Which Crucified Christ

April 13th, 2014

Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday

The Rev. David Kendrick

Which crucified Christ might you need to see this Holy Week? Which crucified Christ might the Church, or the world need to see? 

That has been the question I've raised regularly with my Lenten "class," as we've discussed the Raymond Brown book, A Crucified Christ in Holy Week. At the end of his book, Brown uses a diamond as a metaphor. It always looks different from the angle you're looking at as the light shines on its many facets, and each angle reveals only part of its overall beauty. The Passion of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus is that diamond. And the Gospels are the angles. They were written by human beings at least a generation after the events they described. They were written to Christian communities that had already experienced different forms of rejection and persecution for acclaiming Jesus as the Jewish Messiah, and God the Son. And in his suffering and death, they found meaning and purpose for their own. 

The Gospel of Matthew was written to a community of mostly Jews who beloved with all their hearts that Jesus Christ had fulfilled all the hopes and mission of God's chosen people. Eventually they found themselves expelled from the synagogues for that belief. That bitterness is reflected in this account of Jesus' trial, especially that most unfortunate phrase, "His blood be on us and our children." The recent PBS series on the History of the Jews is a reminder of how much more wrong has been done to the Jewish people by Christians than vice versa. And when we hear Jesus say that his "blood is poured out for many;" in the Semitic language that Jesus spoke, the antonym of "many" was "few," not "all." So that in the language that Jesus spoke at the Last Supper, he meant, "all," including those who called for his death. 

And it is also "all" who were responsible for his death. Pilate's face saving gesture aside, it was his Roman, Gentile soldiers who nailed Jesus to the Cross. It was Roman soldiers, and Jewish leaders who mocked him. Both criminals in Matthew's Gospel taunt him. The crucified Jesus in this Gospel is the one who cries from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" This is the Son of God who was like us in all things except sin, including the despair of feeling alone, abandoned by all, an utter failure. For those who need to see the head bowed in dejection, here is your crucified Christ. 

Or perhaps you need to find some other meaning in your personal "Passion" this Holy Week. Perhaps you need release from the damage done to you, or the damage you have done. Then take the time this week to read Luke's angle on the diamond of the Passion, and hear those words that are found only in Luke's Gospel, "Father forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing." Read how in Luke's Gospel, one of those criminals is moved enough by Jesus' innocence and mercy that he reaches out in repentance, and is welcomed by Jesus in Paradise. Be inspired to ask for that forgiveness that was offered from the cross, and inspired by that forgiveness, extend that release or remission to others. For those who need to see the Son of God's arms outstretched in welcome and mercy, here is your crucified Christ. 

Every Good Friday, the Church bids us to see the Christ who expresses no doubts, who has no Gethsemane moment in the Gospel of John. On Friday, you will see a Jesus in control of his fate from beginning to end. On Friday, you will see a triumphant Christ whose endurance of suffering is his triumph over suffering. Please come back to the one of our two liturgies that day. For we all need to see that the things we fear the most have no real power over us, no more than they had over the Jesus in John's Gospel. For those who need to see that title above his head, "King of the Jews," there will be your crucified Christ. 

Each of us has our personal way of the cross. Each of our experiences of the cross is unique to us, and to Jesus Christ. Jesus has already walked it before you, and this week he will walk it with you. Which crucified Christ do you need this Holy Week? There he is.