Aesop tells us the fable of the Mice and the Cat.
There was a nervous group of mice whose number was steadily diminishing by a
cat stealthily sneaking up on them and quietly carrying them off one by one.
The mice assembled for a secret meeting to decide what they could do to
preserve themselves from this silent predator.
After much discussion, one bright young mouse came up
with the idea of hanging a bell round the cat’s neck so they could then hear it
coming and escape in time. This received enthusiastic approval from all the
mice except for one old mouse who remained silent. They thought he was deaf and
began to explain their proposal in detail. He stopped them with one question –
who will actually put the bell round the cat’s neck?
Uh oh! So many worthwhile plans fall at the hurdle of
implementation, and by now you are wondering what this has to do with Easter
anyway. Ahhh! The bottom line of the fable is not only to remind us how reality
impedes all our idealism but that to achieve something worthwhile and essential
is often impossible without cost and self-sacrifice. We cannot have our cake
and eat it too.
We see this so plainly in what happens in the world
around us. US Presidents and other leaders have been assassinated when they
promote peaceful and just diplomacy over violence. We see Barack Obama copping
it for trying to institute fair healthcare in the US. We see German Chancellor
Angela Merkel pilloried for her courageous generosity in helping Syrian
refugees find safety in her country. We ask why it is so risky, dangerous, and
costly to do what is good in the teeth of vested interests determined to milk
the vulnerable.
There are two events in the Acts of the Apostles
where Paul suffers from doing what is good and right. In Philippi he heals a
demented slave-girl fortune-teller from her suffering only to have her owners,
now thwarted from their easy income, have him and Silas thrown into prison. In
Ephesus Paul preaches a God not made with hands to the ire of the silversmiths
who cause a riot because their income would be threatened so they force Paul
into house arrest for his own protection.
Now the penny drops about Easter. Jesus sets his face
towards Jerusalem knowing full well he is unlikely to leave it alive despite
the protestations of his disciples who want to see him achieve the Kingdom by
force.
But that would
have defeated the purpose. The true Kingdom that needed to come required
running a relentless gauntlet into ultimate self-sacrifice.
There is something in what we call
human nature (which is anything but truly human) that resists that Kingdom
coming in which God’s will is done on earth as it is done in heaven. We keep
expecting God’s will to be done in heaven as it is done on earth. One only has
to look at Syria, Manus Island, and too many other places to know all human
beings seem able to do on earth is to establish hell instead.
Belling the cat is going to be dangerous
and costly if it is going to work. Jesus takes up the self-sacrifice himself,
not because of any perceived wrath of God but because of the wrath of human
beings who will not co-operate with God’s Kingdom or any other rule where one
cannot receive the lion’s share in it. And it’s all because we as human beings
have since time immeasurable have insisted on our advantage that it became
necessary for Jesus to take on the disadvantage that would then have to occur.
This is why Jesus has become the
most avoided person in history because we know all too well that it’s not God
but ourselves who are responsible for putting Jesus on the cross. We call the
day Good Friday because Jesus with eyes wide open gave himself for us. In the
words of children’s hymn writer Cecil Frances Alexander, “He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good.” We
call the season Easter because our crucified Lord has risen and he has risen in
us. “You ask me how I know he lives. He
lives within our hearts”. And we are the Church because we can experience
and share our new lease of life. Go out and live.
