The Dynamite Of The Cross

[Note: Today’s guest blogger is Courtney Davis. Courtney was a doctoral student studying theology at the University of Notre Dame when she was stricken with disabling chronic illnesses. Though her health has kept her from returning to formal study, Courtney is a lifetime learner and still finds great purpose and joy studying what scripture tells us about community, justice, and the virtue of courage. When she is not studying, facilitating SWIFT gatherings, or advocating for meaningful healthcare and disability rights, she enjoys crafting and creating with recycled materials, gardening, watching K-dramas, and engaging in deep philosophical discussions with her 3 cats: October Sunset, Eartha Kitten, and Blue Lotus Moon. Thank you, Courtney!]

I’ve written about the Suffering Servant many times in the last 2 decades and hope to be able to continue to write about this story in the coming years as well, because it is rich with imagery and infinite teachings about theology in the Christian tradition. With every change in circumstance, context, and new experience the story reveals more profound insights about ourselves as individuals, as community, and more so about the Christ sent by God to bring life into the world.

In previous years, when I’ve encountered the Suffering Servant through the rotation of daily scripture, the tendency has been to take a deep theological dive into the text. But this year was different, because the past 12 months have been very, very different. Reading the Isaiah passage took my thoughts to a truly unexpected place, social media and the world of political news punditry, the latter of which I am absolutely not a fan. I don’t recall what I was searching for online that day, but no thanks to the search engine’s algorithm, details about a caustic remark, made by one female journalist to another Emmy Award-winning female journalist, appeared on my laptop screen. 

First of all, a coat of mascara would be your friend. You need a little work, and you should have them back off the camera a little bit because you are not attractive enough to have that extreme close-up.

The personal attack was reportedly the response to a perspective the first party in question took issue with. To be clear, I don’t trade in gossip, the tabloids, the spread of misinformation, or celebrity feuds as online fodder. However, I was struck by the remark for a litany of reasons, primarily because of what it captured about our current state as a people and, in particular, purported people of faith, like the journalist (with a national platform), who made the remarks. 

Since January of last year, there has been significant emphasis in certain political circles placed on the exaltation of outward beauty and conspicuous displays of Christianity (the prominently displayed “signature” gold cross pendant) that more and more have become the subject of many news reports coming out of our nation’s capitol. Perhaps then, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a story like the Suffering Servant – the moral of which subverts social conventions of beauty, political power, and faith – would lead me to hearken back to the pundit’s remarks. 

Not only were the remarks ugly and unChristian (ironically the journalist telling on herself), they signaled our moral failure as individuals, communities of faith, and one nation under God to understand what the prophet meant when he spoke to Israel in exile and said, “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted” (52:13). The Zebedee boys clearly didn’t grasp the meaning of the story’s opening lines either, otherwise they would’ve known better than to ask Jesus to sit at his right side and his left side “when you are King,” (Matt 20:21). They wanted to be raised high and greatly exalted, to be seen and esteemed by all, to claim all the attributes of the chosen: beauty, power, wealth, prestige, wisdom, influence, etc., etc., etc. 

If you’ve cracked the pages of the New Testament, you know James and John were disappointed when Jesus told them he wasn’t here for all that foolishness and made the very first No Kings Day proclamation. “You know how kings and leaders abuse their power? That’s not how we do! If you want to be great, you have to serve!” Yes, I’m paraphrasing, but the point is Jesus wanted to make clear to his errant disciples that being raised high and greatly exalted isn’t about being served. It’s about serving others through self-sacrifice, the kind the Suffering Servant foretold. 

Our readings today from Psalm 31 to Paul’s Letters to the Hebrews and Phillipians to the Gospel according to John further draw out the narrative: Jesus was sent by God to denounce the leaders of Rome and the Sanhedrin, who failed to recognize I AM and, more importantly, to bring life into the world. And as Paul reminds the Hebrews, so we, too, are reminded of the days when Jesus, in the flesh, was tested by the abuse of power, inequality, moral decay, corruption, iniquity, and sacrilege. Offering prayers and supplications, God heard his loud cries and tears, not because Jesus was beautiful, not because he was politically powerful, not because he wore a gold “signature” pendant bearing his likeness, but because obedience made him perfect, obedience “to the point of death, even death on a cross,” (Phil 2:8). 

The Passion narrative is not new to us. It is 2 millennia old. What is new is the current context today through which we revisit Jesus’ betrayal, denial and abandonment by friends and disciples, the injustice of his interrogation, detention and assault, his unlawful prosecution, sentencing, and violent execution, on this Good Friday, when our country is unjustifiably at war with Iran, incomprehensibly at odds with our oldest and closest allies as well as the common goods – life, liberty, and justice for all – on which this nation was founded. With that long preface, I want to focus, finally, on the spectacular miracle of Jesus’ resurrection, without which Good Friday would just be Friday. 

The Gospel of John is unique, because unlike the synoptic gospels, Jesus is not hush-hush about who he is – I AM – and has no qualms about performing miracles. In fact, the miracles are quite spectacular insofar as they are, just that, public spectacles. Jesus, like Moses, is one of the earliest and the most celebrated of influencers. He wants everyone to see and be blown away by his demonstrations of power in God’s name. And the pièce de résistance? The miraculous resurrection, salvation, and exaltation of Jesus Christ by God the Father, not 1, not 2, but 3 days after a highly public and extremely ignominious execution. Caesar, the Roman Senate, Pilate, the Sanhedrin, Satan, and death can’t outdo God!

The word “miracle,” by the way, is Greek for “demonstration of power” that roughly translates in English to “dynamite.” Jesus uses this explosive power not for the purposes of death and destruction, not to wage war, not to abuse, seek vengeance, bully, demean, or to be served, but “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name,” (John 20:30-31).

This Good Friday, I wish you peace and leave you with a few words from Pope Leo’s Palm Sunday homily. 

Jesus is the King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war. He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them…Christ, King of Peace, cries out from His Cross: God is love! Have mercy! Lay down your weapons! Remember that you are brothers and sisters.