It isn’t my favorite part of the story.
I wish we could skip past it.
I can handle the verse that says “when he breathed his last…”
And I can handle the part where Jesus tells John to care for Mary.
The part that gets me is the mocking, the name-calling, the crowd who just Sunday cheered for their ‘messiah’ now are bullies. They call him a liar. They spit on him. They chose Barabbas because they can’t think about abandoning their party line and allegiance with Caesar. They chose to hate. They chose the familiar path of complacency instead of the long, laborious work of love.
So they blamed him because he wasn’t violent. They berated him because he was more interested in making sure all had a place at the table instead of saving space for his friends. They put a crown of thorns on his head because he pledged his life to the One who sent him, and not to the crown of Rome. They called him a traitor because he trusted in God and not in Caesar. They beat him because he beat them with kindness and compassion. They killed him because he was a friend to the widow and to the poor, the eunuchs and the sick, the lady who sat alone in pain and the prisoner in her cell. They killed him because when they wanted him to play the game...
Yes, Christ was crucified because he ate with the outcast and despised.
Yes, Christ was crucified because he protested the use of swords and defended the children.
Yes, Christ was crucified because the world lost its imagination.
Yes, Christ was crucified because the world turned its back on each other.
Yes, Christ was crucified because his reign was one where the last was the first, the least was celebrated as the greatest, and those who were lifted up were the ones who emptied themselves out for the sake of others.
This is hard, isn’t it?
Reading these words. Can’t we fast forward to Friday? Do we have to talk about these things? Must we discuss the poor? Must we think about the persecuted? Must we talk about the evils of our lives, in our community, and in the world? Must we talk about politics? Must we talk about religious institutions? Must we do the hard work of naming the ways we continue to crucify Christ in our midst?
Can’t
We
Just
Go
To
The
Empty
Tomb
Already?
I mean, I guess you can. But what’s the point of resurrection then? If we aren’t willing to die to self, then why celebrate the death of God? Good Friday is everything but good. It’s all that’s bad in the world, in us.
Despite the darkness around the death of Jesus, it gives us a chance to choose once more:
Death
Or
Life?
Hate
Or
Love?
Donkeys
Or
Elephants
Or
The Crucified Lamb?
Perhaps that’s why we need today.
So that we may open ourselves up to the mystery of what is to come, open ourselves up for the rescuing of all people, allowing our bodies, our stories to be broken and our blood, our spirits to be poured, discovering…
As one pastor has said…
Our Eucharistic life.
And I’ll say…
Our resurrected self.
Sure, Sunday is coming.
But right now, it is Friday.
And today, this moment, the hour when Jesus says, “It is finished,” is not my favorite part of the story.
 |
| A church that doesn't provoke any crises, a gospel that doesn't unsettle, a word of God that doesn't get under anyone's skin, a word of God that doesn't touch the real sin of the society in which it is being proclaimed--what gospel is that? ... The gospel is courageous; it's good news of him who came to take away the world's sins." ~Archbishop Oscar Romero, April 16, 1978 |
No comments:
Post a Comment