A guard. mark 14 :65 Luke 22:63-65 John


We have been to the gardens this evening and we saw him being kissed by his friend Iscarriot.  We  watched him rebuke his friend for cutting of Malchus’s ear and  watched him heal it.  We have taken him and bound him and led him to the temple courts where we are to present him before the High Priest and elders in the morning.   He is quite some guy.  We are all a little apprehensive about this arrest.
When we got him to the cells someone broke out the wine and we settled down to play dice and to watch him for the rest of the night.  One of my officer friends started to taunt Jesus asking him to predict where the dice was going to fall – apparently Jesus is able to predict the future.  This became an amusing game, one which Jesus refused to join in.  So then Lamech got up and dragged Jesus over to where we were playing and forced him onto his knees on the floor.  He spat in his face and demanded that Jesus answer him.  Jesus was silent.   Marcus, who had had a fair bit to drink by then, was angry and started to pull at Jesus’s hair.  Then Adan took the sash from round Jesus’s waist and put it over his eyes like a blindfold.   He then indicated to Lamech to slap the prisoner.   Jesus was knocked sideways and Adan shouted out ‘  So who hit you then, prophet of God?’  Everyone roared with laughter.   We then all took it in turns to slap and punch him whilst he was still kneeling on the floor.  Blows were raining down from all sides.  Jesus let out the occasional groan, but apart from that was silent.  
After a while we lost interest in that game and settled down to sleep for the rest of the night.  We took it in turns to watch, but the prisoner was in no fit state to make any attempts to escape and his followers weren’t likely to be able to get in to break him out.  The cells under the temple courts are pretty impenetrable.
I have no real idea why Jesus was in our custody tonight.  As far as I know he hasn’t actually broken any civil Roman laws.  It was the Jewish leaders who were pushing for him to be arrested.  Something about the blasphemy laws I think.   We are just here to keep the peace and stop any unrest.  But there is something about him which impresses me.  He is calm and sort of..... noble.  Not what you’d expect from an itinerant carpenter from the countryside.  It is almost as though he isn’t angry , doesn’t hate us, doesn’t feel aggrieved by the process.  I’ve never seen anyone react to arrest like that before.  Not even the murderers and thieves.
He’s an interesting one this Jesus.   We shall see what happens to him tomorrow when he goes before the High Priest.




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