- Lazarus gets involved with a group of pacifist Canaanites whose presence is objected to by a rancher who believe the land isn't fertile enough to support them all.
- Lazarus narrates the opening, says he has been having something like nightmares every night. (They might be visions.)
Comes upon a group of four men. They've got a boy, Lucas, staked out in a hole. Lazarus runs the men off, but they take his horse.
Lazarus brings Lucas to a cabin where he lives with sister Rebekah.
She puts kid to bed. Gives him food.
Rebekah to Lazarus: "Who are you? Where did you come from?"
Lucas: "My prayers."
Lucas calls Lazarus an "avenging angel."
The four men who had Lucas staked out ride up to the McKay place. One of them is Mr. McKay's son.
McKay is examining a cow on ground.
Young McKay: "Does this one have the blight, too?"
McKay shoots the cow, says: "Burn him where you burned the rest of them."
Back to Lazarus
Lazarus says he'll leave at first light to get his horse back. Rebekah says he's welcome to stay as long as he needs to.
However, she adds, "My people have rules, and you'll be expected to obey them as long as you're with us."
Rebekah says the first rule is pacifism. They're Canaanites.
Their leader saw this land in a vision, so they came from Missouri to occupy it. And there's more coming every week.
Lazarus asks how she knew Lucas was in a pit. "He was doing his penance." He had a crisis of faith, she said.
Now Lazarus is sleeping in Rebekah's barn and dreaming about men chasing Lucas. Wakes up to find Young McKay in the yard firing gun in air from horseback and yelling. "Come on out here. I've got something I want to show you." (He had the dead calf that his daddy shot.)
Lazarus goes into house. Rebekah has hidden his gun and won't return it.
Rebekah: "I try to turn the other cheek."
Lazarus: "Christ was never west of the Mississippi. Now give me my damn gun."
Young McKay: "You killed my family. This was our home."
Lazarus disarms Young McKay and runs him off. He had come on Lazarus' horse, so that stays behind.
Lazarus gives Young McKay's gun to Rebekah "for your collection." Finds dead calf that Young McKay left outside.
Lazarus wants to leave and says so. Rebekah says they will be okay. Lazarus asks Lucas if he feels the same and has another vision of Lucas being shot in the back from a man on a horse. Lazarus says he will stick around "just until the boy is on his feet again."
Lazarus and Rebekah attend church.
Preacher talks to Lazarus. "Just looking in your eyes I can see there is some great burden vexing your soul."
Lazarus: "No sir. No burden I can share."
Preacher: "Those are the heaviest burdens of all."
Now Rebekah has clothes on the line.
Shows Lazarus her scratched up leg.
Lucas is drawing a picture of Lazarus, switches to Jesus drawing when Lazarus approaches.
Lazarus sees Lucas and Rebekah together and has a memory about reading to a boy.
Bad dreams again that night. This time Lazarus is the one who shoots a boy in the back.
Next day Lazarus is chopping wood.
Rebekah brings him a drink.
Lazarus and Rebekah witness a bi-racial wedding.
Young McKay and his crew ride up.
Young McKay calls preacher "old bastard" and hits him with a stake. Tells all to stay away from the area that the McKays occupy.
Lazarus dreams again. This time he falls off his horse after colliding with another horse. A man holds a gun to his head while another man rides away with the boy. The boy calls out "Pa" to Lazarus as he is taken away.
Rebekah wakes Lazarus, says he was screaming. He says he's fine.
Rebekah: "God gave you a vision."
Lazarus: "God's torturing me."
Rebekah: "You have to have faith that this is all part of his greater plan for you."
Now they're in church again welcoming new families that came from Missouri.
Preacher says it's time to take possession of the land, says they will cross the river at first light.
Lazarus says they'll be lucky if half make it back alive.
Lazarus: "Why don't you call a spade a spade? It's suicide. All I see is a shepherd leading his flock to slaughter."
Lazarus leaves the meeting and rides off alone.
Lucas shows Rebekah the finished drawing he made of Lazarus. In the drawing he has angel wings.
Now the McKays are praying around a table. McKay says God owes him because he never asked for anything before. "Please stop these people or show us how."
Lazarus is dreaming again. He's staked out in a pit. A boy appears and says: "Pa. Tell them to move the river."
Lazarus calls the boy Thomas. Wakes up.
Next day the Canaanites are walking across the river.
McKay and his men are waiting and the old man tells everyone to shoot the ground in front of them.
Lazarus goes back to Rebekah's house, hears the gunshots and takes off in that direction.
Old man McKay shoots the preacher in left thigh as he tries to cross river again.
Lucas hopes Lazarus will arrive and set things right: "Mister Lazarus. Please. You're supposed to be an angel."
The men are about to shoot again when Lazarus comes up behind and disarms them. Brings them to the Canaanites: "It's time to negotiate," he says.
They bicker a bit.
Lazarus: "My God. You people are the dumbest stubbornest bunch of jackasses I've ever seen."
Lazarus tells them to move the river, i.e. irrigate.
McKay doesn't think it will work, but he'll try.
Lucas mouths off to Young McKay: "God's will shall crush the wicked and sinful once more."
Young McKay shoots Lucas. Lazarus shoots Young McKay.
Lazarus: "Rebekah I'm sorry. If only I'd fired sooner."
Rebekah: "Or fired at all. Now there's two boys dead."
Next scene: The Canaanites are standing at Lucas grave. Lazarus rides out past them, stops and tears up drawing of himself with angel wings.
Rides away.
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