Cycle of Love

Chapter 1: Yeshua
He stumbled onto the ground, the hard and rocky ground, under the weight of the heavy, wooden cross. He felt a foot kick him, but try as he might he could not get up and carry the cross. He heard the voices of soldiers discussing this and they figured out that he was probably unable to carry the weight.
They made Simon of Cyrene carry it instead.
Yeshua—for that was the name of the unfortunate convict—finally stood, aching from a thousand wounds, ears ringing with shouts and derision.
The grim procession made its way up to Golgotha, the Place of the Skull. The soldiers laid the cross on the ground. They took away Yeshua’s clothes and gambled for them. They put huge nails through his wrists and another through his feet, to pin him to the wood, and they lifted up the cross and pounded the bottom into the ground.
He was there for six hours.
He was aware of the agony of hanging and barely being able to breathe. He was aware of his shame. He was aware of a thousand physical wounds stinging his body and a thousand more stinging his ears: insults from the priests, insults from the passers-by, insults from the two others that hung at either side of him. He was aware of the women’s sad eyes wondering if their hope was lost. He was aware of all this, and more. He could hear the thoughts of every human on the planet; he could see the angels standing by, the demons laughing and whispering in his ear, and the Father turning his face from his Son. He could feel the sins of the world being laid upon him. Because of all this, it was difficult to think of why he was here, why he didn’t just call the angelic legions and put an end to this gross injustice. But he could also see the future, and he could see the faces of the future redeemed.
And he knew his suffering and his death would be worth it.
After six hours of hanging there, he died. The grave opened up to him. He fought against the demons that assailed him in their last, desperate attempt to keep the souls of humans imprisoned in the grave. But their efforts were in vain. Yeshua freed the souls of those who had followed God, and he wrested the keys of life and death from the evil one.
And after three days, he returned to earth a victor.