Passion Week - Pt 3

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-39 ESV). That same day Jesus engaged in many discussions with the religious leaders. At the end of that day, Jesus looks over Jerusalem and weeps with the lament in our reading today. "The best way to send an idea," observed atomic scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, "is to wrap it up in a person." On the basis of that thought, Glendon Harris wrote that on Passion/Palm Sunday we see how God sent to the world His idea of love: "Love was wrapped up in a person and came to us. When we see the end of that brief life of 33 years suspended between heaven and earth on a cross, we behold divine love, and in a deep sense of awe realize that it is directed to us." In recent years, there has been an ongoing debate about violence in movies and on TV. I occasionally have some difficulty with the news, but when I watch fiction, something in the back of my brain tells me that these people are actors. However realistic it may appear, what is happening is only "make-believe." I wonder how many people view the Passion of Jesus that way. Do you believe, or do you make-believe? The Apostle Paul describes the "mind" or attitude of Christ, humility leading ultimately to a humiliating death (Philippians 2). The phrase, "even death on a cross," may slip by us for a variety of reasons. We may think it refers to the gruesome nature of His death. Even if we see its humiliating nature, that it was the means of executing public criminals, naked and in full view of everyone, we may still fail to think about the alternatives. Jesus might have resisted in the Garden of Gethsemane, as did Peter. He could have died privately, and with some dignity, from a swift thrust of a sword or spear. He might have even waited a few centuries and fallen from a sniper's bullet, never looking into the face of His assassin. But you see, that also would have meant that the assassin could have zeroed in on a fold of His robe, avoiding the Person and the real Target of hatred and evil and sin. Jesus chose no shortcut, no easy way out, no semblance of dignity. Likewise, we do not have the opportunity of the sniper, to stay at a distance and create for ourselves a make-believe target and a make-believe savior. We must stand at the foot of the cross and look into the face of Him who is at the same time our Accuser, our Judge and our Victim. But don't stop there! He is also our Creator, our Lover and our Savior. Believing we have been so loved, let us love one another. Believing He died on the cross for us, to save us from death and damnation, let us tell that Good News to everyone else. He also died for them. He weeps for this generation too!