Thursday

It was another rainy day today where Jerry couldn’t be allowed out to romp in the mud.  For myself, my back was in agony such that breathing was a definite challenge.  I will be heading to bed soon, as I wait for the meds to take effect.  That is not my idea of fun, but I’ll manage.  Jerry is lying on the sofa and eyeing me every few minutes looking for an excuse to jump on my lap.  Don is relaxing on the sofa, and they’re both happy right now.

I’m thinking more about Holy Week and the events that happened then.  But I was thinking about a number of things.  It’s clear that Judas’ departure precipitated a series of events, and also that Jesus knew what was happening.  He said to Judas, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”  So he obviously knew what was being considered.  Does that mean that he went along with the whole idea?  Does it mean that He had a hand in it? That seems wrong on several levels, but if He aided Judas, then… 

For myself, I think a large part of the activity for this week relies on Jesus not being an active participant in the activities.  If he was aware of Judas’ role, he should have acted to stop it.  But if He thought that Judas was trying to bring some Jews to Him and seeking to share the presence, then it makes more sense.  Similarly, for Judas, he wasn’t particularly interested in money, but he clearly was interested in making some extra money and perhaps to make Jesus more famous.  But in either case, it was a sad outcome.  Even more because Judas was a hasty character and he committed suicide before he sought forgiveness, which I’m certain that he would have received.  This week is the central tenet of Christianity, which is not a bad thing.  I have a challenge, though, with the violence being he centre — that dreadful movie, “The Passion of the Christ” made the whole story about violence.  I’ve never watched it, and I’ve never been interested in it because of the heavy reliance on violence.  In my opinion, if you rely on violence to maintain your beliefs, then there is something seriously wrong with you, your system of beliefs and your actions.  There’s room for truth, beauty and kindness even in ruling activities.  I think that we should dismiss violence as the default reaction, and instead work on our love, joy, peace,patience, goodness, trustfulness and self control. Because these are the things that are used to measure us, and what we claim as the basis for Christianity.  As Lewis said, if we make Christianity look bad, we are destroyed.  

I’m going to go to bed… I’m drifting off while rereading the plan. Meanwhile I’m trying to remain focussed, but I’m really sleepy,  Good night!