.
.
. In the beginning, before God spoke creation into existence, the
earth was formless and void and the spirit of God hovered over the
deep and when God died the earth shook, the body was laid in a tomb,
a stone blocked the entrance and everyone walked away with everything
they ever knew to be true shattered and broken. Darkness fell upon
the earth and creation was undone.
In
less than a week the crowds went from ready to crown him king, to
calling for his crucifixion. In less than one week Jesus went from
riding on a donkey, to hanging on a cross. In less than one week
Jesus went from having praises sung to his name, to the silence of a
cold dark tomb; from palms and cloaks laying out path before him, to
being sealed behind a stone. In one day his disciples go from united
together around him sharing a sacred meal, to scattered and scared
watching as their world, the entire world, falls apart around them.
From king to criminal. From beloved to abandoned. From festive
celebration to funeral. From light to darkness.
This
is the week in which we remember the events which take us to that
place of darkness. This is the week in which we remember that the
fate of all creation hung in the balance when Christ gasped his last
breath, when his body was taken, dead and listless, down from the
cross. That the earth shook, that darkness fell. The sun might have
come up bright and beautiful on Saturday morning, but the world held
its breath, and all creation like a widow standing over a tomb on a
bright spring day, saw nothing but darkness and mourning. For one
moment in time it all ceased to make sense and it seemed as if time
stood still, that everything was frozen in that moment, that dark
moment, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?", "My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?" And he cried out one more time
and breathed his last breathed.” It was finished. The worst that
could be done, was done. God hung on a cross and nothing was done to
save the Christ as he suffered, bled and died. And all the earth
joined in the cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Rocks were split, curtains were torn, graves thrown open and the
earth shook. Creation was threatened to be undone, the one through
whom all things were created had died.
Sometimes
it is easy to forget what the death of Christ really meant. From this
side of the events it is hard to get upset that our God died. For one
brief moment in history all meaning and sense fell apart. The only
explanation, makes absolutely no sense, is is utter gibberish: God
died when Christ died. This is the non-sense that the world had to
live in from Friday night until Sunday morning. We have our palms
here in our hands. We have our songs, our shouts of Hosanna and then
we have the glorious thing that is resurrection morning. It is easy
to get lost in the celebration of it all and forget that neither of
these events have any meaning outside of an understanding of the
death.
The
remembrance of the life of Christ is a remembrance of an entire life,
the remembrance of a birth, of a life lived, of the teachings Christ
gave us, as well as a remembrance of a death. It is fun to celebrate
Christ’s birth. It is edifying to celebrate his baptism, to talk
about and learn from his teachings and his miracles and we will come
back next Sunday and celebrate the glorious, unexpected truth that
defines us as Christians, but first we have to come to terms with
Christ’s death.
In
my experience dead things are just that, dead. Dead is a permanent
thing. It is not something curable, or fixable. When you watch the
coffin of one whom you loved and cherish go into the ground, there is
nothing hopeful about that moment. When Joseph walked away from the
tomb that day he was walking away from a dead man, a body, a corpse
who would live no more. There was no hope. For him there was no
bright Sunday morning on the horizon. The disciples did not know that
they would break bread with him again in just a few short days time,
that they would see, hear and touch him ever again. For them this was
the end of the story. . “He then rolled a great stone to the door
of the tomb and went away,” the end. How can the story go on? How
can there be more? Jesus is dead. All the hopes and all the dreams of
all humanity, nay all creation rested in the God-man, in the messiah,
in Jesus who was called the Christ, the messiah. And they took him.
They beat him, they made fun of him. They nailed him to a cross, he
died, and then they took his body, laid it in a tomb, sealed the tomb
with a stone and walked away.
That
is the end of the story. Joseph believe it to be so. Mary and the
rest of the women agreed. The disciples scattered, were scared, and
could not think of how there possibly could be any hope. The world
was cold. The world was dark. The world had lost all hope. They went
back to their homes, back to their families and huddled together in
the hopeless cold darkness and believe this was really the end. There
was nothing to look forward to. Nothing to pray for. There was only
despair.
And
we have to walk with the disciples, we have to walk with the women,
we need to walk away from a cold, limp body sealed in the darkness of
a tomb, behind a big gray stone and believe with them that all is
lost. We need to be there with them. Right now; this week; sit with
them, feel with them. Understand the darkness, understand the
forsakenness. Understand, really and truly that our God died. The
world was upended. Black was white, day was night. The world shook,
rocks broke open, curtains were torn, and all creation threatened to
be undone. God died. The messiah, Jesus Christ, the hope of all
nations, the bringer of new life, the fulfillment of time ,died. “My
God my God, why have you forsaken me!” the cry of all humanity, the
cry of all creation is heard screaming through the air, heard in the
rocks, heard in the sky, heard in the silence of the grave. It rang
out Friday night, it was whispered on the wind all day Saturday, it
rung through the darkness of Saturday night and it threatened to be
the final word. The end. Humanity forsaken, God dead.
Not
a pleasant place to be. But that is where we are. We live daily in
the death, daily in the forsakenness. We live daily in a world which
seems absolutely and utterly godless. We need to understand the
reality of the sacrifice which was made. This is the week for us to
come to terms once again or for the first time with the darkness and
hopelessness of what the death of Christ means. We walk with Jesus
this week toward death. We walk with the disciples toward abandonment
and hopelessness. We walk away with Joeseph away from a cold dark
tomb containing our dead messiah and see the darkness around, feel
the world as it really truly is and wait huddled together. Wait and
mourn and cry. Our God died.
So
let us commemorate together the end of our Messiah’s life, walk
with him and his disciples to the last meal shared together on
Thursday. Watch as Peter denies him, as he is handed over to one
earthly ruler and then another, finally beaten mocked, and hung on a
cross, and then died. Let us watch as they put him in the grave, seal
the tomb and walk away, walk away as the earth shakes, and darkness
surrounds, and feel what they felt, know only what they knew and wait
as they waited with no celebration to look forward to.
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