When
the jury summons arrived, I couldn’t believe the date. My week to serve fell
during Holy Week. A busy Palm Sunday bookended by Easter, and my civic
duty assigned to the days between.
So
much to do. Mercy.
I
want to do my part, but this would be a challenge.
In
addition, I’m always nervous when I have to serve. I guess it’s the unknowns
and wondering if I will understand the case clearly.
As
I exit my car and enter the parking deck elevator, another juror expressed the
same sentiments I had as she pressed the elevator for the ground floor. “Couldn’t
believe it when I received my summons for the week before Easter!”
But
here we were on Monday morning depositing our handbags at the security check
point, registering, and looking for the courtroom. I take my seat and pull out
a book I’ve been reading, the voluminous John
Adams by David McCullough. It looks like it’s going to be awhile before we
start, and then who knows how long jury selection will take.
I’m
trying to read, but in my mind, I’m wondering about my to-do list. If I’m chosen, how will I get everything done
for Easter weekend? The cooking, the basket making, getting everything ready
for guests.
But
then, a quote I highlighted earlier in this book comes to mind. Something Abigail Adams
said in a letter to her husband, John, “Posterity who are to reap the blessings
will scarcely be able to conceive the hardships and sufferings of their
ancestors.” This woman had lived through war, plague, and been forced to be
apart from her husband for years at a time, all for the sake of helping to
birth a free nation. She had known the worst of it. And she was right. Here I
was sitting in this courtroom, two hundred years later, elevating my to-do list
above the present duty, forgetting what it had cost―this privilege of giving
someone a jury of their peers, a benefit of living in a democratic society
rather than under a dictatorship or some other vile form of government.
I
felt conviction.
Interestingly,
I was the first juror disqualified. My son works for the insurance company that
happened to be involved in the case. A definite conflict of interest.
But
during this Holy Week as I’ve reflected on the events of Monday morning, I
wonder how often I forget the hardship, the suffering of the one who bought our
eternal freedom.
Will
I spend Holy Week busy just doing stuff, or will I allocate time to thank Him,
to worship Him, to remember all He has done for me?
Do
I understand the case clearly?
A man who
seemed to have some of the same kind of struggles I do, explained it this way,
“They called him every name in the
book and he said nothing back. He suffered in silence, content to let God set
things right. He used his servant body to carry our sins to the Cross so we
could be rid of sin, free to live the right way. His wounds became your
healing. You were lost sheep with no idea who you were or where you were going.
Now you’re named and kept for good by the Shepherd of your souls” (I Peter
2:24-25 The Message).
During
this Holy Week, let’s not run straight to the empty tomb without first stopping
at the foot of the cross on Good Friday to remember what Jesus really did for us, how he
suffered.
I
believe if we do, the empty tomb will be all the more glorious.