A story from Intermission, a book written by James C. Schaap, a professor of English at Dordt College. Barthius searched frantically for his father, but the streets were jammed with the festival crowd. Somewhere among them was his father, but where? Barthius pushed and struggled through the mob and the dust and the noise. He had to find his father soon — before he saw their own colt in the strange parade moving up the road. He had to find him, tell him how he tried to stop the men who took the colt, but couldn\u2019t … The skies seemed almost white in the heat. Sweat curled down the boy\u2019s temples and ran down the back of his head as he kept searching. All around him people were chanting about the king of the Jews. Barthius found his father at a turn in the road, his arms loaded with palm branches. \u201cFather,\u201d he said, panting. \u201cFather, our colt — it is gone. I tried to stop them — \u201c The noise around them was deafening.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo what is bothering you?\u201d his father said. \u201cYou can see what a great holiday this is for Israel.\u201d Barthius stared, trying to catch his breath. The energy in his father\u2019s eyes burned like nothing he had ever seen before.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere now, my son — help me here.\u201d Together they laid the branches over the road. For just a minute Barthius looked down past the stream of people on either side and saw, far down the way, a clump of people around a man on his father\u2019s best colt. \u201cFather, it is our colt he is riding — the man they call Jesus.\u201d He tried to explain again, but his father seemed possessed. \u201cI\u2019m trying to tell you — ,\u201d he said, but his father paid no attention. He was yelling with the crowd and tossing branches wildly. \u201cIt is a great day, my son,\u201d his father said, sweeping the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm. \u201cIt is the day of the beginning. We will no longer be slaves to the Romans! You hear me? No longer Jewish slaves. The day of deliverance!\u201d<\/p>\n
Barthius stopped at the side of the road and stared down at the men coming towards them. His eyes rested on the still-blurry face of the man riding their colt. \u201cYou think this Jesus is the king?\u201d Barthius asked. \u201cEveryone says so. They say he can raise people from the dead,\u201d his father said. \u201cSurely he can free us from the Romans — \u201c<\/p>\n
\u201cFather, he is riding our colt. It is our colt there beneath him — \u201c His father stared. \u201cWonderful,\u201d he said. \u201cOur own colt, you say? The new king of the Jews riding our colt. How proud we should be, Barthius. Never forget this, my son!\u201d Barthius stood in silence while the crazed people around him chanted wildly about this man they called the king of the Jews.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A story from Intermission, a book written by James C. Schaap, a professor of English at Dordt College. Barthius searched frantically for his father, but the streets were jammed with the festival crowd. Somewhere among them was his father, but where? Barthius pushed and struggled through the mob and the dust and the noise. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1896,1895,1894],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}