Trial
and tribulation
I have just come from blessing a home. At the heart
of the home is the kitchen, the place where love takes time to produce good
food to nourish the souls and bodies of companions, neighbours and family. And
in praying for this room, I found myself reconnecting with the sense that
sharing home-cooked food is a daily sharing of love. Cooks love people with and
through their food.
It is around food that Jesus becomes within reach of
us. He needed to eat, so do we. He sat with friends, companions and family, so
do we. And so, it is that the places of food-sharing become the stage for acts
of love and acts of betrayal in Chapter 26.
Eating dinner in a home in Bethany, Jesus is
anointed with expensive perfume in an act of extraordinary love. Jesus predicts
the woman who poured the perfume over him so lavishly would always be
remembered wherever the gospel message was spoken – and he was right. But Jesus
also saw a deeper significance in this lavishness: it was a sign for him that
his time was up and he was heading for his execution; this was anointing for
burial. And suddenly, events begin to have a momentum of their own. Jesus is
slowly letting go of control. He is becoming the one who to whom things are
done. It begins with anointing and ends with betrayal in a garden, false
charges and being handed over.
It is in the familiar setting of a meal with his
friends who have followed him these last three years, that he first announces
how his passion will begin. It has been triggered by lavish love, a lavishness
which so enrages Judas that his betrayal of Jesus, his treachery with a kiss,
is conceived. Jesus uses food to signal who his betrayer will be. And he then
uses the ordinariness of bread and wine to signal how generations of believers
are to remember what was yet to come. The act of eating bread and drinking wine
was forever changed for those friends in the upper room. These most basic foodstuffs
– grain and grape – were now ‘my body’ and ‘my blood’, the symbols and signs of
love poured out for forgiveness.
What follows in Matthew’s narrative in this 75-verse
episode is the account of how the disciples fall to pieces while Jesus is handed
over in one piece. Although his body is broken on the cross, at this point in the
darkness of night he appears to be very much in control even as he allows
himself to be handed over. While the disciples sleep, he wrestles in prayer and
utters the words of absolute surrender: ‘Do it your way.’ He still has strength
to speak truth to the arresting mob of temple security guards and soldiers saying he has
countless angels to call upon. ‘While mortals sleep, the angels keep, their
watch of wondering love.’
What is it that he is charged with in the end?
Blasphemy. This accusation is based upon a part-heard quote of Jesus: that the
Temple of God, were it demolished, could be re-built in three days by himself.
Jesus is of course referring to his own resurrection, with his body being the
location of the Presence of God. Blasphemy is of course an accusation that religious power elites will always wheel out as their trump card for regulating and managing who is in and who is out. And in our time it is used by repressive regimes across the world. One of our contributors has already mentioned Asia Bibi, the poor Pakistani Christian mother who has been incarcerated for nearly eight years on the same charge of blasphemy. Jesus and Asia - linked by 2000 years of repressive, frightened, hate-filled power-structures unable to cope with the suffering servant.
As always, and especially now, in this the
last of his great confrontations with the religious elite, Jesus refuses to be
contained or constrained by their smallness of mind. Instead he provokes his
accusers with his own glorious image of the ‘Son of Man arriving on the clouds
of heaven’ – he is already reading the script of another reality, a reality
based on heavenly communion with the Father. It is a script which was written
long ago – as Matthew reminds us. It is a script whose fulfillment will
inevitably lead Jesus through a profound sense of abandonment, brokenness and
physical pain. It is a script which, in one 24-hour period, takes him from
demonstrating the food of the kingdom life to becoming the food of the kingdom
life.
I'd only got to v.4 when I found myself wanting to shout out , "Why kill him? What wrong has he done?" Jesus is innocent. It's shocking that after just teaching in chapter 25 about feeding the hungry, giving the thirsty a drink, and caring for the weak and vulnerable that they want him dead. Something is deeply wrong when love and mercy are met with death. Jesus would not give in though. He keeps on loving, totally committed to the Father's will to love and save. His love is never failing, taking him to the cross and the victory of resurrection. Love wins.
ReplyDeleteAnd then the beautiful account of the anointing of Jesus, an event which begins the passion narrative. In Matthew this takes place in the house of Simon the leper, a ritually impure setting, and he is anointed on his head by a nameless woman. This is another sign of the Great Reversal with the least expected closest to Jesus in unlikely places. By anointing Jesus the woman anoints him as King and priest, and as the Messiah, which means "Anointed One", and prepares him for burial. It is a nameless woman who recognises who Jesus is and that he is to die because of who he is. She remains wordless but her actions are prophetic.
I've been reading the book "Six New Gospels: New Testament women tell their stories" by Margaret Hebblethwaite. The author makes the very interesting observation about this anointing. Considering how important it is in all the Gospels (it is one of only a few events in the life of Jesus recorded, with variations, in all 4 Gospels), and how it begins the passion narrative, why is it that the Church doesn't reenact this in Holy Week. We have Palm Sunday processions, wash feet, have the Last Supper at Holy Communion, and even reenact the crucifixion in Passion Plays. But when do we include the anointing liturgically, and how might we creatively use oils in our Holy Week worship? Any suggestions for 2017?
Reflecting on the anointing, I then read in today's Church Times a piece which mentions a song called Alabaster by the worship band Rend Collective, which is based on Mark's version of this event. The author of the article suggests the song might "lead us into that contemplative space through quiet, compelling music, and simple lyrics". Have a listen for yourself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJsLcwScEDA
The woman's quiet and deep faith contrasts to that of the disciples who fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus' teaching in chapters 24 & 25 about "keeping awake' seems to have gone unheeded. They fall asleep unable to keep awake with Jesus. And then all the disciples desert Jesus.
As we draw so near to Christmas, and celebrate love come down, maybe we can kneel before the one who is love, and give our wordless love to Jesus, like this woman.
....and the plotted to arrest Jesus ...and kill him. "But not during the Feast," they said, " or there may be a riot among the people."
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I have noticed those words. They ended up killing him then anyway. Those were God's plans , not theirs.
I am finding myself feeling disoriented reading about Jesus' death as we prepare for his birth; singing carols, but pondering his death. The words " Born as man to die as man" speak to me now. I have not thought about those words much in advent.
I read a book, "The day Christ Died" , by John Bishop. Bishop is a journalist whose faith leads him to delve into history and write this book. I have found his insights and research profound, and want to share them here.
He says the pharisees in their piety would normally never have been seen with the gentile Romans, as they proclaimed religious purity in everything. They would have had nothing to do with the sight, smell or sound of anything non Jewish. He goes on to suggest that it was part of Pilates' disdain for the the religious leaders that made him send so many soldiers to arrest the unarmed , harmless Jesus. It was his way of mocking them. He played right into Caiphas' trap.
" How could Pilate admit that the soldiers of Tiberius had assisted in the arrest while denying affirmation of the sentence? If he refused to confirm execution he would tacitly be conceding that he had sent a maniple- two companies- to arrest one innocent man. This would make a juicy subject for one of Herod's secret notes to the Emperor."
Bishop tells us it was against the law to hold a criminal hearing while the sky was still dark. He suggests this was done in order to prevent the crowds who had followed Jesus from protesting. Later , he suggests the crowds that shouted " Crucify him!" , were paid by the religious leaders to do so. The true followers who had welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem were either not aware of the trial, or too frightened by that point to speak out. I find myself wishing desperately that Bishop is right about Jesus' followers.
About the trial itself,
" " so long as the prisoner remained silent, the Great Sanhedrin had to acquit....
...almost pleading, Caiphas shouted :
"...are you the Messiah, the Son of God?"
He looked directly at Jesus, and had no hope of an answer....to say no would be to admit he had lied to multitudes of followers.... To say yes would be to plead guilty to the charge of blasphemy, because in the eyes of these men, he was not the Messiah... It was expected that he would continue to remain silent to this final question, and thus walk out of the palace of Caiphas free.""
I ache for Jesus, wishing he had remained silent and walked out free. How could he love us so much that he could die for us. How could he forgive us all the evil we commit, despite his love for us? How can we be so callous about his love? How can I continue to hold on to my old hurts and grudges and continue to be unforgiving. Jesus, help me forgive. Turn my heart of stone into a heart of flesh. Lord hear my prayer.