CALLED TO GREATNESS
There is such an atmosphere of anger and frustration today. Everywhere the Sutton Viewpoint Center has gone recently we have encountered abnormally high levels of near violent anger and frustration.
The Holy Week Saga has many lessons for all to learn, but emotions running the gamut is a classic. Nowhere in Human History is there an example of one Man seemingly having the publics tumultuous and complete support in his favor one day and five days later the same crowd wanting him dead.
Jesus road into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday a great Hero to thousands, but a very worrisome one to the powers that be. Both the Jewish Sanhedrin and the Roman Authorities saw Jesus as their enemy and not as a comfort to the people at all.
The Chief Priest, Joseph ben Caiaphas, particularly did not care for Jesus. Caiaphas thought Jesus is a lunatic and incapable of understanding right from wrong. The people referring to Jesus as their King was the last straw.
Caiaphas took advantage of a Roman tradition of freeing a prisoner of the crowd’s choosing just before the Passover Sabbath. Caiaphas conned the crowd to asked for Barabbas’ release rather than Jesus on Good Friday.
Roman Governor Pontius Pilate couldn’t believe the choice. Pilate knew Jesus had healed many and had done many good things versus Barabbas who was a known terrorist and bent on overthrowing Roman control over Palestine. If he did not fear an insurrection, Pilate would have released Jesus instead and overrode the crowd’s choice.
Then came the unthinkable. The very same people who had called Jesus their King 120 hours before now wanted Jesus crucified. Pilate quite literally argued with them and with Jesus. None of it made sense. Eventually Pilate gave in as the Creator had ordained before the world had been created.
The Jesus Character in Jesus Christ Superstar told Pilate that it had all been fixed and was nothing Pilate could do to change it. Sometimes nothing does make sense, but the Creator has a plan that will eventually make all the sense in the world.
One of my favorite Hymns is “Hymn of Promise” by Natalie Sleeth:
In the bulb, there is a flower
In the seed, an apple tree
In cocoons, a hidden promise
Butterflies will soon be free
In the cold and snow of winter
There's a spring that waits to be
Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see
There's a song in every silence
Seeking word and melody
There's a dawn in every darkness
Bringing hope to you and me
From the past will come the future
What it holds, a mystery
Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see
In our end is our beginning
In our time, infinity
In our doubt, there is believing
In our life, eternity
In our death, a resurrection
At the last, a victory
Unrevealed until its season
Something God alone can see
So much of this song speaks to me directly. The song was dedicated to Rev Ronald E Sleeth, her Husband, when he was diagnosed with cancer. The Theme of the song regards the Creator’s unseen and unknown intentions - even when it occurs in great tragedy - until they are revealed in all the Creator’s Glory.
Rev Sleeth died four days after Resurrection Sunday on April 11, 1985. This was six months and one week before I suffered a similar tragedy when my first Wife, Patti, and Daughter, Alicia, were murdered. Ten years ago this May 4th, Alicia miraculously came back into my Life. I am speaking from her home in Canada now.
On October 6, 1981, Anwar Sadat was assassinated in Egypt. The next day Patti and I sat next to our Egyptian friend Sharouse who was a student going to school at the University of Montana. On July 3, 2013, Sharouse and his Wife were murdered in Alexandria as a result of an uprising from the “Arab Spring” that started in 2011.
In February 1998, the first of my “Burning Bush” Dreams with Patti occurred. In it, she told me it was time to get on with my Life. She had been the Love of my youth, but I would find the Love of Life. Nine days later, Angelica and I enjoyed our first evening together as a couple and fell in Love.
In July 2015, Jesus appeared in what I refer to as my “Spring Creek Dream”. In it he reminded me of what Sharouse stated about me. He said that he always thought of me as a beautiful butterfly struggling to leave its cocoon.
The first stanza of the song discusses the promise of the butterfly in its cocoon. Jesus showed me rainbow butterflies by a pond that no longer exists in my hometown and in Sharouse’s native Egypt were incredibly gorgeous and had every color of the rainbow in its beautiful broad wings.
It was then that Jesus told me my days as a cocooned butterfly were over: “The world has waylaid you long enough. You will now achieve beyond measure.” Unfortunately, I have not taken this heart as much as I should have. None of us live up to the potential the Creator has planned for us.
The song ends: “Unrevealed until its season; Something God alone can see.” Only Jesus knew his Resurrection was coming. This is actually a rare moment in history. Given who Jesus is, he alone was privy to everything that would happen in his Life on Earth. None of us have that advantage. That’s where Faith comes in.
In my book, DECLARING GREATNESS: THEME THAT TRANSFORM OUR DESTINY, I explain that America’s key Founder’s had a very special relationship with our Creator. They had been sent to this planet to do exactly what they accomplished. They were collectively the greatest group of people together in one place at one time in all history in order to create the United States. It had to be that way or it is likely this world would be unfamiliar with Democracy.
The fragility of Democracy is being exposed all over the world today. The heirs to the American exceptionalism have long since forsaken the Four Universal Thematic Founding Principles of the American Dream and have chosen to betray and totally desert the harbinger of the Revival of the American Dream.
That is their choice just as it was for Caiaphas and the crowd 1,992 years ago to betray and abandon Jesus on Good Friday, April 7, AD 30. Jesus died at the Earth age of 33 but has lived Spiritually ever since April 9, AD 30.
Caiaphas didn’t even manage to live that long and as Jesus would say, was twice as fit for hell as the members of the crowd were. The Jews as a nationality would be exiled from the Holy Land for nearly 19 centuries as a result of their choice to have Barabbas freed and to have Jesus crucified.
The good news, however, is those living have ample opportunity to reverse their pro-terrorist and evil viewpoints and adopt what Jesus taught. Caiaphas and company were not that fortunate.
Jesus came to teach us how to live and to save us from Spiritual oblivion. I came to bring this world to a peaceful conclusion by the time Jesus returns. Jesus and I are one spiritually and of one mind. We would like to see each and every one of you here with us. We are all called to Greatness…
-Dr Phil Sutton, DBA & PhD