Luke 7

It was a warm and sunny day. Unfortunately, the welcoming weather did nothing to aid my illness. I had no idea what I had, but my symptoms were only getting worse. Every day I coughed up blood and other fluids, and the fever I had never subsided. My body ached on a daily basis, and I grew tired after attempting to get out of bed; eventually my illness had overtaken me to the point where I stayed in bed all day and night.
Before my sickness, I (Josiah) was the favored servant of the powerful centurion Levi. Being in Levi’s favor, I was in charge over the rest of the servants of his household. Once my disease had left me bedridden, Levi felt the need to consult a man known to do many miracles. Though I have only heard of him from afar, I knew his name: Jesus. Once I heard that Levi was going to try and bring him to heal me, I knew I must be near death. This only brought me to a pit of depression and despair. What if this man was merely a myth and he couldn’t heal me? We’re the last of my days meant to be shared in a bed, lying in pain and fear? I didn’t believe much could save me, but Levi insisted on sending messengers to find Jesus.

In their efforts to bring Jesus to me, the messengers begged him to heal to me because I was the favored in Levi’s household. Eventually persuaded, Jesus agreed. I was started to gain an inkling of hope, maybe this man was as the rumors stated. Maybe he was a man who could really heal me. But before Jesus was at the house, Levi told him that he didn’t have to come! He was the one who wanted me healed and yet he didn’t invite him to the house? How would he heal me then? Surely this was a joke, how could Levi not want me to be healed?
But Levi then sent a messenger to tell Jesus that he believed that he could heal from a distance. Levi didn’t want Jesus to enter a household he felt was unworthy of his presence. Instead he believed that this man could heal me more than 15 miles from my actual presence. At first I thought he was crazy- but apparently Levi’s faith proved beneficial. I stopped vomiting, and I was actually able to walk around. My fever was gone, I could eat solid food, and I could breathe normally. I couldn’t believe I was healed. I still don’t know how to react. Who was this man? Was he just more than a man? He couldn’t be just a prophet. He had to be something more. My curiosity got the best of me because a couple days later I headed out to find Jesus.

Sarah-What are we eating? Bread and Fish or Fish and Bread? (John 6)

Shalom again. It's me, Sarah. Okay so you know how I told you about Dad's experience with Jesus? Well some of Dad's soldiers saw him going toward Tiberius! They not only saw him, but they also saw about 5,000 people following him! Dad's soldiers came to him because they were worried that there would be some sort of rebellion or something. But by the way Dad looked at it, they were just listening carefully at what Jesus was saying. A boy my age, who was carrying his lunch of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish, told me that he had been talking about these stories called parables and the ways of God. He also talked about his testimony and how God sent him. I was already interested in his works so I thought I would follow him and listened to what he had to say. I told Dad that I would meet up with him later and I followed the boy with the food, whose name was Zachariah, but I called him "Zack" for short. Well I walked with Zack all the way to Tiberius and listened to Jesus talk. I was pretty much right in front of him while Zack and I sat next to each other on the mountainside while he was teaching. By the time Jesus was done, it had gotten a bit late and I could hear my stomach growling. Jesus said to one of his disciples, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" but the thing is, Jesus asked him like he already knew the answer. I was bewildered because how could anyone figure out a way to feed more or less 5,000 people!?!  The disciple, agreeing with my thought, said, "Eight months' wages [200 denarii] would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another disciple noticed Zack and his basket full of bread and fish and told Jesus, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" By this time, Zack was inclined to give the disciples his basket. I, personally, was wondering the same thing. How could this little food go so far? But then I remember how Jesus healed Dad's servant and I realized that anything could be possible with Jesus. He told his disciples to have everyone sit down. He took the bread, gave thanks, and started handing out the bread. He did the same with the fish. Then the disciples started handing each and every person food, as much as they wanted! I was looking at Jesus with my eyes, yet again, bulging out! It seemed like there was a never-ending supply of food coming from Zack's basket! Zack and I just sat there staring. The disciples gave us some food and we started eating it. We ate a lot. After everyone was done eating, the disciples started collecting the leftovers. There were 12 baskets. It could not add up into my head. I put this equation into my head so many times: 1 basket for 5,000 people = enough for 12 baskets? It just didn't add up! As Zack and I were wondering, we saw Jesus slip out of the crowd in the corner of our eyes as people were murmuring. They wanted to make him their king. I couldn't help getting the feeling that Jesus did not want to be king of Israel. I had a feeling that he was going to be the King of something much bigger and grander than that.

Luke 7

It is late in the afternoon and I'm currently resting outside after a long day working, that was slightly interrupted by an interesting turn of events. My name is Levi and I have a family of six, four girls, two boys, and a wife whom I love dearly. I work from the early morning to the early evening making rugs in my self-owned shop. I do all this so I can earn enough to feed my family. But enough about me, I want to speak about the events that took place in the small town I live in, Capernaum.

For the past two weeks, one of the prominent centurion's servant has been quite ill, which very much worried his owner. But yesterday, this town was blessed with a great surprise! Jesus himself came to our town. Upon hearing this the centurion sent for his friends to approach Jesus about healing his servant. The centurion is a close acquaintance of mine and I know him to be a very humble man, so the fact that he did this does not strike me as odd. This whole scene occurred outside of my rug store and I couldn't help but overhear what the centurion's friends had to say to Jesus. Of course, there was a crowd surrounding Him, for I have heard He has a great following consisting of disciples and other believes. I personally had not had a chance to listen to Him speak before this and was greatly excited to hear Him preach.

The centurion's friends told Jesus what the centurion had to say, which was "Lord, don’t trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority."
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed at the centurion! I saw Him turn to the crowd following him, and say, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” The men heard this and returned to their house.

By that time I had joined the crowd surrounding Jesus and listen to Him great things to the people. I am now one of his followers and plan to travel with Him as He preaches the great news to people of many different cities!

Luke 7 - First Few Days with Jesus

My name is Johnny. I am eight years old and am being taught to be a tax collector, just like my father. I am an only child because my mother died shortly after I was born. One day I was out digging a well near my home when all of a sudden I heard an unfamiliar voice. I looked aside and saw a man followed by an unusually large crowd. I asked my father who he was and he responded by saying it was Jesus of Nazareth. I wanted to hear what Jesus was talking about so followed the group and began listening to him speak. Jesus was speaking about his generation. He was comparing them to children, saying that they complained no matter what the circumstances. I, being only eight years old, initially took this as an insult but someone said explained to me that it was nothing personal, just a generalization. He mentioned John the Baptist, saying that they had wrongfully accused him of being demon possessed. Jesus also criticized the people for accusing him of sinful actions. As I continued following the mass, a pharisee appeared and asked Jesus to to come dine with him in his home. Jesus happily consented to the man's request and followed him home. While Jesus was eating one of the women rushed in with some very costly perfume. This woman appeared to be very average but I heard many amongst the crowd talking about the sinful lifestyle she was living. She was very emotional and began to wash his feet with her tears and wipe them with her hair. Why anyone would do this is beyond me but none the less, after she had finished she took the oil and poured it on Jesus' feet. Jesus was well pleased with this which stunned the pharisee. Jesus went on to talk about many parables and we began traveling towards the sea of Galilee.

Sarah-Luke 7 (Creative Title, I know)

!שלום [Shalom]. My name is Sarah. I am 15 years old. Although he has not mentioned me in his stories, Marcus Valerius has broken traditional Roman customs and had adopted me when I was 1-year-old. But don't tell anyone because he likes to keep it on the down-low. Pretty much only his servants knows about me. He would be very unpopular among other popular Romans if someone found out that he had adopted because he is a prestigious chief Roman centurion. Most of the time, he says I'm his niece, seeing that he is not married. I follow him as he travels the amazing and wonderful world. I was told that my mother died from child birth and my father died from leprosy. I think about them sometimes, but I don't really know much about them. I travel a lot you see, because Dad moves a lot for his work. I live a pretty decent life but I don't have too many friends. We never settle in a place long enough for me to make some. I have learned both Hebrew, Aramaic, and Roman. I learned Hebrew and Aramaic while traveling; I wander off into different cities while Dad works. I learned Roman from him. I also go to any synagogue every Sabbath. Even though I was raised Roman, I still keep my Jewish customs. Dad doesn't really have time for me so he doesn't really pay too much attention to what I'm up to. So that's basically it about my personal life. A Jewish nomad with no friends. However, something interesting did happen to me just yesterday. It was really remarkable. Let me tell you what happened.

Dad and I were stationed in Capernaum for a little bit because one of his servants, whose name was Aurius, was sick. You see, Aurius was very nice to me and he treated me very well. I was very worried about him because had a ravaging temperature. Dad was doing everything he could to try to make him better. He got a well-known doctor to come in, but all that doctor could do was cool down the fever with something cold. But then, Dad remembered someone. He was also a person of Jewish decent, like me. He actually had been very popular lately. His name was Jesus. I didn't really know much about Jesus, but I did know that he performed these things people called miracles. I heard that he healed people with disabilities, people who were blind, people who were sick, people who couldn't hear, and a lot more! He is kind of like a guy who lived a long time ago named Elijah. Elijah also performed these miracles. I had never seen a miracle before so I put it on my list of things-to-do. So Dad talked to some Jewish elders and asked them to ask him to come and heal Aurius. I went to follow the Jewish elders because well, there was not a lot to do around the house. The Jewish elders told him, "This man [referring to Dad] deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." That being said, Jesus went with them. I finally got to see what Jesus looked like! He didn't look any different from other Jewish men I had met from my travels, but there was something about him that was different. He wasn't like all the other Jewish men. He seemed... Kind and Humble and Meek. His essence wasn't something I could put into words. Well as we were on the journey to Aurius's house, Dad sent some friends (Paul, Joshua, and Matthew) to where Jesus, the elders, and I were talking. They said to him, "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. That is why I did not even consider myself worthy to come to you. But say the word, and my servant will be healed. For i myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." I was amazed that Dad thought Jesus was so awesome that he was not worthy for Jesus to come to the house. I thought to myself that Jesus must be a really great man! Jesus was also amazed; but not at the same thing I was amazed at. He was amazed at Dad's faith. He told the crowd that he has not seen faith like Dad's in Israel. The friends Dad sent went back home and I went with them. I walked through the door to see Aurius sitting up and eating like he was never sick! My eyes were like bulging out of my socket! That night, I thought about my day. I also thought about the amazing man I walked with who healed Aurius... That man... Jesus.

A Man and His Donkey

On the road to Nain, I Arimaues, lead my fickle, stubborn, and overall spawn of evil of a donkey. The idea was to get to the market to sell the wheat harvest and return before night, but apparently my donkey decided to stall. I stared balefully at my donkey who, I could swear, stared back just as balefully if not more so. Muttering to myself about the spawn of evil, I heaved, pulled, and strained against the rope trying to get the beast to move to no avail. One more try, just one more try. Once again heaving on the rope, I suddenly felt slack in the rope and then I was on my back, a cloud of dust puffed up as I was suddenly looking up at the sky. My hand was holding an end of the rope, it was chewed off. For all intents and purposes the donkey snickered, I tell you it snickered. As I sat up I noticed that my donkey was now trudging along the path toward the city. I stared at it as it passed by and continued to move on, my own head following its path. Finally getting off the ground, I rubbed dust out of my brown eyes and shook my head to clear some of the dust out of my unremarkable brown hair. I am going to kill that donkey as soon as I don’t need it any more.

Now getting closer to the city gates, I noticed a rather large crowd was gathered there. And what a surprise! Now I will no doubt will have to pay to stay at one of the inns so that I can make a fresh start in the morning, even under the rule of the Roman Empire it wasn’t wise to travel the roads alone by night. Now reaching the edge of the crowd, I clambered up and onto my donkey to gain a little more height and with it now bucking and overall trying to get me off I was able to see a man by a corpse of a young man, the lips were blue which is how I know. Words were said by the man and suddenly the young man sat up and began speaking. A miracle or some clever ruse? But the man didn’t ask for any money, but instead, I do believe, he said something about God helping his people or something like that. Looking back down at the large crowd, a clever idea formed, perhaps following this miracle man will be profitable. Everyone has to eat some time. Now using the donkey to create a path in the crowd the unremarkable man made his way into the city with some hope for the future.

Marcus Valerius- John 6

      I had a busy and quite shocking day on Monday. Some of my men had seen the man Jesus, (the one I saw at the tax collecting station) heading towards Tiberius, the capital and the busiest city in the entire province as it is a major shipping port. While it is not unusual for a citizen of Capernaum to walk the two mile journey north to Tiberius, it is quite extraordinary to observe a man walking that dusty path with over 500 people following him. It was so unusual to see such a thing, that my men immediately sent for me, not knowing what to do. They were afraid a riot was going to break loose or something of a violent nature. However, as I observed the followers’ faces, I noted that they were far from angry, but rather intent on listening to Jesus talk. I asked one of the men who were following what he had been talking about, and he told me that he was teaching them parables and the ways of God. This piqued my interest, as I knew how important religion was to the Jewish people. So, in a move that utterly shocked my men, I gave up my command to my brightest and most responsible soldier for the weekend, and joined the crowd. As I began walking, Jesus, in a loud voice, started talking about the authority of the Son and how the Father sent Him. He talked of his testimony that was greater than John’s and his word compared to the word of Moses. I was quite confused, but still interested. We finally stopped at Tiberius and Jesus settled on the mountain while the rest of the crowd sat on the hillside and waited for more of his wise words. As we had passed through Tiberius a strange thing happened.  It was around the time of Passover feast, and thousands of people were out and about. As we passed through the city, hundreds of people joined our little procession, thousands even! By the time we reached the mountain, there must have been at least 5,000 people sitting and listening to Jesus talk. Apparently, my servant was not the only one he had healed. All the people around me were going on and on about the miracles they had seen him do and his teachings. As all of this was going on, I realized my stomach was grumbling. It was getting late and I had not eaten. As I was debating what to do, I watched Jesus take a break from teaching and begin to converse with his closest followers, the men that followed him day and night. I think they have been calling them his disciples. As the conversation progressed, one of his disciples brought forward a boy no more than eleven years old. The boy offered up a small wicker basket to Jesus; he looked inside and took the basket. I watched as he bowed his head (I assume he was giving thanks for whatever was inside, as was the Jewish custom) and then gave the basket to his disciples. From that moment on, I stood there, shocked and dumbfounded at the thing I was witnessing. The disciples were passing out bread and fish to every single person sitting on the hillside! The basket could have only possibly contained, I don’t know, six loaves of bread and a few fish! They spent close to an hour doling out as much as each person wanted. I knew in an instant that I was witnessing a miracle; there was no other logical explanation. After Jesus finished teaching, I headed south to Capernaum, full, content and amazed at all I had heard and seen. This man was powerful and humble, and worth every second of my time.

Marcus Valerius- Luke 7

 

            I am Marcus Valerius, the chief Roman centurion for the region of Capernaum, the region on the northwest of Galilee.  My job? To live and serve Herod Antipas, the current tetrarch of Galilee. I have charge of over 110 men, who protect the peace of the borders between Herod Antipas’ region and his half brother Herod Phillip’s region. My men also enforce the tax collections on the people who travel through the main road. I acquired this high-ranking position a few years ago, after Herod Antipas recognized the many successful battles, in which I led my men to victory. I live in a well furbished house with numerous servants (thanks to my paycheck of  25 denarii a day), but am not married. My work has prohibited me from this because of how often I must travel and move to different regions. A few months ago, I sent a group of my men to enforce the collections of the monthly taxes from the residents of Capernaum. My men keep watch over the shifty tax collectors who think they grab a few coins out of each bag without being noticed. On this particular occasion though, something extraordinary happened. I was checking in on my men to make sure everything was going smoothly. As I rode my horse around the long line in front of the tax collection table, my eyes caught on a man who was making his way towards the table. He seemed to be a resident of the region. The most noticeable thing about him was the crowd of people around him. There were at least 100 people watching his every move. I had no idea what was so special about this man; he looked like just another poor, commonplace citizen. I questioned my man to see if they knew who he was. They told me his name was Jesus, and that he had been teaching crowds of people for the past few weeks. As they were telling me this, He walked straight up to one of the tax collectors whose name was Levi, and said the words, “Follow me” in a clear, audible voice. Levi gazed into his eyes and immediately left his post and began to walk with Jesus.

            I’ve been dwelling on this thing which I witnessed, and it makes little sense to me. However, what I have been hearing from my men has increased my knowledge of who this Jesus is. Apparently, he is from Nazareth, the son of a carpenter, but unique. He has been teaching the people of Capernaum parables and doing miracles! I have heard numerous witnesses’ accounts of him healing paralytics, the blind and the lame! And while I can scarcely believe this, I sense something different about him.

            A few days ago, I discovered that one of my house servants, Aurius had become seriously ill. He was so weak, with a high fever and quite delirious. I sent for the doctor, but to no avail. The doctor could do nothing except put a cold compress on his head to cool down the fever. Yesterday, I knew I could not wait any longer unless I wanted to see my servant die. As I pondered what to do, a thought struck me, and immediately I knew it was the best decision. I asked a few of the Jewish elders to humbly request that Jesus come to heal my servant. I had no place to approach this powerful man, especially since I am a roman.  The Jewish elders approached him and asked him; and so he went with them and began to journey to my house. When I was informed that this incredible, powerful man was approaching my house, I immediately became nervous. Who was I to accept the benefits of this Jewish man who did miracles? So, I sent a few of my friends to him with a message. I knew that he could heal my servant; I had no doubts within me. So, I told my friends to tell him not to even come in the house, but to just say the word and heal my servant, as I knew he was more then able. A few minutes after I sent my friends, my servant began to wake up and was able to eat some food! I was not shocked; but I was beyond grateful. From that moment, I knew that what this man had to say was true. There was no doubt about that. How it will affect my decisions and my life, I have yet to find out.

Lydia, Luke 7

Hello, my name is Lydia, and for the past few months, I've been following around Jesus of Nazareth. I grew up with Jesus, he's just a few months older then me. Growing up with him was interesting. He was a nice boy, but too nice. With all his goodness, me and the other kids thought there was something fishy about him. He was so perfect, that it was unreal...and sometimes annoying (whenever one of us did something, the adults would ask him what happened and he always told the truth). As the years went by, he always seemed to be praying or by himself pondering the things of YAWEH. He would teach in our town about the Laws of Moses and he made sense. When he left Nazareth, I left my family and began to follow him. I found him to be interesting. Imagine, a kid you grew up with claiming to be God and doing miracles. I began to think that maybe that "something fishy" isn't reall fishy at all. Maybe he's telling the truth and really is the Messiah. I don't know, so that's why I'm following him, to see if he truly is the Son of God.

I followed Jesus to the town of Nain. There was a woman crying, it turned out that she was a widow and now her only son had died. Jesus saw her and said "Don't cry." To be honest, I found him to be insensitive! How could he tell this woman not to cry? Her son had just died! Then he said "Young man, I say to you, get up!" Immediately, he got up! I was too stunned to react. This man, dead one second, alive the next. How could this be? Next thing I knew, we were all praising God with the woman and her revived son. It was a crazy experience. People then started to call Jesus a "great prophet" and also "God." Of course, news of this spread fast. I mean, wouldn't you tell everyone you knew if you saw something like this?
I must admit that I'm still a bit sceptical about this. What if the woman and her son were just paid by Jesus and his disciples to pretend that he was dead and she was grieving to make us believe that he is in fact God? It was very convincing though.
As for now, I'll continue to follow Jesus. Is he a liar or the real deal? Only time will tell.