It's Good Friday!

I am copying a segment from Pastor Asher's blog that I found very powerful:

As I read today’s Gospel (John 18:1-19:42), I was trying to imagine myself in the story and to figure out who am I relating to the most this time around. Last year I found myself relating to the soldier who pierced Jesus’ side with a spear. Strangely enough, this year it was Pontius Pilate who captured my imagination. Pilate did not harbor malice, anger, hatred, or any other ill feelings towards Jesus. He was a Roman bureaucrat and an able administrator trying to maintain fragile peace in a peripheral province of the Roman Empire. He had the power and resources to change things. He also had a conscience that warned him from harming Jesus (not to mention a wife who told him to do the right thing). Somehow, Pilate ended up standing idly by, washing his hands of any involvement and blaming others for the injustice.

Thousands of people in the word starved today; thousands more died because of object poverty. Millions of children around the world and in our own country did not go to school because education is not available to them or because they cannot afford it; many families are worried about losing their homes, our economy is not doing too well, there are wars and armed conflicts all over the globe. None of these are my fault. I am neither advocating nor actively supporting these problems… Unfortunately, my silence and inaction are saying something… Jesus is still crucified every day …

“whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” Matthew 25:40 NIV

All of us have at least some of the ability and the knowledge. Most of us lack the desire or the drive…

Thank you for the lesson, pastor! It's a good one!