3. Bethany, House of Dates
Part 1. Pearl 1. Shekel. Martha. Summer, AD 11
shekel
n. the basic monetary unit of Israel, a silver coin weighing approximately 11 grams
A half shekel = two-days’ wages, the temple tax, two silver Greek drachmas, a penny, or two silver Roman denarii.
3,000 shekels is a talent of silver. 75 shekels is a year’s wages.
30 shekels buys a slave. Or a potter’s field.
Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
My initial confidence was short-lived. Jehu, dark-skinned, clean shaven and turbaned, bowed before me that first horrible day as Talmai’s group wound its way out of Bethany and down the canyon. “It is an honor to serve the family of Lazarus ben Shimon,” he’d said, waiting for his first command.
I stood there, trying hard to keep the dignity I knew Papa expected of me. Jehu had been my father’s slave, and his father’s before him. The creases in his face were part wisdom, part sorrow, and part mysterious past. When the servants began coming to me that morning with questions of urgency, he stood beside me and helped me answer them.
Life doesn’t stop just because someone dies. It’s a terrible truth.