* * *
“Barabbas.” Demas repeated the name softly in the darkness of his cell, but without either joy or bitterness. Barabbas. A lonely name at this moment.
“No comfort to one waiting to die,” Demas thought. “He probably is no comfort to himself either.”
Barabbas was somewhere within the walls of Antonia too, hidden away in a dark cell just as were Demas and Gestas. Demas wondered what Barabbas was doing now. Was he sleeping like Gestas? Or was he, too, sitting and thinking and wondering what the day would bring? And what of the Freedom Party and the liberation movement? Would it die for lack of leadership now that Barabbas had been taken? And what about this Messiah business?
Demas had had little time for religion and his own numerous Greek and Roman gods, let alone a Jewish God. Still, the Messianic legend fascinated him. Often he had wondered if Barabbas was truly the predicted Messiah that the Jews thought would come and save them from the Romans. Many throughout the country had thought so. Barabbas himself had never denied it.
Demas shook his head. No, it simply wasn’t possible that Barabbas was the Messiah. If there ever was to be one, he would not be captured like some common thief, be tried and be sentenced to death as Barabbas had been.
The Messiah, if Demas had heard rightly, would be a king of super being, half-human, half-divine. He would be the Son of God! The God! So, Demas knew the Messiah could never suffer such an ignoble disgrace.
Gestas rolled over on his mat, his snores interrupted momentarily by the movement.
Rippling through Demas’ thoughts as the world outside shook off its somber shawl of darkness and prepared for the coming of another day were the deep blue waves of Tiberius. Demas loved the sea north of Jerusalem because it had reminded him so much of the home he now found difficult to remember. There was something peaceful about the water. Even the thought of it wrinkling with the soft summer breeze calmed his turbulent emotions as he sat on his straw mat and listened to the snores and the rats.