Sowing the Seeds

Toadie has a new job: he’s managing a gladiator, but there are already problems. The gladiator’s first opponent is Macky’s friend Absolom, who has become a formidable fighter. So Toadie decides to skew the odds by adding a potion to Absolom’s pre-fight dinner. Macky has already tried to get Babatunji to free his friend, but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Even when Macky tells Babatunji the story of David bringing his friend Jonathan’s son to him, Babatunji’s only response is that his only friend is his sword. But Babatunji soon discovers that Absolom has been drugged and he goes to Antonius to stop the match. But Antonius declines to help. Officially, that is. Unbeknownst to Babatunji, Antonius and Macky immediately go to work formulating a plan to rescue the still-drugged Absolom from the arena. As the giant arena looms before them in the darkness, Macky briefly despairs that their little movement will never catch hold here in Rome; Antonius counters by telling him the story Jesus told about sowing seeds. Sneaking inside the arena to rescue Absolom, Macky and Antonius must get past a hungry lion, and then, after finding Absolom, get around a no-less-dangerous Babatunji. At the last minute, Babatunji recalls the story about David and Jonathan’s son... and lets Absolom escape. As the three leave the arena, they pass the huge foundation of the Coliseum – a site for still more mindless Roman violence, Macky believes. But Antonius tells him the story Jesus told about the houses built on different foundations, and Macky realizes that the foundation isn’t really as strong as it seems.