Local drama. We recently had our children visit from New York and they read the Tampa Bay Times which is delivered to our house each day. I found myself filling them in on different things in the paper because so much of it is of local interest – to the Tampa Bay area and to Florida.
In reading the gospel accounts of the last week of Jesus’ life, in a way I have the feeling that I am listening in on the local news of a small town in a backwater locale. The town council is upset. There’s drama over this upstart. There is authority to protect. Damage control to consider. There is back room politicking about how to handle things. Covert deals being made. It’s kind of reminiscent of the troubles in rural towns in the south during the civil rights movement.
When I read the gospel stories of the ending of Jesus’ life I don’t get the feeling that the people really had a sense of the wider implications of what was going on. I think if you asked the High Priest Caiaphas, “What do you think people will be saying about this 500 years from now?” he would have looked at you like you were crazy. There is a sense in which you can see these people dealing with this stressful challenge during difficult circumstances but it has the appearance of a local, temporary crisis. You don’t get the feeling that the people in the stories saw this as part of a much larger narrative with far-reaching consequences. They certainly did not expect to be the subject of an on-line devotion 2000 years later let alone the centuries of reflection and scrutiny that their situation has received.
When someone is president of the United States there is discussion of how history in the near and far future will deal with that person’s time in office. I don’t think the people of Jesus’ day in the story of the last week of his life had any sense of this. Now we know that this story has wider implications. It is a defining story of human history to date. This story is read, re-read, analyzed, preached on, written about, investigated, translated, picked apart and put back together. The behavior and attitudes of the major players are studied and scrutinized. I don’t think any of them expected this. And yet it has occurred.
This is a week to think about our behavior, our attitudes, our choices, our dealings with the challenges and crises of our day. How will we stack up under scrutiny by future ages? What will be said about us? Maybe there won’t be discussion of us as individuals, but certainly our era, our cultural context, our world situation will be examined. How will we fare? What will we be remembered for? How will our decisions be regarded by future generations 2000 years from now? That is, if humanity still exists.
Prayer: The life of Jesus reminds us that the unfolding of history takes place through ordinary every day actions and decisions. The love of God, cosmic, eternal, and mysterious is made known in the everyday workings of nature, creation, and, yes, in day to day mundane human life. Without full knowledge of the outcome may we have the courage to embody divine love each and every day even if it leads to death. This is the way of Jesus. This is the way of life. Amen.
Lakewood United Church of Christ 