who will mock him, spit on him, and scourge him, and put him to death; and after three days he will rise again.”
see what I did there
I took your last straw
and turned it to goldwhen you saw only defeat
a new glimmer shines
all may or may not be lostif it is it is
if it isn’t it isn’tridicule turned despair
torture ends in death
all may or may not be regainedif it is it is
if it isn’t it isn’tat some point seas change
polarity shifts around
all may or may not be transformedif it is it is
if it isn’t it isn’tyour golden boy
became a disposable
see what I did there
It is one thing to have a sense of being condemned and the finality of death. It is another to drill down through those into specific actions that will be occurring along the way leading to death. The specifics of the suffering before death often capture our imagination so strongly that we are put off from acting in such a way that they might come our way. Self-censorship that keeps us from acts of redemption or healing is all too real.
This is particularly true thousands of years after our exemplar. The Church has so been captured by social norms and a substitution of politeness for prophecy that it seems to take a super-human effort to willingly accept taunting and torture. For these it takes an extended journey into the wilderness to not allow them to determine the outcome of what it means to partner with G*D and Neighb*r.
Since this Jerusalem journey is for both Jesus and the Twelve, we can keep ready to find a series of responses to the threats of mockery, ritual dismissal, physical pain, and, finally, death. In these responses there will be plenty of material to see how deeply toward a wilderness retreat the various persons have traveled. These will range from a pre-emptive giving up (betrayal), to varieties of denial, to holding steady with a good news that goes beyond news cycles.