“Come in – and hurry!” hissed a voice, and the door opened a little wider. It was a dark night, but very little light spilled out to the top of the stone stairs on which five cloaked, shadowy figures stood. The last of the five looked around carefully, searching for any unwanted witnesses to their late night excursion.
One by one, four of them slipped through the doorway into the house, leaving the last outside. As the door closed, he turned away from the door and stood guard. With his dark clothes and a cloak shadowing his face, he was invisible in the darkness.
Inside, a single oil lamp gave just enough light to allow the four newcomers to see and greet the opener of the door.
“May the Lord bless you, Jesse. Thank you for helping our beloved brother Saul to escape.”
“Lydia and I are pleased to help, Matthias. She is with the two little ones in the other room, keeping out of the way, but she asked me to send you all her blessings.”
“Greetings to you both,” replied the other three.
“Ah, I hear Zechariah and Quintus – and Saul as well.”
“That’s right, and Mordecai is outside keeping watch.”
“Brother Saul, I remember you saying that Jesus told you you’d suffer for his name. It seems to have started,” said Jesse.
“Yes,” said Zechariah, “but we’re doing our best to make sure it doesn’t end with his death here in Damascus.”
“We’ll get him out of the city alive if we possibly can,” agreed Matthias.
“And I believe we can be confident we will,” said Jesse.
“Of course,” said Saul. “I can’t do the work Jesus wants me to do if I’m dead! Then again, he never promised me I wouldn’t suffer beatings like he did – quite the opposite. So although it’s sure to be unpleasant if I get caught, I’m confident they won’t kill me.”
“I wouldn’t want that hanging over me all the time!” commented Quintus.
“We may all suffer the same fate as Saul if they catch us trying to help him,” warned Matthias.
“True,” agreed Quintus, “but whatever happens, at least we know that God will look after us for our eternal good.”
“Absolutely! And in a way that helps others to learn the way of salvation,” added Saul.
“Well, as I was watching out of the window, waiting for you to arrive, I saw another reason for confidence: guards trooped by below,” said Jesse. “Since they only come past once each watch, we’ve got a few hours.”
“That’s good news,” smiled Quintus.
“Let’s get on with our plan, then,” said Jesse. “Can we say a prayer together before we open the shutters?”
“Good idea,” answered Matthias. “Shall I?”
They all stood quietly while Matthias asked for heavenly help in their plans to save Saul. As he finished, the listeners echoed his “Amen.”
“Let’s get going,” announced Jesse. “The large basket we talked about is next to the window with a rope attached. I’ve smeared plenty of tallow on the window ledge and the stone where the rope will rub against them, and there’s a pot of it here too, just in case we need more. I haven’t tried doing this before, but I think it should work.”
“I haven’t tried it either,” said Saul, and the others could hear a smile in his voice. “Do you think I’ll have to do it often from now on?”
“As long as it works, it’s worth doing,” said Matthias, “and maybe you will have to do it more than once.”
“Put both feet in the basket, Saul,” said Jesse. “I think it’ll be best if you sit down, but don’t let go of the rope just in case the basket starts to break.”
“I’ll try, but I haven’t climbed into a basket like this since I was a kid,” said Saul.
Jesse moved across to where the tiny oil lamp sat in a niche in the wall. “I’ll just snuff this out,” he said. “We don’t want guards to notice the light, let alone see a silhouette of Saul climbing out of the window.”
Total darkness fell inside the room for a few moments as quiet footsteps crossed the room. Jesse reached the window and fumbled with the shutters. Suddenly, a square of slightly lesser darkness showed where the shutters had been opened. Jesse struggled to pick up the awkward basket. “Can anyone help me with this basket?” he asked.
Saul and the other three men went to help, but bumped into each other in the dark. “Ow!” said Matthias, as he struck his toes hard against Zechariah’s sandal, causing both to stumble.
For a few moments there was confusion and noise – enough to prompt Mordecai to open the door and ask what was going on. He was quickly reassured that there was no disaster and returned to his watch. Eventually, Zechariah and Matthias helped Jesse ease the basket out of the window while Quintus and Saul kept a tight grip on the rope, allowing the basket to hang only a little way below the sill of the window.
“Well, this is all very nice,” groaned Quintus, “but we can’t have Saul standing here holding the rope and being lowered down in the basket at the same time.”
“Hmm. You’re right,” muttered Jesse.
“It’s not funny that people are trying to kill brother Saul, or that they might kill all of us if they caught us helping him escape,” said Quintus, “but I can’t help laughing at our… ah… bumbling inexperience in this. I’m glad that we’re relying on God to make it work, not our own expertise!”
There was a noticeable relaxation in the room after that. They still fumbled. They still made mistakes in the darkness, but never mistakes that mattered. Instead, they worked in the fellowship of shared danger and the confidence that Jesus their Lord had been through such dangers many times himself, as had the apostles and prophets. And while they had never been guaranteed personal safety, the numerous reports of miraculous deliverances were very reassuring.
Matthias, Zechariah, Quintus and Jesse now held the rope, with Jesse closest to the window so that he could guide it over the tallow-coated stones.
“Don’t slip on the tallow,” he warned as Saul got ready to climb into the basket.
Saul climbed feet-first into the narrow window opening and crawled backward through the city wall, still more than a metre thick at that height. Jesse’s house truly was part of the wall of Damascus, which provided Saul with the perfect opportunity to escape the governor’s plan to capture him.
With his feet, Saul reached down from the opening into the darkness until he felt the basket with his toes. He placed both feet in its broad base and slowly transferred his weight into it, his fingers clawing desperately at the rope as the basket twisted and jerked uncomfortably. At last, everything seemed to settle down.
“Are you ready to lower me?” he whispered.
“Can you see any lights out there?” asked Jesse. “Any guards on their rounds?”
“No… I don’t think so,” said Saul slowly, looking around, “but it’s very dark down there.”
“Then we’ll start lowering. Once you get to the ground, the rope will slacken and the basket may tip over – it’s not completely flat down below. We’ll try to stop lowering as soon as you touch, but you might end up falling out. If so, don’t worry, there’s nothing dangerous there.”
“Thanks,” whispered Saul.
The men lowered the basket as smoothly as they could, but it wasn’t easy, even for four.
Saul endured a nightmarish descent as the basket scraped and bounced down the wall, one moment catching on a projection in the wall, the next hanging freely and spinning around or swinging like a pendulum.
Whether safety or capture awaited him, he had no idea, but he was willing to trust Jesus’ assurance that he had work to do for The Way.
After a seemingly endless disorienting descent, Saul felt the bottom of the basket touch the ground. Jesse and the others must have felt it too, for the rope remained taut and Saul climbed out of the basket without too much trouble.
Relieved, he saw that there was no-one around. Nothing moved either.
Looking up, he saw the top of the wall silhouetted against a myriad of stars. He wondered if he could also make out a head looking down at him from the window. Yes, it was. That was a wave, barely visible in the darkness. The basket began to rise and soon reached the window. How could it be so quick when his descent had taken so long?
At the window, the basket stopped. After a few moments, it began to descend again, and soon his travel pack was within his grasp. With relief he lifted it out – it contained the things he needed most for his journey. The brothers would send his other possessions to Jerusalem after him once the excitement had died down.
After a prayer of thanksgiving, it was time for a cautious escape towards Jerusalem. The moon would rise soon, and then he would be able to see more easily – and be seen more easily, too.
He looked up and waved. He hoped the brothers would see.
High above, two arms seemed to wave, and the basket rose one last time.
The watchers above faintly saw an indistinct figure turn and walk away into the darkness. Saul was safely outside Damascus. The plot to arrest him had failed.
Their prayer had been answered.
