Coracle Trust E-Reflections
Holy Week: Where am I from? Where am I going?
Friday 22 April 2011
All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there... Meanwhile, I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off, but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?... I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way. Whoever brought me here will have to take me home. Who says words with my mouth? (click to listen and watch)
City through glass
Read John 18:28 -19:29 and return Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place." The Jewish leaders insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.
The origins of Jesus
The charged words 'Son of God' and 'King (of the Jews)' fizz throughout this passage. They are wide-eye and expansive terms and in part explain the build up of pressure that Pilate feels. Wave after wave of determined and (contrived?) rejection of this Son of God, this King, presses against him: Crucify him! Crucify him!
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary. The day is coming when I fly off. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
The question of Jesus’s origins is needling Pilate. Otherness and otherworldliness is freaking him out. We sense a growing sense of awe. On hearing Jesus’s words in our day I suppose we’d think of other planets and aliens. I don’t know what Pilate is thinking but he’s in a jam. Where does this Jesus come from?
Where do you come from? Where am I from?
Son of God? Yes. King? Yes. Finally, Jesus is returning to his Father, the hearts longing, our true continent and destination. "Where I go you too will come", Jesus had said. He bowed his head and died. Andrew Hook
