The Crown and the Cross: The Life of Christ Read Online Free PDF Page B

fell upon his unprotected skin, but he did not cry out. The Pharisee was skilled in punishing servants, laying on the leather with enough force to cause pain and raise an angry red welt which would be exquisitely tender for days, yet not enough to break the skin. Skin wounds could mean inflammation and even death, and a servant was too valuable a property to be destroyed simply to satisfy the owner’s anger.
    Soon Jonas’s back was a crisscross pattern of red welts. The pain was excruciating but the little man bit into his lip and did not beg for mercy. Finally, though, a blow brought a slight stain of red, and then Elam, almost exhausted, tossed the leather strap aside.
    “Get the animals ready while I refresh myself with wine,” he ordered curtly. “We will leave for Jerusalem at once.”
    Jonas pulled up his robe and started for the courtyard where the animals were tied, but Joseph was there before him. “I should have felt the strap instead of you,” he said humbly as he loosened the tether of Elam’s pack animal for Jonas and tested the thongs lashing the bales upon its back.
    Jonas managed to grin, although his back was a throbbing mass of agony. “The pain will go away. I have been flogged before.”
    “And will be again, if I judge that master of yours right,” Joseph said grimly. “He was humbled in pride and purse, both tender spots for a man such as he.”
    The pain lines were gone from Mary’s face when Jonas came to bid the little family farewell. Her serene beauty reminded him of the star that had shone over Bethlehem last night, and the sleeping child, too, seemed to have a radiance of its own.
    “Jonas!” Elam’s sharp voice sounded in the doorway. “Stop wasting time, unless you want another beating!”
    The little man hurried to pick up the tether of the pack animal. To keep the rough cloth of his garment from scraping against his tender skin, he tried to walk stiffly erect. But even that little relief was denied him, for Elam at once kicked the ass he rode into a near trot, so anxious was he to get to Jerusalem by the time the shops opened, and Jonas was forced to hurry on behind him.
    Busy with his own misery while he tried to urge the reluctant pack animal along, Jonas was paying little attention to the road ahead when he heard his master’s voice ring out sharply.
    “You there!” Elam called. “Don’t block the road.”
    Three men, shepherds by their dress and the fact that one of them carried a crook made from the gnarled limb of a small tree, stood aside for Elam’s little procession to pass. Jonas remembered seeing other such men when traveling near Jerusalem. The flocks in this area near the Holy City and its great temple were for the most part dedicated for sacrifice upon the altar, and the shepherds who guarded them were set apart and treated with respect by all who met them.
    Elam now recognized the men and pulled the ass to a stop. Jonas, plodding behind with the lead rope of the second animal, also halted.
    “Are you not the shepherds of the sacred flock?” the Pharisee asked in a more pleasant tone.
    “One of us is keeping the flocks today so the rest of us can come to Bethlehem,” one of the men said.
    Elam frowned. Some landlord and owner was being cheated if shepherds were allowed to roam the countryside or go into the town for a cup of wine while their flocks were left poorly guarded in the field. Elam knew that many rich men in Jerusalem owned land and flocks in this area. No doubt some one of them would reward him well for discovering the shortcomings of his shepherds.
    “Would your masters be pleased if they knew of this?” Elam demanded.
    The taller shepherd who seemed to be the spokesman answered. “Last night something happened,” he explained. “A thing so strange that we felt it should be reported in Bethlehem.”
    “What was that?”
    “We were abiding in the field as is our custom when a bright light shone around us and we were sore afraid. But we