Ok, OK, I know, I just made a statement as if it's absolutely factual, when many people and faiths wouldn't necessarily believe it to be so. That's OK, 'cause I ain't proselytizing, I'm just reflecting what I believe - You're welcome to come along on this sleigh ride of thought or jump off at the top of the hill - It's up to you and either way's just fine.
Anyway, I'd say comfortably that, whether or not you take it as Gospel, (Pun intended), it's a pretty powerful story. It's one I prefer to read, to ponder: To see in my minds eye, rather than on a screen. That way, I can see things the was they resonate with me, and keep 'em as such, you know?
Jerusalem wasn't such a big town that what Jesus was up to that week wouldn't have been noticed and talked about. Can you imagine? Actually, it just couldn't possibly be ignored! Walking to the outskirts of the city and calling for a colt to ride on, while followers and bystanders caught up in the fervor lay cloaks on the ground before him and fanned the way with Palm fronds and shouts of 'Hosanna!'... Talk about stirring up a hornets nest! I mean, it's obvious that The Powers That Be had a few things in common:
1. They absolutely loved their power and privilege, and
2. They weren't prone to share that with anybody they didn't have to, and
3. They really didn't care for the way Christ could ignore all the rules and still grab the minds and hearts of the people better than they could, and
4. They were guaranteed to respond strongly and negatively to any and all serious challenges to their power.
Of course Jesus knew all this and did what he did absolutely on purpose: In fact, he did what he did specifically to violate each and every one of the tenets detailed above... It's especially interesting to imagine how the stress of carrying out God's will manifested on him. Luke's gospel notes that, while praying on the Mount of Olives, Jesus' "Sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground," and this after being visited by an Angel who tries to buck him up for the coming storm... There have been physiological studies done that indicated that sweating blood is literally possible when a person is under great duress. Can you imagine? Knowing that you're going to die, soon and horribly? How hard would that be to just walk into? Obviously, pretty hard, even for the Son of Man. After all, at the time he was fundamentally human, sharing our fears and weaknesses. Nonetheless he had great strength and resolve, because after his arrest, he was the only one who was calm; everyone else was a mess...
I wonder what it looked like in the city during those days? What did it smell like, what was the feel in the air? Everyone was so obviously caught up in a passion much greater than their own, the place must have just been thick with it all... It had to be electric. You can sense from the way that all these players are just yanked around with such great force - Other than Jesus, the whole place seems to be running at mach speed with no idea how or why it's all happening...
Have you read about this Gospel of Judas? It was found by looters in the Egyptian desert in '78. It then spent a bunch of years going back and forth among art dealers while it's condition steadily worsened. It's only recently been restored, translated, and authenticated. It dates to the second century, a few hundred years after the death of Christ. Now, granted, this discovery probably won't prompt a sudden addition to the canonical Gospels, in all probability: First off the Christian church in general is too fractured to agree on much of anything, and the Catholic church in particular is too conservative to so do. There's also the fact that this Gospel was considered and rejected by church officials in the third century as heretical, (Imagine that!) As for whether or not I find it plausible, I'll just say this: It's a solid fact that there were and are a bunch more Gospels than just the ones that made it into the New Testament. It's also a generally agreed fact among biblical scholars that the decisions leading to some making it and some not were political as much or more than any other factor: I'd go so far at to say that anyone who doesn't believe that is either very dogmatic, very naive, or maybe both...
Anyway, this Gospel suggests that Judas did what he did at Christ's direction and request: In other words, he was merely given a part to play like everyone else. The Gospel suggests, in fact, that far from the betrayer he is popularly portrayed as, Judas was in fact chosen by Jesus to do what needed to be done because, in essence, Jesus believed he could and would handle the task: He was put in this position because of trust not betrayal. Personally, it makes sense to me that this well could be an authentic perspective. And if this is true, can you imagine what love Judas truly had for Jesus? You will not only betray me, but you will then be cast from the church and never associated with anything good again: Your name will mean betrayal from this day on - can you handle that, please? Wow... I've never felt that Judas had any more control over his role and his actions than Simon Peter, or any of the others - 'You will betray me, and you will deny me three times before the cock crows...' Those weren't things I ever read as statements of sorrow or wrongful action; they were really more like marching orders. I'm sorry, 'cause this is not gonna be pleasant or fun, but here's what you're going to have to do, whether you like it or not. I think that Judas knew his role and accepted it: That said, I doubt anyone ever told him he had to like it, or take it well.
I think you could argue successfully that the whole denial thing that happened to Peter is among the strongest evidence of the whole shebang being purely God's will: After all, this is the man whom Christ personally annointed as the Chief among his apostles and the defacto head of his church on earth, "I say to thee that thou art Peter, (Kipha, a rock), and that upon this rock I will build my church..." Peter meant what he said when he countered Jesus' statement that he would deny him, he just either didn't know or didn't want to know what he was going to be made to do. He told Jesus that he wouldn't deny him, that he would follow him even unto death, and I think he meant it. Fact was, is wasn't up to him, it wasn't his role, and Jesus was just trying to break the news gently, so that later he would walk as he was meant to walk - And that he did in the long run, didn't he? And he still died a martyrs death, as fate would have it...
And so it came to Jesus' death. What a powerful and ominous day that must have been... I sense a day like those during storm season here in Texas, where there's a heaviness in the air, a brooding; a sense that great power has been stirred up and might at any moment break loose. Who was Pilate speaking to when he asked, "Shall I release for you this King of the Jews?" I doubt it was the people, frankly... Pilate felt that sense of fate and things bigger than he was: He washed his hands of the whole mess out of fear for his own skin, if you ask me. He knew he was acting outside himself, but didn't understand and was frightened by it: Better to be done with it and get away from all that terrible power. The slower boats, the people and the cohort, didn't have a clue: I think they felt the power, but didn't understand at all what it meant, and acted as they were whipped up to do, without a clue as to the part they were playing. And why crucify him? Crucifixion was a particular ugly and demeaning form of death. It was meant to be humiliating and horrible, as a way of reminding others not to do what this guy did... Note Pilate's words, "I find no basis for a charge against this man," and neither had Harrod, for that matter. Pilate was gonna just flog Jesus and set him loose, yet when the crowd, not having a clue, screams, "Crucify him," that's exactly what he did. I don't think he had any idea why he ordered what he did, he was just a puppet like everyone else...
The air up on Golgotha had to be unbelievable heavy, with that thinly veiled sense of power and danger overriding it all. Remember the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark, where the French dude opens the Ark of the Covenant? Kinda like that... Nobody in their right mind would want to be anywhere near there... the again, not much of anyone was in their right mind, were they? How about the poor yokel walking into town who gets corralled into hauling Jesus' cross? Can you imagine? I've always thought Simon of Cyrene didn't have a clue about what a bad thing it was he'd stumbled into: One minute he's heading into town for a little stop at the market, and the next... I bet he spent the whole walk up there asking, 'What have I done to deserve this Lord?' I hope he was let off the hook in the long run; I like to think that he was...
And when Christ had breathed his last, 'Eloi, Eloi - Lama sabachthani?' the earth shook, the thunder rolled, and the curtain in the temple was torn asunder. In all honesty, I've always imagined Caiaphas at this point, standing there looking at the temple, muttering 'Oh, shit' at that exact moment. Can you imagine? Here's the Chief Priest, thinking he'd just won a little battle and taught everyone a well-needed lesson standing there, mouth agape, as peals of thunder roll ominously away across the hills: I think I've made a terrible mistake... Oh, you have no idea, buddy; you just have no idea; but you will...
Silence can be powerful, and one of the most potent silences I know lies around those days after Jesus' death and before his resurrection. None of the primary Gospels speak a word about what happened. There's a mention that they, 'Rested on the Sabbath,' but come on, rested? I think that after Jesus died these people probably snapped out of it like they'd been released from hypnosis: 'Snap!' and all of a sudden they're wandering around all squint eyed and confused, "What just happened? Was that all a dream? And slowly, the horrible truth sinks in... It had to be days of despair and disbelief; a time of great fear and dread, and little else. Yet I'd bet that hints of what was to come snuck in for some of them too. I think Peter knew, thinking about all that he had been told, "Very truly I tell you..." And certainly Mary Magdalene knew on some level; maybe not consciously, but I think she knew.
And so it ended and so it began, on that morning when she found the stone rolled away, and an Angel was waiting; "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, He has risen!" Joy, shock, disbelief, the first inklings of the amazing beginning of a journey without end - Not an ending, but a joyous beginning.
He was not brought down by the grave,
He arose, He arose,
When the stone was rolled away, He arose...
He arose, He arose,
When the stone was rolled away, He arose...
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