"Ceaser"

"The Stone that Witnessed the Triumphal Entry (and will again)"

 

 

      Once upon a time, many years ago, there lived a large stone on the lower side of small mountain that overlooked a large city. The stones name was Ceaser and Ceaser lay next to a road that led from the surrounding country side into the city’s eastern gate. Many people traveled this road daily as the city was a very busy one so Ceaser always had something to watch. Ceasers really liked where he lived because not only was he near a busy road but from where he sat, Ceaser could see far into the city since he lived slightly up the side of the mountain. Now I said Ceaser was big but if you walked past Ceaser you would not realize how big for Ceaser’s huge body was mostly buried in the mountain and only about 1/10th of Ceasar stuck up above the ground

 

        Now , before I tell you more about Ceaser’s story, I have to first explain that  stones can actually hear each other. For while sound travels poorly through air it travels very well though the earth. Remember the seeing on old westerns the Indian who would put his ear to the ground to hear the sound of approaching footsteps. Even though they were too far away to hear through the air, the ground carries the sounds of the footsteps much better and much farther. Well because of this all stones can keep in close communication and they just love to pass on what they witness. (explain what “witness” means) Yes, it seems that stones are the witnesses of the world  and in some cases are also the gossips of the ground. 

 

     Ceaser was no different  and he spent his life listening to the stories the people who passed by going in and out of the city and passing them on to other stones to whom he was related.   Now over the years Ceaser got to tell his relatives about many different things he saw happen on that road but the stories he loved to tell most were not those about normal people coming and going in and out of the city. No, Ceaser was more interested in the special parades that happened when great kings or conquerors entered the city. These did not happen very often but when they did they were very spectacular to watch what with people lining the road cheering or entire armies  riding in on horseback. Ceaser loved the  beautifully decorated horses and chariots that carried the very important people who were entering the city.  He also loved the banners and trumpets and even marching bands that came along with them. Yes, Ceaser loved a good parade and he would spend hours telling his cousins about them over and over again. Sometimes when Ceaser was bored with daily life he would remember some great entry of a king from years before and tell the story all over again to his cousins. 

 

Now one day, Ceaser was doing his normal thing listening to the conversations of the passers when he heard some people at a distance saying,  “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. . Well as you can imaging the word king caught his ear and Ceaser hoped a great parade was about to start. As Ceaser waited he notices that a small group of people was coming down the road towards the city all yelling “Praise God” and things like that in load voices. They also where laying their coats down on the road and waving palm branches.  Now Ceaser had seen a lot of parades so he figured that this group of people must be just the first people running way ahead of the parade because the group was small, none of them had fancy clothes or uniforms on and Ceaser could not hear the multitude of hoof beats from the many horses he could normally hear even miles away. The real King and his procession must still be miles away.

 

As the small parade came into view, Ceaser’s hope for a great parade faded as he realized that this was just a small group of people that must be making some kind of joke about the man on the donkey sized horse being a king for there was no army or anything else that went with kings.

 

As the group of people passed him, Ceaser noticed that all the people were actually honoring a single man who rode alone on a small colt which was even smaller than a donkey. Ceaser almost didn’t even see the man since he had no fancy clothes, did not ride in a chariot pulled by massive war horses but rode quietly while the people waved branches around him.

 

Ceaser was about to answer one of his nearby cousin stones that had just asked what all the noise was about when a group of well dressed city leaders passed the small parade on their way out of the city. They too were annoyed by the noise and as they passed they yelled to the man on the small colt saying “Teacher, tell your followers to be quiet” … The man on the colt responded saying “I tell you , if they keep quiet the stones will cry out.”. When Ceaser heard this he chuckled,  for although he spent his life talking to his cousins he knew that stones did not make noises that people could hear. Unless of course you count the noise a rock makes when it falls over or when it cracks. Anyway, the words of the city’s leaders made it clear to Ceaser that this was no king that they recognized.

 

As the man on the colt passed by Ceaser and saw the city laying ahead he began to weep and began to speak to the city as though it was a person. He said

 

Read Luke 19:42-44

 

Ceaser was not paying much attention but he did pick up on the stones being thrown down part then heard the man refer to himself as God … Wow … thought Ceaser. This guy on the colt really thinks he is God. Ceaser sighed and said “Hh well.. no big deal”. No real parade today, but as Ceaser would slowly learn, nothing could have been further from the truth. For Ceaser did not realize he was watching the true king of the Jews, the son of God enter the city of Jerusalem. Of course he was not alone for the people of that great city did not recognize him either.

 

A weeks or so later as Ceaser watched what seemed to be another parade but this one was leaving the city. He recognized it as a crucifixion for there were many in those days. He also recognized one of the men who was being crucified as the man who entered the city a few days before on the colt. As the man died on the cross that day, Ceaser thought to himself “Well, I guess he found out they didn’t want him as king.” But as he   he felt a deep rumble from inside the mountain on which he sat. The rumble grew and there was a great earthquke. It did not last long but it was powerful and as the quake shook that mountain the huge fault that lay within the mountain shifted and the deeply rooted stone named Ceaser ruptured. As he split into two pieces that day , right down the middle, he and what seemed like the earth itself uttered a scream so loud it was actually heard by people in the city. That was last day Ceaser shared a story or a parade with any other stone.

 

37 years later Ceaser watched in silence as huge column of mounted soldiers entered the city. When there huge army paraded by Ceaser he did not get excited for since the day he split in two, his interest in parades had disappeared. Over the next months Ceaser listened to scream after scream as his cousins who were part of the walls and building of the city were knocked down and broken. When the soliders left, the city had been completely destroyed and no stone was left unbroken. As they left instead of watching there parade of victory, Ceaser once again thought of that day when he had broken and he remembered the words of the man who had entered on the colt.

 

1924 years later, the city had been rebuilt. Of course during the last 1900 years it had been destroyed and rebuilt a number of times. Ceaser still lived there on the mountain. He had weathered a great deal in 1900 years so the part of him which stuck up above the ground was now rather small although a man could still stand on him and at the moment somebody was. The year was 1961 and some men had come to the mountain and setup some equipment right on Ceaser that pointed up towards the top of the mountain. From listening to their conversations he learned that they were surveyors that worked for a company that built big buildings called hotels. He also learned and they were there to find the best place to build a hotel as close to the top of the mountain as possible. At the moment one of the men was arguing with another and here is what Ceaser heard;

 

One man said. “We will just have to tell them it can’t be done.”  The other man, countered, “No they will never accept that. The bible legend say he will return to earth right there at the top of the mountain and that’s why the hotel has to build there. “ But” the first man added”  .. You and I both know you can’t build a hotel on a fault line that large. It runs all the way through the mountain from this stone right here on the west side all the way to the top and down the other side. You can’t see it everywhere but I tell you this mountain is cracked all the way through. I don’t even know what is still holding it together. The next time this fault shifts this whole mountain could fall apart.” ..

 

The men continued to argue but Ceaser new the first man was right. The mountain was cracked all the way through from East to West and though he wondered what a bible was he did not even have to guess who might be returning to the mountains top someday for ever since that day when the he watched the man on the colt rejected by the city as king and killed on a cross and he realized that that man would return someday, somehow ,someway. For that day the earth itself had cried out in a way that had never happened before or ever since.

 

 

 

 

One day not long from now Ceaser will once again witness a parade and once again he share what he sees with all the other stones on the earth but this time the horses will come up a road but will come to that mountain in the air. Here is what Ceaser will say;

 

Read Rev 19:11-16 then continue and  Read Zech 14:4-7 .. read as one story

 

 

 

 

*          *            *

 

 

Kids, 

 

  Jesus entered Jerusalem that day and offered to be the king and saviour of the Jewish people. They rejected him and killed him. He then rose from the dead three days later and today lives in heaven getting ready to return with the armies of heaven. Back then the Jews were so focused on human strength and powerful people that they did not recognize the gentle Jesus coming as their Lord and Savior and rejected him. Do you recognize him?

 

Challenge:

 

If you do, have you chosen to accept him as your king, the king of your life. For I must tell you the day when he returns in the air in power with his armies it will be too late for then he  will come not be save, but to show his power to the unbelievers and destroy those who would not accept him in his gentle form that died on that cross almost 2000 years ago. You see when he returns the next time you want to already be on his side. Look today at the quiet man on the colt who was willing to die. He is your Lord and King.

 

   Signed  

 

Your friend …Ceaser