JESUS WAS RIGHT

Life sometimes, probably more often than we think or can even imagine, is a two-edged sword. In one sense Jesus was wrong when he said on the cross that those who were putting him to death did not know what they were doing. They certainly did. They were having him killed because he was a danger to the establishment, meaning them. As the High Priest opined, it would be better for one man to die than for the Romans to have an excuse to interfere with and take away their priestly privileges.

On the other hand, Jesus was right because they truly did not understand both the implications and far-reaching effects of their actions. All they saw was one man, innocent though he was, being the scape goat whose death would allow their lives to go on in relative peace. In effect their action was truly a two-edged sword even if they only saw one side of that sword.

Isn’t that true for so many of our actions? We tend to see only the immediate effect of what we are doing. We cannot see, because it is impossible to see, what the long-term effects of any of our actions, even our words, will be. The results of Jesus’ death on the cross can only be seen from hindsight and not foresight. So, too, with us. While we hope our actions will be as beneficial in the long term as we deem them to be in the present, we cannot be certain that that will occur.

That’s the two-edged sword. The problem is that we often deceive ourselves into believing that what we are doing is not only good for us in the present but will also be good for others in the long run. Or at least we want to believe that to be true, which allows us to do what we are doing in the first place. And the reason why these actions can be so deceiving is that we take some kind of pleasure from them in the here and now.

The High Priests took immediate pleasure from Jesus’ death and probably never even considered whether or not their would be long-term ramifications from their actions. They were just too rapt up in the moment. Aren’t we all at times. It is only in hindsight, when learn of the ramifications of our actions, that the realization of what we did sets in, for good or for bad.

We trust that our good actions will produce good results. We know our selfish actions will not, even as we may try to convince ourselves otherwise. We may even try to convince ourselves that our selfish actions will be beneficial to others. But the pleasure we get from doing what we are doing clouds the truth. We can’t and we won’t let ourselves see beyond the moment.

In many ways its all so simple and basic: first-grade stuff. Back in the day my text book was called Think and Do. Think first before you act. Think about the consequences as best you can. It was tough for this first-grader and it hasn’t gotten any easier over the years. Maybe it isn’t supposed to, life getting more and more complicated as we grow older. On the one hand, we know what we are doing. On the other hand, we really don’t; but we need to try to understand as we best we can before we act.