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I love the Psalms

~ Connecting daily with God through the Psalms

I love the Psalms

Tag Archives: Christ’s Passion

“The Centurion’s Report” Drama

10 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by davidkitz in Easter Sunday, Good Friday

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

centurion, Christ's Passion, Easter, Good Friday, Roman centurion

With millions unable to attend Good Friday and Easter services due to the pandemic, here is an opportunity for you to experience the drama of Holy Week in your own home. This one-man drama lets you see Christ’s passion through the eyes of a Roman centurion. View it, like it, and share it with your friends.

 

The Centurion’s Report

06 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by davidkitz in Lent, The Soldier Who Killed a King

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

centurion, Christ's Passion, drama, resurrection, the cross

I’m looking forward to the first performance this Lent/Easter season of “The Centurion’s Report” on Sunday, at Café Church in downtown Kingston, Ontario.

“The Centurion’s Report” is my own one-man, four-act drama. It’s the story of our Lord’sPicture Cent-helmet passion, but it’s told from a different point of view, the viewpoint of the centurion who witnessed Christ’s death upon the cross. It was this man who is quoted in Matthew’s gospel as saying, “Truly, this was the Son of God” (Mt. 27:54).

Over the years, countless lives all across the continent have been changed by the Spirit as they have witnessed this portrayal of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. Have you been to the cross lately? Every man, woman and child needs to visit there.

“The Centurion’s Report” also led me to write the award-winning biblical novel, “The Soldier Who Killed a King“.  Trust me on this point. There is no higher drama than the drama of the cross and the resurrection. Don’t miss out on participating in it this year.
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Written from a Male Perspective

17 Sunday Feb 2019

Posted by davidkitz in book review, Books by David Kitz, Christ's Passion

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

centurion, Christ's Passion, David Kitz, Gethsemane, The Soldier Who Killed a King

I wrote my novel about Christ’s passion from the perspective of the centurion who wasbiblical-fiction-award-2017_orig in charge of the Good Friday crucifixion. Despite this masculine viewpoint, I have been pleased by the positive response from female readers. The following 5-star review was written by Sally Meadows and was posted to Goodreads:

It seems more than fitting that The Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed to God and was betrayed on the eve of His crucifixion, is the setting of the climax of “The Soldier Who Killed a King.” Here, the protagonist finally meets the living God in a gut-wrenching, unforgettably powerful way that will change his life forever. David Kitz’s narration draws us, throughout this book, into the complexity and brutality of New Testament times with such incredible detail that we can see, taste, feel, everything the soldier does. An enormously successful retelling of Jesus’s final days from the perspective of the man who was instrumental in Jesus’s death. And how through Jesus’s death, the soldier found true life. 

To download a free study guide for this high-impact, bible-based novel visit: https://www.davidkitz.ca/centurion.php/free study guide PDF

For book purchases try Amazon or https://www.christianbook.com
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An Awakening

31 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by davidkitz in Books by David Kitz

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Tags

carpenter, Christ's Passion, nails, poem

An Awakening

A poem by David Kitz

I awoke…
rolled out of bed…
and there they were.
Three nails…
three nails lying on the carpet…
at my feet.

How did they get there?
I have no idea.

Why three nails?
Why not six
or five or two?

What can you do with three nails?
Not much I guess?
Except…

Except…
I know this carpenter
that saved the world
with just
three nails.

The Passion of Christ novel, The Soldier Who Killed a King presents an opportunity for readers to explore the impact those three nails had on the life of Jesus, and by extension how they affect every believer.

To download a free study guide for this high-impact, bible-based novel visit: https://www.davidkitz.ca/centurion.php/free study guide PDF

For book purchases try Amazon or https://www.christianbook.com
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A Plausible Passion

17 Thursday Jan 2019

Posted by davidkitz in Books by David Kitz, Lent

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

centurion, Christ's Passion, David Kitz, Roman centurion, The Soldier Who Killed a King

Print Media Endorsement

biblical-fiction-award-2017_orig

This Passion of Christ novel, The Soldier Who Killed a King was voted the best book in biblical fiction by Interviews and Reviews.

The Soldier Who Killed a King is David Kitz’s account of Christ’s Passion. It is written from a unique, previously unexplored perspective – the perspective of the centurion, the Roman soldier who gave oversight to Christ’s execution.

Joe Woodard, religion editor for the Calgary Herald calls The Soldier Who Killed a King “a readable and accurate novel about Jesus Christ’s last week on earth. David Kitz’s portrayal of the collision between pagan Rome and Temple Judaism is completely plausible. And as a perfect anecdote to the faux expertise of Dan Brown’s, The Da Vinci Code, Kitz provides over a hundred footnotes and a half-dozen thumbnail biographies at the end of his book.”

Study Guide Opportunities

Here is an opportunity to explore the biblical depth of this topic with a free 7 week study guide. This study is ideal during the Lent and Easter season, but really the message of the cross and the resurrection is appropriate at any time of the year.

Study guide information is listed below. In regards to the study group experience, your feedback and comments are welcome.

For a free PDF of the study guide visit: https://www.davidkitz.ca/centurion.php/free study guide PDF

For book purchases from the author visit: https://www.davidkitz.ca/bookcart/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=50

For book purchases from other sources try Amazon or https://www.christianbook.com

THE SOLDIER WHO KILLED A KING

20 Thursday Sep 2018

Posted by davidkitz in Books by David Kitz, Good Friday, Lent, The Soldier Who Killed a King

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Centurion's Report, Christ's Passion, David Kitz, dramatization, Easter, Lent, Play, The Soldier Who Killed a King

Soldier book

Christ’s Passion Week…a familiar account? So you think you know this story? Think again. There are more twists in this plot than in the cruelest crowns of thorns. This author takes you on a fast-paced ride through Christ’s Passion Week-an eight-day ride you will never forget. Scheming Herod, the bloody Fox, has more than one trick up his sleeve. The high priest and the governor are at each other’s throats. Four kings, together in the holy city for one week, compete for one
throne. Now here’s a deadly competition.

Written from a soldier’s perspective, you see a familiar story in a whole new light. Here is the horror of the cross, up close and graphic. While remaining true to the scriptural account, the author weaves with startling realism a very human tale of intrigue and subterfuge. There is a more than a little passion here. Did we mention the terrorist connection? So, you think you know how this ends? Ha! Think again! Have you been to the foot of the cross lately? Come, if you dare.

Author bio: 
For a number of years now, David Kitz has been telling the soldier’s view of these events in a one-man play entitled, “The Centurion’s Report.”
Centur. Sw
For more information on the book visit: https://davidkitz.ca/centurion.php

For more information on the book purchase visit: https://www.davidkitz.ca/bookcart/index.php?route=product/product&path=62&product_id=58

or https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0825444853?pf_rd_p=d1f45e03-8b73-4c9a-9beb-4819111bef9a&pf_rd_r=MDF7KQBS5SZGS214836H

For more information on the dramatization visit: https://davidkitz.ca/centurion.php

 

Read a Chapter

08 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by davidkitz in Books by David Kitz, Psalms

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Tags

centurion, Christ's Passion, David Kitz, donkey, historic novel, Hosanna, Jerusalem, Jesus of Nazareth, Kregel, palm branches, Passion Week, Passover, Roman centurion, Son of David

Four in the afternoon, Sunday, April 2, AD 30

It was never like this before.

I have been posted here, in Jerusalem for ten years now, but in all that time I had never seen a Passover crowd like this. It was not the numbers. I had seen that before.

What made the big difference was the person at the center of it all. You see there had never been a central figure before. The Passover pilgrims just came plodding into the city in reverent caravans. Some of them would be chanting psalms. Others were silent; looking bone weary as they trudged, like fretful herdsmen with children in tow. Undoubtedly many were relieved that their holy city was finally in view.

Soldier bookBut, this year it was different. There was this man – at the center of the whole procession. Every movement within that huge throng seemed focused on him.

Squinting in a futile attempt to get a better view, I gave Claudius a backhanded slap to the shoulder and demanded, “What are they doing?”

“They’re climbing the trees, sir.”

“I can see that!” I snapped impatiently, “But what are they doing?”

“They seem to be tearing off the palm branches, sir.”

“What is going on here?” I said it more to myself than to any of the men standing near me. An uncomfortable feeling crept into me as the procession advanced.

“They don’t usually do this?” Claudius questioned.

“No.  . . .  They’ve never done this before.” There was worry in my voice.

Claudius had been recently assigned to this place, the festering armpit of the Empire, and I was at a loss to explain what was happening before us. We were standing on the wall above the gate of Jerusalem, and there less than a half mile ahead of us, we could see the jubilant pilgrims surging toward us, in numbers that were alarming.

“They’re laying the palm branches on the road in front of that man – the man on the donkey.”

Until Claudius said it, I had not noticed the donkey. Its small size, and the frenzy of activity round about, must have obscured this detail in the picture before me. What an odd way for this man to come? I could make no sense of it.

“They’re throwing down their cloaks before him.”

The sweat-glistened bodies of several men were clearly visible. Outer garments were being cast down as a sign of homage before this man. At the same time the rhythmic chanting of their voices became more distinct.

What were they singing? Could I pick up the words?

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”[i]

That’s when it hit me like a barbarian’s club. I realized what I was witnessing. It was a triumphal entry – the entry of a king.

It was the words.  The words they were now boisterously shouting. He was their Messiah. The son of David! The one they were waiting for! The one who would rid them of the Romans. He would set up his glorious Jewish kingdom, here, in Jerusalem! This is what I had been warned about since the day I first set foot on this cursed Judean soil.

And we, I and my men, and the garrison in the city, were all that stood in their way.

This crowd of thousands was sweeping down the Mount of Olives into the Kidron Valley and then on toward us. They advanced like a huge human wave about to collide with the rock hewn palisades on which we stood.

Would they sweep us away?

My initial curiosity had grown into worry. Now in an instant my worry turned to alarm. Instinctively, everything within me shouted, “Stand! Resist! Be a Roman!”

We had soldiers posted all about the city, especially along the pilgrim route. My own hundred men were among the first to be deployed. During Jewish feasts like this we made certain we were highly visible. I dreaded what might happen if this crowd ran wild. Rioting could erupt, and with an impassioned throng such as this riots have a way of quickly turning deadly.

For several moments a debate raged in my mind. Should I order the gate closed to keep this rabble with their pretender king out of the city? Or, should I let everything proceed – let it proceed as though somehow, we had not taken note of what was going on?

“Stand! Ready for orders!” I shouted above the swelling din. The sentinels on the wall snapped to attention.

I hastily scanned the crowd for any sign of weapons, any hint of armed treachery. To my surprise I saw none. They were paying no attention to us. Everyone was caught up with hailing this man, the man on the donkey.

The front edges of the crowd had now reached the first platoon of eight men that I had positioned by the roadside about four hundred yards before the gate. But they ignored them, sweeping past the clump of soldiers, without so much as creating a ripple, like a round stone in a swift flowing stream.

At that moment I knew it made no sense to lower the gate. It would only enrage this crowd that was already fully aroused and moving as one.

Let them come. We’ll handle them and their king inside the city.

Their king. On a donkey. I could only shake my head in disbelief.

I had watched many a triumphal entry, while growing up in Rome, and the conquering hero always rode a gallant war horse. And as a boy, I too had  dreams of personal glory. But a donkey? It could only happen here, I thought with an incredulous grin.

I could see him clearly now. Donkey or not, he had the look of a man who knew exactly what he was doing. Those about him might not know, or understand, but he knew. He had a destination in mind, a purpose. You could see it on his face.

“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
Hosanna in the highest!”

There was something else that was different about him. At the time I did not know what it was. I could not put it into words for a long time. I think I noticed it because I had watched all those other men come into Rome in their triumphal processionals. They were conquerors, but still they were hollow men, feeding off of the adulation of the crowd, thirsting but never satisfied. You could see them vainly drink it in, hoping it would somehow fill the empty soul.

He was not drinking from the crowd. I somehow sensed he was full already, and what he had within, must have come from a different source.

“Hosanna in the highest!
Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

Just at that moment a strange feeling seemed to rise within me. Maybe it was the joy of the crowd. I had expected anger. Maybe it was the children waving the palm branches, or the spontaneity of the singing? I don’t know. For one moment it all seemed to come together. It seemed right somehow. Like heaven and earth had finally, for a moment, come into agreement – an agreement that had never been achieved before.

“Hosanna in the highest!”
He was much closer now.
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
He was now within the shadow of the gate.
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

At that moment he looked up. For an instant our eyes met. Then I heard a voice – clearly heard a voice say, “I have a future for you.”

I was confused.

I turned to Claudius and said, “What did you mean by that?”

“What did I mean by what?” He had a blank look on his face.

“By what you said about – about the future?”

“I didn’t say anything about the future, Sir. I didn’t say anything.”

Now I was totally baffled. Was I hearing voices? This whole thing was making no sense, no sense at all. Passover pilgrims are not supposed to come into the city this way. We’ve got a revolutionary on the loose – riding a donkey. And now I’m hearing things?

I rubbed the sweat from my forehead, hoping for some clarity to emerge out of all this.

I had a hundred men whose lives were in danger from this Jewish messiah, and his horde of followers. That’s what mattered now.

By this time the donkey man had passed under the gate and was heading in the direction of the temple in the heart of the city.

I signaled for Claudius to follow, as I raced down the stairs of the gatehouse. As I emerged onto the street, I grabbed the first two-legged bit of Jewish scum I saw. Pressing him against the stone wall I demanded, “Who is that man?” At the same time I pointed at the retreating figure on the donkey.

The poor wretch was in shock and seemed quite unable to get out a word.
Claudius reached for his sword.

“Je – Jesus of Nazareth!” He stammered and then quickly added, “The prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

I loosened my grip. Then in a voice loud enough for all near to hear I announced, “Well there is one thing I do know. We’re going to have to keep an eye on that man.”

  • For the month of June The Soldier Who Killed a King is available for preorder from Kregel Publishing for the early bird price of $10.99. The worldwide release date is July 25th.
  • Place your order today: http://www.kregel.com/fiction/the-soldier-who-killed-a-king/

The Soldier Who Killed a King

01 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by davidkitz in Books by David Kitz, Psalms

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Canadian Bible Society, Christ, Christ's Passion, crucifixion, David Kitz, donkey-riding King, historic novel, Jesus, Kregel, Navigator Church Ministries, novel, Officers’ Christian Fellowship, One Way Ministries, resurrection, the cross

It’s very gratifying to have reputable people say good things about a book you have written. The following endorsements mean a lot to me:

“The best book I have read in years. A compelling read—I couldn’t put it down.” Doug Sprunt, One Way Ministries

“The most gripping account of the crucifixion I have ever read.” Wilf Wight, eastern Ontario district director, Canadian Bible Society

Soldier 800kb

New from David Kitz and Kregel Publishing — now available for preorder

“I was at the foot of the cross. I stepped inside the empty tomb. This book took me there.” Robert DuBroy, cofounder of CHRI-FM, Ottawa, Ontario

“An awesome read: captivating, spellbinding, inspiring! Through the author’s masterful writing, the centurion stood out as a real and personable individual. . . . The book also helped me visualize Jesus, my Savior, and his person and work for the forgiveness of my sins, for my daily walk, and for the eternal life he has in store for all who believe.” Cliff Kentel, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Regina, Saskatchewan

“A readable and accurate novel about Jesus Christ’s last week on earth. David Kitz’s portrayal of the collision between pagan Rome and temple Judaism is completely plausible. And as a perfect antidote to the faux expertise of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, Kitz provides over a hundred endnotes and a handful of thumbnail biographies at the end of his book.” Joe Woodard, Calgary Herald

“Story has a way of capturing our attention and enabling truth to move from head to heart. David Kitz creatively unpacks the events of Passion Week as seen through a Roman centurion’s eyes. Through vivid word pictures, we see the whip-sliced back of our Savior and hear the pounding of each nail that affixed him to the cross. We walk these last steps of Jesus’s earthly ministry, leading to his death, burial, and triumphant resurrection from the dead. Kitz better helps us to do as the apostle John encourages: ‘See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!’ (1 John 3:1).” Dean Ridings, author of The Pray! Prayer Journal and communications director of Navigator Church Ministries

“This engaging, hard-hitting narrative is a distillation of Kitz’s study and prayer over fifty years as a pastor and educator, steeped in the wonder of this story. As a novelist, he reveals profound respect for the historical record through his characterization of Marcus Longinus, a Roman centurion who is unwillingly caught in the power struggles of the day. In contrast to the stench of these political machinations, the donkey-riding King emerges in the Roman world offering an entirely new way for humankind to be reborn. The Roman centurion is like us, caught between worlds. Who is king? Why? The Son of God shows unlimited compassion through healing the sick and feeding the hungry, and his purity catches the attention of the masses in a drama that still shakes the world, one aching, open, humble heart at a time.” Dr. Darlene L. Witte-Townsend, former professor of education, Johnson State College

“One of the most exceptional biblical fiction books I have ever read. I was struck by the everyday events and people affected by the dramatic climax of the cross, which Kitz presents on an equal level with Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. Extremely well documented historically and biblically, the narrative transports you back in time and evokes both grief and thanksgiving as you follow the soldier’s own emotional turmoil in grappling with the dramatic events of the darkest day in history. Like him you will be led to cry out in both despair and trust, ‘Surely this was the Son of God!’” Heather Goodwin, former manager of the Baptist Bookroom, New Brunswick

“David Kitz has written an intriguing book. Taking the point of view of the centurion who crucified Christ is new and fresh and gives the reader much to contemplate. Even though I knew the story, I felt compelled to read on to see how Kitz would unfold the drama. Excellently done!” Tami Waring, Officers’ Christian Fellowship, Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base

For the month of June The Soldier Who Killed a King is available for preorder from Kregel Publishing for the early bird price of $10.99. The worldwide release date is July 25th.

Place your order today: http://www.kregel.com/fiction/the-soldier-who-killed-a-king/

 

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