Enraged by the women’s defiance, the men rushed forward and yanked them apart. One knocked Mary to the ground. In a flash, she scrambled back onto her feet and began searching for a stone to throw, only to discover that she was clutching Anna’s medallion in her hand.

“Leave me! Save yourself!” Anna cried out as the men closed around her.

Mary lunged again, unwilling to surrender. One of the men rammed a fist into her belly. Fighting for breath, she tried to call for help but could only gasp. Frantic, she whirled and stumbled down the hill, praying that she could find Ruth and the others in time. But when she bolted through a small cluster of trees close to their camp, a man dashed from the shadows and grabbed her. She screamed and fought her captor like a demon.

A calloused hand covered her mouth and held firm. The man knew well how to restrain animals that did not wish to be caught. “Quiet,” he hissed. “I am a friend.”

Mary kicked his shins and scratched at his eyes.

“I tried,” he said. “I tried to stop them! Please listen to me—”

Mary continued to fight until the man released his hold. When she bolted from his arms, he fell to his knees. He was bleeding from gashes on his face and chest. He began to weep.

Mary turned back and stared in disbelief. She wanted to run, but something stopped her.

“Please believe me,” he cried. “I tried to save her—” His voice cracked with sorrow. “But I could not … there were … too many …”

Mary watched as the man’s face split into shards of grief. “Who are you?” she asked him.

Judas wiped the tears from his eyes. “There is little time,” he whispered, weakened from loss of blood. “In the name of the Mother, take me to Ruth.”

When Jesus’s followers awoke the next day, they found him gone. And his two sisters missing. No one had seen them depart. Volunteers banded into groups to search the area, but none uncovered anything to explain where their friends had gone.

Two days later, a local villager arrived with a rumor. Jesus had reappeared, he told them. He had been seen riding a donkey on the road to Jerusalem. And was dazzling his followers with miracles—restoring sight, casting out demons, making the crippled walk.

Confused as to why Jesus would have abandoned them, his supporters quickly gathered their belongings and set out to find him.

As Peter made his way to Jerusalem, word of his astonishing miracles spread to outlying villages, attracting the despairing and less fortunate in droves. Hungry for hope and desperate to believe in something more powerful than themselves, the ragged villagers soon swarmed around the handsome healer of whom they had heard.

“Behold Jesus! The Son of God!” Saul shouted to the multitudes as he led Peter’s donkey forward.