Palm Sunday Ponderings

Listening to the Passion play for Palm Sunday in church I was struck by the mob mentality of those who wanted Jesus crucified. I figured out that they crucified him because they couldn’t believe in him. I’ve been reading the book Conversations with God and it the author asks God why God doesn’t offer irrefutable proof of God’s existence by coming to Earth and proclaiming God’s existence. To which God replies that even if God did come down to earth and proclaim the existence of God there are still those who would argue that it is the work of Satan and not God. People are generally afraid of what they can’t explain or what they can’t define, in other words what doesn’t offer irrefutable, scientific proof.  Even when God sent Jesus down to offer “proof” of God’s existence people crucified him.

               There are two types of people that scare me the most in this life, those who do not believe in any higher being, God or whatever names you want to call God and those that use God as a reason to deliberately inflict harm upon others. Most recently, the Taliban has used their beliefs to inflict harm upon others, even other Muslims. The Catholic Church, during the time of the Crusades, inflicted harm upon others. The Church of England (also known as the Episcopal Church) under the reign of Henry VIII went to war tortured and killed those who had not converted from Catholicism. All of these “Holy Wars” have at their center people who believe so extremely in the righteousness of their own religion that they seek to destroy anyone who do not believe in God as they see God.  . All religions have been guilty of inflicting harm upon people of other religions at various points throughout history. The one that is perhaps scarier is the person who does not believe in God. Even the craziest religious fanatic at their core, still has a moral compass no matter how screwy that compass might be. It is the person that has no belief in a higher power that truly scares me. If you have no belief in a higher power of any kind, you have no faith, no moral compass by which to guide you. Without that guidance, where do you turn when things get truly horrible? Without that guidance, how do you judge your own morality? In short, what is it that guides you in your decision making process?  

               I was substituting in a high school English course this week and they were reading excerpts from Thoreau’s “Civil Disobedience” as well as Ghandi’s letters and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail.” The theme of the unit they were studying was the persuasive essay. What the students came to realize was these were all written while these men were imprisoned when they wrote these essays.

What the students and I all came to realize, was the amount of inner strength and courage it takes not to fight back. To have such a strong moral compass that you are able to do as Jesus commanded in Matthew 5:43-48   “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[a] and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Jesus’ moral compass and his faith were so strong that Jesus loved his enemies and forgave even those who crucified him.