Scripture Reference Mark 15:33-41
We repeat this story every year, and no matter how many times I hope for something else, it always ends the same, Jesus breathed his last. No matter how many times we revisit it, we are always confronted with the gruesome and hard fact that our encounter with Jesus always ends with his death. What is harder to even grasp is how helpless we feel to do anything about it, while at the same time how complicit we are in his death.
The disciples are complicit, as they stand by idly, watching from a distance, fearing that their fate may be the same. The women stand by helpless, wanting to do something but cannot. Only the centurion standing guard points out the obvious to us, this truly was God’s son.
Today we also must acknowledge, that Jesus death is not clean nor a quiet death. His life ends, with an agonizing scream of terror and pain. His last words according to Mark are not about forgiveness, nor releasing his spirit. In his agony and pain the only words he can muster is to call upon the psalms crying out is the Israelites in captivity did some 500 years before, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken Me.” But his death also resembled his life. In his ministry nothing was as simple or clean as people would have liked it to have been. Jesus broke the rules, touched the unclean, got down in the mud, and spit, and in it he gave new life and new hope to people who others judged as unfit or undeserving. And so just the same these same people condemned him as unfit and sent him to an undeserving death. And all anybody else could do was run away, or watch in horror and grief. And we too are witnesses and we too are complicit in it.
Today we live in a world where there are almost 3 Billion people who call themselves Christian. All of them today in some way shape or form are observing the events of this day, to acknowledge his death. It is striking that while there are 3 billion of us who claim to follow Jesus, there is still poverty in the world. Children are dying of malnutrition, while we throw away food because we are too full, and we subsidize our farmers to not grow crops. There are children left without mothers and fathers because they don’t have access to the medical care that they need, and is there. There are likewise children in this world dying from treatable diseases, many of which we don’t even think about in this country anymore. Oppression exists in may forms in discrimination, sexism, racism, homophobia, bullying, child labor, and even slavery. Yes we are complicit in his death when we turn a blind eye to such things or yes simply say, well we will pray for them, but what can I do, what can any of us do. Surely 3 billion of us around the world can do more. For as much progress we have made we are reminded in Jesus agonizing death that there is still far more to do. We are called to do more than to just transform hearts and transform minds, we are called to transform lives and to transform the world. That is ultimately why he died, so that others, so that we might live, yes even we who are complicit in his death, might live. When we ask what can I do we would do well to remember his words, and his teaching that reminds us that we his church have the spirit of the lord upon us to preach good news to the poor, give sight to the blind, and set the captives free, and proclaim the year of the lords favor. We can do this because the Kingdom of God is as he says in Luke’s gospel, is within us.
But today, all we can do is watch. All we can do is hide, all we can do is shiver is the agonizing cries of a forsaken, and broken messiah, echo from the height of the cross. We know today there is more to the story, but for now we must tell this part of the story, the story of him crucified, the story of his willingness to suffer and pay the ultimate price, so that we won’t have to. Hopefully when we walk away today, we can at least say, truly this was God’s Son.
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