Journey through Lent – Day 24
Mark 15:11-14
But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead.
“What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?” Pilate asked them.
“Crucify him!” they shouted.
“Why? What crime has he committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
O Jesus:
You gazed into the hundred hearts amassed before you, thick with fear and fury. Was mine among them? Yes. Mine was among them. I have desired your death in order to preserve my life, my way of life, my fulfillments, and my own control.
But you, like me, desired your death too!
By a mercy I cannot comprehend, you accepted my evil intent even to save my life! Well, I am therefore my own no more, but yours – no more an enemy, a friend to you forever.
Lord Jesus, how I love you!
From “Reliving the Passion” by Walter Wangerin.