Getting What you Want

You know how you always wanted something and then you finally get it and ... well it's just different from what you thought?

It could be a house or a spouse, a job or a suave new car, salvation or finally giving in to the temptation that's taunted you for so long. Retirement or the most recent acquirement. Anyway, you get it and ... it's not all that.

Like being at a wedding and the song is sung for the Bride and the Groom ... You Can't Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones. Everything is perfect ... except that it's not.

And you know it.

A lot of people lapse into pretense when they realize this.

It may not be what I thought it was ... but I'd convinced myself that this is everything ... so I'm just going to keep on believing it is ... even though it's not.

We do funny things to ourselves.

It's Maundy Thursday when the Disciples thought Jesus lost his mind as he stripped naked, grabbed a towel, washed their feet and used the towel he was wearing to dry their feet. Pretty scandalous stuff ... even by today's standards. I'm pretty sure it's illegal in the State of Georgia!

It's funny though because the Disciples were finally getting what they'd been asking for ... to be close to one they love.

"Do me all over," sums up Peter's reaction once he understood what was going on. Apparently Peter liked doing it all.

On the other hand, Jesus said, "You ain't all clean," and whoever wrote the Gospel of John takes that to mean Judas wasn't catching on at all.

Judas could have been turned off by the whole feet washing thing by a guy wearing only a towel that he used to dry twelve pairs of feet. I know for certain that Chatham County Health Department would be all over that requiring a different towel for each foot dried, rubber gloves and an inspection score published in newspaper on how good a job Jesus had done.

Judas did seem to understand the economics of it all though. When Jesus got his feet own washed by a woman who used tears and her hair as a towel, he calculated the cost of it all.

In the end Jesus told Judas it was worth it ... regardless of the cost.

Once money wasn't part of the equation, Judas didn't want anything to do any of it. He may have been a Republican. I don't know. He was certainly a capitalist.

In the end though, they all got what they wanted. Judas got paid. Peter got the whole church built using his name as credit with no down payment (well ... he was crucified upside down so I suppose there was a down payment).

And Jesus made his point. "Let's do nice things for each other. Forgive people. If somebody tries to do something nice for you, appreciate it. Nobody is better than anybody else ... and if you do these things ... you're blessed."

To which I would add, it you don't do these things ... you're screwed.