went to church for Good Friday reflections. sat in the auditorium and watched the montage of images and words three times. must have been their for over an hour. in this time of contemplation it struck me that people have different reactions to the death of Jesus - religious people don't understand him - not in the same book, let alone the same page, they react to guard their own interests; authorities don't understand him, they are perplexed; Jesus' is far beyond their ideologies of order and control, the crowd don't understand him, they want a celebrity king and he just won't play their game; the commercially minded just see the chance for a quick profit, they sell his clothes; the mob, they just do what mobs do, allow themselves to regress to some primeval, animal state - giving the weak a good kicking. and what about those who thought they understood? those that had seen him as messiah, the special, chosen one; how did they react as they saw all their hopes and dreams literally being kicked down the streets to his death; seemingly failing them proving by default that he just couldn't have been who he'd said he was, couldn't save himself let alone the whole world. what did they do? Well, some denied ever knowing him, stricken by their own confusion and doubt. some however stuck by him in his hour of need, powerless to do anything to save him yet doing the only thing they could to remain faithful, by exuding the same compassion that he had in life by being with him in death. Some did what was in their power to do, by lending him the only possession they had no use for in life - their grave.
one, at least one confessed:
surely this was the son of god.
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