Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Shrewdness (03/07/05)
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TITLE: Taken | Previous Challenge Entry
By Debbie OConnor
03/09/05 -
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Wonderful, I thought to myself. This is going to work.
Joseph left Miriam to conduct business. Miriam lingered a few minutes, casually chatting with the other women. Then, pulling her cloak close around her, Miriam furtively sneaked off through the crowd. The noise and activity at the gate obscured her flight. Joseph’s business deflected any attention his speaking to Miriam might arouse.
Zephaniah and I followed Miriam at a distance as she made her way to Joseph’s home. We watched her hide in the nearby brush. Joseph soon arrived to usher her discreetly out of her hiding place and into the house. Miriam did not see him signal me as he led her inside.
I could feel my heart pounding as I watched the scene unfold. The moment was drawing near. “Ten more minutes,” I whispered hoarsely to Zephaniah. He nodded in reply and motioned for John and Bartholomew to join us from their position down the street.
Ten minutes later, my friends and I stormed into Joseph’s home to arrest Miriam. We caught the adulterous pair in the act. I yanked Miriam off the bed by her hair. Bartholomew spit in her face. Miriam screamed, cried, and struggled to pull a cloak around her naked body. John opened the door. Zephaniah and I shoved her outside and drug her toward the temple.
She kicked, screamed, and clawed at us in desperation. It was almost funny. There was nowhere for her to go. In a last, futile gesture, Miriam bit me, drawing blood. I slapped her with all my strength; she stopped fighting.
The teacher was in the temple courts, as we knew he would be. There he sat, teaching – the upstart, the pretender from Galilee, with his crowd of worshipping rabble. We have you now, I thought vindictively.
“Teacher!” I yelled, thrusting the woman in front of him and the crowd he was teaching. Miriam stood quivering in shame before them all. “This woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”
I struggled to suppress my elation. There was no way out; this time we had him. If Jesus said we should stone Miriam, the Romans would arrest him for unlawfully executing her. If Jesus said we should let her go, we could expose him for breaking the Law of Moses. It was time, I thought to myself. Time for Jesus to go.
I stared at Jesus, who was unnaturally calm under the circumstances. He remained seated and seemed to ignore me. Rather than answering, he bent to write something in the sand.
“Teacher!” I shouted. “Do you not hear me? We caught this woman in the act of adultery. What should we do with her?”
Jesus kept writing. Bartholomew yelled, “Teacher, tell us! What should we do with her?”
Miriam sobbed loudly and the crowd began to murmur. John called out, “Tell us, Teacher. What should we do?”
Finally, Jesus straightened up and looked at me. Without releasing my gaze he said, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he stooped down and resumed writing on the ground.
I looked at the woman. Then I looked at Jesus, the full weight of his words penetrating my mind. “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Strangled with conviction, I fled. Some distance away, I fell to the ground sobbing. Dear God, what have I done?
Story based on John 8:1-9 (NIV)
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