THURSDAY of PASSION WEEK -- A Reason To Die

Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a palce for you.  And if I go and prepare a palce for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

-- John 14:1-4

There was something strange about Thursday night. There were a lot of moving pieces.  There were the groups that wanted Jesus dead – the Sadducees (the priestly class with their power centered at the Temple in Jerusalem.  They controlled the single greatest economic power in all the land – the sacrificial system at the temple – in today’s monetary system it would have been the equivalent of a 4-5 billion dollar enterprise), the Pharisees (the party of the people they tried to balance the power of the Sadducees, and they were the moral police of their day), the Herodians (they wanted the house of Herod back on the throne.  They felt that any local ruler was better than a foreign one, and they would want to get rid of anyone who threatened to take the throne), and the Zealots (they wanted a revolution against Rome; once Jesus proved he wasn’t interested in that, they were ready to move on to other things).

There are those who always think they are right …

Then there was the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate, who knew nothing of all the plotting. He would find out in the early hours of the morning, and all he wanted was peace.  There were more than a million Jews in Jerusalem during festival.  It was a Roman ruler’s worse nightmare.  What if someone found a way to unite all of them against Rome.  Rome would crush the rebellion, of course, but Pilate would have been lynched long before Rome could come to his aid. 

As the Roman Governor, Pilate could do anything he wanted to do.  Whatever he thought he needed to do to keep the peace.  He could kill anyone he wanted to kill and the powers that be in Rome couldn’t have cared less.  But the one thing for which he would pay dearly would be a riot or, even worse, a revolution.  Pilate didn’t want to upset the one million Jews in Jerusalem who were there to celebrate the Passover Feast.  He would do whatever he had to do to placate them … to keep them happy.  He wanted an uneventful Passover feast. 

There are those who are always trying to please the crowd …

And then, of course, there was Judas – Disenchanted with the Jesus movement because, as it turns out, Jesus didn’t come to Jerusalem to fight. He came to die.  That wasn’t what Judas had in mind when he joined the movement.  He thought Jesus would be a triumphant Messiah, a conquering king.  He had no idea that Jesus was going to be a suffering servant. Whatever Judas’ motives, I don’t think it was the money.  The money was symbolic – 30 pieces of silver was the going rate for a slave.  His motives were deeper than that – it was ideological.  Judas had his own agenda … and when it didn’t match Jesus’ agenda, Judas chose his own.

There are those who always have their own agenda …

And then, of course, there are the disciples.  They wanted to follow Jesus … they wanted to do the right thing … but they were going to need a lot of help.

Jesus tells two of them – go into the city and there you will find a man … it was all very clandestine … very mysterious.  If there is one driving theme to this scene – one certainty about what is happening on that Thursday – it would be this:  Jesus knew that he was going to die … and he knew why.  He knew that they were looking for a way to get him and he knew that they would find it. And in spite of all of the human drama and political motives and personal agendas swirling around him that night … he knew that in the eternal scheme of things it was all irrelevant.  He knew the real reason he had to die.

And so Jesus spends his last night before death with his closest disciples.  He washes their feet.  He tells them to trust in God.  He warns them of the coming firestorm.  He gives them something with which to remember him – the bread and the wine – a way for them to draw strength from his Spirit.  The bread and the wine were to remind them of the faith community that Jesus was building with his sacrifice. 

Thursday night Jesus spoke truth into their lives. He reminded them that they had each other, and that no matter what happened next, HE would never leave them nor forsake them.  He reminded them that there was a reason for him to die.  Jesus is still reminding us of that … every day of our lives.

Reflection and Action

Reflect on all the places where your agenda is overriding God’s agenda for your life.

Take stock of all the places where you are trying to please people, instead of God.

Tell someone how you feel about Jesus?  Share with them what Jesus has done for you in the last month.