INTRODUCTION

"You mean they killed him?"

"Yes, Zebedee, they did. There was a disturbance in the Temple area and when it was reported to the Roman soldiers, they came and took Jesus away and had him crucified. They nailed Jesus on a wooden post with a cross beam and left him there until he was dead."

I was only eight years old. I did not understand. I could not believe what my father had just told me. Jesus had been such a fine man! Why would the Romans kill him? What crime had he committed? I could not comprehend what had happened.

I knew that Rome was powerful and capable of great violence. No one, from the wealthiest merchant to the poorest peasant in any city or village in Judea or Galilee escaped the knowledge that Rome ruled the day, and the night. The empire was present in its coins and its buildings, its soldiers and its taxes. While the Romans did not station troops in Galilee when I was young, we heard stories about Roman soldiers being called upon to stop rebellion that had taken place shortly after the death of King Herod the Great. We knew they might come again if any peasants tried to rebel against the government.

Yet even this many years later I cannot come up with words to describe how I felt when my father told me what had happened. I was upset. I was shocked. And I was scared and frightened. If they killed him, what would they do to people like my father who followed him?

A little while later, when I had calmed down some, my father went on to tell me what happened next. Even though Jesus had been crucified, his followers began to experience him in their midst. When the women went to see the tomb that morning after Sabbath, they discovered his body was not there. Mary Magdalene said she saw him in the garden by the tomb where they had laid him. Two of his followers were walking to a village west of Jerusalem and were joined by a stranger. They later recognized Jesus was the stranger, and as soon as they recognized him, he disappeared from their presence.

As father told me about what happened, he said that it was both a confusing and an exciting time. Some considered it an idle tale. Others doubted it was really the same person who was back with them. Several were convinced they saw him, but they had to admit he was different than before. He was not recognized, then he was recognized. He appeared, then he disappeared.

Over the years I have talked to father and several of his friends about those days just after Jesus was crucified, and I never have been able to figure out exactly what happened. At first they hardly knew how to describe what took place. In time they began to use the word "resurrection" to describe it, but it took a while before everyone agreed this was the best word to use. There was more confusion than clarity at first.

But these events, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus whom we now believe to be the Messiah, shaped the rest of my life. In fact, they shaped the lives of many other people whom I knew. And I suspect they may prove to be significant events for many people who have not yet been born.

Moses tells us we should teach our children. Knowing our past can help us understand the present. It is with this in mind that I think my daughter Judit was right to keep pressing me to record the story of my life. I tell my story to help my children and their children know what God has done in these years.


FROM CHAPTER TWO

I do not remember the first time I met Jesus of Nazareth. He was often with my father and his friends, so he became a frequent visitor in our home. I called him Uncle Jesus, because that is what my parents said I should call him, even though he was not a brother of either of my parents. Whenever he came to our home or I saw him elsewhere, he spoke to me and looked me right in the eyes like he was glad to see me. I felt he treated me with respect even though I was only a boy. . . .

My best memory of Uncle Jesus took place during the Hanukkah celebrations when I was seven years old. . . . That year at Hanukkah Uncle Jesus spent much of one day with our family, and he gave me a little toy top he had made just for me. The top had four sides, with a different letter on each side: nun, gimel, hei and pei. Those letters meant "a great miracle happened here," which referred to the miracle of the lamp remaining lit for the full eight days. During the time Greek King Antiochus IV Epiphanes ruled our land, Jewish worship and study of the Torah were illegal, so teachers kept a top handy and if soldiers came by while boys were studying they would spin the top and say they were gambling. If it looked like they were gambling, the soldiers would not bother them.