Jesus the Christ Chapters 34-35
I thought that I’d already posted on chapter 34, but apparently I didn’t. So I’ll just put these two chapters together, because I don’t really have a lot to say. I just find this whole part of Christ’s life so incredibly sad. There are great lessons about meekness and grace and restraint, but all of the indignities He had to suffer just make me sad. I’m glad that He had friends there to support Him (however meagerly) in His trials- that must have at least helped a little bit. And how difficult that must have been, for the Twelve, for his devoted women disciples- to see the person you hail as the Messiah and Savior of mankind, going through such horrors. And I can’t even start to think about the footnote that suggests that the physical cause of Jesus’ death was a broken heart- that’s just too much for me.
many random notes in the margins, so i’ll just list:
1) “It was an unqualified avowal of divine parentage, and inherent Godship.” And yet my Mama always said that Jesus himself never claimed to be divine, but his followers after he died did. Where did she get that? I must ask her.
2) I’m also gonna ask her about the morbid broken heart thing, ’cause something in me finds that fishy…
3) I find the idea of letting someone go if there is a unanimous conviction fascinating…
4) Lots of stuff in the footnotes about how the trials of Christ were illegal, which begs the question, who really cares? But people do care–why is that?
5) “Pilate knew what was right but lacked the moral courage to do it.” Ouch. I feel for Pilate.
6) I like that the women were unafraid to mourn. It reminds me of this black playwrite in The Black List Vol. 1, which is a documentary on HBO right now. She said that women are already in the margins, and black women are in the margins of the margins, which is very freeing.
I’m happy to be caught up, and, weirdly enough, happy that Jesus is dead. Now it’s all uphill 🙂
I have the feeling that the trials being illegal is important because it just made those who participated in the trials more culpable, and Jesus more obviously innocent. And it highlights the irony of men claiming to uphold the law in every particular but flouting it so egregiously when it serves their purpose. And all the historical footnotes make it more fancy nancy. 🙂
I totally feel for Pilate too. I didn’t really, before- I kind of saw the whole hand washing thing as a cop-out, but man, he was in a tough spot. And he held to his own with the sign on the cross.
I loved that the women were unafraid to mourn too. They were awesome.