly being hanging right before his eyes, startled, he jumped to his feet and grabbed for his sword. Wide eyed he looked almost eye to eye with the brilliant being in the sky in front of him.
“Was the being an angel?” Dan thought, he had never seen one. The being spoke, “Fear not; put your sword away.” Then the Being declared I am an angel with good news for you and your shepherd friends, “Go awaken them, I have great news for you.”
Dan pinched himself twice to make sure he was awake, and this was real. He ran to the sleeping tent of the shepherds and they awakened cussing out Dan for awakening them, not believing a word that he said. Dan kept trying to explain, then the heavenly singing came past his cries for help in dealing with the angels and all the shepherds heard the proclamation, “For tonight is born in Bethlehem a savior of his people, the king and you will find him in baby wraps and lying in a cattle feeding box.” The angels went back into heaven and the shepherds said to one another, it is a good thing we saw this with our own eyes, we would have never believed the Bad Shepherd.
They awakened Uncle Benjamin, and they made their way in the dark to Bethlehem to find the feeding box and the baby king. They left the sheep to graze with just one Shepherd.
The streets if Bethlehem were abandoned and dark, it was like looking for a needle in a hay stack, where would we find such a baby? Dan suggested, “If he is in a feeding box, they will be in a stable on some back street of the city.” Sure enough behind the Inn, was a flickering oil lamp light and it illumined a stable with a new born baby in the feeding box. The mother was lying exhausted in the arms of a bearded man with the rough hands of a carpenter, it was a quiet scene and the shepherds were asking a lot of questions. The man’s name was Joseph and this was his espoused wife, Mary. They were from Nazareth and were here to register for the Roman registration.
Dan thought, “Just like Rome to make a pregnant woman make an 80 mile trip the last days of her pregnancy, just another reason the hate them.”
They stood in awe of the scene of the new birth, and soon Uncle Benjamin was saying they needed to get back to their sheep and the hillside before dawn made its way across the sky.
Dan was standing back in the shadows and there was a scarf that Mary had warn as she came to the stable to have her baby, Dan wanted some thing to remember the night by and he slipped the scarf under his robe and secured it. He was not really a thief he just took things he needed.
The next day Uncle Benjamin saw Dan looking at the scarf that was obviously a woman’s and Uncle blew up. “Now you are stealing from a poor carpenter that was camped out in a stable. This is the final straw. Tomorrow I am washing my hands of you. Tomorrow I am indenturing you to the Priests in the Temple that will teach you to steal.”
And teach Dan to steal they did, for the next twenty years Dan became a pro at stealing, taught by the temple pros that stole from every Hebrew that came to worship. Just as Dan was turning thirty-years-of-age, a group of Nubian Arab thieves swooped into Jerusalem and robbed the Temple and Dan was on duty in the courtyard he convinced them that he want to go with them and they took him captive as a slave and just outside of town they set him free and he joined their thieving band of outlaws.
There was no doubt about it, the Bad Shepherd was a full fledge thief and getting deeper and deeper involved in crime as he spent the next ten years robbing and killing as many Romans and Hebrews as possible. Nothing seemed to quiet his anger. Uncle Benjamin had passed away and the widowed mother of Dan grew old and was in the last years of her life, living on handouts and the spoils of Dan’s life of thieving as he grew better and better at stealing and dropping off enough spoils to maintain his mother from starvation by dropping stolen items by the house in Naim. Then it happened. In an attack in Caesarea on a Roman contingent that fought back with all the power of a Roman Centurion’s crack group there Dan was stabbed a dozen times in the battle and lay dying in the dirt of the city streets. The thieves took pity on him and dropped him off at his mother’s for burial.
The widow of Naim was beside herself in grief and panic as to what she would do now to eat and stay alive. The neighbors helped her prepare the body of her son for burial and placed him in the cart and on the marrow they would bury him before noon.
Across the room in a box of Dan’s belongings, the widow found an old scarf and it was so pretty she draped it around Dan’s neck. She was not able to sleep much that night.
Early the next morning the neighbors gathered for the trip to the cemetery and Dan’s final ride into eternity. The widow was asking herself over and over again, “what would she do now to stay alive?”
It was a slow procession to the grave, most of the mourners were aged and with the widow stepped to a slow cadence, it was a tearful and painful trip with no hope for tomorrow.
As the widow neared the edge of town, down the road came a cheerful lot, a group of Galileans laughing, singing and traveling with several women. The leader, a Nazarene put his hand up and the cheerful group drew silent and the leader walked over to the widow. He seemed to automatically know she was a widow, and this was her only son. The widow froze as this Nazarene reached out and took her arm to study the aged woman that looked expectantly into the deep brown eyes of this man that seemed to care about this moment of this day. The widow was crying and the Nazarene told her not to cry. This was Jesus at his best, he just knew the tragedy of the hour and reach down and touch the dead man and said, “Son, I say to you, ‘Get up.’”
The dead man sat up straight and began to talk to Jesus, Jesus reached over for the widow’s hand and placed the living hand of her son in her hand and the crowd began to glorify God and praise his holy name for they were saying a great prophet was among them.
As Jesus was talking with the man he noticed the scarf about his neck and realized it was the same weave and texture and color as the ones his mother loved to wear.
Jesus arranged for food enough for his whole group traveling with him, all the neighbors, the widow and her son to have a resurrection feast there in her simple home in Naim.
Jesus sensed that they had met before and as the shadows grow long that day the men went back to a nine-year-old Bad Sheppard and the visit to the stable in Bethlehem, the admission, “Yes I am a thief,” and asked about the angels message as Jesus said, “Yes, I am the coming king, my kingdom is not of this world, it will be in ages to come”. The thieve confessed all his sins and as the sun was getting low in the western sky, Matthew baptized the Bad Shepherd, two neighbors, his mother and the family feasted at the feet of Jesus one more time as Jesus taught the several of the neighbors that had cared for mama telling the family about the kingdom to come. Dan promised Jesus that he would stay in Naim, and farm his mother’s small plot of land and care for her until she was gathered to her fathers. Then Dan promised Jesus he would come follow him. Jesus approved of the decision and as the morrow broke at day break, Jesus and his party
moved on out to the north toward Galilee and the city of Nazareth.
For the next three years Dan cared for his widowed mother as she grew older and weaker. Dan also cared for the neighbor men that had so faithfully looked after his mother during his wild thieving years.
Dan could hear the cock crowing as the eastern sky became alive with color, all pink and red with the promise of day, yet he knew something was wrong, the house was too silent. There was no sound of his ancient mother stumbling around making breakfast, no sound of movement of any kind. Dan slipped on his robe and sandals and hurried to the next room, mama had gone to be with her fathers during her prayer time. Jesus had taught her to pray and there kneeling by her bed was the tabernacle mama had enlivened during those hard years she so worried about her bad Sheppard that was a merciless thief and outlaw. She had been so happy with her son home since Jesus and given him back to her at the city gate of Naim.
Dan hurried to neighbor Joseph’s home next door, his young grandson was visiting. He would help.
Dan explained to Jeremiah, the grandson that the Master was teaching near Caesarea from the talk of the crowds, Dan had keep in touch with Jesus following his every event, feeding the five thousand men, walking on water, stilling the storm, raising the dead, healing the leapers and casting out demons; Dan had not missed a thing. Now, he needed the Master and he asked Jeremiah to go ask him to come.
Dan couldn’t wait for Jesus to come for the burial, he, Joseph and several other neighbors placed her warn out body in the ground knowing she was safe in the arms of Abraham then Jesus arrived.
Jesus put his arms around a grieving son and they sat silent for a long time then Dan spoke; “If only I could go back and be by her side, helping her all those years I was an outlaw and neglecting her; how will God ever forgive me, how can she forgive me.” His words drifted off into the unintelligible moans of a man hurting with his memories.
Jesus assured Dan that not only God, but his mother had forgiven him and was so happy in the years since he had become a Messiah follower.
Jesus put his hand on Dan’s shoulder and told him, “I have told my disciples, I am not sure that they believed me though, I am going to Jerusalem to be hated by the Jewish leaders, turned over to the Gentiles and be killed as the Suffering Messiah as John, my cousin said so long ago, to be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. I want you to stay here out of harms way, and take care of Joseph, and Jeremiah that became a disciple at the teachings I was doing along the north shore of The Galilee, they need taught Dan, you are their neighbor; you must teach them.” With that Jesus left and headed to the river valley to make his way to Jerusalem.
The next couple of weeks were a whirl of activity with Jesus as he traveled down the river valley to Jericho, his lunch with Zacchaeus the tax collector, and healing a blind beggar and on to Bethany to be anointed for his future burial and a week of confrontation in the Temple, streets and upper room in Jerusalem.
Back in Naim Dan is spending some lonely time thinking about all that Jesus told him. He had always been taught that when the Messiah had come he would sit as king on the throne of David in Jerusalem and restore the land to God as in the days of King David. Jesus had totally changed all of that with his plans as the Suffering Messiah that had to go to Jerusalem to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. That the suffering Messiah would have to die, then in three days come forth from the grave and would then spent ages in reaching the world of Gentiles and make them a part of the worldwide family of God, that is so confusing, so not what Dan was expecting and Dan thought, “How was all this to come about?”
As he was deep in thought, there was a clanging noise of horses, soldiers and the cries of the Romans that he was so used to. It was a contingent of Roman soldiers on their way to Jerusalem to support the government during Passover. Pilate was expecting trouble and had called for reinforcements. The leader of the squad was pounding on the door and Dan answered; it was the old war of the conquerors taking what ever they wanted from the conquered. The squad leader demanded food for his troops, and now. The old anger swelled up in Dan, yet there was a new kind of peace even in the face of evil confrontation. Jesus would want him to feed the enemy, to love them and be good to them; so he invited them in and prepared a meal for his Roman guests.
The oldest of the Romans kept eyeing Dan, at last he spoke; “I thought I recognized you, you rode with the Nubian thieves several years ago, I thought you were dead, but you are wanted on Roman charges as a thief. I take you into captivity in the name of Rome. You will be tried and punished in Jerusalem when we arrive.” To make sure he obeyed a younger solder hit Dan with a club and he awoke shackled and in the back of the supply wagon; hurting with every bounce over the cobble stone street leading to the high road.
The trial was fast and conclusive, Dan was guilty, he would be crucified as a thief to justify the laws of Rome. Tomorrow was his day of Judgment and the thief will pay his dues to Rome.
As the full moon came out that night Jesus and his band of followers had eaten the Passover in the upper room, and were scattered out in the olive groves in the Garden of the Gethsemane family on the side of the Mount of Olives. Jesus had been praying and his friends had gone to sleep waiting on him.
The full moon was exactly over head when they heard the all too common in the land of captivity, the sound of solders coming with swords, spears and clanging chains, it was a illegal mob coming to illegally arrest Jesus, to make sure they were not fooled in the darkness, one of Jesus’ disciples had been paid to identify him with a kiss.
The cup that Jesus had to drink had come to pass. He was chained, beaten and after a brief fight that Jesus broke up, all the disciples fled in disbelief.
The trial for Jesus was not as fast or as simple as the trial for Dan. There was a fight between to governments, but really between Heaven and the Realm of darkness that covered the whole earth and hovered over the earth as an evil blanket, Darkness thought they were winning with the cries of “Crucify him, Crucify him” persuaded the Roman officials to go along, but in reality God was having his way. God was weaving grace out of the lashes of the whip, the nails of the cross, the crown of thrones and the sharpened spear that drew blood and water after Jesus had cried, “It is finished,” and then he spoke his spirit to the keeping of his Father. But, I am getting ahead of my story.
There was little life left in the beaten, smashed, punished body of the dear savior of mankind and they stretched his body out on the wooden Roman cross of cruel punishment that was reserved for the most evil of sinners against the Roman world. Already there were a half dozen crosses on the side of the mount called Golgotha and two crosses at the ridge of the hill above Jerusalem. The High Priest had insisted that Jesus be crucified in the middle between two thieves at the top of the hill where everyone could see the reward for those that cross the high and holy Temple leaders.
As they were lifting the cross with Jesus nailed to it there came a charge plate written in the languages of the people and of government. The High Priest was aggravated and demanded a new plaque saying, “He is not the King of the Jews, he just claimed to be. I want a new charge plate,” The Roman officer said, “The governor said, ‘This is the charge plate to go on the cross of Jesus,’” and nailed it.
This awakened the dying thief on the cross nearest to Jesus. The other thief was cursing God and man, though it hurt to talk, the thief on the left told the other one, “We are getting what we deserve, the man in the middle was not guilty of anything so quite cursing God.” On the left of the cross of Jesus was Dan and he realized he was caught right in the middle of the holy drama of the Lamb of God taking away the sins of the world just as Jesus had told him. Though it was very difficult, and he had to push up on the nails in his feet to get enough breath to speak at all, Dan spoke to Jesus, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” At that point his legs collapsed and he fell silent against the nails. There was a faint recognition of hope as Jesus pushed up against the nails in his feet and gasped, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”
Suddenly there was darkness on the whole face of the land Jesus that would not do anything to take away his own pain, spoke relief to Dan and a deep sleep came over Dan as the darkness came over the land.
In that deep sleep Dan remembered his wild and angry youth against the Romans and their attacks on his family. Dan remembered being rushed off to Uncle Benjamin and his years as a bad Shepherd in the hills overlooking Bethlehem. He remembered the night and the angel’s visit and the baby sleeping so peacefully in the cattle feeder and their visit to the cave along the dark and quiet streets of Bethlehem. Then memory hurt as he remembers his apprentice as a master thief under the example of the High Priests and their court yard bazaar in the Temple, also his killing, thieving and wild years with the Nubians Arabs thankful that not only had Jesus forgiven him and he was baptized for the remission of his sins as John and Jesus both taught, Now he had paid the price for his sin before the courts of Rome. He had settled accounts with all men and with God. Dan was drifting away from his earthly tabernacle and Death’s Angel was undoing Dan from his crucified body and was ready to transport him to Paradise; it was a good day to die, rather to really begin living.
I wince every time I hear a well-meaning preacher, teacher speak against baptism by saying, “The thief on the cross was never baptized,” Not that it mattered since as the thief and Jesus communicated that noon day, Jesus was alive and could readily forgive all the sins he so desired. However, this thief obviously knew Jesus and was aware of his teachings about a kingdom to come, or why would of he asked to be remembered when Jesus came to his kingdom? We are also told that all Judah went out to be baptized of John the Baptist, and in John 4, that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John; although, Jesus had his disciples do the baptizing. So, unless you had the name of everyone that John Baptized and everyone Jesus’ Apostles baptized, and the name of the thief on the cross and cross-referenced them all, you could not say authoritatively that the thief on the Cross was not baptized.
It always amazes me the lengths preachers and teachers that prefer their denominational teachings to the Bible go to, to support their teachings when they are avoiding clear Biblical teachings and are following after the suppositions of those that follow a one or two verse theology.
I admit that the Bad Shepherd is a made-up story, but you will be hard-put in the task to disprove any of it by the reading of the story and the reading of the Bible. However, it really does not matter what you and I think about the necessities for salvation; it is all up to God that adds to the church those that are being saved; see Acts 2:47. The Lord will make that decision.