Son of Mary Read online

  Son of Mary

  Book 1 in the Crown of Thorns series

  R. S. Ingermanson

  Ingermanson Communications, Inc.

  Although He was a Son,

  He learned obedience

  from the things which He suffered.

  Hebrews 5:8, NASB

  In those days and at that time

  I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth;

  and he shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth.

  Jeremiah 33:15, NASB

  “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary,

  and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?

  Are not His sisters here with us?”

  And they took offense at Him.

  Mark 6:3, NASB

  Who Told Jesus?

  Who told Jesus he had to die?

  Who told Jesus about the crown of thorns?

  Was he born knowing he was doomed to the cross?

  Did his parents tell him his destiny?

  Did he read it in the prophets?

  Maybe so.

  But then again, maybe not.

  We can’t know for sure how he learned it.

  Could it be that he discovered his destiny gradually?

  The same way you and I do, step by step, working it out?

  We read. We talk. We think. We pray. We listen.

  Bit by bit, we find our way in the world.

  The ancient creeds sing that Jesus was fully God.

  But they insist that he was somehow also fully man.

  As a man, he learned obedience, one step at a time.

  As a man, he walked with God, talked with God.

  Somewhere along that journey, Jesus came to know his destiny.

  That he would be scapegoated by angry, frightened men.

  That he would be beaten and mocked and spit on.

  That he would die in shame on a cross.

  And thereby rule as king forever.

  Wearing a crown of thorns.

  This is his story…

  Author’s Note

  This is a story set in a foreign place and time, strange to us in at least three ways:

  The land itself is not our land.

  The language is not our language.

  The way people think is not the way we think.

  As for the land, I’ve created a few maps, based on what we know of first-century Judea, Samaria, and Galilee.

  As for the language, I’ve given all characters names in Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek. I’ve also salted in a few words from these languages. Just so we never forget that we are visitors in a foreign country.

  As for the way they think, I’ve tweaked the way my characters speak. They put their words together a little different than you and I. Just to remind us that their brains are wired different from ours.

  We can never understand these people completely, but we should remember one thing.

  In their eyes, we are the foreigners.

  We speak a strange language.

  We think strange thoughts.

  We come as guests into their home.

  Welcome to their world, and enjoy the adventure!

  Contents

  Map of Palestine

  Map of Galilee

  Map of Jerusalem

  Map of Mount of Olives

  Map of Nazareth

  Where to Download the Maps

  I. Part 1: The Ring of Justice

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  II. Part 2: The Evil Boy

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  III. Part 3: The Mamzer Boy

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  IV. Part 4: The Precipice

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Chapter 65

  Chapter 66

  Chapter 67

  Chapter 68

  Chapter 69

  Chapter 70

  Chapter 71

  Chapter 72

  Chapter 73

  Chapter 74

  Chapter 75

  Chapter 76

  Chapter 77

  Chapter 78

  Chapter 79

  Chapter 80

  Chapter 81

  Chapter 82

  About the Author

  Where to Download the Maps

  The maps in this book were custom drawn by the author for the Crown of Thorns series. These maps perfectly match the story. You can’t find them anywhere else.

  You can download the maps for free at ingermanson.com/maps.

  Nobody lives forever, and neither do websites, so this offer can only be for a limited time. Best to grab the maps now.

  Part 1: The Ring of Justice

  Late summer, AD 29

  Once there was an evil tale

  An evil tale

  An evil tale.

  Once there was an evil tale

  And Miryam was her name.

  Chapter One

  Miryam of Nazareth

  My son Yeshua is making a scandal again.

  He just came in the village gate holding the hand of a woman.

  That is not done in Israel. It is a big scandal if a man talks with a woman. A bigger scandal to walk with a woman. Bigger yet to hold the hand of a woman.

  But my son does all these things.

  My Yeshua does not fear to make a scandal.

  That is why I love him best of all my sons.

  I am sure the woman is a sinful woman. A woman of shame. A zonah.

  My son has brought home zonahs before. The village says it is a foolishness. I say it is a kindness.

  Yeshua stops inside the gate to greet the village elders who sit all day taking their ease in the cool shade. He talks with the men and smiles kindly on the zonah, both at the same time.

  The men do not look on the zonah, but they look on Yeshua and grin on him and slap their fat thighs and make a mighty roar on some jest he makes.

  Yeshua turns and smiles on me.

  It warms my heart that he smiles on me in the face of the village elders, who hate me. There was some man of HaShem who told me once that a sword would pierce my heart on account of Yeshua. That has not happened yet, and I beg HaShem it never will. When my son smiles on me, I can almost forget the matter of
piercing.

  Almost.

  Yeshua pulls on the zonah’s hand to come this way.

  I am standing outside our house, which is at the south end of the village. Nazareth is long and narrow, one dirt street with stone houses on both sides. The village gate opens into the village square, not far from our house.

  Yeshua makes a big smile on me.

  He runs at me.

  He lifts me in his arms and spins me around and around.

  He kisses my left cheek. He kisses my right cheek. He kisses my lips.

  A kiss and a kiss and a kiss, in the open street, as I am some man of honor and not the most shamed woman in the village.

  My heart wants to break for my joy.

  My son kisses me with honor while the village elders scowl on me for scorn.

  Yeshua holds me long in his arms, as he is back from some far journey, instead of just gone for the day to Tsipori. He and his brothers must have found a good work there, because he smells like sweat.

  At last Yeshua releases me. “HaShem has been smiling on you today, Imma. You look more beautiful than you did even this morning.”

  He says that every day, and it gives me a big joy in my heart. But lately, he says it more and there is a new look in his eye and it makes me afraid.

  I think a day is coming when he will leave Nazareth.

  HaShem has a mighty thing for Yeshua to do, and he knows it.

  Yeshua wishes to do the will of HaShem, but he does not wish to leave me to the hate of the village.

  My son loves me, but he loves HaShem more. If he thinks I am more beautiful today, it is not because I am younger. It is because he must leave me soon.

  I think he weeps inside to leave me.

  But even so, he will leave me.

  And I am afraid. On the day he leaves me, I think I will die.

  I do not think the village will stone me, but their scorn is sharper than knives. They will find a way to make my life a big agony, more than it is now.

  I beg HaShem every day that he will not take away my Yeshua.

  But I have forgotten my hospitality. The zonah stands near us, looking on the ground in her shame. Of course she is shamed. She is a sinful woman. Yeshua will find her a new life in the village, but the people will call her zonah until the day she dies. The stain of a zonah never scrubs out.

  Yeshua says to me, “Imma, here is my new friend from Tsipori.”

  I hate Tsipori. It is the chief city of Galilee and stinks of garbage and piss and many thousand people. Yeshua says it is more than ten thousands, and not all of them are Jews. Some Syrians and Arabians live there, and even Greeks. Also, many zonahs. It is a wicked place. Yeshua goes there often with his brothers so they can find work. My sons know the craft of the tekton, so they can do any kind of stone-work or wood-work or metal-work that builders need. Each day a tekton can earn a silver dinar. We have a good living from Tsipori, but I will never love it.

  The zonah stares on me.

  She should stare. I am the most fortunate woman in Galilee. I am the most wretched woman in Galilee.

  I make a smile on her. “My name is called Miryam.”

  She makes a smile back on me. “My name is called Shlomzion.”

  I say, “That is a good name,” and it is true. The fourth part of the women in our village are named Shlomzion. There are so many, we give them each a nickname, or else there would be a big confusion.

  My youngest daughter is named Shlomzion. We call her Shlomi Dancefeet. She is to be married soon to a man of honor, but not in our village.

  Yeshua steps inside our house and calls for my second son, who stayed home today.

  A moment later, Yeshua comes out with two pots for water, tugging his brother’s hand and smiling on the zonah. “Friend, this is my brother. His name is called Little Yaakov, and he is my strong right arm.”

  The zonah makes a grin, for Little Yaakov is a big man, more mighty than any of his brothers. But his grandfather’s name was also called Yaakov, and so my son has been Little Yaakov from the day he was born.

  Little Yaakov looks on the zonah, but he does not smile, and he does not speak to her.

  I am glad on that. Little Yaakov’s woman died of the fever last year, and I do not wish him to make a friend on a zonah. One son who makes scandals is enough.

  Yeshua smiles on me. “Imma, you will come with me for a walk, yes?”

  “Yes.” My heart sings. This is the biggest happiness in my day, to walk with my son to fetch water. It is not done in Israel, for a man to go with a woman to fetch water, but my son does it because he loves me, and he does not care what other men think. My son is a tsaddik—a righteous man, a man of honor. A tsaddik does not make a worry on what is done in Israel and what is not done in Israel.

  Yeshua hands the zonah a waterpot and me a waterpot. “Come, Imma. Did I remember to say you are beautiful?”

  I smile on him. “No, you are a wicked son to have forgotten.”

  Yeshua laughs and kisses me again. In his laughter, I hear a far echo of his fear. And mine.

  Just beside our house, a little way back from the street, my three daughters-in-law and my youngest daughter, Shlomi, are gathered around our firepit.

  “Yeshua!” Shlomi Dancefeet squeals and runs to hug Yeshua.

  She still hugs him as she is some small girl. When she is married, that will stop. The man she marries will not allow it.

  “Shlomi!” Yeshua gives her a kiss and a kiss and a kiss. He lifts her up and swings her around many times. She was born a month after my lord Yoseph died, and so she is my last. Yeshua has been like a father to her. I see a big sadness in his eyes, because when she marries, she will leave our village.

  Shlomi Dancefeet runs back to help my daughters-in-law with the cooking. They smile on Yeshua, but they do not greet him in public. They love him much, but they do not make a scandal on themselves.

  Yeshua takes my hand again. When he holds my hand, I feel safe in this village. The men of the village hate me and their women spit my feet and their sons throw stones and their daughters sing cruel songs. But when Yeshua is with me, they do not. He is a tsaddik and a man of honor, and they fear him more than they hate me.

  We walk.

  The spring is far from our house, outside the north end of the village. It is a long way uphill, but when Yeshua is with me, it feels like a short walk.

  When Yeshua is not with me, I do not go to the village spring.

  We pass through the village square.

  Yeshua shouts to Shimon the baker. “Father Shimon! Have you saved some rounds of bread for us?”

  Shimon the baker is a fat man of sixty years who smiles much. He never smiles on me, but today he makes a big grin on Yeshua. “For how many mouths, friend?”

  “Twelve,” I whisper to Yeshua. Our family is ten adults, and the zonah is a guest, so she must have double. A dinar will buy bread for twelve, so Yeshua has just enough.

  Yeshua thinks for a moment. “Four and ten.”

  There is a thing in his eyes I do not understand. Fear licks at my heart. Yeshua knows more than he has said.

  Yeshua hands a dinar to Shimon the baker. “I will send Little Yaakov with more.”

  “You will not. It is an honor to sell you bread. I will send my grandson to your house with the rounds.”

  We walk all the length of the village and go out the north end. The wind blows from the east today, and the stink of the leather-man’s piss-pool stings my nose. I wish it was farther from the village.

  We reach the narrows and climb the stony path toward the spring of Nazareth. It is a good spring, enough for our village. HaShem, the Lord our God, the God of our fathers, makes water gush out from the ground. Long ago, our fathers built a stone pool to hold the water.

  I dip my pot in the water and balance it on my head. The zonah does the same. She is a tall woman, and not young. She is more than twenty or I am a goose. There is a big hurt around her eyes. Tomorrow, Yeshua will find a house in Nazareth o
r some other village that needs a woman servant. No woman would be a zonah by choice, but a woman without a lord or father or brother or son can be a zonah or she can starve, and that is not a choice. I have five sons and a brother-in-law and a nephew, but sometimes I am afraid I might lose them all, and then what will I do?

  Yeshua looks on me, and his eyes sing how he thinks I am more beautiful than I ever was.

  Fear stings my heart like a poison. He knows some matter he has not told me yet.

  “Come, Imma. Come, little sister.” Yeshua takes my hand and the zonah’s hand and guides us back down the path.

  The joy of my son fills my heart. Blessed be HaShem for my son, my greatest gladness and my greatest sorrow.