He Who Returned. Martin Fieber
Joshua’s admiration grew. Unfortunately they all had to leave the dressing rooms now, however as the theater had already opened, they were now led into the main area and shown to their seats by the watchman. “There in the middle is the area reserved for Herod Antipas and his retinue“, the watchman suddenly began to tell them. “Farther up the wealthy ladies and gentlemen sit, who are sure not to miss any of the plays due to their boring life. Today this area back here is reserved for the builders of the theater and their families. These are what would be called seats of honor. Farther along there you see the large stairway. The common people sit above the platform over there. “How many people fit into this theater? Joshua was quite taken by the whole atmosphere of the place.
“The theater is designed to hold 2,000 people. It may be expanded to a capacity of4,000 in a few years. But for now the construction work required would take too long. The remaining 2,000 seats will be added gradually eventually. But the space necessary had already been included in the basic design“, the watchman said with pride, as if it had been his very own idea. “Well, I have to get back to work now. Enjoy the show!”
Joseph went ahead and picked a spot for the group of seven. He sat down first, followed by Jossi and Judah. Rachel, Jesus and Joshua joined them, with Miriam seated at the opposite end from Joseph.
“You will surely enjoy it, Joshua“, the mother of Jesus said. It is supposed to be a comedy, apparently. You might not be able to understand much of the dialogue, but simply by watching the actors and the people around you you will be able to follow along well enough. It promises to be a funny show.”
“Do you know Latin?”, Joshua asked.
“A little. We learned Greek as well as some Latin in the roughly five years we stayed in Alexandria. Out of us three, Jesus has the best grasp of the languages. You will pick them up quickly once you are in Ephesus.” She smiled at him. “Isn't it interesting that this play happens to take place in Ephesus?”
“Yes, but right now I don't even want t begin thinking about leaving here yet. Right now I could care less about Ephesus!”
The three friends were enjoying the fact that they were sitting in the theater together. Joshua was watching the many people as they began to trickle in. Eventually the trickle turned into a might stream. Rachel was fascinated by the stage, where some actors were already going hither and thither. And Jesus was on the lookout for Herod Antipas. He was curious about what such a ruler might be like. How would he look? What kind of manner would he have? He would most certainly be present for the performance today. Meanwhile it was getting louder and fuller every second. There were people sitting around them on all sides, and all of them seemed to be speaking at once. There was building sense of anticipation. Then suddenly someone was standing in the middle of the stage. The figure waited a few moments in silence. From where they were seated it was only about twenty steps to the stage.
“Look over there, Jesus, that must be the first actor. Look at how he is dressed. Is it a man or a woman?” Rachel was very excited.
“No Rachel, that isn't an actor, that is…“
A loud voice interrupted the excited cackling of the audience.
“Citizens of Sepphoris, builders, Romans, friends. I, Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee and Perea, greet you on behalf of the Roman Empire today here in the capital of Galilee. This is a very special day for Rome, as the construction of this theater was completed only recently, a few weeks ago. The Roman emperor is keen on ensuring that his citizens are well entertained. A theater here in the capital of Galilee was long overdue. And since this theater was built by Rome with the assistance of many local construction craftsmen – let me hereby express my sincere gratitude to those among them present today – today's performance will feature the work of a Roman poet. It is my pleasure to announce that the play "The glorious Captain" by comedy playwright Plautus is to be performed momentarily. It will prove to be very entertaining, even if many of you are unable to understand Latin. In the future the works of Greek poets will feature more frequently. However I wish to stress that elements of Roman life will always be interspersed into the program here. Well, enough words for now, and may the play begin! Salve.”
“…Herod Antipas. That is Herod Antipas.” Jesus' gaze was fixed on the ruler in a peculiar way. The ruler in turn proceeded toward the group, surveyed the audience and seemed to dwell with his gaze on Jesus. Then he sat down quite calmly on his throne four rows beneath them and directed his attention toward the performance.
Joshua watched Jesus from the corner of his eye. Jesus seemed to be in a different world all of a sudden. He gave Miriam a nudge and nodded toward Jesus, but she merely shook her head gently.
“That happens to him now and then. He sometimes goes into a kind of trance and is can not be addressed for a few minutes. Don't be concerned. He will return to us shortly.”
Jesus surveyed the first few minor scenes as if in a dream. He fixed his gaze on the stage setting. But what came next constituted the greatest pain that his soul had ever felt. He was incapable of moving, could not even make a sound. Fortunately breathing was an automatic process, otherwise he would have suffocated right then and there. Tears welled up from his innermost being. Tears and then more tears, pain and then more pain. He kept on seeing those ugly faces that mocked him and spat at him. If Jesus had been able to stand up, he would have run out of the theater straight away.
It all started with a man running across the stage who was chased by Roman legionnaires, first to the right, then to the left, then to the right again. Countless times, without pause. This man was playing the role of one sentenced to death by crucifixion. He was already carrying a horizontal beam as he was being chased through the town setting of the play. His arms were splayed across the thick wooden beam which extended all the way out to his wrists. Rome loved to have this kind of background element in its stories. The emperor was fond of displaying his power this way. The man appeared again in several intermittent scenes. In the last scene the man was nailed on the cross and observing the action of the play from that perspective, occasionally offering ironic comments on what was going on below him. The performance of such evil deeds was awful enough as it was, but the fact that the audience rejoiced in such depictions the more they saw of them was more than horrible.
Jesus had fallen into depths from which he was only able to emerge once the audience had risen and was applauding the performers at the end of the play. The sheer volume of the noise then allowed him to return to the here and now.
“What was the matter, my son?”, Miriam asked him with great concern, since her son had been sitting as if in a trance for over two hours. She shook him a little. “Jesus?”
She was able to guess that the play had caused some sort of turmoil in him. If she had known that such scenes were going to be shown in it, she naturally would have refused to attend the performance. But alas, she had not been able to predict any of this. After all, it had been announced as a comedy. Joseph noticed that Miriam had to take care of things now, so he took his two sons as well and Rachel and Joshua with him. They proceeded to the stairs a few yards away and waited there.
“Mother, am I going to be crucified?” Jesus was still in another world to a certain degree, although he was slowly becoming aware of the world around him again.
“Jesus, I do not know. Alas, I do not know. But as you are aware of yourself, there is something you must do which will be very difficult. Many things can happen along the way, but please don't think about such a terrible thing for now. Think about a couple of nice weeks in Nazareth together with Joshua und Rachel, until your friend has to depart. That is all that counts right now.”
Fortunately Jesus had enough energy to walk the whole way back to Nazareth. It even felt good to move and to process what he had seen. Rachel was especially good at brightening his mood. She kept on excitedly raving about the beautiful costumes. And she was happy that Jesus had regained his footing somewhat. He would probably be able to fall asleep easily tonight. Miriam felt she could not speak to anyone about the talk she had had with Jesus, not even with Sarah, for it would have been to awful to have to tell Sarah what kind of a play she had taken Joshua along to see.
God,