April 9, 2006 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Mark 11:1-10 + Isaiah 50: 4-7 + Philippians 2: 6-11 + Mark 14:1 – 15:47
Peter, James, and John: two great apostles privileged to share in the great moments and swell with pride and ambition, promise and pleasure are with us today. They climb the mountain in the company of Jesus and witness the transfigured Christ wanting to build tents and stay there in his company. What promise there is in such a one! They arrange for and joyfully share in the meal of Passover with a whole city clamoring to see their friend and their leader. They broke bread with him and drank from the cup as a sign and promise of unity forever. When they need him for anything, food, healing, instruction, shelter, company, respect; he is there for them.
And then he says to them: “Keep watch with me.” They sleep! When his company may bring danger or suffering, they can’t be found. But this day and this Gospel are not only about us as much as we may see ourselves in them. This day and this Gospel does raise questions about us, but also finally provides answers about Jesus.
There are a lot of people in this Gospel, and each of them might attract our attention. But of all, Simon is worthy of the greatest attention. Unable to bear the weight of the cross on his own, Jesus needed help, the help of a stranger to complete the mission. The hard, painful work of salvation is a work in which God chooses to depend on human beings. With all God’s glory and power, God still chooses human participation and help. God needs us to proclaim and live the Good News. Every time we break out of our false need for self-sufficiency and dare to ask for help, a new community emerges, a fellowship of the helped and the helper, the weak and the strong. This is a true community of hope for a broken world.
The question for us is whether we can step out of the crowd which seems so intent on taking care of itself first and lift our share of the cross. The question about Jesus gets answered in this Gospel. Who is this? What is he doing? What is this suffering all about?
Not until the moment of his being “lifted up” is he clearly and unmistakably the Son of God, Savior. If Jesus, in whom we believe and whom we have chosen to follow is fully himself only in suffering and death, then that is the very place where we shall find ourselves.
Think of those who have shown themselves faithful and proven their Christian identity in suffering. Ancient ones, martyrs who in their suffering and death bore witness to Christ. Think of John Paul II whose sufferings and illness made him an even more worthy and more credible as a messenger of the Gospel. Anyone who has suffered greatly knows the transforming power of that suffering. They discover as Jesus did their truest selves.
What is suffering for? It is for discovery. Why did Jesus suffer? To discover and reveal who he is: to reveal that God is found in suffering and present to those who suffer. God’s revelation in human history is not fulfilled in signs of power and divine greatness but in the humiliation of the divine being in Jesus’ death on the cross. It is the crucified Jesus who is the Son of God, not some wandering wonderworker. It is the crucified Jesus who is the Son of God, and not until then does the world in the words of a centurion recognize and affirm who this is. In that discovery anyone who bears pain and suffering also discovers Jesus,
and in uniting ourselves to his suffering we shall become not just our truest self but a part of redemption, begun by Jesus
continued in us until he comes again.