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JESUS.. temper, temper. Ok, one day after Palm Sunday and Jesus clears the temple of those trying to make it look like a shopping mall. There was the WATCH BIRD stand, the MONEY CHANGERS, and finally the last straw was when this jerk tried to sell Jesus a SLINKEE and a PET ROCK!! Of course it may not have looked quite as silly as my view from the BACK PEW, but actually it was absurd that the Temple area was made a mockery of corruption and greed. So reality is that JESUS GETS MAD!! Recently a friend commented to me that when Jesus cleared the temple. It was not a fit of rage like I might be prone to do. Jesus anger was not a tantrum, but was very deliberate. He took time to braid a whip then clear the temple. BE ANGRY AND SIN NOT.. that is what Jesus did.. and I too often get stuck half way on this goal but am too often more of the school of BE ANGRY, GET SARCASTIC and DON’T FORGET!! So then Jesus leaves the temple.. sees a fig tree without fruit, and CURSES IT. Jesus curses a tree? At first glance I could have mistaken Jesus for being a logger. I worked as a logger for a number of years and have shared a few choice words for a tree or two with a chainsaw in my hand.. but of course Jesus was not a logger, and this was a fig tree, and from my Back Pew perspective maybe Jesus was feeling the weight of his destiny on earth. His arrest later in the week did not come as a surprise, he knew the horrific scourging, and death he would endure in the coming days. Last night I watched the Passion of the Christ at a local church, and was moved again regarding the burden Jesus carried his last week on Earth. Palm Sunday is his triumphant entry to Jerusalem, Monday is just 3 days from his arrest followed by his crucifixion, I have enough anxiety about my finances, my family, and personal doubts all fueled by my glaring humanity. So if I knew that in a few short days I would be arrested, mocked, beaten, scourged, then CRUCIFIED.. I am not going to be having a good week. My wife knows me too well when I feel burdened that I become quiet maybe a bit sullen, and this is over the little bumps and bruises of life. So I can not fathom what Jesus endured those last days leading up to his death. Obviously, this is a difficult realm for a cartoonist. As the week moves on, the betrayal, arrest, and Jesus crucified are simply not cartoon material. Please bear with me this week, and if there is any humor I find from the Easter story, may it be in the lunacy of man. The mob mentality that is not funny in a HA HA manner, but in a ridiculously ironic sense. And after recalling the Easter week, the Easter story.. and how a mob mentality can shout Hosanna on Palm Sunday, could be shouting crucify him on Friday. It is an outrage, and it is lunacy!.. BUT then witness a Jesus who restores the severed ear during his arrest, see a Jesus in control of his wits, and his spirit as he is falsely arrested, mocked, and scourged.. and see a Jesus dying on a cross praying to his father in Heaven “Forgive Them for they don’t know what they are doing!” See the Jesus hanging on that cross hearing the plea of a thief on a cross for forgiveness, and giving him paradise. I am rambling, but please grasp that Jesus who clears the Temple, curses a fig tree, is the perfect calm in a week that is a sea of outrageous turmoil where Jesus is the voice and spirit of reason and compassion in this mob scene extraordinaire. Jesus the son of God is the perfect patient loving Messiah to disciples that deserted him, Peter who denied him, Judas who betrayed him, the Romans who scourged him, and a nation that is rejecting him, choosing a murderer over him, and shouting crucify him. WHAT A STORY, WHAT A TRUTH, WHAT A PASSION. May God bless each of you this Easter season
in ways that we all receive a glimpse of how Jesus Jeff |
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