A Zealot's Redemption

SIMEON OF CANA quietly and anxiously awaited his fate. He had resigned himself to the inevitable. He was going to be executed by a group of Roman soldiers. It was because of that one, ill-fated, decision to fulfill a vow that now he stood condemned. He racked his brain trying to figure out how he could have handled things differently. His life, family, and hope were all going to be forfeited because of one disastrous moment. Okay, it was really a series of events that had brought him to his doom. As is often the case, the choice of friends can determine our future. But this outcome had been in the making for many years. Simeon rehearsed in his mind the circumstances that had brought him to this moment of personal calamity. His thoughts gravitated to the past even as he faced his ominous future. He started to replay his memories of when he was a young boy growing up in Galilee. Thirty years ago...