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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: SKULDUGGERY (09/01/16)
The eight men gathered in the small, windowless room. The closed doors and the tardy hour of the meeting reflected its secretive nature. The tension was palpable, each man waiting for the other to initiate the conversation. The youngest and most impulsive in the room took the bait. If the older men would not speak, he would lead the way. The truth was, that was the way the rest of them had planned it. The politics of the situation demanded that a sensitive path would be trod and each of them would play a guarded hand until forced to declare their thoughts.

They were intent upon murder, though no-one would give voice to such a thought. But first, they would snare the prey and they needed a plan, hence the meeting. The young man spoke up.

‘I have had an idea. Why don’t we approach him with an extremely complicated question? If he alludes to his claim to divinity, we will have plenty of witnesses and it will be easy to bring him before the Sanhedrin for blasphemy.’

‘Well, apart from the fact that most of us in this room sit in the Sanhedrin, what would your question be?’ This came from the oldest of the men gathered and, therefore, gave signal to the others assembled that they were free to talk, or sneer, as befitted the comment.

The young man was well and truly hooked. This could mean winning respect from his peers and his elders. ‘Well, what if we were to present the case that a woman marries a man who then dies. The wife then marries his brother who also dies; another brother marries her and dies and so on until all the brothers are no more. The question is: at the resurrection, whose wife will she be?’

One of the middle men in the pecking order ventured a comment, ‘I like where you are coming from, but aren’t you forgetting something: we don’t believe in the resurrection!’

A round of sniggering and back-slapping followed, silenced after several seconds by a comment from the old man, ‘I think there might be mileage in what you are saying. It’s worth a try. Let’s see how he answers it. We have enough knowledge between us to take him down. Let’s do this.’

The timing of the plan was agreed and the meeting was closed in prayer. They were sure this dangerous fellow would be dealt with thoroughly and justice done. He threatened to upset the whole status quo with his new form of teaching. Such authority, secretly admired by the Sadducees and Pharisees alike, but they would never admit it. They were right. He was wrong.

The group of eight followed their plan to the nth degree. The only problem was that Jesus was on top form. He was in Jerusalem and in the past week he had been hailed with palm branches, cleared the temple and was teaching in parables and in power.

The Sadducees were preceded in their questioning by the chief priests, teachers of the law and the elders. They had been questioning his authority but he brushed them aside. He even told a parable about them. They were furious and plotted to kill him too. Everyone was thinking the same thing. ‘Let’s get rid of him.’

Some Pharisees and Herodians were up just after them but they were also summarily dismissed. They had gone for a more hybrid approach, blending politics, finances and religion by asking about taxes. More hypocrisy. Jesus didn’t appreciate hypocrisy.

The young man whose question it was, began to get nervous. If he was able to fend off questions about authority and deity with such ease, what was he going to do with his question? The cracks in his argument were giving way to crevasses.

He was relieved when one of the older men spoke up and presented the question. They waited with bated breath. Because there was a two second pause between the question and the answer, they thought they had him. Wrong. He was just amazed at their stupidity. He went straight for the jugular. Told them in no uncertain terms that they neither understood the Scriptures nor the power of God. They were badly mistaken.

Back to the drawing board; not to find another question but to devise a way to bring this matter to a conclusion. Jesus must die. Or we are all wrong. The young man was silent this time, not so certain any more.
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Member Comments
Member
Date
Shann Hall-LochmannVanBennekom 
09/16/16
You did a wonderful job of setting the scene. I could easily picture the scheming behind closed doors. It made me stop and think.

My main advice would be to get rid of clichés. Instead of going for the jugular, you could do something like he rubbed his hands together, licked his lips and leaned in. We've got him now!
Some of the other clichés I noticed were back to the drawing board, no uncertain terms, and bated breath.

Other than that, I think you did a fine job. Although many people might think of this situation when given the topic, you made it original by telling it from a unique POV. Congratulations on ranking 7th in your level. The highest rankings can be found on the message boards.