These Mystical Scriptures

WED., MAR. 20, 1996, 8:45 AM
OFFICE, PULLIAM

The regular Wednesday morning breakfast/discussion devoted itself to the second of the Gospel stories of what you Christians now call Holy Week. The focus is on the “Thursday night through Sunday” experience, and you have to admit you’re learning and relearning from this sequence that We suggested.

Although these Gospels, at least the first three, offer a mostly historical account of what happened, I want to remind you, in this post-discussion time that this story is, to quite an extent, mystical. Although you didn’t identify it as such, the point you raised about the inevitability of all that happened should be seen as… the mystery of My Will in relation to yours, to anyone’s, to the wills of Peter and the other disciples. It can never be clear just when I am actually “in charge” or when I let any of you do as you would. And with Me in the picture, as Jesus, the Son Who also is One with Me, that Almighty Father God, it is even less clear how wills interact.

You are quite more accepting than most American Christians, even Presbyterians, of My involvement in earth matters and, particularly, in this Jesus story and its “ending”. As Jesus I could have confronted Judas and explained to him, individually, that I was not to be the militant Messiah, and that identifying (referred to as “betraying”) Me would not be as good for either of us. Or I could have raised the issue at our Supper together, invoking the peer pressure of the other disciples to dissuade him. As the story goes, he was so “displeased” with the results that he took his own life, so this suggests that he could have been dissuaded.

I certainly, as Jesus, could have called on a host of angels, big ones, to rescue Me in Gethsemane. That would have been impressive, even to the Jewish leaders. Or I could have just walked away and vanished from their midst, as I had done on an occasion or two before. And if I had gotten to Pilate I could have influenced him, abetting his wife’s dream… or I could have countered the influence of the leaders on the crowd.

Finally, as you suggested I could have come down from the cross, confronting the Roman soldiers and the other folk there. Simultaneously there could have been an earthquake, I could have greeted old Lazarus, up from the grave again, and the Temple curtain could have split as I came down. I could have marched triumphantly back into the city, quite a spectacular evidence that I truly was the Messiah. I could have had a continuing ministry and helped to establish the Church, a true amalgam of Judaism and Christianity, as you Christians rather weakly affirm, with your combination of the Old and New Testaments.

Any of these “changes” could have resulted in another story, even a better one. Why did I choose, instead, this one you now are studying? If I am so in favor of life over death, why did I include death as a major result in the story? My dying made the resurrection possible, but that still didn’t have much effect upon most of the Jews. My Church became mostly gentile (and you see yourself as such), but now it is predominantly Hispanic-Asian-African, not a factor in this actual Biblical time.

There is no good, logical reason for the story as the Scriptures tell it. It simply is mystery. It was My Way, the Way I wanted it to be. But how does this apply to you and the world of today with, say, 5.6 billion people? The largest single group is Christian, but as you know, the diversity in this is incredible.