Loading...We’ve been walking this journey with Jesus since Sunday morning, when we began the day with shouts of “Hosanna!” Last night, we did as Jesus did and washed feet, received the Last Supper, and today, even knowing the love and companionship of this Son of God, we joined the crowd and shouted, “Crucify him!”
Now, it is just after noon. According to scripture it is in this hour, Jesus breathed his last breath. His mother, watching, wept with the others. Today, two thousand years later, we sit, reliving this moment, unable to truly comprehend the brutality and senselessness of this death.
We need to sit with it. We need to recognize what Jesus’ life was and why it ended in such a horrific way. Even though we know what is to come in three days, we need to relive this death.
It isn’t easy. It’s not supposed to be easy. Knowing another human being’s life has been cut short because someone misunderstood the meaning of love…all we can ask is what’s wrong with love?
The idea of radical love ran so counter to what the Romans hoped to accomplish in Israel. They did not want this subversive love to change their conquering nature. It was easy to defeat people in Jerusalem because they were not seen as people, valued and beloved. They were in the way of what the Roman Empire wanted.
And this man, this Jesus, was trying to teach everyone he met the value of every human being. He showed how to respect the dignity of every human being. He helped the helpless, healed the sick, and fed the hungry. He brought those who were removed from society back into their communities. He taught how to love the loveless and welcome the unwelcome.
And the Romans thought, “Who is this man? He is making it hard for us to conquer these people. He is changing our viewpoint. He is making us see them as…people just like us.”
So, they destroyed Jesus, thinking if he was gone, the idea that all people are beloved, valued, and to be respected, would die with him. They thought what they considered this subversive love he was teaching could be overcome by killing him on a cross.
Now, we imagine what happened so long ago: Jesus dying on that cross. His followers hiding away in fear that they could be next -- if they are identified as his followers. The women weeping as Jesus is taken off this cross and placed in a borrowed cave, or a tomb, for safekeeping, because it is getting towards dark, and everything necessary to prepare his body will need to wait until morning.
We are left with an empty cross, lying on the ground, waiting. Praying. Weeping.
It is as it should be.
Amen.
