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.
I
had always secretly admired the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. I even went to
Him in the middle of the night so no-one would know what I had done.
Even
though I am an educated person, there were still sayings that He spoke that confused
me – after all, what does being ‘born again’ really mean? It did not stop me
from wanting to find out what made Him tick, especially as He called Himself
the Son of Man which the term that clearly defined Him as the Promised One.
I
was very careful when I went to observe Him, standing on the edges of the
crowds and in the shadows. The last thing that I wanted was to upset my fellow
Pharisees. It did surprise me what some of them went quite openly and honestly
to ask Jesus questions, especially in that last week.
It
must have slipped out that I was sympathetic to Jesus because I heard through
the grapevine that the chief priests had organised the arrest of Jesus. What
happened next was they then arranged for a meeting of the Sanhedrin to try and
gather evidence so that they could send Jesus to Pilate on the charge of
insurrection against Rome, which was a capital event. I was amazed because I am
a member of that important body, but I was excluded for the meeting. Part of me
was disappointed because I felt ostracised by my fellow Jewish leaders, but
there was also a cauldron of other emotions – wanting to stand up for Jesus’
cause, feeling that I had let Him down if I had been present.
It
must have been that someone had let slip that I was an admirer of the man from
Nazareth or, perhaps, it had become so evident from my speech and behaviour.
Nevertheless,
I decided to fly my flag from the mast and make a declaration that I was
follower of the Promised One. I contacted my friend Joseph of Arimathea and, together,
we went to stand at the foot of the cross.
When
Jesus had died, Joseph and I thought that it was inappropriate for His body to
remain on the cross during the Sabbath. We decided to carry Jesus’ body to the brand-new
tomb that Joseph had just purchased.
My
grief at the death of this wonderful teacher could not be fathomed – the voice
of love and peace had been silenced. However, this emotion was reversed when,
with ecstatic joy, I heard that He had risen from the dead as He had foretold.
In
that moment, I knew that Jesus was more than the things that we couldn’t
understand for He wanted us to be in relationship with us – what could be
clearer than that!
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