Getting From Here to There

Beginning today, Palm Sunday, in the space of 96 hours, we go from "Hosanna in the highest, blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord!" to "Give us Barabbas!  Crucify Him!" 

Of course we know the end of the story.  We know the printed record of the good guys and the bad guys.  We truly believe we learn from other people's mistakes.  We really believe we are the "good guys" even though in false humility tell everyone we are the "bad guys".  During Holy Week I am a voyeur, an outsider watching someone else fall.  I am intellectually astute enough to know that I should see myself in the failure of everyone surrounding Jesus.  I am phony enough to tell the world "I am Pilate, Herod, Judas, Peter, Caiaphus,  the Pharisee, the crowd, the Disciples." I am deluded enough to believe I am John, Mary, the Centurion.

How do we get from Here to There?  The scriptures tell us it was by envy, cowardice, ambition, security, political expediency, white lies and half truths told, fear, and well placed silence.  No adultery, no child molesting, no murder or fornications... no mortal sins. All common circumstances, all common situations, all common temptations.  In the end, it was common sins that crucified Christ. 

I know the end of the story.  It is because I know the end that I believe.  It is because I know the end that I am more culpable for not acting as if I know the end. 

What is my price to sell out my integrity? What do I envy? What of my life do I wish to preserve at the cost of someone else?  What do I fear?  What will I say that is half the truth to save my skin? What expectation of God and man do I have that I cannot endure being shattered?

To answer these questions is to know why I put palms before the Son of God on Sunday, and why I nail Him to a cross on Friday.  To not know the answers to these questions is to be doomed to putting palms before the Son of God on Sunday and nailing Him to a cross on Friday.

I am the Crowd.  I am the Pharisee. I am Peter.  I am Pilate.  I am Herod.  I am Caiaphus. I am the Centurion. I am the Disciples.  I am Barabbas. 

I am, like all of these, loved by God.

Now... Who will I become?