Beating Around... The Characters of the Passion and American Christianity

 Good morning! What a wonderful morning it is. Last night I attended my very first Seder meal to celebrate the Jewish Passover. I learned two things. First, I learned that the prayers of the Passover meal are beautiful. They give so much glory to God and remain relevant to the 21^st century American. Example, we dip our herbs into salt water to represent the bitterness of a life led by materialism. I also learned that a devout Jew would have most likely been horrified at our poor attempt to honor their tradition. To our Jewish brethren, we tried hard but in good spirit could pronounce few words correctly, stumbled through the traditions with jokes and sang the Great Hallel to the tune of “Eagles Wings”. We are sorry… but we still seek unity during this our ever so sacred Catholic Super bowl aka the Easter Triduum.

As I wake up on Good Friday however, and consider the passion of our Lord, I am finding myself continually meditating on the character of Pontius Pilot contrasted by the character of Simon of Cyrene. These two individuals play a small role in the gospels and yet are central examples of the choices we have as we encounter Jesus Christ. I do not want to vilify Pilate, I sympathize with him, but I do want to point out why his response to Jesus struck me so deeply.

In case you are unfamiliar with the story of Jesus’ journey to the cross, it all started with the betrayal of His apostle Judas who handed Him over to the authorities for 30 pieces of silver. Jesus was then questioned by the Jewish law (the Sanhedrin) and handed over to the Romans where he was questioned again and eventually handed back to the Jews to be scourged, mocked and eventually crucified.

So now that you are caught up, enter scene. Jesus is standing before Pontius Pilate and asks him “ Are You the King of the Jews.” Jesus answers, “ You say so” (I have always found this to be extremely cryptic of Jesus but I guess if you are the Son of God you do what you want). While Pilate is questioning Jesus, his wife sends him a message telling him to having nothing to do with this man, for she saw in her dreams that he is innocent. Pilate questions Jesus again and then says, “ Take Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault in Him.

Here is the crux of the matter. Pilate KNEW of Jesus’ innocence. He KNEW that there was something about Him but he did not allow that knowledge to affect his life or decisions. He washed his hands, claimed himself innocent of Jesus’ blood and went on with his comfortable life while Jesus headed down the painful road to Calvary.

Is this not American Christianity?!?!?! We KNOW that there is something about Jesus. We will even say things like  “ Oh yeah, I believe,” or “ I think that Jesus is real” but it stops there, we don’t let it affect us. If half of us allowed that belief to affect our decisions, our culture would cease to be ruled by emptiness, loneliness and utilitarian relationship and be characterized virtue, integrity and selflessness. The King should affect us, His thoughts, His ideas; His laws should shape our lives. It would have been absurd in the middle ages for a member of the Feudal system to say that they believe in the King and yet divorce that for the decisions they made. It would have actually resulted in death for the servant. The King made the decisions and the people of his manner lived accordingly. Pilate’s mistake was not denying Jesus, for he did not deny what he knew of him, he just did nothing about it.

Simone of Cyrene on the other hand, did not know much of Jesus but allowed Him to invade his life. Imagine being a foreigner who is watching this crucifixion take place and getting pulled into it! I would have at least peed my pants! And yet, regardless of motive, he literally entered the Passion of Jesus and relieved him of some of his pain. Simone took on Jesus pain for a moment. His decision to let Jesus affect his decisions allowed him to give relief to the Son of God. What an amazing opportunity! Completely inconvenient but worth it! How incredible that our decisions to let Jesus Christ change the way we do things to for His sake can actually bring Him relief and give us a small but shining role in the salvation of the world!

Both men made decisions that left a mark on eternity. For I am writing about them two thousands years later and their characters are played by thousands of young children every year as they reenact the Stations of the Cross. Most of us know who Jesus is, we know of His innocence and many of us believe that He is God. The question stands. Will we allow that knowledge to bring us into an inconvenient encounter with Jesus that affects our lives for eternity or will we acknowledge the truth and leave it at that?