From my files: Road to Gethsemane and beyond P N Benjamin The path that Jesus last walked as a free man, before the soldiers of Pontius Pilate apprehended him, is known as the Via Dolorosa - the road of sorrows. It was on this road that Jesus had walked his last one mile to Gethsemane garden where Judas Iscariot planted the kiss of infamy on his cheek. It was when he set out on this road that Jesus took the crucial decision of his life, where he consented to be part of the drama that was to be staged by the Roman rulers and their henchmen on the Via Dolorosa. It would become the greatest of his mysteries, an event on such a scale that it could become the central icon of a world religion. The road to Gethsemane was akin to a bridge, which is crossed once, and no more. It is burned when you cross it; you cannot even look back. Such moments come in every person’s life. On this side lies the security of compromise, of petty, quotidian adjustment. On the far side is the difficult country of uncertainty, principles and sacrifice Most people take a good look, weigh their options and beat a dignified retreat. The battle is not even joined, lost before it even began. But, a few do not hesitate. They reach the bridgehead, walk across and welcome the new land on the far side. The contemporaries of Jesus did not understand him because they did not have the courage to walk their own bridges. They reached their bridgeheads but returned to the comfort of their compromises. Very few had the courage to reach the land beyond because the bridge would no longer offer an escape route once it had been crossed. There was certain finality about the choice. Jesus walked the path alone without fear, without hesitation. He knew he had to cross the bridge. Christ humped his cross along the Via Dolorosa until he was too weak to continue, when another took it for him. Just before he died he was heard to cry out in a loud voice: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Christ’s real crime was simply that he spoke the truth, which is intolerable to all forms of authority but especially ecclesiastical. There followed the Crucifixion. Thus ostensibly it all ended in defeat and despair. “Well, that’s all over,” Caiphas and his friends must have thought. How wrong they were! It was only beginning. Not defeat, but a fabulous new hope had been born; not despair, but an unexampled joy, had come into the world. Christ died on the cross as a man who had tried to show his fellow men what life was about. From Deccan Herald
Posted on: Sat, 17 Aug 2013 07:12:55 +0000