WWYD?

What would you do?

In the disciples' place?  In Judas' place? In Pontius Pilate's place?

Would you have understood what was about to happen?

Would you have understood why it was about to happen......not from Rome's point of view, but from God's point of view?

All good questions.  They just aren't very helpful questions, ones that will lead us into a deeper relationship with Jesus.  These are not the situations we will face in our lifetimes.  Like most of the characters in the Passion of Jesus, we would have reacted out of fear.  To face that kind of consequence without fear takes a very particular kind of courage which few of us have.

The real challenge for us is not to be courageous in the face of death, it is to be courageous in the face of life.  Jesus' command to us is to love.  Love God.  Love your neighbor.  Not in some abstract, 'holy' way, but in the concrete.  Love them today.  Now.

James puts it this way
"If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,' and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?"                                                                                                                           James2.15-16

Or, put another way 'if you cannot love the one you have right in front of you, how can you love the God whom you cannot see?'  That is everyday love. Every. Single. Day.  Love like that requires compassion, insight and, yes, courage.  It requires that we see God when we look into the face of the other.  It requires that all our neighbors present the face of God to us.  Now we can ask, what would you do?

When Jesus washes the feet of all 12 disciples; when Jesus breaks the bread and passes the cup to all 12 disciples:  Judas who would betray him to the authorities and Peter who would deny knowing him, we see love.  A love that forgoes pettiness, rejection, self-righteousness, even anger.  Jesus sits at table with the broken, frail humans he has come to know first and love always.

That's our calling.  Today.  Look for God in the face of the other.  See their belovedness.  Embrace the possibility that God loves them.  Offer unto them what you would offer unto God.  Be the face of God to them. Not because you will get a gold star, but because by so doing you will, for a moment, experience the fullness of the grace of God.

As we listen to the Passion Story once again, listen for the great love of God in Jesus for all who surround him.  He shares that last supper with Judas, the betrayer and Peter, the denier, and all the other 10 who were either clueless or frightened.

 Like you.  Like me.