Why?

Why?

Why did this have to happen?

I always thought I knew the path that God wanted me on.

Sure, I was skeptical when I first heard the call. But, I followed him anyway. And, you know, the miracles I saw…all the people who were helped seemed to confirm that I was on the right path.

Why?

Oh why, did it have to come to this?

I gave up everything.

Fishing wasn’t a glamorous job, but it was a good business. Something our family had always done. I enjoyed it. I thought I would make it my career.

But I turned my back on it all after He called my name.

After He told me to follow him.

What good did it all do?

All the hard work I did for him.

All those things I sacrificed…and for what?

To watch a man being mocked and spit upon?

To watch a man being beaten bloody?

To watch a man being nailed to a cross and left to die?

I loved him you know.

I thought he would save his people from their sins. I thought he would save me.

I thought he was the long-promised Messiah.

I really did. I really believed Him.

Why?

Why did God have to allow him to suffer and die?

He was a good man you know. The best. He didn’t deserve this. Any of this. The betrayal by Judas. The ridicule of the guards at the trial. The sharp spikes that they pounded through his wrists.

I can still hear that hammer…boom…boom…boom…as the blood spurted out with every blow, draining his life into the ground.

Why does God allow things like this to happen to good people?

I thought God was a God of new beginnings. Of second chances. But now it has all come to an end.

I can still hear those soldiers, laughing drunkenly as they lifted that cross toward the sky. They didn’t care. He was just another criminal to them. To them, his clothes were worth more than the man. They gambled over them, those worn-out rags, even as they watched him die.

A naked body, twisting in the wind.

That was Friday.

It was only a couple of days ago…but already it feels like an eternity.

Today a new week begins…Sunday. In a little while, the sun will be climbing over the horizon. I suppose I’ll need to think of something else to do with my life. I won’t be able to follow him anymore.

Maybe I’ll go back to my father and see if he’ll let me rejoin the family business.

By the look of it, I should have never left fishing in the first place.

I don’t see the new beginning he promised. I don’t see any second chances for me. How could there be?

I have to face it. It’s over. Well, I guess I better go.

Thanks for listening to my little rant. Maybe I’ll see you around here again sometime.

Huh. Do you see that? Someone is running along that path. Who in their right mind would run like that? Huh. It looks like…is that Mary?

I wonder what got into her?

Mary? What’s wrong?

Nothings wrong. It’s Jesus…he’s alive!

He’s alive?

Yes, he has risen.

He has risen?

Yes, he is risen indeed! Come with me…hurry!

Well, maybe God is a God of new beginnings after all. I better go see this…Mary, wait for me!

***

The chief aim of man is the glory of God. And sometimes, the glory of God is revealed in the suffering. For without pain, there cannot be healing. Without death, there cannot be a resurrection. Without an ending, there cannot be a new beginning.

Watch me performing this piece as a dramatic monologue here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajD6MgX7rdY