The Ven. Richard I Cluett
April 9, 2006
Mark 11:1-11
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Philippians 2:5-11 Mark 14:1-15:47
This is quite a day. We go from the soaring celebration high of the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem to the grim horror of his passion and death on the cross to the grace of Holy Communion. It is almost manic. Vaulted high. Dashed low. Lifted for communion. And then sent away.
Our time today and all this week can be simply a time for remembering what happened way back then; engaging in a kind of vicarious empathy. But, there is a danger in approaching this week as a remembering of a historical event, rather than it being an existential reality we participate in. We would separate ourselves from those people back there in history who would do some things which we would never do.
I believe that the hardest work of Holy Week is not to identify ourselves with the Jewish authorities or crowds or the Roman soldiers who did the deeds or the disiples who left. I believe the hardest work of Holy Week is to confront our need of the Cross.
It would have been so much better if redemption, if salvation could be accomplished with less pain, less passion, less horror. That would be my choice. Do I really need the Cross? Do you really need the Cross? Does it really have to get to that?
There is a story about an Italian village in Lombardy by the name of Bergamo. In 1630, a great plague hit the inhabitants of Bergamo and its surroundings: about one half of the population died – about 90, 000 people. Those who were left could not keep up with burying the dead. The conditions were so bad that the inhabitants eventually gave up any semblance of civilized living, any semblance of faith. Anarchy reigned, immorality prevailed and there was no sign of God.
Into this living hell came a young monk, who walked to the church and rang the bell to gather the people.
He spoke to them in this way, “Jesus was on the cross. He looked down on the yelling, mocking mob for whom he was giving his life. He was about to say, “Father, forgive them…” but anger overtook him and he didn’t say it.
“He tore free His feet over the heads of the nails, and He clenched His hands round the nails and tore them out, so that the arms of the cross bent like a bow. Then He leaped down upon the earth and snatched up His garment so that the dice rolled down the slope of Golgotha, and flung it round himself with the wrath of a king and ascended into heaven.
“And the cross stood empty, and the great work of redemption was never fulfilled. There is no mediator between God and us; there is no Jesus who died for us on the cross; there is no Jesus who died for us on the cross, there is no Jesus who died for us on the cross!"
“As the monk uttered the last words he leaned forward over the multitude and with his lips and hands hurled the last words over their heads. A groan of agony went through the church, and in the corners they had begun to sob.
“Then a man pushed forward with raised, threatening hands, pale as a corpse, and shouted: "Monk, monk, you must nail Him on the cross again, you must!" and behind him there was a hoarse, hissing sound: "Yea, yea, crucify, crucify Him!" And from all mouths, threatening, beseeching, peremptory, rose a storm of cries up to the vaulted roof: "Crucify, crucify Him!"
“And clear and serene a single quivering voice said: Crucify Him!”*
It seems we need the Cross. Some things in us need to die. Some things in us need to be redeemed. Some things in us need to be forgiven. Some things in us need to be washed clean. Some things in us need to be born again. Some things need in us to be recreated.
Why do you need the Cross of Christ – this year?
God alone knows fully why Jesus endured the Cross, but he did. He was lifted high upon the cross to draw the whole world to himself. He was lifted high on the cross to draw you to himself. And because he was, in the words of that wonderful anthem, “Ye are washed. Ye are sanctified. Ye are justified… in the name of the Lord Jesus.”**
Because Jesus let himself be lifted high upon the Cross, to take off on a wonderful preacher: “The lame will walk and the dumb will speak and the deaf will hear and the blind will see... the self will be dominated and war will be outdated and crime will be devastated and sickness will be eliminated and mean hearts will be subjugated and hypocrisy will be decimated and pestilence will be fumigated and barriers will be eradicated and Satan will be annihilated and Christ will be coronated and the saints … they will be elevated.”***
And because we are washed in the blood of the lamb… we can live truly and wholly in the presence of the living Christ who gave himself up for us on the cross of Golgotha, and in the power of God, in this life and in the life to come where the fullness of God’s glory and the wonder of the work of Jesus will finally be revealed for us all to see and know.
So the question for the week ahead is “Why do you need the Cross of Christ – this year?”
I pray we can say Amen to the work of this Holy Week.
Amen.
* Told by Jens Peter Jacobsen
** Greater Love hath no Man by John Ireland
*** Howard Thurman
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