Good and Bad, Bad and Good

The Rev. Jaime Sanders

When I was a child we had a picture book called “The Fire Cat,” by Lois Linsky. My parents still own it, and I have read it to my own children. Palm Sunday reminds me of one passage from it. Mrs. Goodkind, who has befriended the stray tomcat of the title, tells him “You are not a good cat, and you are not a bad cat. You are good and bad; bad and good.”

Good and bad, bad and good. Does that not sum up the human condition as we have experienced it through the lessons today? The hope of an oppressed people hailing Jesus at the gates of Jerusalem – hope that can so easily turn to violence. The greed of a Pilate, hanging onto power even at the cost of torturing and executing innocent men. The fear of and pride of the priests, identifying with power and the status quo. The power and hope of crowds – and their gullibility and mass hysteria, finding a scapegoat for scarcity and pain. The desire for innocence of a Pilate’s wife – but also her self-centeredness, focusing on her dreams and avoiding responsibility for the brutality keeping her in privilege.

Are we not each capable of each of these actions? I’m reminded of the psychologist Maslov’s prison experiments, in which ordinary, good, American college students became abusive prison guards and violent inmates within three days of role-playing. Good people acting badly. Like the cat in the story, we are not good – and we are not bad – we are good and bad, bad and good. And at every moment our world has both the hope of new and more just life and the power and fear of death.

And through this world of hope and power and fear and death moves Jesus. Accepting the adulation of the crowds at the gates – knowing it will end in the cross. Anchored in his Father, not cowed by Pilate’s power. Offering to us that same anchor. An anchor – a root – in God, who sees us without illusion – good and bad, bad and good. An anchor – a root - in Jesus, who rode through those gates on the donkey knowing that it would lead to the cross – and in so doing brought God into every human situation, every human emotion. An anchor in God made flesh out of love. Let us keep our eyes and grip on Jesus, anchoring us in God’s reality in which all our individual circumstances are encompassed in one world. Let us keep our eyes and grip on Jesus, who offers love for each of us – all of us – good and bad, bad and good.