The Natural Response

“As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, "Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

       This is the earliest record we have in Scripture of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. It sounds similar to their reports that we have in Matthew's Gospel as well as in Luke, but there are some major differences as well.

     The most obvious difference between this gospel story and the others is that we do not see our encounter the risen Lord Jesus himself. All we have is the message of the angel, the young man dressed in a white robe who is sitting inside the tomb.
      In fact, if Mark's Gospel was the only account we had of the resurrection of Jesus, we would have a real problem understanding what really happened. That's one of the reasons that this particular story is not used very often on Easter Sunday. Matthew, Luke, and John tell us much fuller stories about what took place on Easter Sunday, so we naturally favor them over Mark.
     Yet it is still a good thing for us to pay attention to what Mark has to say about the resurrection of our Lord, because he is the first one to actually write it down for us. And Mark tells us a lot about what happened on that day.
     Mark tells us that on the first day of the week after the sun had risen three women went to the tomb of Jesus to anoint him with some special spices that they were bringing with them. They were not asking philosophical or theological questions like why would God allow his son to be crucified? Or how could this have possibly happened to such a good kind and generous man?
     For them the big question with a very simple, practical one: "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?"
     Mark tells us that when they got to the tomb they realized that the question they were struggling with was not a question at all because the stone had already been rolled away.
     As they entered into the tomb, they discovered the answer to the question who rolled away the stone, for there was a messenger from God waiting for them to give them instructions and a message to bring back to the disciples.
     How would you have responded to this encounter with a messenger from God?
     Would you have run from the tomb, jumping and shouting for joy at the news that Jesus was raised from the dead? Would you have started singing the words of the Hallelujah Chorus? Is there any “natural” way of responding to the unlikely and unexpected news that God had raised Jesus from the dead?
     Well, there is a natural way of responding to such news. That's exactly what Mark tells us is the way the women responded to the news when they heard it. They went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.
     Any other response to that strange and unexpected encounter would be absolutely unbelievable. They did exactly what any normal, sane, or intelligent person would do. They fled. Wouldn't you?
     They were afraid. Wouldn't you be afraid also? What was really going on here? What was going to happen to them in the future? What was God trying to accomplish anyway?
     Mark leaves us hanging, so to speak. We don't have any more information from Mark than what we have right here. Like those women, we are left wondering about what resurrection of Jesus is all about. But we do have something. We have the word from that messenger sent by God, "He is not here; he has been raised," and in the end, maybe that's all we really need to have.
     That's not all that the messenger from God told the women that day. He went on to give them instructions. "Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you."
     In other words, although this is the place where Mark ends his gospel, this is not the place where God ends the Gospel. They may have been terrified by what they experienced at the tomb of Jesus that morning, but they did go on Galilee, and they did see him.
     How do we know that? Because we have the story, just as it is written right now. If the women had absolutely  refused to say anything to anyone, we would never have ever heard about them in the first place. There would be no Easter Gospel at all.
     Somewhere along the line, the women discovered the same thing that we discover when we hear the good news about Jesus' resurrection. In time, Jesus made his presence and power known to those women in a way that changed their lives forever, and that's exactly what Jesus wants to do with you and with me.
     Yes, that day they were seized by terror and amazement and said nothing anyone, but that's perfectly okay. I wonder what difference it would make for us, if when we heard the story of Jesus resurrection we could recognize that it is indeed an extraordinary tale, unlike any other story that has ever been told. Maybe then, we would be better able to recognize the presence and power of the risen Christ in our own everyday lives just as he made himself known to them.

The Triumph of the Cross

     "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?"  Those words from Psalm 22 are very familiar to most of us because they are the words Jesus quoted while he was dying on the cross, and although we commonly think of there being seven last words of Christ on Good Friday, in Mark's Gospel these words are the only ones that Jesus is quoted as having said.
     "My God my God why have you forsaken me?"  shock us and confuse us. We ask ourselves, "how could Jesus say such a thing?" If ever there was a man who had a close intense relationship with God, it was Jesus. In fact, as Christians we confess that Jesus was God, in the flesh. It doesn't make any sense to us at all that Jesus would ever say such a thing.
     That's what makes Good Friday such a troubling day of the year for us who follow after Jesus, because in spite of the fact that we say, "Jesus came into the world to be the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world," the fact is that he died a horrible, excruciating death, being falsely accused and unjustly convicted,  surrounded and mocked by his enemies, and totally abandoned by his disciples.
     In contrast to Mark's Gospel, John's account of the passion of our Lord does not even mention Jesus ' cry of dereliction. The closest we get to any personal expression of suffering is just one single word John does include: " I thirst."  Indeed, after all that Jesus went through, we do not doubt that Jesus suffered a painful death. But when we hear the psalmist's words on Jesus lips, as Mark tells the  story, we come much closer to the reality of what his suffering was really like.
      As we ponder the mystery of the cross we wonder what it must have been like for him  to be forsaken by God? What must it feel like to be forsaken by God? The psalmist's experience gives us some insight into those types of feelings.
      It is one thing to have never known God at all or to have no memory of God having touched your life, but it is far worse to be "abandoned " by the one you had relied upon for everything good. That sense of loss increases the pain we feel and leaves us feeling completely isolated and cut off from everyone. Our desolation leads to desperation, and that leads to despair and hopelessness. No one in their right mind wants to be there.
     But that's exactly where Jesus was on Good Friday. He was isolated, desolate, desperate, despairing, and hopeless.
     We don't like to knowledge this fact about Good Friday. It is much more pleasant for us to meditate on Jesus words "Father,  forgive them, for they know not what they do," or "Today you will be with me in paradise," or "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit," or "I thirst," or even "It is finished."
     But when we hear Jesus cry out, "My God my God why have you forsaken me?" we should not be filled with despair, because those are words that give us real comfort when we think about them.  We realize that if Jesus could feel that level of intense pain and abandonment, then there is no pain or disappointment or despair that we could possibly experience in our own lives that could ultimately destroy us and separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
     Isn't that what St. Paul was referring to when he described us as being united with Christ in a death like his? Our union with Christ and his death and resurrection is something that gives us all a source of hope, for, as Paul goes on to say, "if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his."
     That is a triumph of the cross for all who believe and are baptized. Apart from Christ's resurrection the story of the crucifixion of our Lord is the ultimate sign of weakness and foolishness. It is sheer hopelessness and despair for us. But, because God raised Jesus from the dead on the third day, his cross becomes for us the true sign and symbol of God's wisdom and power.
     And that means that no matter how difficult life can become for us, no matter how intense the suffering we may have to  endure may be, no matter how overwhelming a challenge we may have to face, we still have hope and we will still overcome because Jesus borethe cross for us. Paul tells us, "he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him."
     "My God my God why have you forsaken me?" Is in the and a very profound prayer arising from the depths of our human experience. But in the cross of Christ we discover that in the end, like the psalmist, we who fear the Lord will praise him, glorify him, and stand in awe of him because he has not hidden his face from us, and he will always hear our cry.
     It is that victory in Christ that makes this a "Good" Friday for us and for all the world.

Lessons on Footwashing

    Today is Maundy Thursday, the first of the three days we call the Triduum. It is an important day in some ways the most important of the three days that we celebrate during holy week.

    There are so many very important events that take place on this particular day. Of course there is the last supper Jesus celebrated with his disciples. But that event is followed shortly afterwards by Jesus trip to the Garden of Gethsemane where he prayed in the garden that God might remove the cup of suffering from him.
     That prayer is followed by the betrayal of Jesus by one of his own disciples, Judas Iscariot,  and then his arrest by soldiers sent from the religious authorities of his day.
     In rapid succession we hear about Jesus being put on trial by the religious authorities, and we hear about the encounter Peter had in the courtyard of the high priest with a servant girl who believed that he was one of Jesus followers. It was there that Peter denied Jesus three times as Jesus had predicted.
     Finally, we hear the confrontation between the high priest and Jesus leading to Jesus' condemnation by the Sanhedrin.
     As we gather here today, however, the Gospel lesson focuses us on the new commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples and the dramatic act he performed by washing his disciples’ feet.
     The water Jesus in that footwashing experience is another one of the “Water Marks” God has given to us to teach us what it means to be faithful followers of Jesus and servants of God.
     In some ways, however, it is washing the feet of others that is most difficult for contemporary Christians to deal with. The problem is not with the story itself, of course, but rather when it is when we try to reenact the washing of feet within the context of a worship service like today. Like Peter in the Gospel lesson itself, we find it very difficult to take off our shoes and socks and submit ourselves to that kind of ceremony.
     What was Peter's problem? It was not that he didn't have dirty feet, but that he didn't really understand what Jesus was trying to accomplish by doing that particular act, and, in fairness to Peter, we must point out that was only after Jesus washed the disciples’ feet that he explained to them what it was really all about.
     John tells us that after Jesus had washed their feet and put on his robe and returned to the table he said to them, "Do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you are right, that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have set you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them."
     Jesus went on to explain to his disciples, " I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I have said to the Jews so now I say to you 'Where I am going you cannot come.' I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you should you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
     Doesn't it seem ironic that Christians should have difficulty with the reenactment of the ceremony that Jesus himself performed on the night of his betrayal and arrest on the night before his crucifixion? We don’t have trouble with the other part of the Last Supper account, the sharing of the bread and the cup. This was the last opportunity our Lord and teacher had to teach a lesson to his disciples knowing that he would not be able to teach them any longer after this night. Don’t you think we should take it more seriously?
     There are three basic lessons Jesus wanted to get across to his disciples and to us as the ones would follow after them in future generations. Each of these lessons is about something we need to learn if we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus and servants of God.
     The first lesson is this. We need to learn how to be humble and how to receive what God wants to give us. That is a very difficult thing for us to understand. We have no trouble accepting the teaching of Scripture that it is more blessed to give than to receive, that is, of course, when are feeling generous toward others. We are proud people, and it is hard for us to actually receive from others, even from God.
     That Jesus is trying to get across, however. It is important for us to be able to receive before we can really understand the value of giving to others. As Jesus says, servants are not greater than their masters. In order to be a faithful servant, we must be able to humble ourselves and receive from others what they have to offer. When we are serving others we are vulnerable, and we are not in control. When we are able to receive from others, then we can understand better what it is like to be the recipient of the grace we want to bestow on others.  A true sense of humility enables us to give freely to others without having to impose our will on others.
     The second lesson Jesus is trying to get across to us in this example of washing his disciples' feet is that it is important for us to actually serve others. We become true servants by serving. It’s as simple as that. They are the ones who need to be in control, not we.
     By definition, serving others requires us to be open and willing to adapt to the needs of the person or persons we are trying to serve, but sometimes we are hesitant or reluctant to do so if their needs are not the kind of needs we are interested in serving.
     We have to learn to think from the perspective of the one who is being served.  I'm reminded of the cartoon of the little old lady standing on the street corner with a cane lifted up saying," If another Boy Scout tries to force me to cross the street, I'm going to bang him with this stick."
     Sometimes we say we are willing to serve others, but instead we try to determine the terms and conditions of that service. What Jesus is saying to us is simply this, if you're willing to serve then simply serve. Don't be condescending towards those you are trying to serve.
      Finally, Jesus is teaching us that the true service must come out our willingness to express our love for God by showing love to others. He says to his disciples, "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." Because God loves us, we love others. That’s what it is all about.
     Can you see what Jesus is trying to do here? He is trying to build a community that is founded upon self-giving love. He's not offering us a bunch of rules and regulations to obey. He's not supplying us with detailed job descriptions. Just the opposite, Jesus is pointing us to take an active part in creating an open future built upon loving relationships between those whom he has called together to be a sign of God's new creation in the world.
     Jesus is showing us that we need to make a transition from being followers to being leaders who serve under his guidance in the power of the Holy Spirit for the sake of the kingdom of God. That night he knew that his life among them was coming to an end in just a few hours, but he also knew that his life would continue in them and through them for generations to come. By laying down his life for us on the cross, he was also lifting us up so that we might bear that cross ourselves and follow in the path that he has shown us.
     So, if we want to be faithful to our Lord, we need to do what he tells us to do. We are humble servants, set apart by God’s grace to show his love in real time among the people to whom he sends us. When we are willing to do that, then his mission among us has come to its fulfillment.