The story of Christianity, the very heart and essence of the religion, is a tale of transformation from all the obstacles, impediments, and barriers which confine or cripple. The person and work of Jesus accomplished this. In his earthly ministry, Christ continually called people to transformative change into the reality of God’s gracious and benevolent realm.
“I have come to give the good life, a life that overflows with beauty and harmony.”
Jesus(John 10:10, First Nations Version)
Christ’s resurrection made possible our own transformative new life. This is both exciting and scary. Resurrection is frightening because it’s a call to live a life without any of the walls which have defined us and/or imprisoned us.
The massive stone covering the tomb of Jesus Christ was rolled away. He walked out of the grave by the power of resurrection. The cave of death was changed into the place of liberation.
That place is a powerful image of moving aside any and all obstacles to our own faith and freedom. The prison doors have been opened. Our self-contrived inner prisons, as well as the unjust shackles placed upon us, have dropped away.
As a result, those who have been exiled, excommunicated, and treated as expendable are visited by the luminous healing presence of God’s great liberating force: resurrection.
I want to fully know the Chosen One [Jesus] and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to know what it means to participate in his sufferings and to become like him in his death, living in the hope that, like the Chosen One, I will also rise from death to life. (Philippians 3:10-11, First Nations Version)
All of these words may either seem strange and/or compelling. If this is the case, it is a sad situation. Because it’s quite necessary that we become familiar with such language. Unfortunately, the gap between the world we are presently living in, and the world our hearts yearn to know, is quickly coming to an unsustainable place of high stress.
There is now a profound disconnect between the love deep inside us, and the way in which we are living our day-to-day lives on this earth. The issue has become so great as to warrant the need for resurrection.
And I am not simply addressing Christians. In his earthly ministry, Jesus was not only talking to his own Jewish people; he came for the whole world. Jesus is for everyone – whether we acknowledge him according to Christian dogma and doctrine, or not.
The evil gaslighting sort of person wants you to believe that you are alone, bereft of any help – that somehow you need to assert yourself aggressively into the dog-eat-dog world. Wickedness always looks to chaos and war as the path to gaining the life one wants.
But Jesus is the bridge to another kind of thinking, another sort of life. He is the guide to the greatest power which exists in the world: Love. And Love is why resurrection is a reality.
Although we suffer from systemic evil and all kinds of structural “ism’s” in this world, our shackles and chains have been largely forged by ourselves, through spiritual ignorance and misunderstandings of who we are and why we are here.
Resurrection opens us to new life. It provides identity, purpose, and passion to live the good life. Even though we live in this world below, our answers to living in the here-and-now are found in the world above.
Since you have been raised up to a new life with the Chosen One [Jesus] then keep looking upward toward him into the spirit-world above, where he sits in the place of greatest honor at Creator’s right hand. Keep your thoughts and desires centered on the spirit-world above, not on the things from the earth below. (Colossians 3:1-2, First Nations Version)
All of us have experienced walking a dark path in life. But now it is high time to walk away from uncontrolled emotions and evil ways. There are plenty of lying spirits who intend on deceiving you and I for their own selfish purposes. Instead, we can refuse and resist such evil.
We can live in ways that represent the good, the right, and the just. We can experience living a resurrected life. Let us choose the pure path of the new person in Christ, the person you and I were created to be.
The telltale signs of the person living into resurrection are a deep feeling for the pain of others, kindness, humility of heart, a gentle spirit, and long-suffering patience with others. Such persons wear forgiveness like a well-worn pair of jeans.
This is the path of resurrection, the way of unity, peace, and harmony. And these qualities will always guide us and inform us in helpful and sacred ways.
Our current global decline comes from an accumulation of greed and sheer lovelessness. But the possibility of rebirth, of resurrection, rises from our deep universal yearning for the good and the true. It comes from our radical willingness to change and live a different counter-cultural life.
Resurrection does not occur because of lofty thoughts; it comes from a humble, and contrite heart which yearns for a better and more sacred existence.
Only until we find our present life on this world as intolerable with its injustice and persistent carelessness, will we see that we must put love where love is not.
The great lesson of resurrection is that Love makes all things right.
Dear friends, let’s love each other, because love is from God, and everyone who loves is born from God and knows God. The person who doesn’t love does not know God, because God is love. This is how the love of God is revealed to us: God has sent his only Son into the world so that we can live through him. (1 John 4:7-9, Common English Bible)
May resurrection move from being merely a theological concept, to a powerful reality that permeates and fills your life with meaning, power, and love. Amen.
Today’s Gospel lesson encompasses the full two chapters of events surrounding the arrest, torture, crucifixion, and death of Christ. Jesus died not only for white European heritage persons (like me) but for people of all races and ethnicities everywhere. And so, it is good and appropriate that the following comes from the First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament.
Every English translation of the Bible is accomplished by people translating from their own cultural perspectives and understandings. This particular translation comes through the cultural lens of American Indigenous peoples. And, in my view, this is a much needed addition to the many versions of the Bible now in print.
We have so many various translations, because we deem Holy Scripture important enough to be translated for all of the various peoples who exist – with all of their particular societal assumptions, and angles on spirituality.
So, please read this slowly, out loud if you can, and let the redemptive events of Jesus be seen in a way that will help your own understanding of Christ and his loving sacrifice for the whole world. This is Good Friday…
When he finished sending up his prayers, he and the ones who walked the road with him walked across the Valley of Darkness (Kidron) and entered a garden with many olive trees.
Speaks Well Of (Judas), the betrayer, knew about this place because Creator Sets Free (Jesus) would often go there with his followers. The betrayer came into the garden, and with him came a band of lodge soldiers sent from the scroll keepers, head holy men, and Separated Ones (Pharisees), representing the elders of the Grand Council. The air was filled with the smell of burning torches as they entered the garden carrying clubs and long knives.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) knew all this would happen, yet he turned to the soldiers and asked, “Who have you come for?”
With one voice they answered back, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth)!”
The betrayer, Speaks Well Of (Judas), was standing there with the lodge soldiers when Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered, “I am he!”
The Guards Falling Backwards, by James J. Tissot (1836-1902)
At the sound of his voice they all moved back and fell to the ground.
He asked them again, “Who have you come for?”
They answered, “Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from Seed Planter Village (Nazareth).”
“I told you already, I am the one you are looking for,” he said, “Let these other men go.”
He said this to fulfill his promise, “None of the ones you gave to me have been lost.”
Right then, Stands on the Rock (Peter) drew his long knife from its sheath and cut off the right ear of the servant of the chief holy man. The servant’s name was Chieftain (Malchus).
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) turned to Stands on the Rock (Peter) and cried out, “Enough of this! Put your long knife back into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup of suffering my Father has asked of me?”
The lodge soldiers, along with their head soldier and the Grand Council representatives, the took hold of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), tied him securely with cowhide strips, and took him first to Walks Humbly (Annas), one of the high holy men. He was the father of the wife of Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas), the chief holy man who had advised the Grand Council by saying, “It will be better if one man dies for all the people.”
Stands on the Rock (Peter) and one other follower had been watching from a distance. Since this follower was known by the chief holy man, he entered the courtyard of the house. But Stands on the Rock (Peter) stood outside the gate. This follower spoke to the gatekeeper, a young woman, who then let Stands on the Rock (Peter) in.
The Denial of St. Peter, by Gerard Seghers, c.1620
She said to him, “Are you not one of his followers?”
“No!” he told her, “I am not.”
The night was growing cold, so some of the men, along with the solider guards from the lodge, built a fire in the courtyard to keep warm. Stands on the Rock (Peter) stood there with them, trying to stay warm.
Back inside, the chief holy man began to question Creator Sets Free (Jesus) about his followers and his teachings. Creator Sets Free (Jesus) said to him, “I have spoken openly to all, in the gathering houses and the sacred lodge. I said nothing in secret. Why ask me? Ask the ones who heard me. They will know.”
One of the head soldiers struck him in the face and said, “Is that how you answer a chief holy man?”
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered him back, “If I have spoken wrongly, tell what I said wrong. If I spoke what is true, then by what right do you strike me?”
Walks Humbly (Annas) decided to send Creator Sets Free (Jesus) to Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas), the chief holy man. So they took him, still bound by ropes, to Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas).
Outside in the courtyard, Stands on the Rock (Peter) was still warming himself by the fire. The other asked him, “You are not one of his followers, are you?”
“No!” Stands on the Rock (Peter) denied. “I am not!”
One of the servants of the chief holy man, a relative of the man whose ear had been cut off, looked at him, and said, “Yes, you are! I saw you in the garden with him!”
Stands on the Rock (Peter) shook his head in denial – and right then a rooster began to crow.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was taken from the house of Hollow in the Rock (Caiaphas) to the lodge of the governor of the People of Iron (Romans). The tribal leaders stayed outside, for they did not want to become ceremonially unclean by going inside. It was early in the morning, and many of them had not yet eaten the ceremonial meal of Passover.
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) came outside to meet them.
They took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and stood him before Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate). He took a good long look at him, then turned back to the crowd.
“What has this man done wrong?” he asked them.
“If he were not a criminal, would we have brought him to you?” they answered.
“Take him away!” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them. “Use your own law to decide what to do.”
“Our tribal law will not permit us to put him to death,” they answered.
This proved that Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was right when he told them how he would die – by being nailed to a tree-pole – the cross.
Christ Before Pilate, by Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1310
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) went back into his lodge and had Creator Sets Free (Jesus) brought to him, so he could question him in private.
Once inside, he said to him, “Are you the chief of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel)?
“Is this your question,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) asked, “or are you listening to others?”
“I am not from your tribes,” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) answered. “It is your own people and their head holy men who have turned you over to me. What have you done?”
“My way of ruling is a good road. It is not in the ways of this world. If it were, my followers would have fought to keep me from being captured.”
“So, then, you are a chief,” he said back to him.
“It is you who have said it,” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered. “I was born for this and have come into the world for this purpose – to tell about the truth. The ones who belong to the truth will listen to my voice.”
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) shook his head and said, “What is truth?”
Then Spear of the Great Waters went outside to the tribal leaders and said to them, “I find no guilt in this man. By your own tradition we set free one criminal during your Passover Festival. Do you want me to release Creator Sets Free (Jesus), your chief?”
“No! Not him,” the crowd roared back. “Release Son of His Father (Barabbas)!”
Son of His Father (Barabbas) was a troublemaker who had caused an uprising.
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) turned Creator Sets Free (Jesus) over to his soldiers to have him beaten. The soldiers twisted together a headdress from a thorn bush, pressed the thorns into his head, and wrapped a purple chief blanket around him. They bowed down before him, making a big show of it, and kept mocking him, saying, “Honor! Honor to the Great Chief of the tribes of Wrestles with Creator (Israel).”
Christ Mocked by Soldiers, by Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
They took turns hitting him on his face until he was bruised and bloodied.
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) stood before the crowd again and said, “I bring to you the one in whom I have found no guilt.”
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was brought forward, blood flowing down his bruised face. He was wearing the headdress of thorns and the purple chief blanket that was wrapped around him.
“Behold the man!” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them, “Take a good long look at him!”
The crowd stared at him in stunned silence.
But then the head holy men and the lodge guards began to shout, “Death! Death on the cross!”
“Then take him and kill him yourselves,” Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) said to them. “I find no guilt in him!”
They answered him back, “Our law tells us he must die, for he has represented himself as the Son of the Great Spirit.”
When Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) heard this, his fear grew stronger, so he took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) back inside his lodge.
“Who are you, and where are you from?” he questioned him.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) stood there and remained silent.
“Speak to me! Do you not know I have the power of life and death over you? I can have you killed or set you free,” he warned him. “Have you nothing to say?”
“The only power you have is what has been given you from above,” he answered. “The ones who turned you over to me carry the greater guilt.”
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) tried harder to have Creator Sets Free (Jesus) released, but the people would not have it.
They stood their ground, saying, “If you release a man who says he is a chief, you are not honoring the ruler of your people, for anyone who claims to be a chief challenges his power.”
When Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) heard this, he took Creator Sets Free (Jesus) and went to the Stone of Deciding, called Gabbatha in the tribal language, and sat down. It was now midday on the Day of Preparation for the Passover Festival.
He brought Creator Sets Free (Jesus) before the people and said, “Here is your chief.”
“Take him away! Take him away!” the crowd shouted with one voice. “Nail him to the cross!”
“Would you have me nail your chief to the cross?” he asked them.
This time the head holy men answered back, “We have no other chief than the Ruler of the People Iron (Caesar).”
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) then turned Creator Sets Free (Jesus) over to the soldiers to have him put to death on a tree-pole – the cross – so they took him away.
The cross was an instrument of torture and terror used by the People of Iron (Romans) to strike fear into the hearts of any who dared to rise up against their empire. The victim’s hands and feet would be pierced with large iron nails, fastening them to the cross. The victims would hang there, sometimes for days, until they were dead. This was one of the most cruel and painful ways to die ever devised by human beings.
The soldiers placed a wooden crossbeam on his back and forced him to carry it to the place where he would be executed.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) carried the crossbeam to the Place of the Skull, which is called Golgotha in the tribal language. There they nailed his hands and feet to the cross, along with the two others, and placed his cross between the two of them.
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) fastened a sign to the top of the cross where they attached the crossbeam with these words written on it:
CREATOR SETS FREE
FROM SEED PLANTERS VILLAGE
CHIEF OF THE TRIBES
OF WRESTLES WITH CREATOR
This was near Village of Peace (Jerusalem). So that many of the Tribal Members could read it, the sign was written in Aramaic, their tribal language, but also in Latin and Greek, the languages of the People of Iron (Romans).
The chief head holy men and the tribal leaders said to Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate), “Do not write ‘chief of the tribes.’ Instead write, ‘He said he is chief.’”
But he answered, “What I have written will stand.”
The Crucifixion, by Georges Rouault
The soldiers stripped his clothes from him when they nailed his hands and feet to the cross. They tore one of his garments in to four pieces, one for each guard. His long outer garment was woven together into one piece, so they said, “Let us not tear this, we can draw straws for it.”
This gave full meaning to the Sacred Teachings that said, “They divided my clothes between them and gambled for my garment.” This is what the soldiers did as they kept watch over Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
Standing near the cross was Bitter Tears (Mary), the mother of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), who had come to see him, along with her sister. Two other women also came with her, Brooding Tears (Mary) the wife of Trader (Clopas), and Strong Tears (Mary) from Creator’s High Lodge (Magdala). He Shows Goodwill (John), the much loved follower of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), was also there with them.
When Creator Sets Free (Jesus) looked down and saw them, he said to his mother, “Honored woman, look to your son.” The he said to his follower, “Look to your mother.”
From that time the follower took Bitter Tears (Mary) into his family and cared for her.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus), knowing he had done all the ancient Sacred Teachings had foretold, said, “I thirst.”
There was a vessel of sour and bitter wine standing nearby. One of the soldiers dipped a cloth in it to soak up some wine. He wrapped the cloth around the tip of a hyssop branch and held it up to the mouth of Creator Sets Free (Jesus).
He then tasted the bitter wine, turned his head to the sky and cried out loud, “It is done!”
He then lowered his head to his chest and, with his last breath, gave up his spirit.
Creator Sets Free (Jesus) was dead.
Soon the sun would set and a special Day of Resting would begin when no work could be done. It was time to prepare for this day, so the Tribal members asked Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) to have the legs of the men on the crosses broken, which would make them die sooner. Then they could take the bodies down and prepare them for burial.
The soldiers came and broke the legs of the two men on each side of Creator Sets Free (Jesus). When they came to him, they saw he was already dead. Instead of breaking his legs, one of the soldiers took a spear and pierced his side. Blood and water flowed out from the wound.
The one who saw these things with his own eyes is telling the truth about this – so that all will believe. This was foretold in the ancient Sacred Teachings that say, “Not one of his bones was broken,” (Psalm 34:20) and, “They will look upon the one they have pierced.” (Zechariah 12:10)
Christ being lifted by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, by Antonio Canova (1757–1822)
He Gets More (Joseph) from High Mountain (Arimathea), a man with many possessions, was a follower of Creator Sets Free (Jesus), but in secret, because he feared the tribal leaders. Since it would soon be sunset, when the Day of Resting would begin, he went to Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) and asked permission to remove the body of Creator Sets Free (Jesus) from the cross.
Spear of the Great Waters (Pilate) released the body to him. So he and another man, Conquers the People (Nicodemus), who had come to Creator Sets Free (Jesus) in secret at night, took his body away to prepare it ceremonially for burial. Conquers the People (Nicodemus) had brought a mixture of myrrh and oils weighing about seventy-five pounds. Together they ceremonially wrapped his body for burial in the traditional way, using strips of cloth and herbal spices and oils.
So because it was the Day of Preparation for the Passover Festival, and the day of resting was about to begin, they laid the body of Creator Sets Free (Jesus) in a nearby burial cave that had never been used and then returned to their homes.
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night but find no rest.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them. To you they cried and were saved; in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm and not human, scorned by others and despised by the people. All who see me mock me; they sneer at me; they shake their heads; “Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver— let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast. On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God. Do not be far from me, for trouble is near, and there is no one to help.
Many bulls encircle me; strong bulls of Bashan surround me; they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they bound my hands and feet. I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me; they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid! Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog! Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me. I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you: You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel! For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me but heard when I cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him. The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him. Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it. (New Revised Standard Version)
Crucifixion, by Romare Bearden, 1947
It’s one thing to be alone because of other’s mocking, yelling, spitting at you, even physically beating you; that, in and of itself, is terribly traumatic. Yet, it’s quite another thing altogether to feel forsaken by one’s God, to experience a deafening divine silence amidst all the human commotion.
There are levels of suffering – and physical suffering is the least of our agony; the experiences of mental, emotional – and I insist, spiritual suffering – is worse than a hundred kidney stones.
“Suffering” is a word many would like to avoid. Simply seeing or hearing the word might make us cringe. Suffering? No thanks. I’ll pass. Yet, something inside us instinctively knows we cannot get around it. Everyone suffers in some way; it’s endemic to the human condition.
Sometimes, maybe even most times, we are not immediately relieved of suffering because it is meant to have a redemptive purpose to it – that somehow, some way, the awful affliction shall result in eventual blessing to either oneself, another, or perhaps to many.
Miracles are miracles not because they fall from heaven with no connection to what’s happening on this earth. No, miracles occur because of suffering, because something gut-wrenching is happening, because someone or many people are tragically hurt.
Jesus intimately knows suffering, first hand. And he knows what suffering can produce: the deliverance of many.
For Christians everywhere, today is “Good” not because of the pain experienced but because the crucifixion of Jesus Christ means the redemption of the world.
On this Good Friday, followers of Jesus remember and commemorate the events that led up to the cross; unpack those events and interpret them with profound meaning and significance; and worship Jesus with heartfelt gratitude because of the redeeming work of the cross.
It is today that Christians remember the last words of Christ, and recognize the significant impact his death had on the immediate persons around him. Believers also contemplate the lasting results of that singular death as an atoning sacrifice; perfect love; reconciliation between God and humanity; victory over evil; and the redemption of all creation.
For believers, there’s the recognition that something deeply impactful is happening in the egregious suffering of Jesus. Therefore, we acknowledge and remember the anguish of Christ; and also what that horrible torment accomplished.
With such profound meaning, one would think that Good Friday is a hugely observed day for all Christians in every tradition. Yet, for a chunk of churches and Christians, it is not. The cross is not a popular subject. It could be because neither Christian nor non-Christian wants to ponder something so tragically bloody and sad.
“Religious people want visionary experiences and spiritual uplift; secular people want proofs, arguments, demonstrations, philosophy, and science. The striking fact is that neither one of these groups wants to hear about the cross.”
Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion: Understanding the Death of Christ
Indeed, as the Apostle Paul has said, the cross of Christ is “a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.” (1 Corinthians 1:23)
A personalized religion which leaves the cross out of the picture (too much violence and sacrifice) might seem appealing, yet will only leave us bereft of the communion of the saints both past and present. Consider the confessional witness of the Church:
Christ suffered “in both body and soul – in such a way that when he sensed the horrible punishment required by our sins ‘his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.’ He cried, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ And he endured all this for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, we rightly say with the Apostle Paul that we know nothing ‘except Jesus Christ, and him crucified;’ we ‘regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.’ We find all comforts in his wounds and have no need to seek or invent any other means than this one and only sacrifice, once made, which renders believers perfect forever.”
Belgic Confession, Article 21
And let us consider further the New Testament witness:
“Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, and bear the abuse he endured.” (Hebrews 13:12-13, NIV)
“May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14, NRSV)
The extent of Good Friday goes far beyond a day on the calendar; it is the fulcrum upon which all of Christianity hinges.
Because Christ suffered, our suffering has meaning. Each situation of trauma; every case of disease; all suffering, abuse, and hardship makes sense, in the Christian tradition, when they are viewed in solidarity with the cross of Jesus Christ.
So, today, let Christians everywhere contemplate the cross, observe the salvation accomplished through Christ’s death, and offer prayers and petitions for those who need deliverance from the power of evil.
I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live….
What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord; I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people. Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his faithful ones. O Lord, I am your servant; I am your servant, the child of your serving girl. You have loosed my bonds. I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice and call on the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the Lord, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! (New Revised Standard Version)
“Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus — a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.”
Mother St. Térèsa of Calcutta (1910-1997)
There is more to the passion of Christ than sheer suffering and sorrow; the Via Dolorosa is, paradoxically, also the road to joy.
Yes, suffering is painful and unpleasant. Yet, since we all must suffer in some way, the real issue is whether our suffering is meaningless or has purpose to it. We are able to bear our suffering if we are confident that a redemptive outcome is at the end of it.
The Lord Jesus submitted to suffering because he knew that all the mockery, torture, and abuse was the pathway to deliverance for humanity.
Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. (Hebrews 12:2-3, NLT)
Since Jesus has gone before us, enduring shame so that it could be put to death in us, we are able to live free from guilt and the ignominy of sin. What’s more, Christ’s suffering gives shape and meaning to our own suffering.
“I cannot but wonder at the virtue that lies in suffering; we are worth nothing without the cross. I tremble and am in an agony while it lasts, and all my conviction of its salutary effects vanish under the torture, but when it is over, I look back at it with admiration, and am ashamed that I bore it so ill.”
François Fénelon (1651-1715)
On this Maundy Thursday, we remember that in the midst of suffering there is the hope of glory, and in the center of pain there is the confident expectation that it will be used as the fertilizer to help love grow and bloom in the dormant places of this world.
“Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds have forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love.”
St. Thérèse of Lisieux (1873-1897)
There cannot be love without suffering; to love is to sacrifice on behalf of another.
Because we live in a broken world full of pride and hubris, greed and avarice, hate and envy, we are victims of loveless systems and unjust actions. We need love to rescue and redeem us from the sheer muck of existential guilt and shame, evil and injustice.
Christians around the world are journeying through Holy Week, the most sacred time of the year for followers of Christ. When we think about Holy Week, we are familiar with Good Friday and certainly Easter, but Maundy Thursday?
On this day, the Church remembers the final evening Jesus shared with his disciples in the upper room before his arrest and crucifixion. The experiences in the upper room were highly significant because this was the last teaching, modeling, and instruction Jesus gave before facing the cross. Jesus was careful and deliberate to communicate exactly what was important to him: to love one another.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35, NIV)
Maundy Thursday marks three important events in Christ’s Last Supper with his disciples:
The washing of the disciples’ feet (the action of loving service)
The instituting of the Lord’s Supper (the remembrance of loving sacrifice)
The giving of a “new” commandment to love one another (the mandate of a loving lifestyle)
The message of Maundy Thursday is this: Jesus Christ loves me just as I am, and not as I should be. He loves me even with my dirty stinky feet, my herky-jerky commitment to him, and my pre-meditated sin.
Today is a highly significant day on the Church Calendar and in the Christian Year – one which deserves to be observed, and an opportunity to remember the important words and actions of Jesus on our behalf. Through Jesus Christ we are to live always in love, modeling our life and ministry after him.
“I have found the paradox that if I love until it hurts, then there is no hurt, but only more love.”
Mother Térèsa
In Christ, love is to characterize our life together as we proclaim God’s love in both word and deed. A watching world will take notice and desire to lay down their hate and animosity if the followers of Christ are deeply and profoundly centered in the love of God.
God our Father, you invite us to participate in the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of your Son. Inspire us by his service, and unite us in his love; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 