Tired and weary, a father and husband comes home from a long hard day at work. He walks in the door and his son comes up to him, glad to see him as always, "Daddy, is that a new coat?" "Yes, Marcus, that's a new coat." "Okay, Daddy."

The father then goes into the kitchen and his wife is busy preparing the evening meal. She turns to greet him with a glance and then turns back again and says, "Honey, isn't that a new coat?" "Yeah, it's a new coat.

"Well, I'm a little surprised you bought a new coat. Things are a little tough financially right now, and that doesn't look like the best coat. It looks fairly soiled. You've got a new coat?"

"Yeah, I have a new coat, but I didn't exactly buy it. You see, I had crucifixion duty today."

"Will you sit down just a minute? The meal can wait. I've got to tell somebody. Something happened today. I saw things I've never seen before. We crucified three, but one was different. When they led Him to me and my men, He looked awful with spittle all over His face. They had plucked out huge chunks of His beard and had rammed a crown made of thorns on His head. I've seen many men beaten and scourged and I know what that scourging whip can do. It can tear out hunks of flesh, even knock out teeth and gouge out eyes. I've seen very few beaten as severely as was he. He was almost dead before they brought Him to us."

"Then we loaded upon His back the 100 pound cross beam of the cross and led Him through the streets. He fell once, fell twice, and fell again. Finally we grabbed a fellow standing on the side of the road and said, 'Here you take it, I don't believe he's going to make it.' The man, a black man, carried His cross. Some of the people, as He went along the way, cried, some cheered, and some taunted him. That wasn't too unusual, but when we got to the place of the skull, it was different. When we begin to nail the spikes through the wrist and feet, I've seen men scream with fear and panic. I've seen the horror in their eyes. With some it has taken six of us to get one still long enough so we could nail Him to the cross, but not this man."

"He kept saying something over and over again. He resisted not in any way whatsoever. Finally, I got close to Him to hear what He was saying. He was saying something like, 'Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. Father, forgive them.' He was saying that over and over again. As I got closer, it was then that I looked into those eyes. Once I looked into those eyes I saw something I had never seen in any man's eyes before. Even though He was tortured and half dead, those eyes seemed not to have any hatred."

"I've never seen such an unruly crowd. Those Jews are hot headed I know, but they were really stirred up this time. They would just come by in front of Him and spit upon Him and curse at him. And some mocked, 'Save yourself.' Then one of the other condemned men started to taunt Him as well. The third man started to argue with Him and said to Jesus, 'Remember me, Jesus, remember me.'"