Jesus and the Judgment of Hercules

When I was young, I didn’t have cable t.v.

I had 3 channels (if the antenna was working) and on one of them was Sesame Street.

I didn’t have Youtube or Google.  I didn’t have the internet.  I didn’t have wikipedia.

But I did have an amazing source of information……Encyclopedias!

Thick and red.  They smelled like leather and wisdom.

I spent a lot of time reading through those huge bound books.  Mostly reading stories of Greek myths, Vikings, and werewolves.  I read the 12 Labors of Hercules over and over and over again.

There is a story about Hercules that I don’t remember reading as a child but came across years later.  It’s the story of the Hercules at the Crossroads.

When our hero was young, he left his father’s cattle and journeyed into the wilderness.  Here he came to a path.  And as the path split into two roads, two women came up to him.

The first to approach him was beautiful and scantily dressed and looked at him with seductive eyes.  She incited him to come with her.   She said her path would be easy and full of pleasure.  Everything you could imagine that would delight your heart was just down the road.  Her name was Kakia, but her friends called her Happiness.

The other woman was plain faced and dressed simply.  She pointed a sword to a mountain.  And that’s where her road lead.   She promised great difficulties and trials.   It would be a road of hard work and self sacrifice but that at his death, he would smile at a life well lived.   Her name was Acrete, also known as Virtue.

Hercules stood in the wilderness and made his choice.  He chose the road of Virtue.

This reminds me of the story of Jesus being tested by Satan.

Jesus went to the desert and faced the tempter’s poison:  To have plenty without work, a kingdom without service, and to be the god of his own making.

Jesus stood in the desert and made a choice.  He chose the narrow path.

He said the path was one of self denial, sacrifice, and the cross.  The upside down kingdom.

As we stand here in our own wilderness, we have a choice to make.  Two roads spread before us.  And everyday we must choose.  One leads to life and the other to destruction.

But the choice doesn’t always feel that easy.

The world says “Follow your heart.”  As Woody Allen famously put it “The heart wants what the heart wants”.  And thus he had an affair with his wife’s adopted daughter.

The world tells us we need to be tolerant.  Don’t judge.

I say it’s time to judge.  To judge ourselves and our intent.  The paths we walk.  The roads we travel.  Our lives in the balance.  Because the heart can not be trusted.  And if you are not prepared, disciplined, and vigilant….you might make the wrong choice.

Because no matter what lies you hear, right and wrong exist.

For what purpose is it to get everything we ever wanted but to lose the only things that matter in the end?

It’s a chasing after the wind.  Emptiness.  The infinite void.

People tell me that I’m a fool to believe in things that can’t be seen.  But I’d rather be a fool than to only believe in the things that can be seen, a meaningless universe of sadness and despair.

I’ll keep my foolish thoughts.  My wandering mind.   My weary legs.  And I’ll continue to walk this lonely path.  And maybe you’ll walk with me.  We stumble, we press on.

And we’ll turn our backs on Kakia and embrace the way of Acrete.

For every road must split.  And every choice be taken into account.  This is the world we find ourselves in.

The road to Heaven is not paved with gold and the road to Hell has no good intentions.  Every universe is a multiverse.

Make your choice and live.

What is to give light must endure burning.”

 —Victor Frankl