What Happened? | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: What Happened? | Previous Challenge Entry
By Terry Bovinet
09/08/16
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Absolutely fuming with rage, the Roman Army unit commander glared at his three elite Roman centurion guards finishing their night shift. On a hill just outside the walls of Jerusalem, they stood disconsolate before him and avoided eye contact.

“What happened? How incompetent can you be?” The three soldiers winced at the shriek in his voice and the venom in his words.

Only silence met with his demand for answers.

“Well!”

“We don’t know, Sir!" We watched the tomb all night and – "

“All night? Apparently not ALL night! Let’s go over it again!”

“Sir, the stone, we tested it. It took three of us to shift it just a little. We grunted so loudly – no one could have moved it without us hearing it.”

The commander peered into the once occupied but now strangely empty tomb. He repeatedly pounded his fist on the stone in question.

“Unreal! What can we tell everyone, including MY superior! Damage control!” he bellowed.

“We can blame that fraud’s irrational followers. They would do anything to make it seem like he spoke the truth,” one offered hoping to avoid at least some of the severe repercussions.

“Yes, yes, that’s it. Good story,” another commended his partner. “So they will just keep the body and not let anyone know about it. And then they will promote his lies.”

“His followers do not seem the type. A bit crazy, yes, but honest. Next lame excuse?” With that rejection from the commander, the furrowed brows of the four demonstrated the intensity of their thought.

“I’ve got it. Let’s say his believers didn’t actually put his body in the tomb. He looked dead, but they faked it!”

“No, too many witnesses saw the water and blood. And no one can question that Joseph’s integrity.”

With another explanation shot down, more awkward silence ensued.

“What about placing the guilt on those women who came at first light?”

“Forget that. No one will ever believe they could manage the strength to roll that stone away by themselves. Wait! I could blame you idiots. You three take the fall which would leave me off the hook,” the commander, almost serious, measured the terrified response of the three.

“Sir, that would mean - "

“I know, I know. But we need to come up with something. We can't report that he actually raised from the dead, angels helped him move the stone from the inside, and he just walked out on his own. No one will ever believe that.”

“His followers will.” The other two nodded in agreement with their codefendant.

The four spent the next hour going back and forth with other questionable schemes that might explain the incredible circumstances. As the sun continued to rise, they knew they would need to answer tough questions to higher authorities. And soon.

Skillfully trained by the Roman Army in all manner of maneuvers, battle plans, and fighting, this unique conundrum stumped them to the point of mental exhaustion.

“Well, let’s go face the music and hope we don’t get crucified like that charlatan,” entreated the commander.

He spoke for the four to his superior along with the chief priests and elders of the Temple. He told the aghast listeners the unfounded reasons they developed to explain the disappearance. Not one of them fit the evidence.

At first enraged, and now thoroughly irritated, the Roman Army superior consulted with the highest chief priest. After some consideration, the chief priest announced, “We need to cover this up. We will go with the story about his disciples stealing his body during the night. And under your noses!”

He glowered at the three guards. “You should lose your ration of salt for six months, but we will pay you handsomely to repeat this bold lie to anyone who asks.”

This suspicious solution relieved the three knowing they did not lose their jobs - or their lives.

“Okay, let’s head out. All on the same page?” Although asked as a question, the highest ranking Roman made clear by his voice its intent as a definitive statement.

Everyone left the meeting except the unit commander. He scrolled through every imaginable scenario over and over. And over. Nothing, absolutely nothing, made sense - except for one outlandish possibility.

“Could it be true?”

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