April 18, 2003
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 + Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 + John 18 1-19:42
If all our minds can see today is pain, blood, and dying, then we have failed to understand the Passion of Christ. Reducing this event to the senseless murder of an innocent man misses the point entirely. Take care not to ponder this death through guilt-conscious eyes that would exaggerate its brutality. Becoming preoccupied with the anatomical/medical details and the production and interest in the physiological consequences of being nailed and hung up on a cross avoids the real issue here. Beware too of approaching this event with only the mind toying with the theological implications it presents.
To do any or all of these things trivializes God’s mercy. Nothing here is about us, that is idolatry. This is about God! A human being died – that is the point of affirming that blood and water flowed from his side. Human beings die all the time, and truth be told, many of them die worse deaths, Human beings are executed all the time, and too many of them are just as innocent of any crime. The agony of Jesus, by some accounts lasted three hours. Many are in agony for decades. The “Place of the Skull” is a tiny plot. There are greater ones in our history. And that’s the point – this is about Mercy, God’s Mercy, not about our cruelty, our injustice, our betrayals, our fear, or our sins.
The burden he has carried up that hill was not just a load of wood. It was the burden of our lives. The cross is more than a reminder of betrayal and anguish. It is the throne of Mercy. The cry of Jesus on the cross is not just the scream of agony. It is the cry of one giving birth.
To look at the cross is to see the face of God. To look at the cross is to peer into the very interior life of God. To do anything else or see anything else is to miss the whole point of Jesus.
The Passion story we have just proclaimed begins in a garden and ends in a garden. In the first garden we find the forces of military and political power ready to put down this movement of liberation. There is no Judas to identify him – he simply utters the ultimate words of power once before spoken from a burning bush as that first movement of liberation began. He says: “I AM”; and with that all the powers lined against him fall to the ground in disarray. In the presence of “I AM” there is no other power.
Then the Passion story concludes in another garden as Nicodemus comes out of the darkness and joins Joseph of Arimathea. These new children of Light do more than bury the body of Jesus. They plant a seed in this garden that will soon burst forth: the victory of light over darkness. This day is not about death. It is about life. The appropriate sentiments of those who see and understand the cross as the throne of grace and mercy are Joy and Hope; where Peace reigns over violence and Mercy is embraces the sinner.