For months now, I haven’t shared in this manner. Marketing my two previous books and completing another, have taken all my energy. And it DOES take energy and spirit to put my thoughts into words. But this day simply cannot be ignored. It is, by far, the saddest day of the year. How can we call this Friday, ‘Good’? Only if we are choosing to live in illusion and lies, believing a traditional story that keeps us complacent and small in spirit and life. Nearly two thousand years ago, at this time, Jesus of Nazareth was dying on a Roman cross. Let’s review the actual story of how he got there, and why.

                His land, the old Kingdom of God, had been ruled and occupied by the Romans for several decades. The Zealots was the largest of the resistance groups who were trying to unite the people in revolt, to drive out the hated Romans and their supporters, and to reestablish the Kingdom of God under a righteous king, a messiah. Because of what Jesus did and said, they wanted him to be that messiah. Four of Jesus’ inner group were Zealots.

                But Jesus knew that God’s Way, his Way, was not one of violence. But no matter what he did or said, his followers simply didn’t understand this and assumed that Jesus would eventually declare himself to be their messiah, at which time, they knew, most of the people would join them in revolt.

                After doing all he could to show them the non-violent Way of peace, and still failing, Jesus had only one path open: to accept the mantle of messiahship, and then to reject it, thus, hopefully, showing them God’s true path. So he did. That’s what Palm Sunday celebrates: Jesus entering Jerusalem as The Messiah, having the whole city within his grasp, the Romans cowering in their Fortress Antonia, waiting for the Zealots to attack when the new Messiah Jesus gave the order.

                But what did he do? After the Passover meal, Jesus abandoned the city, walked away from his secure role as messiah, and, of course, was captured by the Romans who were watching everything. He was dead before noon the next day, as Pontius Pilate, the most capable and ruthless of Roman Governors, wasn’t going to miss that golden opportunity to quell the revolt.       

                Did the people finally learn from Jesus’ actions? Did they begin to understand what he had done and why? Did they come to believe that God’s Way was not that of violence and hatred? No. If Jesus’ death was the first tragedy, the failure of the people to understand was the second. He truly died in vain.

                But not just once.  For later, Christianity made it even worse, compounding the tragedy. In the Greek way of thinking, after they made Jesus into a half-God and had invented Hell, they had their new version of God demanding human sacrifice for all sins, and made Jesus (now, their Christ) into the sacrificial lamb. They changed the whole scenario, from one of tragedy into holy purpose, assuming, in their pagan reasoning, that only sacrifice will change anything.

                And here we are. Unquestioningly, in millions of churches, calling Jesus’ tragic death ‘Good’, believing the garbage of how his death keeps us from Hell, not daring to see the reality of how he showed us the Way of God. But it’s so much easier for us to believe the lies than it is for us to follow.

                How could any day be sadder than this? Just wait for next year, when we will have kept Jesus and all he did and died for, small and hidden, for another trip around the sun. What a waste!