The Witness

Huddled people extended their arms to the fire as long shadows danced in the place where the light was surrounded by the darkness.

Muffled voices faintly echoed through the valley as laborers made their way down the path to the market place to sell their produce and wares.

As I firmly gripped the branch of a young olive tree, the torches penetrated the darkness as I gazed fully into His dimly lit face.

As He passed all those at the fire turned their backs on Him and pretended to look the other way.

For there was no beauty that we should desire Him, yet this One was altogether lovely (Song of Songs 5:16).

For surely He was despised, rejected of men, but somehow deep within me I knew that He was Emanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23).

I listened intently to the conversation of those standing by the fire as they spoke of the One who had been arrested. As their questions penetrated the darkness, they all seem to fall and settle on one stranger who attempted to find warmth by the fire.

Who was this man that it would take so many soldiers to bring Him in?

Was He not a lowly carpenter?

What crime had He committed that He had to be transported under the cloak of darkness with such force and secrecy?

Suddenly a woman pointed a finger at the stranger by the fire and said, “This man was with Him!” Yet, he denied her to her face and said, “Woman, I know Him not!”

Did He not say that if this temple was destroyed that He could rebuild it in three days? (Matthew 26:61)

Did not a servant get his ear cut off when they arrested Him, and yet did He not pick up his ear from the ground and put it right back on? (John 18:26)

Did not the soldiers who asked him if He was Jesus of Nazareth fall backward on the ground when He answered ‘I am He’? (John 18:6)

Then a man fixed his eyes on this stranger and said, “You are one of them!” But this stranger said, “I am not!”

Did not this man teach openly in the temple and synagogues? (Mathew 26:55)

Did He not heal the blind, the deaf and the lame? (Luke 4:18)

Then one of the others said, “You were with Him, for he is a Galilean.” Then this stranger said, “Sir, I do not know what you are talking about!”

As this stranger spoke, something raised up within me. Would not someone stand and speak up for the Son of God? Would not someone confess that He is LORD? Would not somebody speak up for the Anointed One, the Christ, the Messiah?

Then with tilted head and lungs bursting with air I crowed across the courtyard,

“He is the SAVVVVVVvvvvviiiiiooooorrrrrrrrrr!  

He is the SAVVVVVVvvvvviiiiiooooorrrrrrrrrr!”

And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him,

Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out, and wept bitterly.  Luke 22:61-62