The Mystery of the Scattered Cross

About twenty more minutes past before the captain of the Temple Guard finally brought back their newly arrested prisoners. But Jake noticed something very unusual about the way the group entered the courtroom. It appeared that the twelve apostles were leading the Temple guard into the assembly, rather than the other way around. The captain of the guard and his men trailed sheepishly along behind the apostles, giving every appearance of handling the situation very gently. The captain spoke first to the Sanhedrin. “Sirs, these are the prisoners we found preaching in the Temple,” he stated carefully. “They had gathered a large crowd of adoring listeners. We had to handle the situation very delicately. The adoring crowd was not at all pleased with our coming to take custody of these men. We feared a riot if we took the prisoners by force. By use of prudent maneuvers and rhetoric on our part, we were able to extract the prisoners from the temple grounds without a major incident.” “Yes, yes. Enough of your puny drivel,” Caiaphas snapped, waving the back of his hand at them. “Stand aside, captain. I’m done with you.” Caiaphas stood up, rage aflame on his face. He pointed his bony finger at the twelve apostles. “How dare you! How dare you scoundrels defy our last command to you!” he vented hotly. “Didn’t we command you the last time you were before this assembly to never preach again about ‘this Name’! You have deliberately defied our direct command to you! And now you have filled Jerusalem with your false teaching. And you deceivers are determined to blame us for this Man’s death!” Jake tensed up. “Lord, give them Your wisdom,” he prayed under his breath. Peter spoke up first. “Sirs, with all due respect,” he began, “we must obey God first and foremost. We must obey the Lord God instead of men, if the command from men is contrary to God’s command. The God of our forefathers raised Christ Jesus from the dead, whom you purposely killed by hanging Him on a cross. Then with His almighty power, God exalted Jesus to be seated at His right hand and made Christ the Prince and Savior, offering to the people of Israel repentance and forgiveness of their sins. We are witnesses to all these truths, as is the Holy Spirit, who is bestowed by God on all who obey Him.” Jake flinched at Peter’s truthful accusation that the Sanhedrin had purposely murdered Jesus. Anger flashed across the eyes of all the council members. Peter had accused them all of breaking the Sixth Commandment, “Thou shalt not murder!” The entire courtroom exploded into a rage! Peter’s bold testimony infuriated the rulers in the courtroom. Yes, they had murdered Jesus! Yes, they wanted to stamp out His following and ministry by killing Him. Now Peter and the apostles publicly ripped open the ugly, raw wound. Peter publicly exposed the Sanhedrin’s willful breaking of God’s Law! The Sanhedrin’s hypocrisy laid bare, in full public view. “They know they’re guilty,” Jake said under his breath. “Don’t any of them have a conscience?” “We won’t stand for your defiance!” Caiaphas screamed. In rage, he began pounding his fist on his High Priest’s desk. “At Passover, I commanded that Jesus must die for the good of the nation of Israel! It had to be done! How dare you accuse us of sin! We were right in deciding to exterminate Jesus of Nazareth! We executed Jesus of Nazareth! We were justified in our actions! And, we will not hesitate to have all of you killed, as well! We would be justified in killing all of you, too!” “Well said!” echoed angry voices across the courtroom. “Death to all the followers of Jesus of Nazareth!” more inflamed shouts cried out. “We must stop this false religion! Death to all the Nazarene’s disciples!” Vicious hatred flooded across the courtroom like a river of red-hot lava! Dignified, distinguished rulers jumped up and morphed into screaming madmen, shaking their fists violently in the direction of the twelve apostles. Some of them even started taking angry steps, advancing like a pack of vicious hyenas toward the disciples. Nicodemus and Joseph stood up to try to stop the hellbent mob but they were shoved back into their seats. Jake instinctively yelled, “Somebody stop them! Stop them!” But others in the anteroom shoved him aside, as well, and began chanting, “Kill them! Kill the rebels!” The courtroom blew up into chaos and white-hot violence! Suddenly, one member of the Sanhedrin, stood and raised his arms in an attempt to stop the charging attack. Jake looked through the blur of churning humanity in front of him and realized the man standing up was the very well-respected Pharisee and teacher Gamaliel. “Gentlemen! Gentlemen of Israel!” Gamaliel coolly addressed the fiery, out-of-control assembly. “Please listen to me! Please listen to me!” When they all realized the man speaking was one of their most honored and trusted members, the wild courtroom began to simmer down. Pandemonium slowly subsided. Ravenous dogs went back to their seats. Order finally was restored to the courtroom.