An Intense Moment in Roman Hands

FYI - this is just my comments for this section and not an entire post but there are so many things I wanted to say to what Claire wrote so here goes...

First, I have a REALLY hard time reading about this in all its graphic detail. I almost DIED when I saw "Passion of the Christ" and this just brought all that back up again. You're so right, Claire - it's just next to impossible to think about how he died at the hands of the Romans and NOT be overcome by it.

I also think this is an interesting point...that in an episode I saw on "West Wing" a few years back they were talking about how Jews are totally against the death penalty. I'm certainly not an expert on the Jewish religion or their traditions but I'm pretty sure this is true. I can't help but wonder what changed over the years that they went from stoning to totally abstaining from killing anyone. Makes me wonder... (Anybody know?)

Claire then writes about Jesus' conversation with Pilate:

"Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?"

She then says, "What was our Lord really asking?"

I remember from the movie that a woman (his wife?) warned Pilate about Jesus. It makes me wonder when Jesus asked him that if perhaps Jesus couldn't see inside Pilate's heart and KNEW that he saw that Jesus was really the true Messiah. Why else would he continue to talk the crowd out of killing him?

I also wondered why they beat him half to death and THEN crucified him so this was a great explanation of reasoning for me. Pilate was trying to get them to back away from killing Jesus so he offered him up for a beating instead. Smart thinking. Too bad it didn't work.

But the revelation I think I liked the best was the one about the thorns. As you know, Claire, I was dipping into Genesis over the weekend because of the thing you wrote to me about food. I was following up with all the passages you quoted to me and one of them was the part about eating from the tree of life and that's what got that last round of questions going in my mind. I had just read that part about the thorns in the ground and then to hear you say that this is the completed circle to him wearing the crown of thorns....well, that just blew me away. It really did. Starts in Genesis and ends with the crucifixion. Man, when you see the little things in this kind of detail it REALLY makes these "stories" become the living word, doesn't it?

And the last thing that just did me in was this:

"It is a basic spiritual principle that God does not reveal new truth to us if we fail to act upon the truth we already know."

It is? News to me! How cool is that? It made me think back to a post I did not too long ago about how God makes us His stewards over money and probably also over love. If we mess up what we have, we are prone to not get more. Here you are saying that again only in a whole other context. It also explains (to me at least) why so many people stop growing in their knowledge and their faith. God shows you something to be truth and you refuse to act upon it then why WOULD he continue to enlighten you more?

I think the whole point of the past couple of days for me has been to see that once we learn something we must act upon it but it has also been that you should never just accept something someone else says as truth. It is YOUR personal responsibility to seek out the truth and go before God with it and wrestle with it until it can sit on your heart and rest there. I love learning about all these things from all of you but I still have to sit down with God and ask Him to clarify them even further for me through every day incidents so that I know what I'm asking Him about is really truth. I'm sure as I grow and learn more and more my opinions will develop and change and that's okay. I've always looked at knowledge as a lifelong journey and not just something you did in school and then forgot about. I hope I continue to learn great things about my great God the rest of my life. Even then, I know the mysteries that will be left for me to explore with Him in heaven will still be endless.