31 March 2010

Holy Week 3: The Treachery of Judas

30 pieces of silver for telling someone where someone was and identifying them in an age without photographs.

Judas got a fairly large sum for his treachery and his name became a synonym for treason.

It was all part of God's plan, although I can imagine that Jesus still wouldn't have been happy. He knew that he was going to be betrayed, but it still would have been a cruel moment.

Let's go back to the Pharisees. They wanted Jesus dead for one reason: to protect their position. The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, as our Lord said.

May we never love material things more than God and may we never allow our greed to make us do terrible things.

I say that, of course, but we have all been Judases at some point or another.

29 March 2010

Holy Week 2: Driving Out The Thieves

A short one today and some food for thought:

There are still thieves in the House of God. They just con people in different ways and for different goals.

28 March 2010

The Ultimate Crowning Moment of Awesome: Holy Week

I'm a member of a site called TV Tropes (see my link bar), where we have a section of great, punch-the-air moments called "Crowning Moment of Awesome".

As a Christian, there is one moment that outshines them all as it involves the King of Kings, Jesus himself. Namely his death upon the cross and resurrection, allowing the forgiveness of our sins and admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven, which will put even the finest palaces to shame.

I'm starting this series, which I hope to do daily up to Easter Sunday, to reflect on this period and share the awesomeness of Jesus.

Firstly, there's the donkey-riding bit. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, the crowd throwing palm leaves in his path. I guess that's to protect the feet of the donkey, who is really the ultimate donkey. Donkeys are a bit of maligned species, compared to horses and ponies. It's a sign of our Lord's humility that he chose a donkey rather than the traditional horse of a conqueror.

Since we're on the subject of conquest, the crowd thought that Jesus would come to liberate them from the tyranny of the Romans. He wasn't, but he will one day (we don't know when) come to liberate all of us from sin, evil and the works of the ultimate Big Bad, Satan.

That final battle will be ultimate form of Nightmare Fuel, but what we get afterwards will be worth it for those who follow Jesus.