Deacon
Tom Writes,
“Even
The Stones Will Cry Out”
The tide of public opinion can change quickly. But
the tide of public opinion is often nothing more than the collective mindset of
the crowd that happens to gather at the moment. Today the crowd gathers to
welcome Jesus and to sing his praises. Why not? He has a good reputation. He
speaks kind words. He does good things. He even challenges the religious
leaders. Word of his good adventures has spread throughout the land. He is a
healer, worker of miracles and an advocate for the poor and disheartened. To
some he is a prophet; to others he is the Messiah; to the religious
authorities, he is a big problem!
Word spreads of his arrival in the city to celebrate
Passover with his friends and many turn out to welcome him. The people are in a
festive mood and they greet Jesus waving their palm branches and raising a
chorus of “Hosanna”, for somehow they recognize the presence of God in their
midst. As the spirit of hope fills the air, the Pharisees, the ones for whom
Jesus is a problem, tell him to, “Rebuke
your disciples”. They could not tolerate to see the adulations the people
were placing upon him. But Jesus responds, “If
they were to keep quiet, I tell you, the very stones would cry out”.
What a difference a few days can make. As Jesus
stands before Pilate, the Pharisees don’t appeal to Jesus to control his
disciples; instead they’re fueling the crowd’s ignorance, stirring them up to
advance their agenda – to get rid of
the thorn in their side, Jesus. The finger pointing, the false accusations, the
skillful manipulation of the emotions of the crowd work in their favor and
Jesus is condemned to death. The only spirit at work in the crowd on that day
is the hardness of heart that, to this day, continues to blind many to God’s
presence in their lives.
Our scripture readings today help us to see Jesus as
both the hope for and the scourge of our world. For believers Jesus
is the, “Way, the truth, and the life”. For
others Jesus is a hindrance, an obstacle
to living a life unchecked, unrestrained by any moral or ethical code. With
Jesus out of the way, there are no restrictions to living a self-absorbed, it’s
all about me, taking care of number one lifestyle. Any good that one may do in
this state is done solely because it gives one individual pleasure, a sense of
feeling good. There is no sense of any common good, let alone any awareness of
belonging to the “Mystical Body of
Christ”.
I suspect that many of the people in the crowd on
Good Friday were also there to greet Jesus on Palm Sunday. Today we have a
chance to imagine what we would have done if we were present at these two
remarkably different events. Better yet, we can look into our lives and see
what crowds we side with today. Being champions of the poor, the alienated, the
marginalized and the abused is the best way to let our hosannas rise above the crowd around us.
Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom
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