That man...

Today the judgment will be passed… I love how the media is eating this case up. There’s a live show straight from the court room, giving us an opportunity to watch the gentle, handsome troublemaker get served a nice warm plate of justice. I’m sort of disappointed with the way its playing out, the one who’s mouth has been running for the past three years isn’t even defending himself, there’s no lawyer by his side, and I can’t sight any of his family or friends in the court room. He’s just standing there and staring as the case against him is read out.  The articulate one is mute. The once regally dressed man looks so small in the presence of these people without his clean-cut blazer… yet he looks so big even in his smallness. There’s something unnerving about him even in that room. Maybe I was too ambitious getting out the popcorn to watch this… I expected another ojay trial or something.

If you’ve been watching TV in the past three years you’ll be familiar with this man. He managed to get under our skin and not get lynched for so long. You know the ‘makes me want to pull out my hair' kind of annoying guy. Another one of the religious ones. The self professed prophet.

Blasphemy… all over the Internet, on the radio, in the books and the papers, he was there saying all these things. Claiming to be the Son of God, like seriously? He really expected us to believe like we weren’t in the 21^st century, smarter and wiser than ever… Yeah, so he performs the miracles, but that’s not new, we’ve got pastors and prophets who can heal too.

He says he’s the one the books speak about, the savior (yeah my thoughts exactly). You should have seen him on CNN last week, calmly saying crazy stuff. I wondered how even he really believed what he said. Daring to dispute the laws God gave us, bringing on his own philosophies on right living and God’s kingdom. Although I’ve got to admit, I’m impressed with his soft-spoken nature, not like those pastors that scream from the pulpit. There’s something about him that can’t be ignored even if you try too. That’s why the papers shoved him in our face every day, heated debates in the media on if he is or not. I guess we somehow managed to give him the publicity he needed without meaning for it to happen.

Rumor has it that he’s quite nice too… always giving stuff to the needy that go to him. He was one of the main sponsors of the most talked about wedding three years ago. I almost got tempted to attend the last crusade he organized. Who knows, I may have been able to score some money from him. The least I could get for going through the whirlwind he imposed on our life as we love it.

A good thing that most of the genuine pastors, the true men of God around have denounced him. There were times I wanted to cut him some slack, I told myself maybe there was a little truth to his claim, but then I looked at the people he moved around with and I gave up on him. A politician held a party in his honor, I wouldn’t name names, I’m sure you must have read about it. One of the dirtiest men in politics in our time, and this ‘prophet’ readily dined with such a vile and corrupt lot. I even heard, one of the notorious heads of the organized crime world had meetings with him late at night. And there’s the controversial lady, the ‘sex siren’ of Hollywood, she’s in his entourage too. She claims he saved her…but we know better. How stupid dos he and his followers think we are? Or maybe we really are? The edo jazz he got (I hear its actually Illuminati, some deal with the devil) actually worked on a few people. There are a good number of previously respectable elders following him like hungry dogs around the country.

I was only so glad when I heard the few true men of God had come together to do something about him, to stop him before he gets out of control. The arrest was a victory for the real soldiers of God; he somehow managed to elude arrest since he started with this madness, that jazz .

I’m watching the proceeding; my popcorn has a bland taste in my mouth. My humanity has managed to creep out. Something feels wrong about this, I feel bad. I can’t point a finger to what it is that troubles me; after all I wanted him silenced for so long. I feel bile rise up to my mouth as the sentence is given; it is what we have always wanted from the first day we began to hear his claims. But then it doesn’t feel right, watching it live in the comfort of my living room. i expected a gag order, a lock up... not the punishment reserved for hardened criminals... Crucifixion? Right now, I don’t feel like we have defended Gods kingdom on earth from the false prophet.

What if we made a mistake? What if he really is from God? I mean, what if? I can’t understand where this doubt comes from, I can’t understand why my heart feels like it has been broken. I watch as he is lead to where he is to be executed, a slow and painful death… Would a person take a lie to this length? How far would he go to protect a lie? And what will be his purpose? … It's hit me, I know the truth.

As the nail pierces his hand, as his scream jumps into my living room from where I watch, as the voice of the guards and the crowd taunt him, as the camera flicks pass his mother and one of the men he often appeared on tv with… as all this happens, my mind flashes back to the prophesies we’ve heard over and over again. "But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."Isaiah 53:5 

'He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.' Isaiah 52:7

'Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.' Isaiah 53:12

'I gave My back to those who strike Me, and My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting.' Isaiah 50:6
 

He really was, my heart feels like a load of steel has been placed on it, I grieve in sorrow at my ignorance, I weep for the pain he is going through. Alas, he really was. I believe, but am I too late? All he did, the little things creep into my mind... how could we have been so blinded by our arrogance and hardened in our heart that we refused to listen when we heard what he said. I'm still in shock when the electricity goes out, i look out of the window and there's complete darkness... I'm panicked at this occurrence and i remember another one of the prophesies ["And it will come about in that day," declares the Lord God, "That I shall make the sun go down at noon And make the earth dark in broad daylight."] Amos 8:9

Alas, he is.
(Matthew, Mark, Luke, John)

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What would be our reaction if Jesus were to walk the earth today? With the social media hungry to crucify people for as little as speaking about yourself, I can imagine how words would be thrown his way. I think he'd have it worse than he did in those days. I mean they didn't have the internet or technology like we do, so we haven't heard half the insults from people who spoke in their homes at dinner time... well today everyone would be online commenting.

Some might think they would treat him better, they would believe if he lived in our time, but you never know. I'm glad i wasn't alive then. In a world where we've been taught to distrust, cautious can't even begin to describe how i'd feel when i hear him talk, even if i get the thug of knowing he speaks the truth, because honestly? Sometimes i read the books of Mattwew, Mark,Luke and John and i'm amazed at how he spoke. There's just something about it that'd have pricked me when i turn on the Tv and see an ordinary man, a son of a carpenter from 'Agege' say all this things in a way that i did view as arrogant "i am the bread of life.... no one can come to the father except through me...." and many more of those statements. The disciples and those who followed then were definitely high on some spirits to believe...

Thank God for this grace, for creating me in a time when it'd be easy for me to believe. I know many of us must have cursed the Pharisees and all those who were part of the physical suffering Jesus went through.
I mean who would watch the passion of the cross without feeling like yanking heads and giving slaps? But think about it... Have you believed now? What’s your reaction to the preachers who tell you the word as it is? Have you gone about doing the things Jesus spoke against?
For the same way the jews treated him then, we treat him now. For every message of salvation we reject, for everytime we go against his love, for every time we fail to love... we spit on him, we send the nail deeper, we break his heart and we tell him he wasted his time, we still don't believe.
So yes, watch the passion of the Christ again... see the wounds, see the bruises, see the spilled blood but don't curse at those who did it, we might as well curse ourselves, for we bring those moments to life, mocking him continuously as we ignore his call.