Don’t Look Away

Readings: IS 52:13—53:12; HEB 4:14-16; 5:7-9; JN 18:1—19:42

We live in a broken world.

As I am preparing these reflections, I glance at the headlines and read: ‘Gunman opens fire on crowded Brooklyn subway’; “Report: State of Black America is grim”; “Gunmen kill more than 100 in Nigeria”; “Russia accused of genocide in Ukraine.” And that’s just a fraction of what I could say on one day in the world we live in.

While there is a certain heaviness that I have felt lately, I feel it more profoundly on Good Friday.  For me, this is a day to grieve and mourn all that is broken, hurt and difficult in our lives and in this world.   There is just so much pain and misery. Some of it seems inevitable – like illness or accidents. But so much seems unnecessary – stemming from something deep within the human condition.

I find it helpful sometimes to “forget” that I know the ending of the Christian story (Easter Sunday) and just focus on this day.  The community of Jesus witnesses him being taken away, and for the most part they all abandon him.  They watch from a distance as he is beaten and dragged through the streets – ultimately being killed by the state as a criminal. His good friends left him when he needed them the most and one even betrayed him for money or out of anger.

The story of Jesus and so much of what I witness leaves me constantly asking, “Why?”

On Good Friday, there are no easy answers.  Just like there is no quick fix. No certainty. No resolution and no solace. No one comes to the rescue and there is nothing to really comfort us.  There is a rawness and harshness to this day that, sadly, many around this world bear most days.

My colleague, Sheila, recently reflected that the theme of the Lenten observance that she and others have been following has been “don’t look away.”  This just struck me as such a powerful theme and message for us today.

Good Friday invites us to not look away from the harshness of this world and the capacities for harm that humans inflict upon one another. Whether it is crucifixion or crushing poverty, betrayals or beatings, exclusions or executions, we have all had a part in the harm. And we are asked to look more deeply at our hurts but also at the role we have had in the world’s hurts.

Or maybe we are being asked to not look away from our disappointments and all the things that seemingly failed in our lives. Maybe there are relationships or projects that just didn’t work out. Maybe we lost a loved one too soon and wished we had more time. Maybe we thought life would be different, and it isn’t.

Maybe we’re being asked to look at what is real – no distractions, illusions or buffers. As they say, “straight, no chaser.”

For today, maybe we just sit in silence with the brokenness of the world – outside and inside.  Whatever hurts in your life right now.  Whatever is unfinished.  Whatever hopes have been dashed.  Whatever outcomes are looking bleak. Whatever seems as though it is gone and beyond repair or hope.  Don’t look away.

Look upon it knowing that our God looks upon it with you and says, “I understand…and I am with you in it.”

Additional reflection:

Because many of us have become so familiar with the story of Good Friday, it’s possible that we can lose sight of the context of what is happening.  Jesus of Nazareth was being executed by the state (the Roman empire) for the crime of treason.  Crucifixion was the most common form of “capital punishment” at the time, and that was his sentence.  The execution was public in order to send a message to everyone.

Our God was a criminal.

Jerry Bowyer wrote a marvelous piece for Forbes online in 2014 entitled Jesus of Nazareth, Enemy of the State, Executed for Treason. He wrote it like a news column would be written about the events of Good Friday (from the perspective of a Roman news official).  In it he says,

Jesus’ criminal career included public insults of the king (calling Herod a ‘fox’ and ‘a reed blowing in the wind’), implying that the Roman state was under God and not properly the other way around, harassment of government officials including at least one tax collector and one Sanhedrin member, as well as ordering and/or encouraging them to remit wealth back to the people from whom it was lawfully taxed. He was also guilty of a series of actions which treasonously called into legitimacy organs of the state such as Herod’s Temple. For example, he offered forgiveness and fellowship with God to sinners, violating the temple monopoly of public expiation and forgiveness. Furthermore, he illegally trespassed on government property and interfered with state-sanctioned money-changing operations which were properly operating with the permission of the appointees of the king at state-approved exchange rates.

What is the point in recalling this?

Jesus’ death on the cross was not God’s idea or requirement.  Instead it was where Jesus was led by his decision not to let anything stand in the way of love.

Jesus knew that the heart of God was love.  Period.  And he lived in such a way that nothing would be allowed to stop that love (and he seemed particularly committed to extend that love to the people who were left out in one way or another).  He did not let economic systems or political systems or religious systems stop his love.  He did not let systems of belonging stop his love.  He did not let ideas of clean and unclean stop his love.  He did not let ideas of rich and poor stop his love.  And he did not let fear or threats of violence stop his love.

If we look at his “crimes” above – those which ultimately got him condemned to death by the state – we see that he spoke truth to power, redistributed wealth, questioned the legitimacy of institutions of domination, offered forgiveness without sanction and undermined traditional systems of economic exploitation.

Thus, the cross was not some punishment that Jesus took on because God asked him to save us from our sins.  The cross was the response of empire to one who refused to let anything stop his love, and Jesus willingly followed love to the end.

So even as we let in the grief and mourning today, let us also imagine all the ways that we can refuse to let anything stop our love.