THERE WAS VERY LITTLE CHANCE OF WILL’S catching much sleep on the 747 jet as he flew to Israel. Not that he couldn’t use it. Between the trip from the U.S. to England, and the time changes, and his vigil at the hospital, followed by a dash to the airport for another flight to the Middle East, he hadn’t had a solid hour of sleep for almost two days. But he had his homework to do—a little “light reading” before stepping into the midst of a battle zone in the most geopolitically explosive, religiously charged hot spot on the planet.
Before heading to the London airport, he had dashed over to a large, all-night bookstore near Picadilly Circus to pick up a couple of books about the history of Jerusalem. He wanted to take in as much information as he could about the St. Stephen’s Gate area along the wall of the Old City part of Jerusalem. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do once he landed. And of course, there was always the possibility that, because of the riots and unrest caused by Reichstad’s excavation, he wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near that portion of the city.
On the other hand, if Will could get close to the dig, he wanted to know something about the area he would be looking at. He had pledged to be Angus MacCameron’s “eyes and ears.” He was not going to break that promise.
In the waiting area of the airport in London Will had made a frantic call to Dr. Giovanni. It had suddenly dawned on him that he would need his main expert witness there in Jerusalem—right next to him—while he tried to monitor what Reichstad was doing. He left a message on her voice mail, but he had no idea whether she could—or would—drop everything to fly directly over to Israel, just to turn around and fly back less than two days later in order to be in court for the continuation of trial on Monday.
And then there was another reason he wanted Giovanni with him. Will was still carrying the little plastic bag containing 7QC in the pocket of his coat. MacCameron had been stricken with his heart attack before being able to interpret it. Despite schooling himself in the rudiments of Koine Greek for the trial, Will couldn’t read it. Giovanni was his only hope. While in Jerusalem he wanted to transfer the fragment to her and get her evaluation.
As Will searched through the books he had picked up, he learned a great deal about the historical development of the Old City of Jerusalem, but only a few sketchy facts about the area at St. Stephen’s Gate.
As Will had learned from MacCameron in one of their first meetings, the gate was the place where, just outside of the city proper, a Christian disciple named Stephen had been stoned to death for his bold proclamation of the gospel, not long after the crucifixion of Jesus.
But, as he read on, Will was bewildered at the maze of contradictions about this gate. He discovered that most historians had actually ascribed the place of Stephen’s stoning not to St. Stephen’s Gate, but to the opposite side of the Old City walls at a gate known in the modern era as the “Damascus Gate.”
However it seemed to Will that, because 7QB specifically referred to the “East Gate of Stephen,” then at least the mystery of which gate was the site of Stephen’s stoning appeared to have been solved. After all, the writer of the fragment would certainly have been knowledgeable about a major event of his own time. So the gate at which Reichstad was digging, then, was Stephen’s Gate.
But that didn’t solve the question of whose tomb it was that Reichstad had unearthed by following the clue in the 7QB fragment. Reichstad was undoubtedly still pursuing his mission to prove that the tomb was the burial site of Jesus.
Perhaps the little 7QC fragment that Will carried in his pocket would end up providing the answer. Each time Will reflected on that, he found himself patting his pocket just to make sure that the plastic bag was still safely there.
From time to time his mind would wander back to Angus MacCameron, and the agony in his face as he had desperately grasped his chest. And then he thought about Angus at the hospital. “I’m ready for the Lord,” he had said. When Will had heard that, his heart had seemed to burn within him. And it was strangely similar to what he had been reading on the plane about Stephen’s death. His sources quoted the book of Acts: While Stephen was dying, he was still able to utter, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
Will could only wonder, in awe, at such peace of soul in the face of impending death.
As he thought about Fiona rushing to her father’s side, he also recalled how he wished he could have been with his own father in his final moments of life. Will’s dad, by all accounts, had died in the early morning hours there in his newspaper office, completely alone. There had been no goodbyes. No final words, nor any closing of all that personal business of life between father and son. Only the absence. The loss. The missed opportunities.
Turning to the window that was next to him, Will clumsily tried to mutter a short prayer for Angus. Afterward, the only thing he was sure that he had said was the “Amen” at the end.
When the sun came up over the horizon, Will looked out of the jet and had his first glimpse of Israel. It appeared as a long brown strip of desert along the blue Mediterranean. As the plane approached the Tel Aviv airport, which was ringed with date trees and palms, he considered what a strange pilgrimage it was that had brought him there. What powerful force was it that had led him all the way to this ancient land?
The jet jolted as it touched down on the runway, and then it taxied to a halt on the tarmac. As he unbuckled himself, Will couldn’t help but feel, despite whatever message there might be for the entire world from within that ancient burial site along the Jerusalem wall, that he was about to receive some profoundly personal message there also. Perhaps he was about to find out something about himself. Maybe even something about the very face of God—the inscrutable One—the “Ancient of Days.”