The Eternal Cycle

Palm Sunday starts a week-long story that illustrates why we humans have so much trouble understanding God and each other. The Jews had a desire to be free of their Roman oppressors. That was not unreasonable since the Romans were brutal in their treatment of occupied countries. This desire became superimposed on Jewish prophecies that for centuries had predicted a coming Messiah who would set them free. The desire was now an expectation or demand that God do it their way with the Messiah. Hence the hopefulness of Palm Sunday and the royal treatment that Jesus received when He entered Jerusalem. In fairly short order, however, it became clear that Jesus did not meet the peoples' expectation of the Messiah. This led to judgment in front of Pilate (who did what the Jewish crowd requested) and ultimately punishment on Golgotha. The problem in all of this is a me-centric universe rather than a God-centric universe. 

If life is all about others meeting my desires, then God and other people simply become objects or obstacles. If they meet my desires they are no longer human - they are objects to service me. When they do not meet my desires, they become obstacles to that goal. Initially we ramp things up to the level of a demand and if that is not met, it is quickly on to judgment and punishment. If we do this, we choose alienation from God and others and then complain about our angst and loneliness. It is not accidental that God's First Commandment was that we shall have no other gods before Him. 

Think about this framework as we go through Holy Week. Think about it too in your own relationship with God and others. Who is at the center of our own universe is a question that we need to ask daily if we want to know what being human really means.