It’s still dark. Although the days are warm, the nights are cool, and people are huddled around fires to keep warm. During this season of Passover a man has been arrested and hauled before a council of the chief priests accused of blasphemy. Confusion and brutality reign, not much different from today in how we treat many accused today.
And as the sky begins to lighten, fearful of what might happen, Peter, like some in Biglaw, denies having known Jesus, who spoke for justice against powers that would oppress. And then the cock crows.
Like many treated unjustly, Jesus is shifted from this power to that, and no one knows who is really in charge, who will have the power to condemn. Regime that exercise unjust power are not that different: the innocent suffer while the guilty wipe their hands in satisfaction. Jesus will face the cross. What will be our response?
Prayer for the Day
Blind and unaware of our own sin, O God,
We ask that you open our eyes to the world around us;
Full of pride and often self-righteous, O Lord,
We ask that you humble us so we understand our faults.
Attempting to evade the culpability for the evil done in our name,
We ask that you empower us so we speak with courage.
In the name of the One who is our strength,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
There was something about him that proved to be stronger than death. Even death on a cross. And stronger than what some thought was the inevitability of Empire.
Marianne Borg, writer
We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyr (1906-1939)
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me from the words of my groaning?
Oh my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night but find no rest.
Psalm 22: 1-2