 |
| The Cross of Fitzpatrick |
Today recalls a moment of collision. Humility clashes with cowardice. Authority bangs against power. Righteousness crashes into corruption. The women mourn and witness a murder and the sheep-men scatter as their shepherd hangs. The executioner begins to understand. A man waiting for the Kingdom boldly prepares for a burial. Then the moment of collision happens. The thunder claps, the lights go out, the creator dies, and evil wins the day. Or so it seems today. But…
We did not understand the creator-God’s promise. So we mourn with the women and scatter with the men. We missed the truth. Everything is different.
We have a choice to make.
On Good Friday – a name that must provoke a meditation of its own considering how it marks a moment when something so terrible occurred – my mind and heart move to Philippians. The epistle writer tells us about a man who is equal with God. He is one with the God who made the covenant with Abraham. He is one with the God who led the Exodus. He is one with the God who put David on the throne. He is one with the God who spoke through the prophets. Before all of this, this man was I AM. His claim on the world is absolute so he had a choice to make. He could hold onto his equality with God, or, he could release it. Humility allowed him to choose the later and the consequence of that choice was a cross. Jesus could claim equality with God and in making that choice chose today.
My heart and mind go in the opposite direction, as well. They go to one of this man’s best friends. For me, he is one of the people in the Bible that seems the most relatable. He is bravado personified. He has a sword, is pretty handy with it, and has the gall to use it. He will tell his friend that he always has his back, even if the rest of his friends run in fear. Nothing will stop this friend’s loyalty. Until the moment when he met a servant-girl, one of the weakest and most insignificant people in Israel, if not the entirety of the Roman Empire. At that moment, fear trumped loyalty, bravado proved useless, and Peter forgot who his best friend was.
There is a choice to make. The first option is to follow the man who wanted life and thought cowardice in the face of a servant-girl’s question was the way to find it. The second option is to follow the man who chose death in spite of his accusers’ questions.
After grappling with the first choice, my mind compels me to consider another. Two men represent options about what authority and power look like. The first man was given a position. His job is to keep the peace during a particularly odd time in human history. Rome is one of the great empires of the past and it controlled a good deal of the known world. Among the controlled world is a smaller group of people who believe they are chosen by the one true God. Among this smaller group is an even smaller group of people who believe that they know the only way to make this God happy and have acquired a bit of power themselves, even if it is limited and particular. The first man’s job is to prevent the conflict that will bubble up in such a dynamic. One of the tools he has to do this with is crucifixion, a brutal method of execution that is too heinous for Roman citizens to bear but thought to be an effective way of warning potential revolutionaries about what can happen to someone who is too out of step with the controlling Rome. His given position is maintained at least partly by this type of threat. He turns to the second man and asks a question: Are you the King of the Jews?
This second man is the man who decided not to grasp his equality with God. This man – Jesus – is not given a position. He owns his position. The answer to his questioner is simple: You say so. These words are the type that change the course of history. Rome through Pilate will tolerate nothing less than they tolerate a revolutionary. There is no king but Caesar. Many other attempted revolutions ended on a cross, including a couple started by someone from this small group of people in the middle of Pilate’s territory. Jesus does not deny being a king and claims the title given to him by Pilate. Pilate was looking for an escape, a way to pardon Jesus. Instead he found a claim to a new Kingdom. Jesus’ words are the word of a revolutionary.
This is, of course, very odd. Jesus stands in front of a man that has the power of life and death in his hands. It is likely that Jesus had the path of escape in front of him. Certainly, the religious leaders wanted him dead. The masses wanted him dead, too. These people could not do anything about that, however, unless they allowed themselves to become murderers. They required Pilate, who seems, at the very worst, apathetic. If Jesus said No, he likely would have walked away. Instead, he claimed His Kingdom. Then he died.
There is another choice to make. One option is to grasp at given positions, to rule at the invitation of a Caesar (or perhaps a Queen in my time and place). Such a rule isn’t completely without merit. A level of peace and a level of culture can be imposed with such a rule. Power is attractive. The other option is to look at this rule, follow a man who did not grasp equality with God, and accept the claim of a different monarch.
My mind begins to wander to another choice as I hear the crowd yell crucify and watch Barabbas walk free. Two men offer us a path to God. The first offers fear. The second offers grace. The first man is a man of control. He is a respected religious leader. He does two things. One is that he will design a set of rules that is impossible to live up to, even for a good, religious Jewish person. He holds up these rules to eagerly show people when they do not live up to them. This is quite often, in fact, with the exception being this man and his friends. He likes the power that comes with the rule and with fear. Two is that he will defend these rules against anyone who seems to offer an alternate path. Today’s Gospel reading aside, this often means the Roman gentiles that hold political power over them. It is clear that the Romans are outside of the will of God. There are, however, also children of Abraham who are also so far outside of the rules that the rules need to be defended. Samaritans, women, tax-collectors, sick, blind, and crippled all fail to meet this man’s standard. Failing to meet his standard is, of course, a failure to meet God’s standard. The rules make it so God will return to Israel and rescue it from Rome. The rules need to be defended because if anyone starts to believe the rules do not matter, God will not return.
The second man is Jesus, who is another one of the people who the first man sees as a threat to the rules. Jesus offered Israel a completely different way of life. Jesus did things like heal on the Sabbath, talk to women, heal a Gentile, and work or eat with tax-collectors. Worse, he reminded the children of Abraham that they were called by God because of God’s grace rather than their obedience. Jesus offers grace where the religious leader offers fear. As people began to take Jesus seriously, the first man sees an existential threat. At that point, he brings Jesus to Pilate and Good Friday begins.
There is a third choice to make. We can choose to follow the first man and try to earn God’s favour while being constantly fearful that we are not good enough to do so. There is merit in that, surely. God does have a Law and it must be there for a reason. We can choose a fearful obedience. The other choice is to acknowledge that we won’t measure up and we can follow the other man. We can choose to believe that the Law is indeed fulfilled through Jesus and we can choose grace.
Three choices. I expect readers realize that I hope you will choose 1) to follow the man who chose death, 2) to make Jesus’ Father our authority, and 3) to choose grace over rules. My audience may not be quite as obvious, however. As Christians, we say we are followers of Jesus and it is to my sisters and brothers that I write on Good Friday.
It seems to me that Christians need to understand the collision when we remember Good Friday. If we do, we can have a unique opportunity to show and tell the gospel – such very good news – to our neighbours.
What does the gospel look like when we feel that we are oppressed or that the culture is moving far away from us? My hope today is that we learn from the choice the Jesus made when he was oppressed. In the face of great oppression, Jesus chose to remain faithful to his Father. In the face of small oppression, Peter chose to remain faithful to himself. In my time and place, threats to me as a Christian are relatively small – I am not necessarily the flavour of the day and some people may despise and mock me, but I am not in any physical danger as the result of my faith or about to lose something I value because of it. My hope is that I can recall that Jesus remained committed to his Father and his Kingdom at the moment when it was clear that the previous nights’ prayer was answered with a no when I am in the moments that I am presented something much less than that.
What does the gospel look like when we are faced with power, either when we have the option to attain it or when we realize we need to use it? I hope on Good Friday that we remember that Jesus is our authority. When others claim authority over us, they may be correct but their claim is not absolute. If we are tempted to follow someone else in an absolute way, we need to remember Good Friday. Less obviously, we may be tempted to use the same path to power that someone we disagree with is using so we can make the rules instead of letting them. At those moments, we also need to remember Good Friday. When we play a game of power, we may disregard the one who holds our authority.
What does the gospel look like when we are staring sin in the eyes? Maybe ours. Maybe others’. I hope on Good Friday that we do not disregard sin or its harm, but I also hope that we remember that sin does not need to be absolute. This is true for me. This is true for you. This is true of the person neither of us can imagine seeing grace. It is not up to us, after all. Good Friday happened.
Scripture readings are from the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B: https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu//lections.php?year=B&season=Lent
No comments:
Post a Comment