fool

“There are two kinds of people in this world, Charlie.
The first group are the people that face the music;
the second group are those who run for cover.
Cover is better.”

--Lt. Col. Frank Slade in
"The Scent of a Woman”

Dustin Hoffman plays the part of Colonel Frank Slade in the movie 'The Scent of a Woman'. He is a survivor, seen enough of war to know that when you stick your neck out in battle there is a good chance someone might cut it off. Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Better to just take cover. If there are indeed, 'two kinds of people in the world' those who 'face the music' and those who take cover Jesus clearly was the first. What He did as He set His face towards Jerusalem could hardly be seen as anything other than instigated suicide. When it came time to 'make a righteous stand', as Springsteen puts it, Jesus clearly, stubbornly, faces the music. The inevitable did not stop him from doing the right thing.

'Cover is better' if you want to live without trouble. Let someone else take the bullet, sit back, wipe your forehead and sigh 'yet for the grace of God go I'. Be conservative, bend to the Man, don't fight city hall. Don't take unnecessary risk, don't get involved, take care of your own. Insulate and isolate your self from trouble. Create boundaries with enough padding to soften any blow, save for the rainy day, and you will get by to live to a ripe old age.

You may lose your pride along the way, you may leave friends on the battlefield, you may walk about blind, but it is the price to pay. At least you didn't die.

Like Jesus did.

He died.

He rushed in.

He risked.

He took the hit.

The late Mark Heard asks, 'What kind of friend would do you in when the bomb goes off and the shelters his?' Why, of course, no friend at all. We sing 'What a friend I have in Jesus'...but the question lingers is 'Are you, am I, a friend like him?'

If there are two kinds of people in this world, as the Colonel observes, then Jesus was the kind who would face the music no matter what the cost.

When God emerges on the other side of silence he sets his face like flint towards Jerusalem. This is the beginning of the end.

And the end which speaks the beginning. Final word. What follows is the story of a courageous man who did the right thing, faced the music, and died. A person who held the power of the atom, the devastating power that could make the a-bomb seem miniscule. He didn't drop that bomb.

He could have.

He didn't.

There is a reason.