The Good News

A week later, when Jesus had withdrawn with the Twelve to the far side of the River Jordan, my younger brother shouted my name from horseback. of a fifth horse... My father sent me to supervise our vineyards in the north. My brother was delighted we were living and working together. The grapes harvested that year became a superb wine that made our father proud of us. How could I abandon a father so fulfilled in his eldest son and a brother for whom I was the image of the man he was becoming? I stayed with my family. A year and a half later, I heard rumors of unrest in the south. Jesus had been accused of blasphemy. Travelers told me he was betrayed and dragged before the Temple priests, and humiliated at King Herod's court. Three Zoroastrian priests quietly arrived and with suppressed emotion told me, the Romans intervened and crucified that best of men. I cried for three days and nights. On the morning of the fourth day I awoke before dawn, and I saw a sign: a perfect circle of brilliant yellow light, within a nimbus of flowing white. I knew in a flash of truth - My Redeemer lives. And I knew the days to come would be sweeter and harder than ever before. He dismounted and fell into my arms, with a cry of joy that shook my heart. Three servants nearby stayed on their horses, and one of them held the reins of a fifth horse.