Articles
Kangaroo Court
If you forced me to pick a single word to sum it up, I suppose I'd pick either jealousy or hate. Perhaps there are other adequate words to describe such unfair treatment, and based on what? Doing good things? Practicing what you preach? Actually keeping promises? Making the world a better place? Telling the truth even if it hurts? It seems to me like logic and common sense would have prevailed along the way, but that's certainly not the case. You'd think people in positions of leadership would prevent this sort of thing from happening, not promote it. But that's not the case either.
If ever there were a true example of a 'Kangaroo Court', this is it. People who should know better, holding a mockery of a trial, without evidence or demonstration of any crime, some hear-say stuff at best. A good and decent person, accused and railroaded by a mob mentality simply for their own jealous gain, not for any real misdeeds and certainly not for any crimes. In our society, we believe people are innocent until proven guilty, and we somehow believe innocent people can't be condemned if they really haven't done anything wrong. But that's not the case here. They needed him to be guilty, so they concocted a way to build a fallacious case to support their narrative.
We'd all like to think that being bounced back and forth between different officials in positions of leadership would eventually lead to someone calling out this one-sided charade, decreeing innocence, and putting an end to the lynch mob mentality. In fact, it was questioned by extremely high authority, but the fact is this hate driven snowball simply continued downhill, day after day, further degrading this innocent man. He was guilty in their eyes from the day he came on the scene. His legitimacy was never recognized. Probably their most damning accusation is that he wasn't one of them, and they knew they were not going to get him to join their ranks because he questioned their beliefs.
It's funny, the people who claim to represent the best qualities of a civilized society, who preach their version of morality and tolerance, who cry out for all those characteristics that are supposed to be the premier attributes of civilization, these very same people end up the very hypocrites who demand the condemnation of this man. If they would only open their eyes, they could see that he actually does personify all the qualities they claim to represent. They are blind!
Yet it continues, day after day, hate building, jealousy raging, a mob wanting to do something about this perceived problem, and their only answer is to get rid of the man. They have no plans to work with him, or listen to him, or try it his way for a while, even though his message is dead on with those ideas that would make the world a better place, a safer place, a happier place. They are too blind to see the fact that his message is exactly the one they have been looking for their entire lives. He has the ability to fulfill the promises of mankind. But they have no intention of changing their hardened hearts, no, in order for them to hide and justify their positions and continue the status quo, this man must be destroyed. He must be eliminated to allow them to continue on their chosen path, evil as it may be in reality.
And so after days, weeks, months and even years of trying to trap him every time he opens his mouth, trying to "catch him" in some mis-step with everything he does, disagreeing with what he says and waiting for their chance, they finally think they might have enough to put the figurative noose around his neck. They huddle together with secret meetings in private places, and manage to concoct some charges, coordinate their battle plan, and begin to hurl hypocritical darts and lying accusations, in an effort to once and for all drag an innocent man through the mire. And why? To appease their own illegitimate consciences.
Don't forget, they had a chance to stop while they were ahead, when their motives were being questioned for all the public to see, but their rage and bitterness caused them to push on. In their fury, they were willing to let those who truly were guilty of crimes go free, so they could focus their attention at bringing down the innocent. At some point they passed the point of no return apparently, and decided they must finish this absurd fabricated circus, render a pre-arranged verdict that required them to lie to themselves and everyone else, and wipe out this absolutely innocent life. This innocent man, who, if they could only see clearly who they were targeting, was sent to be their leader. He came with divine authority, as one who embodies the very words of Almighty God.
I can't believe in a civilized world that this actually happened to Jesus......can you?
