Scripture:Isaiah 57:14-19John 20:19-23Colossians 1:1-2, 15-20

Text: "Peace be with you."

The run-of-the-mill soldier belonged to a surly lot in the Tenth Roman Legion which occupied Israel in the days of Jesus. The soldier probably had been pressed into duty involuntarily. His assignment to this back-water outpost of the empire was nearly an insult. With the exception of the occasional threat of a riot, the duty was terribly boring.

Amusement was hard to come by. Life had little value; so this scurrilous lot took some perverted joy in appropriating, for their entertainment, an ancient Persian game called "basilica." The evidence of the game is still visible in Jerusalem. About twelve to fifteen feet below the present level of the Via Dolorosa, and in the subbasement of one of the Christian sh…