A Nero Miss

The guy’s head falls to the platform. The executioner turns to go home for lunch.

One of the prisoners assigned to the cleanup detail asks, “So who was that guy?”

Another prisoner replies, “I don’t know. Paul somebody . . .. I heard he was one of those new Christians. Nero hates the whole bunch of them.”

Another man, listening through the window of his cell asks, “What if I told you that the guy Nero just killed would one day be better known than Nero himself?”

“I’d tell you that you’re nuts.”

“The head that you just picked up? The very course of history is going to be changed by the words that came out of that head.”

“This head,” says the guy from the cleanup detail, as he throws the head into a basket, “belongs to a stupid old man who didn’t know enough to keep his mouth shut.”

“That head," proclaims the man from his cell, "has written stuff that in less than two hundred years will be taught in every school of thought on the continent. That head has come up with stuff that will be translated into almost three thousand languages. That head - geez - look at all the flies! That head came up with stuff that will influence the constitutions of powerful governments two thousand years from now. It will change the creeds of every major religion on earth. In fact, every major leader of every world government will some day read the stuff that came out of that head.”

“You’re nuts.”

“Mark my words! World leaders are going to try to suppress the words that came out of that head and the harder they try to destroy Paul’s teaching about his leader Jesus, the greater the demand for those words will grow. In fact this execution will cause the spread of what this guy wrote about Jesus to all of the known world. The words that came out of this guys mouth will be included into a Book that will top the Best Seller list every single year for over 100 years in a row. In fact after 30 years they’ll even quit trying to keep track of sales because the demand will be so great.”

“You’re insane.”

“You an atheist?”

“Ya. Why?”

“Just a lucky guess. (Snerk)”