Lessons from His Passion- Ik Muo

Lessons from HIS Passion

Ik Muo, PhD. Department of Business Administration, OOU

The holy week, which is a prelude to the Easter season is the height of Catholicism, and indeed, Christianity  because if Christ did not die and rose triumphantly, then, our faith is without foundation. This period marks the commemoration of the triumphant entry of Christ into Jerusalem, the last supper in which he instituted the Eucharist and concretized the practice of Servant-Leadership, his betrayal, suffering, shameful and painful execution, death and resurrection. I am not a preacher and I am not about to become one today. However, I want to examine the lessons  which we, as human beings, institutions and the society can learn from the suffering, humiliation, crucifixion and death of and resurrection of Christ

The first lesson from our Lords Passion is the unreliability, unpredictability, inconsistency and the fickleness of human beings. Here were people who celebrated his entry into Jerusalem and turned it into a triumphant affair, shouted Hosanna and spreading their clothes for his horse to trample upon only to shout crucify him a few days later; Christ was betrayed by one of his most trusted aids [Judas, was his ‘Minister of Finance and we know that that portfolio is for trustworthy people]; the apostles could not keep watch with him for even an hour and when the push turned into a shove, they all did a Ben-Johnson-including Peter who denied him thrice and that was after he had been forewarned.  One of them even escaped naked as he abandoned his clothes to the Jews who had held unto it in an effort to arrest him! [Mark;14:51].From all indications, only John was there to the end and that was why Jesus handed Mary-his mother- over to him [Jn.19;26-27]. All those who benefited from his miracles, whom he fed, clothed, consoled taught and cured did not lift a finger to help him; the best some of them did was to watch from the distance [Lk.23;48-49]. As it was then, so it is now. As it was then, so it is now: how many people are standing up for Lucky Goodluck today? Those who wined and dined with him have seen the light and changed to change party. Even Mahmoud Sheriff walked out on him the other day! People, including those we trust and love will betray us, an indication that we should not totally place our trust on men and that we should be on our guard always.  But life must go on in spite of treacherous friends.

His Passion has also shown us that  ‘judicial rascality’-black-market injunctions, manipulation of the judicial process, intimidation of judges, punishing the innocent and freeing the guilty- did not start today. The Jews desperately wanted  to get rid of Jesus for several reasons. How can an ordinary carpenters son without any formal learning be boldly  preaching a ‘strange doctrine’, making them look ordinary, embarrassing them with his cerebral knowledge of Jewish history, law and theology and fearlessly condemning their atrocities in their very before? They were losing their followers, the tithe was no longer flowing as befoe and some of them were afraid that their colonial masters in Rome may descend on them. However, they did not have any case against him. So,  they had to manufacture charges, assemble emergency false witnesses who gave contradictory evidence, and gather some area-boys to create to create the appropriate atmosphere. Probably that was how Jankara justice was introduced into  Lagos landlords-tenants matters. Pilate was aware that the man was innocent and his wife also warned him not to condemn an innocent man. But yet, out of fear of the crowd, the need to retain his post and ingratiate himself to Caesar, he condemned Jesus even though he ‘cannot find anything he has done to deserve death’ [Lk.23:22]. The fate of Pontius Pilate also showed us that people who behaved against their consciences and dictates of their positions because they have been intimidated compromised or have vested interests will always be remembered for those misdeeds. Today, nothing about Pilate is  remembered apart from his ignoble role in the death of Jesus. And today,  nothing is remembered about Raphael Ige -despite his several years of hard work that made him attain the AIG rank- apart from his role in the abduction of Chris Ngige, the first and last of its kind in Nigeria. We also learn that societies will bear responsibilities for what the ruling class does or fails to do. Surely, some of the Jews were not part of the clique but they adopted a siddon-look approach while an innocent man was murdered. Today, the Jews as a whole are perceived to be responsible for that dastardly act just like the Germans are blamed for the deeds and misdeeds of Hitler and his clique.

But while many were abandoning him and others perfecting the acts of judicial terrorism, there were still others who stood by him, who did not join the murderous crowd and who did some good. There was Simon of Cyrene who helped him with the cross [ he was ordered to do so quite alright but he did not protest or grumble];Veronica who defied the soldiers-and you know how fear-some these soldiers always look when ‘on duty’; the women who wept for him-and that is usually their commonest weapon-, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus who buried him and those who took care of the corpse while in the tomb.

The passion of Christ also thought us the importance of having a vision, and to persevere in that purpose despite the usual vicissitudes of life. Jesus came to do the will of his Father and at a certain point, he found the cup too heavy. He prayed and seeing that it was the only way to achieve his salvific mission, he went ahead and endured the physical, psychological and mental humiliation that followed. And even though he fell three times, he got up after each fall and continued his journey to Calvary. We should thus learn to persevere, not to be discouraged by temporary setbacks, to focus on our destinations and not on those spots where we faltered. We should remember that no matter how rough the road may be, it will lead us to our destinations; that we must stand  for something in this life and that the problem is not falling but failing to getup whenever we fall. In fact, Robert Collier may have had Jesus experience in mind when he said that ‘you can.. accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you hold to that desire with singleness of purpose’. Jesus pursued  his mission with a singleness of purpose.

The passion also teaches us love, forgiveness[he forgave his murderers], obedience[he suffered in obedience to the will of the father], humility[it all started with the washing of his disciples feet], and restraint[He had power to thwart the plans and efforts of his captors but he did not do so because he knew where he was going]. It also teaches us that it is not easy to be a believer- those who were witnesses did not believe while those who believed backed out at the first sign of trouble. We should also avoid hasty conclusions; Judas eventually realized too late that betraying Jesus was a wrong idea and  it was only after his death that his murderers realized that ‘surely, he was a son of God’ –but the deed had been done [Mk.15:39;Lk.23:47]

 As we recall the Lords passion, and look forward the promises of Easter may we  try to make peace with our fellow human beings and God; may we flee from the devil so that the devil will flee from us and may we remember that any time we offend  God or man, we are partaking in the crucifixion of our Lord. I seize this opportunity to extend  Easter greetings to all men of goodwill.