On this Good Friday evening, and like many I’m sure, I
thought it would be fitting to watch The Passion of Christ. I haven’t seen the
movies in years. The film definitely illustrates the brutality, agony, and pain
experienced AND inflicted in those final hours of Christ's life all physically,
mentally, and of course spiritually. Sometimes I know I seem to forget that Jesus was fully human, that he actually felt all that scourging, bled all that
blood.
What the film might not illustrate--and don't quote me on
this, I'm no Theologian— is my understanding that the Pharisees really thought
they were doing the right thing, being the hard-line rule followers.
In the film they are
pretty easy to dislike—draped in their pomp and circumstance, arrogant, overly
dramatic about rending their garments while a bloodied Jesus remains calm and
collected—they jeer until the very bitter end.
I just wonder if it was all that way. In their defense, here comes this random guy, hanging out with blatant sinners, talking about how he’s the Son of God and he seems to consider himself above the Establishment. They were trying so hard to be ‘good’ and follow all their rules that despite his parables, patience, and above all his Love many could not, or WOULD not, hear his message.
It’s really easy to
point fingers and say how obvious it all was with a healthy 2,000 years of
retrospect and Church separating then and now. But there’s a reason the
congregation participates as the mob and chants “Crucify him!” during the
Palm Sunday Gospel reading.
So, this Easter I pray that we can all find the “Way, the
Truth, and the Light,” especially in our everyday lives, and that we might all
reflect the Son of Man rather than the belligerent mob which is so easy to do.
Happy Easter!
