I have imagined the reactions and thought processes of those people involved in the Good Friday and Easter narrative.
I hope that it will assist you to meditate on these events with fresh thoughts.
Sometimes,
words just come back to you and you squirm. I recall when my good friend Philip
raced excitedly up to me and declared that He had found the Promised One.
My
response (the words still haunt me even after all those years) was ‘Can
anything good come out of Nazareth?’ It was not supposed to be a slur on the
good people of that town, but it was only a small village populated mainly by
those who had wandered up from Bethlehem in the south.
There
had been no indication that God would bring the Promised One out of that town
but, in the end, I decided to give Jesus a fair hearing. In fact, to be fair to
Him, not only was He welcoming and called me a man of faith, but He also
included me in his inner group of twelve. I’m not sure that He know about my
sceptical remark but, if He did, He didn’t make any reference to it to me.
The
first couple of years were really with Jesus being welcomed by all the
population. However, the third year was tough going with opposition, especially
from the religious authorities.
What
bothered me was that Jesus would talk about His betrayal, being handed to the
religious leaders and being killed. I just wanted to put my fingers in my ears
and go ‘la la la’ loudly as if nothing was going to happen.
When
we arrived in Jerusalem, Jesus confronted the religious people out to get Him.
When He turned over the tables of the money changers in the temple, I thought
to myself that He was going the right way to get noticed and get into trouble. Sure
enough, the temple guard caught up with Him in the Garden of Gethsemane.
However, it could be that they were not too bothered about us because they let
us run away and disappear into the night.
That’s
it, I thought, I was right all along that nothing good can come out of
Nazareth, especially as reports filtered through to us about Jesus’ awful
treatment at the beatings post before He was put on the cross to die.
How
wrong was I! On the third day after His death, my gloom and despondency of
following a so-called lost cause was changed beyond all comprehension. In the
midst of us cowering disciples, Jesus appeared in His resurrection body.
Although
His earthly ministry had been only in a small country, the impact of His death
and resurrection would be felt across continents.
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