“Tomb Raider: Out of Time” excerpt: “The Crucifixion” (author: Richard Hardin)

It had been her most difficult challenge yet: recover artifacts from one of the most renowned – and controversial – holy sites in all of civilization: the Tomb of Christ. What made it even more challenging was that she had to travel back to the time of the Crucifixion to retrieve them, and return to her own time without upsetting the flow of history. And her client had neglected to request her to retrieve anything specific. All she had to go on was a list of possible items to recover: the burial cloth His body had been wrapped in, or at least a swatch of it; the napkin He had worn on the Cross, or a swatch of it; a vial containing soil from within the sepulcher or from Golgotha; splinters of wood from His Cross; and, of course, the nails from His Crucifixion. Lara shuddered as she read the list. What was her client trying to do: raise Christ up yet again?

She never got a chance to find out. After witnessing the stark brutality of the Crucifixion firsthand, and hearing of His miraculous Resurrection mere days later, Lara ventured out to the sepulcher to complete her mission. Unfortunately, the Roman guards who had vacated their post in the night had inexplicably returned; and when they saw Lara, they took her for one of the crucified Nazarene’s followers, and immediately bound her and led her before Pilate.

Pilate repeatedly asked Lara who she was, where she was from, and what she was doing out at the sepulcher, but she refused to answer him. How could she tell him she was a relic hunter from the distant future sent to retrieve artifacts from the Tomb of Christ – especially since most of the population, Judean and Roman, wouldn’t know who “Christ” was? And she was certain that if she made any kind of reference to the name “Jesus,” she would be “admitting” to being one of His followers, and would be punished as such. She wondered if her client knew what he’d gotten her into.

Meanwhile, Pilate was becoming frustrated with the prisoner. Her refusal to disclose any information about herself had exhausted his patience. Summoning the tribunal, he ordered the defiant woman scourged – to loosen her tongue. The Romans led Lara into an enclosed courtyard, and made her kneel while they stretched her over a short bloodstained column while they bound her hands to it; then, while she stooped over the whipping post in that uncomfortable attitude, they took turns flogging her, and she cried out with each lash to her body.

When it was over, they cut her loose from the bloodied pillar, then bound her hands together and led her back to Pilate, bleeding and laboring for breath.

The first question Pilate asked Lara was, “Is there anything you would like to tell me?” Her response shocked even Lara:

“Go to Hell.” Even after a brutal Roman flogging, she still remained defiant and uncooperative.

In anger, the tribunal struck the insolent woman sharply across the face. “Is that any way to answer the Prefect?” he snarled.

“Let it go, Quintilius,” Pilate persuaded him. “She will have plenty of time to regret her words on the cross. Bring out the other two.” The officer saluted and departed.

Too late, Lara realized her error: shortly thereafter, the tribunal returned with two other female prisoners. Pilate’s face was expressionless as he addressed the three condemned women. “It is the will of the People that you die this day. I sentence you, Mary of Bethany; you, Martha of Bethany; and you, Defiant One, to be crucified, according to the will of the Senate and the People of Rome. May your god have mercy on your souls.” He turned to Quintilius and murmured, “Crucify them.”

“No, you cannot do this!” Mary protested as the soldiers led the three prisoners out of Pilate’s hall. “I tell you, we are innocent! We have done nothing to deserve death!” But soon her pleas were no more than wasted breath.

Mary, Martha, and Lara were led down the steps of Pilate’s hall to the archway leading out from the city. There, the Romans lashed their crosses to the prisoners’ bleeding backs. They then led the three condemned women away to be crucified.

Even as the soldiers were burdening her with her cross, Lara still could not believe that she was going to be crucified. Not even when she felt the sting of the whip on her back to begin moving her toward the crucifixion site did she believe she was actually going to die. It simply wasn’t possible. How could this be happening?

Ahead of her, Mary and Martha struggled with their crosses as the soldiers roughly pushed them along. Unexpectedly, Mary stumbled beneath her burden and fell to her knees beneath its crushing weight, then fell forward onto her face from the heavy load she bore. The Romans harshly kicked her aside and let Martha through with her cross, then began whipping Mary and screaming at her to get on her feet again. When it became apparent she could not do so under her own power, they ceased whipping her and roughly pulled her to her feet, then resumed shoving her toward the crucifixion site. A short time later, Martha lost her balance and crashed to the pavement. As with her sister, the Romans flogged the fallen woman and ordered Martha to her feet, then picked her up and forced her to continue her walk to the cross. Only then did Lara realize that this was real, and that it was happening. In only minutes, she would be stripped of her garments and nailed to her cross, then lifted up and hanged on it, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. And she wept.

Just then, Lara felt herself weaken; and before she could react, she felt her knees scrape the coarseness of the road, and she cried out in pain as the sharp stones tore the skin from her joints. Immediately after, Lara’s upper body bent forward as the weight of the cruel beam on her shoulders crushed her to the ground, until her cheek struck the pavement, again causing her to grunt in displeasure. The next moment, Lara felt the sharp sting of a Roman flagrum on her back and shoulders, and heard the angry voices of her captors ordering her to get up on her feet. She tried, but her legs would not obey her commands. At length, the Romans were obliged to help the fallen woman stand again; then, as if nothing had happened, they began prodding Lara toward the crucifixion site once more, as they had the two sisters.

Several more times each before they reached the place of execution, the three prisoners collapsed beneath their burdens; and each time, the Romans whipped them and cursed at them to get up, then raised them to their feet and shoved them forward again. Lara began feeling as if she would die before she reached her destination.

But at last, the cruel site came into view: Golgotha, “the Place of the Skull,” the hill where Christ was crucified. As Lara approached her destination, she heard the agonized screams and wails of the two sisters. Martha, she observed, had already been crucified, and now hung on her cross, sobbing and moaning piteously. Mary was screaming in anguish as the Romans nailed her to her cross. As Lara ascended the dusty, rocky incline, Mary’s cross was raised into position across from her crucified sister while Mary wept and howled in pain. Lara looked up at the crucified sisters, and she wept for them – and for herself: for all too soon, she knew, she would be the one howling and moaning on the cross.

At last, Lara reached her destination. No sooner had she finished ascending the sharp incline, however, than her legs failed her again, and she fell beneath her cross once more upon arriving where the upright of her cross lay prostrate. While Lara lay upon the ground, bleeding and laboring for breath, the Romans relieved her of her burden and fastened it to the upright, then picked the fallen woman up and dragged her over to where her cross lay, and threw her down upon it. They ripped the tattered garments from the prisoner’s body, leaving her naked, and stretched her out upon her cross while they nailed her hands and feet to the rough timbers. Lara cried out in agony as the spikes were driven through her flesh. Finally, the soldiers raised Lara’s cross, with the crucified tomb raider sobbing and moaning in agony on it, into place between the two crucified sisters of Bethany, and planted the foot of the cross in the hole dug for it. Lara gave a sharp cry of pain as she felt the jar on her outstretched arms. It was done: Lara had been crucified; her ordeal was beginning. Now nailed to the cross, Lara bowed her head and wept as she hung there, dying.

The Romans jeered at the crucified grave robber as she hung on her cross, suffering. Lara said nothing to rebuke them, however: they weren’t worth the effort. Besides, she knew, she would need her strength as the crucifixion wore on. As the Romans continued mocking her, Lara slowly and painfully raised her head, and bravely cast her tear-dimmed gaze toward Heaven. “Forgive them for what they’ve done, Jesus,” she prayed from the cross; then she bowed her head and wept again…

Unexpectedly, Lara heard Martha – who was hanging at her left side and thought Lara had been sent to free them – jeering at her, “Why didn’t you rescue us? Now you can’t even save yourself!” The accusation was cruel, and unjust; and Lara turned away and wept at it. She was beginning to think no one would befriend her in her time of suffering; but then she heard Mary – who was hanging at Lara’s right and saw that her sibling’s cruel words had hurt Lara – berating her sister, “Don’t talk to her like that! It’s not her fault we were crucified: she didn’t know we were in trouble.” Martha went silent at her  sister’s reprimand. Mary then turned to Lara, with great tenderness in her eyes and great longing in her voice, and pleaded, “Remember me in Paradise, Lara.” Mary’s tender words touched Lara’s heart, and she replied just as lovingly, “I’ll remember you, Mary; I promise.” Lara’s words, likewise, touched Mary’s heart, and she smiled at Lara through her tears and silently expressed her gratitude to her new friend. The two women smiled lovingly at each other, knowing they’d be together again in Paradise.

Martha turned away and wept bitterly over her harsh words. Silently, she vowed to herself to ask Lara’s forgiveness… before it was too late…


After three hours on the cross, Lara felt abandoned by God, and she cried out in her despair, “Jesus, why have You abandoned me?” It broke her heart to think He would forsake her in her most agonizing hour on the cross, when she most needed Him, and she bowed her head and wept to think He didn’t love her. Just then a gentle voice at her right assured her, “Jesus hasn’t abandoned you, Lara.” Lara turned – and Mary was smiling at her. “Don’t you abandon Him.” “I won’t,” Lara promised her.

Martha heard Lara’s cry of despair and thought Lara was dying (near death – which she was). Her heart overflowing with remorse, she turned to Lara and sobbed, “Lara… forgive me!” then turned away and wept again, thinking that Lara hadn’t heard her (i.e., she had already given up her life).

She needn’t have worried: the next moment, she heard Lara’s soft voice gently assuring her, “I forgive you, Martha; I’ll remember you in Heaven too.”

Martha turned to her right – and saw that Lara was smiling tenderly at her. She smiled just as lovingly at Lara, and silently expressed her gratitude…


Becoming impatient for them to die, the Romans broke the legs of the three crucified women, to hasten their deaths. Mary, Martha, and Lara all cried out in agony as their bones were shattered…


It was now late afternoon. Lara had endured hanging on the cross for approximately six hours. Even so, her strength was failing; she knew she couldn’t survive much longer with her body stretched like this.

At last, Lara felt Death’s cold, bitter embrace; and she welcomed it. After six hours on the cross, naked, her hands and feet nailed to the cruel timbers, Lara murmured, “Jesus, my soul is in Your hands,” then laid her weary head upon her sorrow-laden breast… and died.