The Death of Jesus

Dead Christ with Angels - Manet

“The fact of the death of Jesus as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable, despite hypotheses of a pseudo-death or a deception which are sometimes put forward.” (Gerd Lüdemann, What Really Happened to Jesus: A Historical Approach to the Resurrection. Louisville KY: Westminster John Knox Press. 1995. 17.)

“.82 red. Jesus’ body decayed” - consensus of the Jesus Seminar, Holy Saturday 1995.

What happened - what happened after that - what came before: we cannot let go of these questions. And as when a friend tells us that the end of something familiar, something we have counted on, is at hand, we ask ourselves, not only what will happen to you, but what will happen to me. What shall I do now? 

And these questions will come back to haunt us in three days - but not yet, not yet.

Right now we ask ourselves, what does it mean that Jesus has been killed? For another proposition the Jesus Seminar strongly affirmed was this: “He was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered death, and was buried.”

You have heard that one before. It is in the Apostles’ Creed. And however skeptical you are - better however scientific and critical and rational and objective you hope and purport to be - this is historical fact. There was a man named Jesus. The Roman governor of Judea had him executed. He was crucified and he was buried.

We would like to squirm out of this - to say he was a myth, like Alexander or Napoleon or Shakespeare - or George Washington and Alexander Hamilton. He only exists in our minds because we need him to exist. There is no reality. There is no future. There is no hope.

But we would be liars to say so. And that is our hope even in the midst of despair.

He died. So - he lived. 

Annoying isn’t it? Would it not be easier if he were myth, even true myth, like something that rings true in a story, but we know for a fact is carrying only a truth through feeling, not reality?

But alas, we cannot honestly say that. And even skeptics can tell us, oh, yes, he lived. He said the prayer over the meal, Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha’olam, hamotzi lechem min ha’aretz. Blessed are you, LORD, our God, King of the Universe, who brings forth bread from the earth.. He said:  Amen. 

And he called God, the eternal and ineffable source of Being, the one beyond names, he called God “Abba” - father, the intimate and loving name a Son calls his Daddy. 

And then - as the hermeneutic of suspicion goes to work - we realize he is being treated as a historical personage - like Alexander, Shakespeare, Lincoln - and we can sort out what he really said and what he really did as we might (should we be such wet blankets) sort out the authentic and the apocryphal sayings of Lincoln, Gandhi, Churchill, Einstein, and Groucho Marx.

Jesus said the most outrageous and original things - as well as things any good Jew would - and those are so challenging and so original that we must face them or simply walk away.

These sayings have come down to us in altered form, admittedly. As the first followers faced the full impact of his teachings by body and word, they somewhat absorbed that force into their bodies, their souls, and what they transmitted to us comes through that medium.

Peter, head down, was crucified, the hymn tells us. And, John on Patmos died. They stumbled forth into the early morning, the news of the women sounding strange in their ears, to a new world, one day. One day. Soon. But not yet. Today we must face the fact. Jesus was crucified. 

His tomb was right over there. You can touch it. Or touch your forehead (as I have done) to the stone above the stone that protects the place where they think he was buried. 

But he is not there. The tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is empty. An empty box.

The church has another name. We can learn it. But not yet, not today. Jesus was crucified.

And why? What hope does that death give us?

“I came into the world for this: to bear witness to the truth” - and that fidelity cost his life.

Somehow his willingness to accept death, even the death of a criminal on the cross, became part of that witness. Nothing could stop him, not even death, from proclaiming the truth.

And part of that truth is this: Love is strong as death. Death does not have the upper hand. 

The kingdoms of death will not survive. Nor will their servants. That will all be swept away.

And what will be left standing is this: the hope beyond hope, the love beyond need, the faith beyond faithfulness, the truth that endures. Even in death.

JRL+ Thursday April 7th 2022.

Are there yet tears?

"Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment.... Then said Jesus, 

Let her alone: against the day of my burying hath she kept this." (John 12:3,7)

Are there yet tears?

Imagine then a pavement scored for gaming: counters fit in slots, die is cast; cloak is torn, garments shared out. Shouldering the cross-piece of his death, a condemned man is led, taunted, through the narrow streets of a busy marketplace. The curious stare. The indifferent turn away, or don’t bother. The guards shove the man forward. Stumbling, he drags his sandals up the stones of the street. Twists and turns. There is the city wall, and outside it his fate. And ours.

They lay him flat on a stone, the better to attach him to his engine of destruction. Up and in and down he goes, just another one of thousands, this one in full view of spectators. How long will this one live? More gaming. 

Either side of him, thieves, murderers, rapists - and some are good people. They will all die, one by one, gasping, suspended, a spectacle. And then, the bodies are checked. Thorough work. The soldiers lance his body. They’re sure, and can report.

Down later onto a slab of rock, weeping mother and friends place his violated body, so sweet and precious to them however it appears to the bystander. They prepare it - him - for the tomb, carved in the rock, donated, nearby, perhaps in a garden. 

That’s it for now.

Are there tears yet? Can they still flow? Can we join such sorrow to our own?

We cannot escape it. Shove it down, deny it, however angrily, however numb; it will out. 

And that is why we are here today at the foot of that self-same cross, wanting to touch it, the places of the nails, the binding, the torn and bleeding body. Or feel the sorrow. 

We don’t need to see it; we know it, in our own bones. We too have grieved, will grieve. 

For our world, for ourselves, for strangers and friends. For mothers and fathers, children, hope. 

And that too is why we are here. Because however hopeless and awful this scene of destruction, of humiliation, of death-dealing merchants and military men, the one they sought to kill yet lives. 

Hope there is still, and faith, though all will be taken away. Only love will be left. Only love endures. 

JRL+ 

Passion 2022.

Suzanne Guthrie writes: "In this season, the church encourages her people to grieve and grieve deeply. Why suffering exists in the first place is not the point, at least for now. In Holy Week the church provides the time to grieve, to break open our hearts of stone, to allow shattering and crumbling and the necessary softening to receive the sacred gifts only grieving confers. Hearts of flesh, perhaps. A new life, represented by deep and universal compassion."  http://edgeofenclosure.org/passion2.html

The Arizona Daily Star published a version of this story under the title, “Only love will be left; love endures” on Easter Sunday April 17th 2022 page E3 in the Keeping the Faith feature of the Home + Life section.

palm fronds

There were palm fronds growing by the path and I cut them loose from the tree

when I was done with them I discarded them in the waste ground behind the garden wall

there  they lay

was I in the crowd

oh yes I am in the crowd

I’m always in the crowd

we are right he is the Messiah he is wonderful counselor Almighty God everlasting father prince of peace and he is coming

as promised 

he arrives on an unridden colt and we cheer 

hosanna save us that’s what hosanna means save us save us anointed one expected one

the palm fronds lay behind the wall drying until the next spring when someone asked for dried palm fronds to reduce to Ash

in Jerusalem six years ago early in the morning I felt I should get up and go and I walked through the town from the Gloria hotel near the Jaffa gate to the church

the church that has two names

one is the church of the holy sepulcher

there was almost no one there

a priest gathered a small group of people at the bottom of a stair and I asked him 

I don’t know what I’m looking at what should I look at and he said

well you want to go up the stairs that’s Calvary

then you want to go over to that little building inside the building that is the chapel with the tomb

later that day I went into the chapel and lay my forehead on the cool marble slab in the inner room

my eyes closed

it was dark so dark I felt as if I were looking into a darkened face looking into mine

I felt nothing

I lost track of time

then I heard a gasp of breath and I opened my eyes leaned away got up and went out

the attendant said yes Fr.

and I walked out into the larger church which has another name the church of the Resurrection

but not yet not today

we are still at the tomb with our eyes closed waiting for the light to dawn

between then and now we gather at a table and he is there and he says to us as he breaks the bread and passes it around

this is my body broken for you

the true Paschal Lamb offers himself for us

at the end of the meal he takes the cup blesses it giving thanks to God and gives it to us and says

this is my blood the blood of the new covenant remember this

remember this whenever you drink it

and so we remember also the offering Abraham made of his own son

And God reckoned  that faith of Abraham unto him for righteousness

it wasn’t killing his son that saved him it was his faith

and so even today as we without bread or wine in our hands offer our faith as our gift to God 

and it is through that faith that he redeems us 

it is through his act in which we have faith that he has made us whole

“Our faith is our gift to God”, Arizona Daily Star, March 30th 2021, https://tucson.com/our-faith-is-our-gift-to-god/article_5f031639-f5e1-58c3-9291-cd4d498961d0.html.

"Our faith is our gift to God; through it, he redeems us." Arizona Daily Star, April 4th 2021, E3.

https://tucson.com/our-faith-is-our-gift-to-god/article_5f031639-f5e1-58c3-9291-cd4d498961d0.html (updated April 1st 2021)

Passion Stations

The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to John (18:1-19:42)

Opening Prayer:

    Minister:

    God of power and mercy,

    in love your sent your Son

    that we might be cleansed of sin

    and live with you forever.

    Bless us as we gather to reflect

    on his suffering and death

    that we may learn from his example

    the way we should go.

    We ask this through that same Christ, our Lord.

    All:

    Amen.

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

1.  The Betrayal and Arrest of Jesus

After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, ‘For whom are you looking?’ They answered, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus replied, ‘I am he.’ Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When Jesus said to them, ‘I am he’, they stepped back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, ‘For whom are you looking?’ And they said, ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Jesus answered, ‘I told you that I am he. So if you are looking for me, let these men go.’ This was to fulfil the word that he had spoken, ‘I did not lose a single one of those whom you gave me.’ Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it, struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear. The slave’s name was Malchus. Jesus said to Peter, ‘Put your sword back into its sheath. Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?’

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us your strength and wisdom,

    that we may seek to follow your will in all things

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us the courage of our convictions

    that our lives may faithfully reflect the good news you bring.

    All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

2.  Jesus before the High Priest

So the soldiers, their officer, and the Jewish police arrested Jesus and bound him. First they took him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it was better to have one person die for the people.

Peter Denies Jesus

Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. Since that disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest, but Peter was standing outside at the gate. So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. The woman said to Peter, ‘You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?’ He said, ‘I am not.’ Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold, and they were standing round it and warming themselves. Peter also was standing with them and warming himself.

The High Priest Questions Jesus

Then the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered, ‘I have spoken openly to the world; I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. Why do you ask me? Ask those who heard what I said to them; they know what I said.’ When he had said this, one of the police standing nearby struck Jesus on the face, saying, ‘Is that how you answer the high priest?’ Jesus answered, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong. But if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?’ Then Annas sent him bound to Caiaphas the high priest.

Peter Denies Jesus Again

Now Simon Peter was standing and warming himself. They asked him, ‘You are not also one of his disciples, are you?’ He denied it and said, ‘I am not.’ One of the slaves of the high priest, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, asked, ‘Did I not see you in the garden with him?’ Again Peter denied it, and at that moment the cock crowed.

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us your sense of righteousness

    that we may never cease to work

    to bring about the justice of the kingdom that you promised.

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us the gift of honesty

    that we may not fear to speak the truth even when difficult.

All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

3.  Jesus before Pilate

Then they took Jesus from Caiaphas to Pilate’s headquarters. It was early in the morning. They themselves did not enter the headquarters, so as to avoid ritual defilement and to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate went out to them and said, ‘What accusation do you bring against this man?’ They answered, ‘If this man were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and judge him according to your law.’ The Jews replied, ‘We are not permitted to put anyone to death.’ (This was to fulfil what Jesus had said when he indicated the kind of death he was to die.)

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, ‘Are you the King of the Jews?’ Jesus answered, ‘Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?’ Pilate replied, ‘I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?’ Jesus answered, ‘My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.’ Pilate asked him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’ Pilate asked him, ‘What is truth?’

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us discernment

    that we may see as you see, not as the world sees.

All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

4.  Jesus Sentenced to Death

After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, ‘I find no case against him. But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?’ They shouted in reply, ‘Not this man, but Barabbas!’ Now Barabbas was a bandit.

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ and striking him on the face. Pilate went out again and said to them, ‘Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no case against him.’ So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, ‘Here is the man!’ When the chief priests and the police saw him, they shouted, ‘Crucify him! Crucify him!’ Pilate said to them, ‘Take him yourselves and crucify him; I find no case against him.’ The Jews answered him, ‘We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die because he has claimed to be the Son of God.’

Now when Pilate heard this, he was more afraid than ever. He entered his headquarters again and asked Jesus, ‘Where are you from?’ But Jesus gave him no answer. Pilate therefore said to him, ‘Do you refuse to speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?’ Jesus answered him, ‘You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above; therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.’ From then on Pilate tried to release him, but the Jews cried out, ‘If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.’

When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, ‘Here is your King!’ They cried out, ‘Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!’ Pilate asked them, ‘Shall I crucify your King?’ The chief priests answered, ‘We have no king but the emperor.’ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us patience in times of suffering

    that we may offer our lives as a sacrifice of praise.

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us strength of purpose

    that we may faithfully bear our crosses each day.

All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

5.  The Crucifixion of Jesus

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’ Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”, but, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.” ’ Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’ When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.’ This was to fulfil what the scripture says,

‘They divided my clothes among themselves,

   and for my clothing they cast lots.’

And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us merciful hearts

    that we may bring your reconciliation and forgiveness to all.

All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

6.  Jesus’ Side Is Pierced [The Lance Thrust]

Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘None of his bones shall be broken.’ And again another passage of scripture says, ‘They will look on the one whom they have pierced.’

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us trust in you

    that when our time on earth is ended

    our spirits may come to you without delay.

All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Minister:

    We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you.

    All:

    Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

7.  The Burial of Jesus

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Minister:

    Lord,

    grant us your compassion

    that we may always provide for those in need.

All:

    Lord Jesus, help us walk in your steps.

Crucem Tuam (Berthier)

Closing Prayer:

    Minister:

    Lord Jesus Christ,

    your passion and death is the sacrifice that unites earth and heaven

    and reconciles all people to you.

    May we who have faithfully reflected on these mysteries

    follow in your steps and so come to share your glory in heaven

    where you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit

    one God, for ever and ever.

    All:

    Amen.

The prayers are based on those used in the Stations of the Cross celebrated by Pope John Paul II on Good Friday 1991. They are presented here as an alternative to the traditional stations and as a way of reflecting more deeply on the Scriptural accounts of Christ's passion.

A period of silence should be observed between the Scripture reading and the prayer. Between the sections, all may sing a verse of the Stabat Mater (At the Cross Her Station Keeping - traditional) or an appropriate antiphon, such as Parce Domine (traditional, various settings) or Crucem Tuam (Berthier, GIA).

Parce, Domine, parce populo tuo: ne in aeternum irascaris nobis.

Spare, Lord, spare your people: Be not angry with us forever.

http://old.usccb.org/nab/stations.htm accessed February 23, 2013.

JRL+

Passion

The passion of the Head of the Church must be the passion of its members. 

But what was the passion of Christ? What was he passionate about? And why? 

And how are we to participate?

Christ died once for all for our salvation, on a particular date in human
history. His death, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews insists, is a
unique and unrepeatable event. But this event, like his incarnation and his
resurrection, which are also events in the stream of history, transcends
history: it is one day and every day. Every day is both Good Friday and Easter
Day, because Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection are present to us every
day. It is hard to comprehend so much eternal reality in a single day, and it
is not surprising that the first Christians should, almost from the beginning,
have celebrated the mystery of the Lord’s passion on a particular day, the
weekly anniversary of his resurrection.Over time, an annual cycle of
commemoration was laid over the rhythm of the week. This provided the
Church with a way of meditating deeply on the successive episodes of
Christ’s saving life and death, from his conception in Mary’s womb, through
his death and resurrection, to his ascension to his place at the right hand of
the Father and the descent of the Holy Spirit promised by him. Other kinds
of Christian commemoration have been added to the Christian year –
originally, those of the apostles and martyrs, who had in a distinctive way
witnessed to the passion of Christ.

The liturgical year thus provides a structure for the Church’s collective
memory, a way of consecrating our human experience of time in the
celebration of God’s work – in Christ and in human beings made holy
through Christ – a work which is both unrepeatably in time and
incomprehensibly beyond time. It asserts a Christian understanding of time
as a context of God’s grace, against the world’s purely functional reckoning
of time. This act of Christian remembering has proved, over time, to have an
extraordinary depth. Through the structuring of our Christian memory, the
past is able to come into our present, in a process of anamnesis (only weakly
translated by our English ‘remembrance’):

Paschal Lamb, thine Offering, finished
once for all when thou wast slain,
in its fullness undiminished
shall for evermore remain. (G. H. Bourne)

This powerfully creative remembering has deep roots in Jewish tradition,
and especially in the Passover meal. The shared preparation and consumption
of this meal is a memorial action (zikkaron; cf Exodus 12.14 and 13.9), through
which God’s redemptive power in the past act of the Exodus can be freshly
experienced in the present.

The rhythm of the Church’s times and seasons also affects those who take
part in them. It is one of the primary ways in which Christians learn, and
are strengthened in their grasp of, the story of Christ – just as Jesus himself
was familiar with the Jewish festivals, and with the way that the annual
remembrance of Passover shaped the identity of the chosen people. One
of the essential features of this educative remembering is that we imagine
ourselves, in our act of worship, to experience events in the past as present
reality or future hope.We speak naturally at Advent of looking forward to
the birth of the Christ-child, and we experience the joy of his birth as a
present reality, though we know in our minds that it is an event in the past.

(Times and Seasons. London: Church House Publishing, 2006. 1.)

Songs that are not Alleluia

We are not ready. There is too much. There is too much going on. There is too much going on here. We are finishing up Lent, managing palm fronds and crosses. We are getting ready for a change of season. And we are trying desperately not to say Alleluia.

Songs that are not Alleluia are required of us today. Close – Hosannas – but not yet Alleluia. So don’t say it – don’t say that word. Not yet.

What sun comes up today is not the sunrise of Easter. It is preliminary, a foretaste of things to come, a hint of what has to happen. For this is the story: that Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate was crucified, died, and was buried – but it is not the end of the story.

For Jesus it was the end but it was the beginning of new life – for us, for him, for all people. For what he gave to us, in dying, was a place in his kingdom.

In dying he gave us life; he set us free. Like Barabbas we were under condemnation – bound to die. But Jesus stood there and took it. He took on himself our burdens and sins.

Quite how he did it we try to explain – we are full of theories; we call it Atonement. What we know is that through his life and death – his sacrifice of himself – we were made at one with God – reconciled – made right. In ourselves we feel unworthy; we are made worthy in him, through him, and with him to approach the throne of grace.

The throne where we find, seated at the right hand of the father, a friend.

He gave us the dignity of human persons, once lost, now set right before God – and therefore free. No human constraint, no ruler nor principality nor power of this world, can come between us and our God – and the place Jesus won for us and gives us, undeserved free gift, in heaven.

His kingdom is coming, and now is, as we take hold of the awesome fact – God gave his Son that all who believe in him, who trust in him, will find in him, as they dwell in him, everlasting life.

This is redeemed life that begins now – that does not wait – but is already present.


This day of all days as we move from the triumphant procession of the people – waving palms and singing, Hosanna, Son of David, at last he is here, come to set his people free,

This day that continues through plots and scheming, confusion and frustration, betrayal and sorrow, warnings and celebrations,

This day that we come at last to the Cross – and the Tomb;

This day there is too much going on.

How could we be ready? How could we be ready – to open our hearts, to receive the savior, to turn to him who is life?

How could we be ready for what happens?

The one who is our hope, the one who brings us life – must first encounter death – in obedience surrender himself to the guards, endure interrogation and torture, and at the last through wood and nails, suffer execution by the cruel engine of crucifixion.

Only then, after that, through that, not avoiding it is new life won.

It does not look like it now, as the stone is rolled against the tomb, and the soldiers’ guard is set, and the women watch – and wait.

And so we sing songs that are not Alleluia.

Not yet.



[But something new is on the way … Something new is coming: how can we be ready to receive it?]

Lord, you give us life, you give us love, you give us yourself: help us to give our lives, our love, our selves to you; through Jesus Christ who died and rose again for us and who lives with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting light. Amen.







[Jesus is like Moses in that way: leading the people of Israel, soldiers on their heels, to the edge of the red sea; something held those soldiers back. And in Jesus plunged, passing through the midst of the waters, immersed as in baptism, not going back, not back to the old life of bondage to sin, but through and on to the further shore – and he guides us across the flood tide of life’s fortunes and failings, to our own liberation.]

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To Tara Ward I owe the phrase "songs that are not 'Alleluia'" - and I look forward to seeing her use it in a quite different context.

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And yet....

We have come by a long road, you and I, my friends. From Cana in Galilee, where we celebrated at the wedding-feast together – remember, “You have saved the best wine for last”. From Cana where we saw the Savior work a miracle – turning water into wine, showing all the wedding-guests that he was like a bridegroom himself and that until some consummation unforeseen by us he would be with us like a bridegroom and we should party like a bridegroom’s friends. As if he himself were the source of love and laughter.

And so we began a jolly company, and made our way along the road as happy as the merry men of Sherwood or the knights adventuring from Camelot. Would we be legends too? The thought crept into more than one head.

But then we saw stranger things. There was the woman at the well, in Samaria, and Jesus was there with her. We had gone into town and forgotten all about him – and here he was talking to this outcast. And he promised her something beyond belief. There at Jacob’s Well he said he had something better to offer, better than that old still water of the well, from which she drew (in mid-day, no less, so no one else was about her as she drew up the bucket): he offered living water, running water, flowing water – and he offered it as if he were its source. As if he were the source of life itself.

Then there was the man born blind, to whom he gave sight – as if he were the source of light itself.

And then he came to Bethany – despite our pleadings he walked into almost certain capture, to see one last time his old friend Lazarus. By the time we got there though Lazarus was a stinking corpse. There was no point in staying there any longer. If you had been here, Lord, my brother would not have died. Both sisters said that. And then Jesus said, “Lazarus, come forth.” And the dead man walking, bond as he was by his grave clothes, came out and was alive again.

And there we were, with Jesus, just a man no longer – now appearing to us as the source of life and light, of love and laughter. We knew now he was Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah. He was the king of Israel, and its hope. He was our deliverer, our savior: the liberator that God had promised to his people.

He was more than that, to us. He had led us all this way. He was our teacher, and our leader, and our friend. We had journeyed a long way together, and taken the long road. He set his face toward the city, and we traveled with him.

We came at last to Jerusalem.

It was all over. We had a good week, at the start: an excellent week. There was the procession of the palms, the days in the Temple – do you remember the whip of cords, the overturning of the tables? – and the nights outside town, together. There was the anticipation of the Passover, and the invitation to the feast. Then there was a strange incident at dinner. What you have to do, go on and do it. Jesus said that to Judas. What did that mean? We wondered. And then we went into the garden at Gethsemane, and Peter and James and John went apart a little ways with Jesus, and then he went on alone. And then the soldiers came, and we knew what Judas had been up to. But it was too late.

And we ran for it. Peter tried to stop them – for a while. Then he too fell back.

And they took away our master.

We followed, some of us, at a distance. Peter even got into the high priest’s courtyard – by lying.

The women among us were not so obvious about it, and somehow they managed to stay alongside Jesus as he was led to his death. They followed him up the hill, and he spoke to them: “Do not weep for me, daughters of Jerusalem. Weep for yourselves, and for your children.” What was coming – what, that could be worse than what was happening before their eyes?

For the soldiers took Jesus, and handed him over to the executioners, and they nailed him right onto the cross. And he was raised up – and then he died.

It was a quiet afternoon. We hid out, did ordinary things, or kept to ourselves. And wept.

He was gone. The one who had been our teacher, our most beloved teacher, our master, Rabbouni, and more than that, our friend. For he had made us his friends, on that last night if no other, when he got up from washing our feet and came back to the table and ate with us, and reminded us that – that some day he would not be with us when we gathered but he would be there in the midst of us nevertheless, if we remembered him whenever we came together.

And so we promised we would. Little knowing. The moment would be soon.

And now he was gone. Our hope – and not ours only, Israel’s: and not only that, the hope of the world. That hope was gone now; Pilate and the Temple rats had won.

I think.

I know.

I feel it.

And yet…


Good Friday 2008

Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 22
Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9
John 18:1-19:42

May I speak in the Name of the Son, in the Power of the Holy Spirit, to the Glory of God the Father. AMEN.

Thanks to Steve Moore, Herb O’Driscoll & Esther Davis for good ideas.

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