"The jews picked up stones to throw at Jesus..."
"But the Lord is with me, a mighty champion..."
Growing up, we would often watch Western movies. My dad was and is a big fan of the wild west and the gunslinger movies. Recalling the movies there is one detail that I remember.
In most of the movies, there was always a lot of violence and aggression and fighting. Bullets were always flying around. Someone was going to get it and it was just a matter of time.
The Good guy seldom drew his gun first. He always waited to be called out by the guy in black. The guy in black always set the rules of the game. He always drew first. It was the action of the guy in black that allowed the man in white to be justified in pulling his gun and shooting the bad guy.
The good guy was always justified.
The gospel today begins with violence and a display of aggression. The jews have had enough of Jesus. He has been frustrating to deal with and they have been waiting for this moment. They finally have a reason to act on their anger, their frustration, their fear.
They have been holding back because they really did not have anything solid, just speculative thinking. But now they had Jesus, it was time for him to pay. It was high noon and they were justified.
The jews think they are the ones wearing the white hat. They think they are the good guys.
But isn't this the case most of the time in our life. We always think we are in the right. We always think we are justified. We always think that we are the ones wearing the white hat.
We seem to always make the other guy a bad guy. Are we truly justified?
The jews thought they were, but were they? How often have we acted merely on what we have thought without checking it with others?
We must remember that life isn't like the movies. There are not two kinds of people: good guys and bad guys. In fact there is only one kind: human in need of redemption.
Jesus is willing to take on the accusation of the Jews with out retaliation. He refuses to draw first, neither does he draw second. But yet by his act of love on the cross, in our faith in him, we are all justified.
We are all the same whether we like it or not...in need of grace...in need of giving ourselves fully, giving ourselves outright.
Today is the birthday of Robert Frost.
Here is a snippet of a poem he wrote called "Gift Outright"
"Something we are withholding made us weak
Until we found out that it was ourselves
We were withholding from our land of living
And forth with found salvation in surrender
Such as we were we gave ourselves outright"
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