Mission Impossible

Ammi smoothened his uniform as he stepped into the meeting he had just been called into. Ammi was one of the longest serving temple officers, so he was pretty sure this was about Jesus, the Galilean prophet who had recently become a thorn in the flesh of the Pharisees, priests and other Jewish leaders. They had been trying to arrest Jesus for the past few days since the beginning of the Feast of Tabernacles but somehow, he had managed to slip out of their hands. It was the final day of the celebration and the Jewish leaders seemed more infuriated than usual. 

As soon as Ammi entered the chamber, he heard one of the Pharisees saying, “It is one thing for the people to believe him, but now they are questioning if the Christ, who is still to come, can do signs greater than this man. That is the height!”. Others nodded in agreement. After some minutes of ranting, the chief priest in charge instructed Ammi to go with his colleagues to arrest Jesus as soon as possible. He wrapped up looking pointedly at Ammi, “Don’t return without that troublemaker!” Those words sent shivers down Ammi’s spine, but he straightened up and assured the leaders that he would complete the assignment.

Immediately he left the room, Ammi briefed his fellow officers about the task ahead of them. Jesus was somewhere in the temple. These days, it was easy to tell where he was by where crowds were gathered. Their strategy was to guard every possible corner and exit of the whole temple to make sure Jesus did not escape this time. Ammi however made sure he was positioned directly in front of Jesus. He was going to make sure he monitored every single move he made, because a couple of days before, Jesus had said something about being with them only for a little while and how no one would be able to find him. Whatever he said was confusing, but most people suspected that Jesus was planning to escape to another country where no Jew could find him. Anyway, Ammi’s job was to make sure that did not happen. He had to be arrested there and then. 

Jesus was in the outer court with a crowd around him as usual. As the officers approached Jesus, Ammi motioned to some of the officers to surround the perimeter, while he entered the midst of the crowd till he got to the front. Jesus was seated, with his disciples and seemed to be in recess. Ammi was informed by the people around him that Jesus had just finished healing some people. The plan was to watch out for Jesus’ next move. 

Suddenly Jesus stood up.  Ammi was not sure what was about to happen, but he had to be very alert. His eyes made a quick sweep of his fellow officers to check that they were also on guard. One hand on their weapons and both eyes on Jesus. They just needed to catch Jesus saying something that contradicted the law and they were good to arrest him immediately. As soon as he stood up, Jesus shouted, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink…”. What was he talking about? Water of all things? Ammi held back to make sense of what Jesus was saying. Jesus continued, “He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water”. Ammi did not fully understand what Jesus just shouted but he liked the sound of it. Rivers of living water.

First, his hands left his weapon, then he leaned in to hear more about those words that somehow revealed a longing in his heart. There was something about the way Jesus spoke that made Ammi question his own reality. It was as though Jesus knew something they all did not know and that was easy to believe, going by the undeniable miracles he performed. What Jesus was offering to those who believed in him seemed too good but the passion and confidence with which he offered it, got Ammi further captivated.

Unfortunately some minutes later, the crowd started arguing about whether Jesus was the Messiah or not, causing an uproar.  Ammi was jolted back to the reality of his job. He shook his head, straightened up and looked around for his officers. To his surprise, some of his officers were arguing with the crowd about Jesus. What? Ammi looked around again and saw another of his officers helplessly gazing at where Jesus stood. There and then, he knew in his heart that there was no way they were going to arrest him. Before he could decide what to do, he looked up and Jesus was gone! Ammi shook his head and sighed in defeat. A defeat he was not entirely displeased about. He signaled to the officers to stop arguing and head back to the chamber. On their way back, Ammi warned them to keep quiet and let him do the talking, although he was not sure what he was going to say this time, as he nervously drew near the chamber.

As soon as they entered, the leaders all looked surprised to see the officers without Jesus. “Why have you not brought him?”, they asked. Ammi removed his helmet, as though to buy time while he gathered his thoughts, but before he could say anything, some of the officers replied at the same time, “No one ever spoke like this man!”. Ammi turned to look at them in shock but quickly turned back to the leaders, nodding his head. As expected, the Pharisees began to reprimand them, asking if they had been deceived like the lawless crowd.

Thankfully, Nicodemus, one of the Pharisees, came to their rescue by asking that they treat Jesus justly according to the law. Immediately, the other Pharisees and chief priests descended upon Nicodemus with their words. The attention was now diverted to Nicodemus, which Ammi was grateful for. He signaled to the other officers to quietly leave the room while the leaders continued arguing. As they left the room, Ammi thought about how he could not have come up with a better response than the other officers because truly, no one ever spoke like this Jesus. 

Reference- John 7:32- 52