From the second floor of the three story building, that housed my apartment. I watched the colorful and beautiful procession beneath, by the catholic Portuguese and sangana congregation as the marched down the street. Chanting beautiful hymns and waving palm tree leave in a rhythmic fashion, that one would think palm leaves where actual made for interpreting hymns. My mind immediately went into action of trying to reconstruct what the scene would have been like 2000 years ago, as Jesus made his triumphant grand entry into Jerusalem. From the gospel accounts I got my pointers as my imagination starts to piece together scenes, like those guys at national geographic channel would conveniently put together a visual of something they were not present when it happened. The images were already well formed on the screen of my mind, I could hear the chanting and obvious excitement from the crowd. Getting a satisfactory glimpse of Christ was near impossible as there were some group of young Jews, whose height and there closed aligned standing position, made them look like the human version of the wall of Jericho. Making my way back some few blocks, I ascended the roof of a nearby building that by mental calculation I had concluded was the route of Christ entourage. From atop the roof it was indeed a glorious view better than the version I had physically watched. It was more than a procession, a parade, or even a carnival. It was a scene that shows a deeper interpretation of love and loyalty, I watched on as people were placing palmfront and even their own cloth on the floor for Christ donkey to ride on. It was indeed a touching sight and the chanting was even more appealing I turned back to see where Jesus was headed.
My mind like an automated machine programmed to work on the stream of consciousness mode, Instantly produced another imagery of loud sound of people chanting no shouting this time around. The scene here was uproar and quiet chaotic, the feeling over me now could be best describe as that feeling one would feel when you are the only obstacle standing between the free Syrian army and capturing Assad. I needed to get away, and like the other scenario height came in handy. standing on a fence nearby I could see things better even in a panoramic view if I cared. from my height I could see the image of two men in the building overlooking the courtyard which seem to hold the attention of the angry looking mob. Standing next to a man well dress and whose figure depicts that of one with authority, was a man who look like he was just rescued from a brawl with a leopard, as blood drips from visually all part of his body. if not that I had watched too many passion of the Christ movie I would argue that the man with blood all over was probably a dummy been stirred into occasional movement by the wind because no man would actual be standing while blood oozes out from his body in a continuous flow. Crucify him!!!!Crucify him!! The shout again brought my attention to the mob beneath. Ah!!! My mouth instantly flew wide open like a typical Yoruba man would in a moment of surprise. Lo! among the angry faces where some I had seen earlier chanting hosanna now their voices were echoing in deafening shouts of crucify him. That was not even as shocking as seeing a man who had removed his cloth and place it for Jesus, was the same man who spat on him as he dragged the ginormous cross up the hills of cavalry where he was crucified. The mental imagery was over but not without my quick observation which was simple and straight, How could this Jews welcome a man, show him loyalty and love try to make him king one moment and chastise him insult stone and kill him the next. “The Jews during the time Christ were probably the most wicked, inconsistence and unreliable generation of all time”. But such a label without comparison to another generation ,would be outright injustice on their generation. And what better generation to compare them to than our present generation and perphers my own countrymen. Here was Jesus from Nazareth making a triumphant entry into Jerusalem as the messiah, pulling large crowd to himself his action causing a chain reaction politically, religiously, socio-economical just to mention but a few. In other to effectively compare two generations with over two thousand years difference in it civilization I would gradually start comparing characters and key players in Christ death, and where better to start than the man who betrayed Jesus,
Judas has become quite infamous, for having betrayed his lord for 30 silver coins, and sealing the deal with a kiss. Judas betrayer was indeed legendary that I feared I could not find a sufficient comparison, but as I look at my fellow Nigerians I see betrayer everywhere. The saying that in every twelve there must be a judas might be true for that generation, if the twelve are my country men of today I doubt if you would get two who are no judas. How many of us could say we don’t have a price. At least Judas received 30 silver coins which would be around $13000usd today (source http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_30_pieces_of_silver_in_the_21st_century ). An amount some today would willing kill more than one person for.
To be continued…..