Every year, as I approach Holy Week, I think a lot about what might have been going through Jesus’ mind as He approached the end of His life. I can imagine His Keystone Kop-like disciples sitting on the floor drawing plans in the dirt, kind of like kids playing football in the backyard. They might have been thinking they would create a revolution that would throw the hated colonialist Romans out of their precious, God-given land. They were probably afraid and elated all at the same time, feeling courageous and cowardly as they dreamed the impossible dream of freedom. Maybe they saw themselves as modern-day Maccabeans, fighting the good fight for liberty and God as they prayed for oil and justice. And Jesus? His vision of the next week and a half was probably far different.
I rejected the idea that Jesus’s death was part of God’s plan decades ago. Like the Abraham story, which Christians since have connected to the story of Jesus, I cannot accept that any person or deity would willingly murder a child as a test. I could not see God committing suicide – which, if you believe that Jesus and God and the Holy Spirit are one, is exactly what it would be. Jesus didn’t begin His ministry by proclaiming His death; He began it by proclaiming the nearness of the Kingdom of God. Repent, He and John the Baptizer preached – get ready. The Kingdom is about to happen.
The problem, as so many wise theologians before me have rightly said, is that proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God means that Caesar is not the Son of God. Proclaiming a new order that puts the Kingdom of God first means that the Kingdom of Rome is not first. One thing that Caesar and Rome were good at was maintaining order by any means necessary. That ragtag group of peasants had no hope of overthrowing Rome, and Jesus knew it. He was a spiritual revolutionary who had access to great power, but He knew that violence wouldn’t bring about God’s rule, because God’s rule is the opposite of human rule. He also knew that the path He walked would lead Him to death, no matter how hard they fought to make Him King. If Jesus was truly human, He had free-will, just like the rest of us. He could have decided to walk away; He as much says so a couple of times in the Gospels. The problem was that walking away wouldn’t solve the problem of Rome either.
None of us knows what God wants, at least in specifics. I have my schedule today, and I am not so self-centered to believe that God has put that plan together for me. God does not micro-manage, and God does not protect us from self-inflicted mistakes or the mistakes of others. God does not put a bubble over us as our car crashes into another vehicle. God sits by us in the crash. God weathers the storms with us and tells us we are loved. I think that is what happened with Jesus; I am with you until the end of the earth. No matter what happens. The hard truth is that we all suffer and live through loss and feel pain. For me, God in the midst of all of it with God’s metaphorical arms around us and God’s metaphorical lips kissing our cheeks. Do not be afraid; don’t let your hearts be troubled. I am here. No matter what happens – God is here.
Prayer – We thank You, God, for being our source of comfort in the midst of difficulty. For being our rest and our courage and our strength. For being our peace. Amen.
Today’s art is over 15,000 paper doves created by visitors with messages of peace will be suspended in Durham Cathedral this summer. Peace Doves, a mass-participation artwork by Peter Walker, is set to take center stage in the Nave of Durham Cathedral from Thursday, July 25, 2024. The artwork will be made up of thousands of individually handmade paper doves which will be suspended above the Cathedral’s historic Nave.