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| The Via Dolorosa ~ Jon McNaughton |
And Pilate said, Here is the man. When they saw him, the chief priests and the guards shouted, Crucify him! Crucify him! Pilate said, Take him yourselves and crucify him: I find no case against him. They then took charge of Jesus, and carrying his own cross he went out to the Place of the Skull or, as it is called in Hebrew, Golgotha. (John 19: 6, 15-17)
Here is a painting of over one hundred people who have left a mark or made an impact on Christianity. Some have impacted Christianity positively, while others negatively. We might look at the painting for awhile to see who we can identify: Mother Teresa, Joan of Arc, Dr. Martin Luther King, Hitler, Stalin, Napoleon, Henry VIII, Karl Marx... The fellow in the business suit with his hand on Jesus' shoulder is modern day everyman.
Someone asked: If Jesus were alive with us today, would the world kill him? Oh, I think we would, especially where and when Jesus gets in the way of someone's power or money.
- Sister Dorothy Stang was murdered in 2005 when she got in the way of the Brazilian ranchers and logging companies who acted as if the Amazon Rainforest and its resources was exclusively theirs.
- Father Jerzy Popieluszko was murdered at the end of the Soviet years having stood alongside Poland's SOLIDARITY trade union.
- Seventeen year old Malala Yousafzai was shot repeatedly by the Taliban in Pakistan in 2012 because she was known, even as a young girl, as an advocate for education of all children - girls included! Education = power.
Wherever someone's power or money feels threatened, Jesus would be killed today.
