“All the chief priests and the elders took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. They bound him, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate, the governor.” “After Pilate had Jesus scourged, he handed him over to soldiers to be crucified. Then the soldiers of the governor… stripped off his clothes and threw a scarlet military cloak about him. Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head… they mocked him… They spat upon him… and kept striking him on the head… and led him off to crucify him… After the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his garments by casting lots.”
Every year we read the stark Gospel truth, the murder of Jesus. Year after year we hear the account read to us. Does its stark truth sink in? It seems not, for year after year ruling chief priests and elders take counsel against Christs and order their soldiers to murder them. It is their quest year after year to put the innocent to death, in war and in poverty. And year after year we keep electing these rulers to office and lauding their soldiers as heroes. Always children of God are murdered because soldiers obey rulers’ quest to nail Christs to crosses. Christ killers are oddly hailed as heroes, some as Christ-like, but they are neither. Soldiers are those who, following the quest of rulers, ‘bind up Christ’ and ‘divide his garments.’ Soldiers are doing so in this current time of need during the coronavirus. Soldiers with expensive weaponry for their war campaigns ‘bind up’ health care workers whose quest is to have needed medical equipment for their healing missions. Soldiers with expensive garments of personal protection equipment for their war campaigns ‘divide’ health care workers whose quest is to have needed garments of personal protective equipment for their healing missions. We can heal soldiers of their quest that ends at the cross gripping weapons. They can drop from their hands the hammers and nails and crosses handed them in a quest to crucify the Christs of this world. We can help open soldiers’ hands in a quest for a healing mission. They can begin it with other soldiers who have made the conversion. It is the healing mission of Veterans for Peace and Deported Veterans Advocacy Group and Veterans Peace Teams, About Face and Drop the MIC, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Iraq Veterans Against the War and Operation Recovery. A Lenten journey with peacemakers is not only for a season but for a lifetime. For a lifetime the converted soldiers reject orders by elders for a quest to torture and kill. That quest leads every soldier to Good Friday and the cross. The quest does not lead them to Easter Sunday and the Resurrection.
“And there sat Arthur on the das-throne, And those that had gone out upon the Quest, Wasted and worn, and but a tithe of them… For I was much awearied of the Quest… I swore with them only in the hope That could I touch or see the Holy Grail… My quest was but in vain… The sword was dashed from out my hand, and fell… Was I too dark a prophet when I said To those who went upon the Holy Quest, That most of them would follow wandering fires, Lost in the quagmire? (The Holy Grail – Tennyson)
Prayer: Spirit, our quest is to be healers.
Question: Who are the soldiers I can help turn away from a quest for the cross and toward a journey of healing?
April 05, 2020 Gospel Matt 26:14-27:66 Palm Sunday