See Lord, Here Are Two Swords
By MrBillyD
Chapter 1
Xena and I were already on a ship far from land, before the sacred harlot was found murdered, in the Treasury of the Temple of Aphrodite in Ephesus, where a minor amount of money was missing.
By the time we disembarked at Tyre, the Priesthood of Aphrodite had added another 10,000 sesterces reward, to all the other rewards, for the heads of Xena the Warrior Princess, and me, her companion Gabrielle. Whether or not our heads were attached to our bodies, all the rewards would be paid in full.
The two of us were now in Judea. The time was early Spring, and we were moving among a crowd of pilgrims approaching Jerusalem, where they planned to attend the ancient Judean Celebration called “Passover”. We were dressed in the robes of Judean women.
The day was hot. We were thirsty and exhausted, and we were climbing uphill.
“Xena.” My voice was hoarse. “This is the end of us, isn’t it?”
“No.” She told me, “Not as long as we keep moving.”
“I’m tired of constantly moving. There’s never any rest. Why don’t we just give ourselves up, and take what we’ve got coming to us?
“Do you know what we’ve got coming to us Gabrielle?”
I nodded. “We’re warrior women, so you and I’ll be sentenced to fight each other to the death in the Arena. You’ll kill me with no trouble at all. Then they’ll kill you with a lot more trouble. We’ll die fighting, beautiful and brave, just like warrior women should.”
“If we were ordinary warrior women who’d been captured in battle, that’s what would happen, but for all the things you and I’ve done, we’re not getting off that easy. You and I are gonna be getting crucified.”
I said, “Then let’s keep moving.”
We were moving through a village named Bethany. We stopped to rest in the shade of a whitewashed stucco building and sat down there, under the eave of its red tile roof, to rest awhile, leaning against the wall.
Many people dressed in black garments were entering and leaving through the doorway of the house.
Through the window we heard people repeating, “I was so sorry to hear about Lazarus.”
A woman said, “We sent word to the Master a week ago. We told him, ‘The one you love is deathly sick.’ But He has not come.”
Another man inside the house said, “The Master is coming now.”
A young man in rich garments stepped outside, and stood beside the doorway. His eyes scanned through the passing crowd. A different young man in dusty, plain garments stepped out of the crowd and came over to him.
He spoke respectfully, “Good day, Joseph of Arimathea.”
The wealthy young man said, “And good day to you Phillip. I hear that you are among the Disciples of the Rabbi Jesus of Nazareth.”
“True. I am.”
“Tell me Phillip. Who do you say that He is?”
Phillip told him, “He is the Christ. The Son of the Living God.”
Joseph of Arimathea put a finger to his lips.
Xena groaned and spoke softly. “Another son of another god?”
I smiled, “Another Hercules?”
Xena groaned again.
Now there was a commotion in the crowd. Everyone was turning their attention along the way we’d just come. A group of about a dozen men had entered the village. Xena and I stood up to see what was going on.
People kept calling out the name “Jesus!”
This Jesus was in the center of the group of twelve. He was no Hercules. He looked like any man.
He approached the doorway where he was greeted by Joseph of Arimathea and Phillip.
Joseph said, “Good teacher. What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
I couldn’t imagine anyone asking that of Hercules.
Jesus answered, “Why do you call me good? No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honor your father and mother.”
“Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”
“One thing you lack.” He said. “Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Joseph of Arimathea was taken aback. His face was sorrowful, and he went away down the street, apparently grieving.
Jesus looked around and said to His disciples, “Children, how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
His disciples looked at each other. One of them asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus told them, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.”
I also couldn’t imagine Hercules telling any of those things to anybody.
Now a woman stepped out through the doorway, dressed entirely in black, and stood in front of Jesus.
“Lord,” she said, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”
“Martha,” Jesus said to her, “your brother will rise again.”
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“I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
“Yes, Lord,” she told Him, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”
After she said this, she went back inside the house.
I heard her call out, “Mary! The Teacher is here, and is asking for you.”
Martha and a younger woman, also dressed in black, came back outside. The younger woman fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
When Jesus saw her, and everyone else weeping, He looked deeply troubled.
He asked, “Where have you laid him?”
“Come and see Lord.”
Now Jesus wept.
Some people in the crowd said, “See how he loved him?”
Others asked, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, His disciples, Martha, Mary, and everyone in the crowd, including me and Xena, headed away from the house, going to where Lazarus was buried.
The tomb was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance.
Jesus said, “Take the stone away.”
“But Lord,” Martha said, “By now he will be stinking, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
So they took away the stone.
Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”
When he had said this, Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”
Then the dead man came out alive.
That is what happened. I was there, so was Xena, and so were many of the leaders of the Judeans.
When I’d first seen Jesus, I’d thought, he’s no son of Zeus. Now I wondered. Is He the Son of the God of Israel?
Now the crowd returned from the empty tomb of Lazarus, along with Lazarus, Mary and Martha, Jesus and all his Disciples.
Xena said, “I thought I’d seen and heard it all. This is one day I will never forget.”
Phillip was walking near us. He said, “With Jesus, this is an ordinary day. He is constantly healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. He’s fed 5,000 with an offering of five loaves and two fishes. He stopped a storm by saying ‘Peace! Be still!’ and I was there when He walked on water.”
A man in priestly garments, named Simon the Pharisee spoke to Phillip.
He said, “If your master is a righteous man, why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and with sinners?”
Now Jesus called out to him, “Those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are ill. I have come to call the sinners, not the righteous to repentance.”
We returned to Lazarus’ house. That night people were crowded inside. They’d come to see both him and Jesus. Many of the Chief Priests had come out from Jerusalem. Joseph of Arimathea had returned, along with an elderly priest named Nicodemus.
As we were going inside, I happened to overhear Simon the Pharisee speaking quietly to one of the Chief Priests, with whom he was standing in a corner.
Simon said, “What are we accomplishing? Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
The Chief priest told him, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”
Now inside the house, Jesus continued teaching.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Now Simon the Pharisee spoke. “Teacher,” he said, “we know you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. You aren’t swayed by men, because you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us then, what is your opinion? Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?”
Everyone was silent. There was tension in the room. If Jesus said no, then he could be executed for treason.
“You hypocrite,” Jesus spoke sharply, “Why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.”
They brought him a denarius.
He asked them, “Whose portrait is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s”
Then he said to them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Then he spoke to us all, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
That night I told Xena, “Whoever He is, this Jesus is no Hercules.”
Xena said, “Who is Hercules?”