Inklings // March 2025

The prompt for the March Inklings (check out the rules for linking up here!) is a scene with strangers meeting / becoming acquainted.

Since we are in the beginning of Holy Week, leading up to the most holy time of the Triduum and Easter (which is probably my very favorite time of year; I always see-saw back and forth between now and Christmas), and since we just re-watched Ben-Hur, I’m going to share one of the most powerful and iconic scenes from that. I feel like it’s stretching the prompt a little bit, since no one is really a stranger to One of the people in this scene…but I’m going for it anyway.

This scene is pretty early on in the movie, but beware spoilers for the first twenty minutes or so of the story.

Judah Ben-Hur has been unjustly sentenced to the galleys – from which no one ever returns – by his boyhood friend-turned enemy, Messalah. He’s now being marched to the ship with the other galley slaves. Judah in particular, as supposedly having tried to assassinate the new Roman governor, is considered the lowest form of criminal life.

Finally the slaves are allowed a halt to stop for water. But Judah, despised as he is, is not even allowed a drink. Dirty, bleeding, lying exhausted on the ground and completely hopeless, he can do nothing more than mutter a desperate prayer for help.

As he is lying there defeated, Someone comes up to him with a ladle of water. He washes the dirt off Judah’s face, then gently holds up his head and gives him a drink.

Judah eagerly drinks before lifting his face to see Who it is who’s done this for him. And his gaze is caught for some time, absorbed in that other Man’s Face, before he slowly lowers his head to drink again.

The Roman official sees that Judah is being given water against his direct order, and angrily comes forward to stop it. But then he too catches sight of the Man’s Face, and is suddenly brought up short. Neither says a word, but the official uneasily turns away and makes no further complaint.

Judah goes back to his place and continues marching, but he keeps turning back to look at the Man, Who is still standing watching him. Judah doesn’t see Him again until years later, but he will remember that Face when he does.

Here’s the link to watch the whole scene. (I must mention in passing, by the way, how much I love the fact that we never see Jesus’s Face at all in Ben-Hur. It makes the portrayal so immensely powerful and reverent and was just SUCH a good storytelling decision.)

Have a blessed Holy Week!

Have you seen Ben-Hur? What are your favorite Biblical-epic style movies?