Easter Perspective: Was It Not Necessary?

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Was It Not Necessary?

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, [Jesus] also shared the same things in the same way.  He did this to destroy the one who holds the power over death - the devil - by dying.  He set free those who were held in slavery their entire lives by their fear of death.

Hebrews 2:14-15 (CEB)

Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake
Come and rise up from the grave

From "Christ Is Risen" by Matt Maher

Toward the end of the Gospel of Luke, we read about two travelers who are heading from the city of Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus.  Until just a few of days ago, they had been disciples of a traveling teacher and miracle worker known as Jesus of Nazareth.  They once had high hopes for Jesus, but their hopes were shattered when He was arrested, put on trial, and unjustly executed by crucifixion.  That morning, a group of women visited Jesus' tomb and found that Jesus' body was missing.¹  Disappointed and confused, the two disciples walk down the road, discussing the strange events of the last few days.²

A stranger joins the two disciples on the road and asks them what they are discussing.  Wondering where this person has been hiding for the last few days, they tell him about Jesus.³  They say,
Because of his powerful deeds and words, he was recognized by God and all the people as a prophet.  But our chief priests and our leaders handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him.  We had hoped he was the one who would redeem Israel.  All these things happened three days ago.  But there's more: Some women from our group have left us stunned.  They went to the tomb early this morning and didn't find his body.  They came to us saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who told them he is alive.  Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found things just as the women said. They didn't see him.⁴

For some reason, the two disciples do not realize that they are speaking to the very person they are describing.

The Risen Jesus says to His two disciples, "You foolish people!  Your dull minds keep you from believing all that the prophets talked about.  Wasn't it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and then enter into his glory?"  He then interprets the Hebrew Scriptures for them, pointing out everything that is written about the Messiah.⁵

The Risen Christ asks rhetorically whether or not it was necessary for Him to be crucified and resurrected, and He seems to be suggesting that it was indeed necessary.  After all, Jesus had warned His disciples on multiple occasions that, once He reached Jerusalem, He would be rejected by the people in charge, beaten, put to death, and then resurrected from the dead.⁶  Many people are haunted by the question of why Jesus had to die, and often the answers they receive are no less disturbing than the question itself.  For example, some suggest that Jesus had to die in order to receive the punishment the rest of humanity rightly deserves so that God can forgive us.

As for me, I have two rather obvious answers to the question of why Jesus had to die.  First, Jesus had to die because He came into a world in which innocent people like Him will be put to death for simply speaking the truth to people who do not want to hear it.  This is the kind of world that desperately needs to be saved.  If you think we have made a lot of progress in the last two thousand years, consider the assassinations and genocides that still happen.  Second, Jesus had to die so that He could be resurrected from the dead.  A person cannot rise from the dead unless that person is first dead.

If you asked me to summarize the Gospel message in just a few words, I would simply tell you, "The Risen Christ is Lord."  Jesus died and rose from the dead in order to free us from the power of sin and death.  Through His crucifixion and subsequent resurrection, He showed us that the death-dealing powers of this world - the kind that nail innocent people to crosses and hang them up to die - are not truly sovereign.  No matter how badly they wanted Jesus out of the way, they could not get rid of Him, for He is the true Lord of this world.  By rising from the dead, Jesus triumphed over death, showing us that the very worst thing that the death-dealing powers of this world can do to a person is not the end of the story.

When the travelers reach Emmaus, they two disciples invite the stranger to stay with them for the evening.  When they all sit down for dinner, the stranger takes some bread, blesses it, breaks it, and gives it to them.  Remembering that they have seen Jesus do the very same thing, they finally realize who has been walking with them in their disappointment and confusion.⁷

When Jesus asks whether or not it was necessary for Him to die and rise again, I have to agree that it was indeed necessary.  Through His crucifixion and resurrection, He showed us that we have no real reason to be afraid.  I do not know how He could accomplish what He accomplished without suffering what He suffered.  I do not know how Jesus could have defeated sin and death for us without confronting the sinful brutality of this world head-on, subjecting Himself to death, and then rising victorious over it.

During this Easter season, may you remember the Gospel story, and may it give you hope amid whatever you're facing.


Notes:

1. Luke 24:1-12
2. Luke 24:13-14
3. Luke 24:15-19
4. Luke 24:19-24 (CEB)
5. Luke 24:25-27 (CEB)
6. Luke 9:21-22; Luke 9:43b-45; Luke 18:31-34
7. Luke 24:28-31

The Pilgrims of Emmaus on the Road was painted by James Tissot in the late 1800s.

Perspective: Worst Prophet Ever

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Worst Prophet Ever

The citizens of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it as guilty, because they changed their hearts and lives in response to Jonah's preaching.  And look, someone greater than Jonah is here.

Matthew 12:41 (CEB)

Tried to give you warning
But everyone ignores me
Told you everything loud and clear
But nobody's listening
Called to you so clearly
But you don't want to hear me
Told you everything loud and clear
But nobody's listening

From "Nobody's Listening" by Linkin Park

In the Bible, we read a number of stories in which God calls people to be prophets.  People whom God calls to be prophets tend to express some initial reluctance.  For example, when Jeremiah, my favorite prophet, is called by God to speak on God's behalf, he says, "Ah, Lord God, I don't know how to speak because I'm only a child."¹  God always responds to the prophets' reluctance with reassurance and empowerment.  For example, God tells Jeremiah to not belittle himself and then touches his mouth, giving him words to say.²

The Book of Jonah does not tell a typical story, because the titular character is no typical prophet.

When God calls Jonah to "go to Nineveh," the capital city of the dreaded Assyrian Empire, and "cry out against it," Jonah responds not with reluctance but with outright disobedience, and he takes his disobedience to the extreme.  He flees to Joppa and boards a boat headed for Tarshish, a city thousands of miles in the opposite direction.  God, who is always eager to encourage the prophets, is not going to let Jonah simply run away from his calling, so God sends a violent storm to batter the ship.  The members of the ship's crew do everything they can possibly do to weather the storm, until they finally casts lots to figure out who angered the gods.  Naturally, the lot falls on Jonah, so they confront him.³

One might expect Jonah to repent at this point, but one would be wrong.  Instead of praying to God and agreeing to do what God has called him to do, he says to the crew, "Pick me up and hurl me into the sea!  Then the sea will become calm around you."  Jonah would rather die than do what God has called him to do.  The crew members pray that Jonah's God will not hold Jonah's death against them, and then they throw the unwilling prophet into the sea, as he instructed them.  Unwilling to let Jonah drown in the sea, God sends a big fish to swallow Jonah alive.⁴

Jonah spends three days and three nights in the belly of the beast.  Finally, he prays to God for mercy, perhaps realizing how lucky he is to still be alive.  God hears his prayer and causes the fish to spew him up onto dry land.⁵

God has given Jonah a second chance at life and a second chance to be a prophet.  Once again, God calls him to go to Nineveh and to speak on God's behalf to the people.  This time, Jonah actually does what God has called him to do.  He goes into the city and cries out, "Just forty days more and Nineveh will be overthrown!"⁶  According to the Common English Bible, a translation I often read, Jonah speaks a total of nine words to the people of Nineveh.  In the original Hebrew text, he speaks only five words.⁷  I suppose it's possible that this short message is merely a summary of what Jonah says to the people of Nineveh, but it surely does not appear that he has very much to say to them.  One might think that he's not trying very hard to communicate God's message to them.

The Hebrew prophets tend to have a lot more to say to the people God typically wants to reach through them, namely the people of Israel and Judah.  For example, on one occasion, the prophet Jeremiah stands outside the temple in Jerusalem and cries out, at God's command,
Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah, you that enter these gates to worship the Lord.  Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place.  Do not trust in these deceptive words: "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord."
For if you truly amend your ways and your doings, if you truly act justly one with another, if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt, then I will dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your ancestors forever and ever.⁸
This is only part of what Jeremiah says on one particular occasion.  We can read pages upon pages of what he says on God's behalf to the people of Judah.

Jonah might not have much to say to the people of Nineveh, but they actually believe what he has to say.  They repent of their ways, and as a sign of their penitence, they put on sackcloth and begin fasting.  Word reaches the king of Nineveh of what Jonah has said about the impending downfall of his city, and he issues a proclamation that all of the people of Nineveh - and also their animals - are to begin fasting, put on sackcloth, and cry out to God in the hopes that God hears their cries, sees their penitence, and decides to have mercy on them.⁹

The people of Israel and Judah are a lot less receptive of the prophets God sends to them.  Jeremiah, for example, suffers greatly at the hands of the people who do not want to hear what he has to say.  On one occasion, when a priest hears Jeremiah speak, he beats the prophet and puts him in stocks.¹⁰  On another occasion, an angry mob tries to have him executed.¹¹  At least twice, he is imprisoned.¹²  Once he is thrown into a cistern full of mud.¹³  This faithful prophet, despite his best efforts, is unable to convince his people to change their ways.  He can do nothing but watch the Kingdom of Judah meet its fate at the hands of the Babylonian Empire.  Known as the weeping prophet, he composes a Book of Lamentations about the destruction of Jerusalem.

Jonah might be the least faithful of God's prophets, but he is ironically the most successful.  When God sees the penitence of the people of Nineveh, God decides to spare the city.¹⁴  One might think that, as a prophet, Jonah would be happy about his success, but, once again, one would be wrong.  Jonah becomes so angry that he wants to die.  He says to God,
O Lord!  Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country?  That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.  And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.¹⁵
Jonah did not want to prophesy to the people of Nineveh, because he hates them and wants God to destroy them.

People often see the story of Jonah as a warning to not run from God.  Some people see it as a testament to God's love for all people, even the people we consider our enemies.  I once suggested that the story shows us the extreme measures God will take to get through to someone.  Some people just wonder if a person really can survive in the belly of a big fish for seventy-two hours.  Now I cannot help but think that story of Jonah might be intentionally comical or even satirical, because it is the opposite of what one would expect from a story about a Hebrew prophet.

The Book of Jonah sticks out like a proverbial sore thumb among the prophetic writings in the Hebrew Bible.  In most of the prophetic writings, faithful prophets of God try, to no avail, to convince the people of God to turn from their destructive ways.  The Book of Jonah rather offensively suggests that, if God sent God's very worst prophet to the enemies of God's people, they would go over the top in their repentance - that even their animals would fast and wear sackcloth.  The Book of Jonah tells a ridiculous story that makes hard-hearted people who refuse to listen to God seem ridiculous by comparison.


Notes:

1.  Jeremiah 1:4-6 (CEB)
2.  Jeremiah 2:7-9
3.  Jonah 1:1-11 (CEB)
4.  Jonah 1:12-17a (CEB)
5.  Jonah 1:17b-2:10
6.  Jonah 3:1-4 (CEB)
7.  https://www.blueletterbible.org/rsv/jon/3/4/t_conc_892004
8.  Jeremiah 7:1-7 (NRSV)
9.  Jonah 3:5-9
10.  Jeremiah 20:1-2
11.  Jeremiah 26:7-11
12.  Jeremiah 32:1-5; 37:11-16
13.  Jeremiah 38:4-6
14.  Jonah 3:10
15.  Jonah 4:1-3 (CEB)

The Story of Jonah was painted by Paul Bril around 1590.  Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem was painted by Rembrandt in 1690.

Introspection: The Words After the Last Words

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

The Words After the Last Words

Don't fear, because I am with you;
don't be afraid, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
I will surely help you;
I will hold you
with my righteous strong hand.

Isaiah 41:10 (CEB)

Sometimes its so hard to pray
When You feel so far away
But I am willing to go
Where you want me to
God, I trust You

From "Let the Waters Rise" by MIKESCHAIR

According to the Gospel of Matthew, shortly before Jesus breathes His last breath on the Cross, He cries out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"¹  These last words are sometimes called Jesus' "cry of dereliction."  The implication, I recently heard, is that God is, at this moment, derelict in God's duty.²  God has apparently abandoned the beloved Son with whom God was once "well pleased."³  Personally, I do not believe that Jesus was truly forsaken by God when He was crucified, but I also do not believe that the Incarnate Christ could be fully human if He had never thought, at least for a moment, that God had forsaken Him.

On most days, I read a Bible passage and spend some time reflecting on it.  On Holy Saturday, the day after Good Friday, I did not read a Bible passage.  Instead I read Friedrich Nietzsche's Parable of the Madman, in which the titular character cries out, "God is dead.  God remains dead.  And we have killed him."⁴  It seemed like an appropriate thing to read on the day we remember that, for a period of time, the body of the Incarnate God lay in a tomb after He was killed by the human beings He loved and came to Earth to save.

In Nietzsche's parable, nobody who can hear the madman's distraught ramblings still believes in God, but only the madman is actually grieving the loss of God.  Unlike everyone else, he understands that, if we lose our faith in God, we lose more than doctrines and dogmas.  We lose everything we had that was rooted in our faith in God, like our purpose, our hope, and our moral compass.  According to the madman, losing God is as catastrophic as untethering the Earth from the Sun and letting it drift into the darkness and emptiness of space.⁵  Nietzsche was not writing as a man of faith; he just understood that atheism comes at a cost.

On Holy Saturday, I spent some time looking back on my own journey of faith, wondering if my own faith in God has "died" in some way.  For a number of years I've been aware that my faith just isn't what it used to be.  That said, I don't think it was "what it used to be" for very long.

Almost fourteen years ago, God got me out of a job I hated and led me to a job in which I could take pride.  Not long after that, God called me away from a faith community in which I was feeling more and more out-of-place and led me to a new community in which I could continue to grow.  I had begun to cultivate spiritual gifts that had lain dormant within me.  At that time, there was a lot of positive movement in my life, so it was easy to believe that God had a purpose and a plan for my life.  Then I started to feel like I was repeatedly letting people down.  Maybe people expected too much of me; maybe I expected too much of myself; or maybe I'm just selfish.  I cannot always tell which case is true.  My life stagnated, and it has remained stagnant for a number of years.

Does God still have a purpose and plan for my life?

Did God ever have a purpose and plan for my life?

There have been a number of things that have shaken my faith in God, like the pandemic and other horrors that are allowed to happen in this world and the hateful behavior of many people who claim to be Christians.  What has shaken my faith the most has been my own unfaithfulness, be it real or imagined.  A big difference between Jesus and myself is that I would never have to ask why God has forsaken me, because I feel like I've given God plenty of reasons.  I cannot speak for everyone, but, as far as my own life is concerned, if anyone has been derelict in his duty, it has been I and not God.

On the morning of Easter Sunday, before I went to church, I read the account of the Resurrection in the Gospel of Matthew.  Matthew tells us that, on the Sunday morning after Jesus was crucified, two women visit Jesus' tomb.  When they arrive, a messenger of God appears and unseals the tomb so that the women can see that Jesus' body is no longer there.  The messenger tells them that Jesus has been resurrected from the dead and then instructs them to tell His disciples to meet Him in Galilee.  The women leave the tomb, and they are met by the risen Jesus himself.⁶

Following the women's instructions, the Disciples meet Jesus atop a mountain in Galilee.  Jesus says to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."⁷  The Disciples had all forsaken Jesus in His darkest hour,⁸ and at least one of them had denied even knowing Him.⁹  Even now some of the Disciples doubt what their eyes are seeing, but Jesus is still calling them to be His messengers, as He has prepared them to do all along.

Finally, Jesus says, "And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."¹⁰

These are the words I needed most this Easter.  The Good News of Easter is that the Gospel story ends not with a cry of dereliction but with a renewed calling and a promise of presence.  The failures of the Disciples did not nullify their purpose, and my own failures, whether they are real or imagined, do not nullify my purpose, whatever that happens to be.  The God who is with us on the mountaintops of life goes with us through the valleys, and God does not abandon us when we fail but rather continues to call us to our sacred purposes.


Notes:

1. Matthew 27:45-50 (NRSV)
2. Adam Hamilton.  "Final Words."  Church of the Resurrection, 04/02/2023.
3. Matthew 3:17
4. http://www.historyguide.org/europe/madman.html
5. ibid.
6. Matthew 28:1-10
7. Matthew 28:16-20a
8. Matthew 26:56b
9. Matthew 26:69-75
10. Matthew 28:20b

The Holy Women at the Tomb was painted by William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1876.

Holy Week Perspective: Not Above Washing Feet

I share these thoughts hoping they are of help to someone else.
Comments are always welcomed.
If you find these thoughts helpful, please share.

Not Above Washing Feet

Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death -
even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8 (NRSV)

Lean on me
When you're not strong
And I'll be your friend
I'll help you carry on
For it won't be long
Till I'm gonna need
Somebody to lean on

From "Lean on Me" by Bill Withers

The first church service I ever attended that included a foot washing was a chapel service I attended at my alma mater on a Sunday evening in early 2011.  This service was part of a semester-long series that included "sacramental" practices.  Toward the end of the service, I went with two of my friends to one of the basins that had been placed at the front of the chapel, and we took turns washing each other's feet.  As I was leaving, I told one of the chaplains that I was glad I did not know beforehand that the service would include foot washing, because, if I had known, I probably would not have attended.

Holy week is now upon us.  This week, Christians around the world remember Jesus' crucifixion and the events that led up to it.  If you attend a church service this Thursday evening, you might have the opportunity to have your feet washed by someone and also to wash someone else's feet.  If you don't feel comfortable participating in such a ritual, do not feel obligated to do so, but do consider stepping out of your comfort zone.  Though I would not have knowingly attended a foot washing service twelve years ago, I did find the experience meaningful.  If you do choose not to participate, I hope you will at least watch others in the congregation wash each other's feet and contemplate what this ritual means.

The ritual of foot washing has it's origins in the story of Jesus.  In the Gospel of John, we read that, on the last evening Jesus spends with the Disciples before He is arrested, put on trial, and crucified, He suddenly rises during dinner, takes off His robe, ties a towel around His waist, pours some water into a basin, and starts washing the Disciples' feet.¹

When Jesus finishes washing the Disciples' feet, He puts His robe back on, returns to His place at the table, and says to the Disciples,
Do you know what I've done for you?  You call me "Teacher" and "Lord," and you speak correctly, because I am.  If I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you too must wash each other's feet.  I have given you an example: Just as I have done, you also must do.  I assure you, servants aren't greater than their master, nor are those who are sent greater than the one who sent them.  Since you know these things, you will be happy if you do them.²

I do not believe that Jesus is saying that His followers are expected to literally wash each other's feet.  In my culture, washing one's feet throughout the day is not the necessity it was in Jesus' culture, thanks to things like closed toe shoes, automobiles, and tall dinner tables.  By washing the Disciples' feet, Jesus sets an example for us to follow.  When He says that students are not greater than their teacher, He is saying that, if He is not above washing feet, then neither are His followers.  To put it more starkly, one could say that, if the Incarnate God is not above serving people, then neither is any human.

Apparently people have felt uncomfortable at foot washings ever since Jesus introduced them.  When Jesus starts to wash the feet of the disciple He calls Peter, Peter initially objects, saying, "You will never wash my feet!"  Jesus then says to Peter, "Unless I wash you, you won't have a place with me."³  There is more than one way to be prideful.  Some people think that they are too important to serve others, while others think that they are too independent to be served by others.  If we want to follow Jesus, we must be willing to serve, and, if we want to be in community with other followers of Jesus, we must allow ourselves to be served.

The Thursday of Holy Week is called Maundy Thursday.  The word maundy is derived from the Latin word mandatum, from which we also get the word mandate.⁴  That same evening, Jesus says to the Disciples, "I give you a new commandment: Love each other.  Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other.  This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other."⁵  When Jesus instructs the Disciples to love each other as He has loved them, the image of His kneeling before them and washing their dirty feet is still fresh in their minds.

The story of Jesus' washing the Disciples' feet is not a story of washing feet but rather a story of humble service.  If we truly want to follow Jesus, then we must love like Jesus; if we want to love like Jesus, then we must serve like Jesus; and, if we want to serve like Jesus, then we must not be too proud to do undignified things like washing people's feet.  Followers of Jesus are to be known not by what they believe or by what they oppose but by how they love and by how they serve.


Notes:

1. John 13:2-5
2. John 13:12-17 (CEB)
3. John 13:6-8 (CEB)
4. Wikipedia: "Maundy Thursday"
5. John 13:34-35 (CEB)

Jesus Washing Peter's Feet was painted by Ford Madox Brown in the 1850s.