Advent Twenty

The Yellow Crucifixion by Marc Chagall
Centre Pompidou - Paris

Hope of the Nations

"Right, you're coming with me sonny Jim."

Jesus had been led into a notorious building in the centre of town, a building with no windows.

"We are going to the top floor, so you might as well help."  The burly officer passed Jesus a pile of cabling.  He tried to see if Jesus could carry the battery pack too, but his strength seemed already to be failing.

Outside a crowd was gathering.  Brutality was in the air.

TV crews had been instructed to entitle all news bulletins: 'Jesus - Hope of the Nations'. 

There was international interest in this story.

The police chief pointed out the inaccuracy.

"Don't say 'Hope of the Nations', say, 'He thought he was Hope of the Nations'."

"Too late mate," smiled our Australian correspondent.

The crowd was becoming increasingly agitated. 

"What you doing in there? Show us the body!"

Then electricity struck.  Three naked bodies could be seen on the roof.  They were being strung-up, on flag poles, Jesus was in the middle.

A sickening scene of triumph, a stinking odour of evil, spreading through the throng.

The officers drew lots to see who would get Jesus' private possessions - quite a nice mobile phone someone had given him.

Little did they know that what they were doing had been foretold in the book of Psalms chapter 22 vs 18.

There were also people who loved Jesus there too.  They strained to see Jesus’ swaying body. Peter grabbed hold of Jesus' mother's hand. 

“He is telling me that from now on we stick together.”

The enormity of the tragedy that has unfolded.  

Never let it happen again.  It can’t

None of this makes sense; like matter and antimatter.  It’s probably happened in every city.  A miscarriage of justice.  Freedom to commit atrocities, and for some reason, the evil inclination to take advantage.  The crowd, with a mind and spirit of its own.  The consequence to be dealt with latter.  If this story is true, the Holy Creator of all has come and visited this vile, perverted corner of the world.  The Roman cruelty combined with a spiritual deadness.  Yet all of this was known from the first day of creation; what was to come.  The potential for tremendous evil was built into the design from the start.  Where there is freedom, there is abuse of freedom.  Where there is power there is abuse of power.  Jesus, like all the messengers and wise teachers who came before, comes with a similar frail soft body that is broken.  We are told that to live we must take a piece of this body, and eat it, live on it, be sustained by it.  In eating we are tasting his suffering, and open ourselves to this suffering, because we have to be prepared to take this route, if we have to.  Many do. 

PRAYER  May I have your life within me to the extent that I am fully confident that I can follow the path you lead me on, and live.