Monday, February 16, 2015
431 - The Choice is Ours
Spirituality Column #431
February 17, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
On a spring Sunday centuries ago, the impromptu crowd cheered wildly as the peaceful, miracle-working young priest humbly rode into town on a donkey.
Palms and cloaks were laid in the man’s path. Triumphant voices of common people raised glorious hosannas and hallelujahs. On this next day after the Saturday Sabbath, the much-talked-about but mysterious Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. “This is the son of God,” many believed. “This is our savior; the Christ, the Messiah promised by God and the prophets.” They knew of His startling teaching many had heard, and His miracles many had seen.
He healed the sick, raised the dead, talked of living water, life everlasting, love, freedom and the Kingdom of God. Crowds followed Him. Jesus fed them, loved them, taught them, challenged them, and comforted them. He routinely, amazingly, outwitted and out-argued the Jewish leaders. He suffered no fools. He cried for the weak.
Jesus, sent of and by God, was the end of oppression, the beginning of true life, the fulfillment of freedom and the deliverance of God’s promised salvation. The cheering people sensed things were about to change.
If only the people themselves hadn’t stayed the same … as before.
Within days the welcoming crowd was a jeering mob clamoring for Jesus’s death. Unwilling to accept on faith the truth of His divine identity and purpose, people saw only their own fallen, fearful and self-centered desires. Jesus had not matched their worldly expectations. How could this miracle-performing Son of God now bleed as a beaten prisoner of both the fearsome religious leaders and the hated Romans?
The crowd possessing such great joy and hope on Sunday had lost its faith by Friday. Consumed in their abiding self-interest, people did not understand the message Jesus was preparing to die to deliver. When presented the choice to save Jesus or save Barabbas – the terrorist, traitor and murderer – the people chose Barabbas, the devil they knew instead of the savior they didn’t (Mark 15).
Barabbas – ironically in Hebrew, “bar abbas” means “son of the father” – represents our worldly appetites, sin and fear, personifies mankind’s flair for self-destruction, and is a caricature of our common human inability to discern the true good. Familiarity beats faith; evil trumps virtue. We ignore the true Son, Jesus. We get mad at the true Father, God. Faith wanes, and we embrace the familiar Barabbas who cannot, will not – and has no desire – to save us. We obey man’s anger; we shun God’s love.
Tomorrow begins Lent, the season of contemplation and sacrifice leading to Easter and the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, who is so alive among us.
So what? So is Barabbas.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows Barabbas by many names.
February 17, 2015
Current in Carmel-Westfield-Noblesville-Fishers-Zionsville
The Choice is Ours
By Bob WaltersOn a spring Sunday centuries ago, the impromptu crowd cheered wildly as the peaceful, miracle-working young priest humbly rode into town on a donkey.
Palms and cloaks were laid in the man’s path. Triumphant voices of common people raised glorious hosannas and hallelujahs. On this next day after the Saturday Sabbath, the much-talked-about but mysterious Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. “This is the son of God,” many believed. “This is our savior; the Christ, the Messiah promised by God and the prophets.” They knew of His startling teaching many had heard, and His miracles many had seen.
He healed the sick, raised the dead, talked of living water, life everlasting, love, freedom and the Kingdom of God. Crowds followed Him. Jesus fed them, loved them, taught them, challenged them, and comforted them. He routinely, amazingly, outwitted and out-argued the Jewish leaders. He suffered no fools. He cried for the weak.
Jesus, sent of and by God, was the end of oppression, the beginning of true life, the fulfillment of freedom and the deliverance of God’s promised salvation. The cheering people sensed things were about to change.
If only the people themselves hadn’t stayed the same … as before.
Within days the welcoming crowd was a jeering mob clamoring for Jesus’s death. Unwilling to accept on faith the truth of His divine identity and purpose, people saw only their own fallen, fearful and self-centered desires. Jesus had not matched their worldly expectations. How could this miracle-performing Son of God now bleed as a beaten prisoner of both the fearsome religious leaders and the hated Romans?
The crowd possessing such great joy and hope on Sunday had lost its faith by Friday. Consumed in their abiding self-interest, people did not understand the message Jesus was preparing to die to deliver. When presented the choice to save Jesus or save Barabbas – the terrorist, traitor and murderer – the people chose Barabbas, the devil they knew instead of the savior they didn’t (Mark 15).
Barabbas – ironically in Hebrew, “bar abbas” means “son of the father” – represents our worldly appetites, sin and fear, personifies mankind’s flair for self-destruction, and is a caricature of our common human inability to discern the true good. Familiarity beats faith; evil trumps virtue. We ignore the true Son, Jesus. We get mad at the true Father, God. Faith wanes, and we embrace the familiar Barabbas who cannot, will not – and has no desire – to save us. We obey man’s anger; we shun God’s love.
Tomorrow begins Lent, the season of contemplation and sacrifice leading to Easter and the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, who is so alive among us.
So what? So is Barabbas.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) knows Barabbas by many names.
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