500 People Saw the Risen Christ

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/091516.cfm

1 Corinthians 15:1-11

John 19:26-27, Luke 2:33-35

After that, he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once,
most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

          1 Cor 15:6

“Elias!” 

“What’s up, Eli?”

Eli stopped at the entrance to Elias’ cloth staining workshop. His arms reached out to the posts that framed the entrance. Eli's dark hair lightened due to the sun shining behind him. His face brightened too at seeing his friend.

“You busy?” he asked, an inside joke he regularly asked of Elias. Eli was a man of family means. He didn't have to work. His father owned land, had plenty of folks to work it and tend to the sheep. He often hung around Elias' place. They were friends going back to childhood.

Elias moved to Eli’s right. His arms were full of dyed, dried stretches of purple cloth which he stacked at the end of a long row of piled high product. He turned to Eli, surrounded by his hut-full of sand-colored linens, dye pots, hanging bunts of purple, still dripping onto the darkened dirt where Elias’ lamb-skinned covered feet attempted to limit the stain of his work.

“No, Eli. I’m taking a nap.”

Eli smiled. “Didn’t mean to wake you.” He paused to let Elias’ dour, worn out stare take it’s full effect. He stepped into the hut. "Ari told me that he saw Jesus, again, walking around the outskirts of town.” 

Elias grunted.

Eli said, "Ari said the fella claiming to be Jesus wouldn't come into town again, but wanted to talk to those of us who believe in him." Eli chuckled. "Believe in him. What the heck does that even mean?" 

A number of Jesus sightings had been reported in Jerusalem, Emmaus, and even as far north as Samaria. But not this far up into Galilee until yesterday. Ari, an old man who had a great devotion to the itinerant prophet, claimed to have spoken with him yesterday near the gate of Nazareth. Jesus, Ari insisted, told him to gather people at the hillside to hear him speak. 

"Ari is an old fool. He's been duped," Eli said. He scrunched his nose as Elias’ shoulders bent forward in disgust. 

“This again?” Elias moaned.

“Thought you’d want to know. And, since you’re not doing anything, maybe you’d go with me to find out who’s playing tricks on easily impressionable people. Apparently, this prankster’s going to meet up with folks at the hillside.”

Elias turned his head, dismissive to such an unlikely event. He moved to his stack of hand-crafted, expensive linens, and fingered them. 

“They buried him in one of these, you know,” he said. Elias' linens were renowned throughout Israel. He would take dozens to Jerusalem and sell them to the wealthy there, and cities along the way, several times a year. Alphaeus, whose son James was one of the apostles, sent word to family in Nazareth that Elias' table linen was donated to use as the shroud for Jesus. 

Elias was shocked by the coincidence of his linen being used to wrap his friend's body when he heard about it. Not many in Nazareth extended help to Jesus and his family when they lived here. Elias knew he wasn't much of a friend. Jesus was an odd duck, but he was kind to everyone, no matter what they said. His mother left town right after Jesus did, reportedly to perform an intervention and grab Jesus away from the cult he had created.

Elias was glad she left. She constantly suffered grief from that boy, and things only got worse when her husband died. The other family members, included several cousins and what seemed like early sons and daughters of Joseph and a rumored first wife, had mostly left Nazareth too, heading off with Mary to kidnap Jesus. He'd gone off the rails.

Elias tried to imagine how they would have wrapped up Jesus' bloody body in his table linen. What a mess. "He was a bizarre fellow, but he didn't mean any harm. They didn't have to kill him," Elias said.

Eli found the report of Elias' linen used as a burial cloth rather fitting. He imagined that Mary recognized Elias' handiwork and insisted they use it to wrap the Rabbi’s body. "She was weird that way," Eli said.

"What?"

"Nothing," Eli quickly said. "Just thinking about his mom."

“She was put through hell,” Elias said, remarking about her pregnancy, and her frantic protection antics over every little thing that Jesus did as a boy. All that didn't matter now. He knew that Jesus was dead, and not coming back. Hopefully, Mary had found some place to go. Her coming back to Nazareth would be a huge mistake.

"That fella just can't seem to go away. Even after he's dead," Eli said, glancing quickly at Elias to make sure he hadn't said something offensive.

When word went out from the Romans that someone had stolen Jesus’ body after breaking into the tomb, Elias roared around the neighborhood, calling for witnesses to step forward. Rumor had it that Nazarenes had broken into the tomb. He shouted up and down every street calling for the culprits to fess up. If the thieves were even Nazarenes. Elias wanted to make sure, though. Seemed like the citizens of Nazareth had a tendency toward crazy, stupid things. 

Elias' anger was legendary. His purple, red, and blue stained arms and legs painted a frightening picture when he was in a rage. He’d once beaten a man in the street for stealing food, single-handedly banishing him to another city. But, he did that purposely so the fellow could escape persecution, and his probable death. The Pharisees left both Elias and the thief alone, though Eli was told to deliver Elias the message that though his actions were probably justified, since the food had been stolen from Elias’ family, he still didn’t have the authority to banish someone for criminal behavior, thereby escaping punishment beyond a simple beating. 

“Come on, Elias. Let’s go catch this guy, and turn him over to the judaizers.” 

The Pharisees' legalistic reach didn't extend to Nazareth with the swift rule of the Southern cities. Most of the clerics in the city were happy to live their life of luxury and leave well enough alone. Elias and Eli picked the fights that required quick attention. They also tempered the severity of Pharisaic rule by not responding at all to crimes that were doubtful, or politically motivated. They didn't have the same fear and loathing of Jesus' band of men that the powerful scribes and religious leaders exhibited. In fact, they believed the Nazarene-turned-celebrity was just a product of his nutty upbringing. Elias figured him as more of a holy man than any of the Jewish leaders, despite his recent proclivity to perform all these reported miracles. 

Elias' mother, in fact, had been healed by Jesus when he last dropped by town. His mother was a believer, which wasn't worth explaining to Eli. Eli grasped only what he could see. 

Ari and Eli attended the wedding in Cana about three years ago when Jesus mother had turned water into wine. That's what Eli explained happened, anyway. He said she performed an incantation. Ari insisted it was the young Rabbi, Jesus, who did it. Jesus' mother had a reputation for weird turns of events, and Elias thought Eli was tricked once again by the woman's wily ways. Ari argued that Mary loved everyone, and that people misunderstood her.

Elias looked over to Eli, who had now crossed his arms in that annoying impatient posture of his. Elias straightened his bent back to his full height, head touching the cedar joists in the low ceiling, widened his shoulders, and groaned an exhale of agreement. They would accost the imposter. He slid the collar of his apron over his head and hung it up. He gruffly slipped off his foot coverings, and followed Eli out of the hut.

A few minutes later, they joined a small crowd of people who were walking to the hillside north of town. Jesus used to speak up there, Elias knew. He had heard the strange holy man a few times, first out of curiosity, once to thank him for his mother, and then out of protective friendship. Several men in town spoke of stoning Jesus next time he came back. That friendship was snuffed out a few weeks ago.

“They killed him,” he said to Eli. “We heard about it from reliable sources.” His arms swung when he walked. “They buried him. We know that, too.” The salty dust of the trail leaving town puffed as Elias’ feet punched out each step. 

He stopped for a moment. “Someone took his body!” Elias shouted out, angry at the sacrilege of disturbing a fresh grave.

"It’s not right to take his name for some other purpose.” He continued walking, hurried the pace, and Eli jogged to catch up.

Jesus had picked Elias out from the hillside crowd a year ago, asking after his mother. "I don't see her here. Is she well?" Elias stared into his friend's eyes. He was a man about his age. His body had the heft of a working man, but the voice and wisdom of an old, tired man. Elias simply nodded, and Jesus smiled at him, holding his gaze. 

"You can't fake what that man did," Elias said. "How can Ari be tricked by some other person? He has known Jesus his whole life."

Eli watched his own steps on the trail as it began heading up the hill. He and Elias knew Jesus before he had left on his ministry tour. When Jesus came back, he was still the same mysterious, odd man. Most folks didn't trust he or his mother, and Eli thought they had good reason. Last time Jesus was in town, Eli told him that his weird behavior didn't fit in, and his new healing show routine wasn't going to go over well. 

Soon, Elias’ long strides took him to the rise of the hillside where his townsfolk had patted out an amphitheater in the stone and dusty bowl of space. Hundreds of people had already arrived. Elias was surprised. He looked behind him, and the trail of Nazarenes must have been another two or three hundred coming up the hill. "Dear Lord," Elias said.

Elias scanned the people taking places all over the hillside. His wide frame blocked the trail. Folks began pushing him aside to find a place. He stepped back.

To his left, Elias saw where Jesus usually sat and talked to the crowd above him. Eli looked over there, too. A crowd of people, including Ari, stood bunched up. A hand reached to Ari's shoulder from behind the crowd, and a man leaned through and looked over at Elias.

It was him.

“Jesus!” Eli blurted out. "How can that be? Is this another trick?"

“Can’t be,” Elias murmured, frowning, confused. His arms began to shake, and his legs almost buckled.

Jesus stepped through the crowd, away from the rock perch where he was sitting, and walked over to Elias. He was smiling, his eyes on his childhood friend the whole way over. His arms were wide in a greeting, and Elias saw the holes of crucifixion in his wrists. He began to wobble, certain he would faint.

Jesus reached out to Elias, and took him into his arms, calming him immediately. The warmth of Jesus' hug filled his chest and stretched out to his limbs. 

It was truly his friend, Elias knew -- the boy he had grown up with.

“Hello, brother," Jesus whispered into his ear. "I've been looking for you.”