As we approach the end of the Season of Lent I am thinking again about the way in which Rabbi Jesus confronted both the corruption of Judaism by some of the Temple rulers and the brutality of the Roman occupation. He accepted the responsibility to try to change those conditions for the better and especially for the benefit of the poor and exploited.
In his short life Jesus had discovered that the power of love was eternal while the love of power was transitory. He acted out of deep sacrificial compassion as he set his face to go to Jerusalem to take on the political and religious leaders with the choices that he had made: to live by God's values of compassion, forgiveness and loving one’s neighbour [and that included the Roman enemy], and not to live by keeping strictly to the letter of the Law as it had been given to Moses and argued over for centuries.
Jesus had discovered something in life that was worth dying for and he faced a terrible choice, either continue down this path that could end up in execution, the punishment for attempting to challenge the authority and might of Rome, or he could turn back to Nazareth and settle down into backwater obscurity. Jesus made his choice to go on. We, too, have choices to make.

American motivational speaker Denis Waitley said, “There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept responsibility for changing them.”