 | Traveling is one of my favorite things to do. Like most people, I have a bucket list of places I want to visit while I am able. Ireland and Scotland are on that list. I want to experience the beauty of the countryside, the music, listen to the bagpipes, oh and let’s not forget the kilts. I also want to travel to Churchill Downs to stand on the infield during the running of the Kentucky Derby, dressed in a very elegant giant hat while holding a Mint Julep. However the place I want most to experience is the Holy Land. |
Every year during the season of Lent, I imagine walking the streets where Jesus was lead to his trial and crucifixion, sitting in the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed for deliverance from what was to come, and to see the tomb, where he was laid after his death. The place where all of those opportunities collide is at Wailing Wall. It is the only part of the Temple of Jerusalem that remains after the city and Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. The Temple was a huge part of the Jewish faith and also played a role in the life of Jesus. It was in this building that both Simeon and Anna blessed the new baby Jesus. It was where Mary and Joseph found him at the age of twelve, listening to and questioning the elders. This is the same place in which Jesus threw out the money-changers because it had become a place of thievery and dishonest trading. Also, it was in one corner of the Temple, called the Antonia Fortress, in which the elders of the Sanhedrin delivered Jesus to the Roman governor, Pilate. In this religious legacy, the Governor of Rome, the leaders of the Temple and the people came together for the trial Jesus of Nazareth to decide his fate.
I imagine myself there in the midst of the courtyard with the sun beating down, listening to the conversations between three active participants discussing what should happen to the man, Jesus, who was accused of blasphemy by the religious leaders. When asked by Pilate if he was the King of the Jews, Jesus responded in the Gospel of John by saying: “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (Jn 18:36). By saying this, the religious leaders said that he claimed to be God, which was blasphemy for which they wanted him crucified. Then there are the bystanders who yelled, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Wasn’t it just a few days before on Palm Sunday that some of them, waved palm branches and sang “Hosanna to the Son of God” as he rode into the city on a donkey? They wanted and expected Jesus, whose very name meant “Savior” to gather an army to overthrow the Roman government, but this did not happen. Lastly, there was Pilate, who by all accounts was a brutal man that thought nothing of torturing and killing someone. During the trial, Pilate claimed that he did not find Jesus guilty of any charges and yet, he acquiesced to the pressure of the people and the religious leaders. Because we know the rest of the story, it might be easy to stand in judgement of these three groups of people because we would never shout crucify him! Right?
It is when I place myself there in the midst of this trial that it becomes clear why this story is so important. It is for all of the people in the courtyard that he was nailed to the cross. It is for the religious leaders who could not “see” the Son of God that he died. It is for the people who had their own ideas about who he was and how he should serve them that he was convicted and sent to the cross. And yes, it was for me, that he was beaten and crucified because I been every one of those people any number of times in my life. It is because of Christ’s sacrifice that we receive his unending grace. But the story doesn’t end at the cross… Stay tuned…
I imagine myself there in the midst of the courtyard with the sun beating down, listening to the conversations between three active participants discussing what should happen to the man, Jesus, who was accused of blasphemy by the religious leaders. When asked by Pilate if he was the King of the Jews, Jesus responded in the Gospel of John by saying: “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place” (Jn 18:36). By saying this, the religious leaders said that he claimed to be God, which was blasphemy for which they wanted him crucified. Then there are the bystanders who yelled, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Wasn’t it just a few days before on Palm Sunday that some of them, waved palm branches and sang “Hosanna to the Son of God” as he rode into the city on a donkey? They wanted and expected Jesus, whose very name meant “Savior” to gather an army to overthrow the Roman government, but this did not happen. Lastly, there was Pilate, who by all accounts was a brutal man that thought nothing of torturing and killing someone. During the trial, Pilate claimed that he did not find Jesus guilty of any charges and yet, he acquiesced to the pressure of the people and the religious leaders. Because we know the rest of the story, it might be easy to stand in judgement of these three groups of people because we would never shout crucify him! Right?
It is when I place myself there in the midst of this trial that it becomes clear why this story is so important. It is for all of the people in the courtyard that he was nailed to the cross. It is for the religious leaders who could not “see” the Son of God that he died. It is for the people who had their own ideas about who he was and how he should serve them that he was convicted and sent to the cross. And yes, it was for me, that he was beaten and crucified because I been every one of those people any number of times in my life. It is because of Christ’s sacrifice that we receive his unending grace. But the story doesn’t end at the cross… Stay tuned…
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