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"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. And now look, your house is left to you, empty and desolate. For I tell you this, you will never see me again until you say, `Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (Matthew 23:37-39 NLV). 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. No, 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! |
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