It was Palm Sunday and I was Peter. “I do not KNOW the man!” I cried three times. The cock crowed and remembering Jesus’ prediction I shamefully wept as I ran away.
When Rev. Sally asked me to take this part in our Passion play (it was a small but very well done affair for about 20 people at our small church’s early service) I did not give it much thought. But being a professionally trained high school and Hollywood extra actor (I was in Grease and the One and Only) I put myself in Peter’s shoes, tried to feel what he did.
Peter saw the danger of a riotous crowd who “with swords and clubs” arrested, attacked and accused Jesus. Obviously anyone WITH Jesus would get the same, so Peter did what most humans would do—deny any association with Him!
I admit it was hard to say the lines. I don’t even like pretending that I would purposefully deny Jesus. Deny Him as friend, as teacher, and as a fellow son of God.
After church the few who were there complimented my “convincing” performance. Then I mused about how easy it is for me to “follow Jesus.” In today’s Christian-dominant world who in the heck would persecute me for proclaiming Jesus? Just the opposite, wearing Jesus is in many quarters an instant badge of credibility and acceptance, much like waving the flag.
But then I thought, “do I ever deny Jesus without realizing it.?” [I mean besides sinnin’ which is why Jesus came to begin with. Sin+(confession, sorrow, repentance)=ABSOLUTION. The best mathematical formula of all time!]
If sin is not denying Jesus, what is? Perhaps it is claiming devotion, but living, acting or believing in a manner contrary to Jesusian principles.
A most timely and relevant example comes from the Passion story itself: “Put up thy sword, for all that take the sword shall perish with the sword.” Jesus, though he could have called on God’s legions for what we today would consider “victory” in battle, KNEW that this resort to violence would nullify all his teachings about how WE could do God’s will “on earth, as it is in heaven.”
So in order to fulfill scripture—and stay true to his message of peaceful love as the way to God’s Kingdom on earth—he allowed himself to be hung on the cross.
Were our Christian society to truly follow WWJD it is doubtful we would be so quick to weaponry and war for our security. We aren’t willing to risk even just a little on that peace that Jesus tried to his death to teach. No, instead we insist on spending billions upon billions on new and more weapons, we lash out like a scared dog, banking our security on force of arms instead of on the faith in WWJD.
But I can take solace that: a) we are only human; and b) we are somewhere on that long continuum from humanity’s inception with who knows how many billions of years to go, and we are continually evolving.
Hopefully we are always arriving. But we are never there.
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