March 29. Good  Friday.  But why did the mob want him to die?  A mob is the ugliest creature in the world, indoctrinated  but mindless, having lost its inhibitions and even its sense of justice other than mob justice.  Do we not see that repeated time after time today in protests for causes that may even be just or unjust? Chosen leaders are vulnerable too as their cause is overtaken by another power group. 

What would Jesus do today? What would he do in all those violence-ridden protests for rights wrongfully denied or selfishly demanded, at times overriding equal rights of others?   Would he bring an army no matter what their weapons? Would he argue his case through the best lawyers in town?  Would he stand before a judge unjustly condemned? Would he be deserted by those who believed in him, losing face and faith in the desolation of his lonely conviction of truth above all else?  Would he be another martyr in the cause of justice, emptying himself even of his divinity? Would his final message be, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do?” His last pathetic cry, “Father into your hands.” And yet, “having received the vinegar,” with his last breath: “It is complete.”  

The future of the world hangs in the balance more urgently than ever. What are we, his followers, to do?  

Read, reflect, share and pray. He was wounded for our transgression, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray we have turned every one to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.  Isa 53:5-6    from the 4th Song of the Servant. Pope Francis:  by enduring the toil of work in union with Christ crucified for us, man in a way collaborates with the Son of God for the redemption of humanity. LS 98.       Choose appropriate action. The Copy of the image of THE PASSION was painted by Priscilla Sun and hangs in St Catherine’s church. Bramley, Johannesburg.