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Killing JesusFriday, March 11, 2005
John 7:25
I was wrong. They died in the blink of an eye. Just as suddenly as they became spokesmen for the future and the flagbearers for a new generation, they were suddenly silent, dead and buried. Jesus died quickly too, in a very few hours, crucified on the Roman cross. Would Hebrew radio have beamed this news to every corner of the country? How many boys like me looked up to Jesus and thought, "I want to be just like him?" How many mothers wept like Mary when they heard? Besides his twelve, how many other disciples walked with Jesus on their own, and left Golgotha dead in spirit and empty-hearted? What fools were trying to kill Jesus? Why were they so afraid of him, so angry with him, so certain he was wrong? I know Jesus threw over the moneychanger tables in the temple. I know his eyes sparked with rage and disgust when he saw the arrogance of the Pharisees. And I know life was cheap in those days. "Due process" only became customary centuries later. Did Jesus drive them to it? Was that God's plan all along? Perhaps that is traditional theology, but it's tough for me to accept. I have no better answer, though. And Jesus did often predict his own death and resurrection in no uncertain terms. Martyrs like Kennedy and King live on in my mind. Jesus Christ did much more than that. He took death and turned it on its tail. He changed the meaning of death. He was crucified, dead and buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven.* Jesus defeated Death and removed the angels guarding the gates of his Father's Garden. The tree of life is again available to all. Victory, Jesus, is all you know. Let me live like you and die like you. * http://www.kidbrothers.net/alalaarb.html#c |
Kill President Kennedy? Or Martin Luther King? Those men were my heroes, and they were larger than life. I didn't imagine it was possible to gun them down like ordinary men.