Eloi Eloi lama sabach-thani

Hey baby, what ya know good?
I'm just gettin' back but you knew I would
War is hell, when will it end?
When will people start getting together again?
Are things really gettin' better
Like the newspaper said?
What else is new my friend,
Besides what I read?
Can't find no work, can't find no job, my friend
Money is tighter than it's ever been
Say man I just don't understand what's goin' on across this land
Ohhh, what's happenin brother?
Are they still gettin' down where we used to go and dance?
Will our ballclub win the pennant,
Do you think they have a chance?
And tell me friend
How in the world have you been?
What's happenin' brother?

--What's Happening Brother, from "What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye (1971)

Jesus was a Capricorn
He ate organic foods
He believed in love and peace
And never wore no shoes
Long hair, beard and sandals
And a funky bunch of friends
Reckon they'd just nail him up if he come down again
'Cause everybody's gotta have somebody to look down on
Who they can feel better than at any time they please
Someone doin' somethin' dirty, decent folks can frown on
If you can't find nobody else then help yourself to me

--Jesus Was a Capricorn, from "Jesus Was a Capricorn" by Kris Kristofferson (1972)

I've stated elsewhere in this space that my inspirational reading tends toward 3 books that constantly renew my intellectual fish hook: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter Thompson, Catch-22, by Joseph Heller, and Box Socials, by WP Kinsiella. But I also like to dig in "The Good Book" from time to time, looking for something meaningful, horrific, or amply suited toward the illustrative. It was just such an excursion that led me to my favorite Biblical passage, one that just about sums up the whole thing for me in a nice shiny package:

And David sent messengers to Ishbosheth Saul's son, saying, Deliver me my wife Michal, which I espoused to me for an hundred foreskins of the Philistines. (2nd Samuel 3:14)

Thus sayeth the Lord.

Last week, the news was plastered with word of the New Word: the "Judas" Gospel. Quickly embraced and dismissed by anyone who's ever read, condemned, burned, or based their entire European vacation on The Da Vinci Code. It was a real beauty too. Much like Cancer Man as a young Marine in the storm drain at the base of the grassy knoll, the story goes that Jesus and Judas set the whole thing up. Judas was acting according to the Shepherd's will when he brought the wolves with him. I live for that stuff.

The whole thing made me think of a new question...why the kiss? I went back and reread the relevant passages from the four Gospels. If Jesus was such a big trouble maker, why did Judas have to kiss him to give him up to the priests and soldiers? Was he a stealth Jesus? Were his metaphysical bombs being dropped from an invisible pedestal of righteousness?

Perhaps I'm going to Hell, but these are the questions I ask myself, especially on days like Good Friday, the busiest golf day of the year in the State of California. I spend a great deal of time on Holy Weekend listening to the two albums above, both timeless in their essaying of faith, frailty, and fraternity.