WE DON’T NEED REMINDING

“But all his acquaintances… stood at a distance, watching these things.” --- Lk. 23:49

 

 

          I’m going to stop there (at verse 39).  We know the rest of the story.  I don’t need to read it.  It just gets worse & more depressing.

 

          It’s like the video footage from New York City on September 11th.  How many times have we seen those two planes, those reverse telescoping twin towers plunging earthward, those terrified persons running away?  We know how it ends.  We don’t need to see it anymore.  We don’t need reminding.

 

          A generation earlier, it was the space shuttle climbing heavenward, then, exploding, its entrail of smoke & debris slowly wiggling & wending upward, then plunging earthward, too.  We watched it so often.  We don’t need to be reminded of the tragedy one more time.

 

          Likewise, for an even earlier generation, the video memory is of the open air, black Lincoln limousine with its famed riders -- the 36th President of the U.S. & first lady, Governor & Mrs. Connelly -- passing through Dallas’ Deely Plaza, near that legendary grassy knoll, one sunny November day.  We’ve seen Abraham Zapruder’s home-movie footage so often.  We know how it’s going to end for John Fitzgerald Kennedy.  We don’t need to watch & be reminded.

 

          I could read through verse 49, but do you really want to hear it?  Most persons don’t.  They may not admit it, but let’s be frank.  That’s why, some years ago churches, took Palm Sunday & made it Palm/Passion Sunday.  They did it because everyone came for the palms today, but hardly anyone came for the Passion – the tale of Jesus suffering -- on Thursday & Friday.  By putting the passion narrative on Palm Sunday, the thinking went, folks will at least get to hear a little of the story between the triumphal entry into the capital city & the rise from the tomb.  Attendance records alone make the point.  Attendance for today, & for later in the week, are a study in contrasts.

 

          I think I understand why people avoid the weekdays of Holy Week.  It’s not only depressing, itself, but when one’s own life has its share of discouragement, disappointment, & despair, when suffering & injustice befall us, we don’t need one more downer, another reminder.  Church is supposed to be an escape from reality, not reflect life’s hard realities, people think.   The Good Shepherd’s job is to comfort the sheep, not use his crook normally meant for chasing away the wolves to swat the docile wooly mammals in his charge.   Life’s tough enough.  If we can avoid any additional sadness, we will.  That’s human.  That makes sense.  That’s emotional self-preservation.  We’re not masochists.  We need to take care of ourselves.    

 

A shepherd’s job, though, is to take care of the sheep.  In an unexpected sort of way, Jesus does exactly that during Holy Week.  By letting him take care of us during the next six days, we end up being cared for quite well.

 

On Wednesday, I was seated in the surgical waiting room with my mother & sister, as Dad underwent his third lung cancer surgery in four years.  Mom, as is the custom of so many persons in her generation, makes a habit of reading the daily obituaries.  She put down the newspaper, then remarked, “There are just so many persons who die after these long, drawn-out battles with cancer.”

 

We really don’t know how to cope with extended hardship of any kind.


          I believe that the difficult days we experience in life are made all the more difficult by not having healthy models of how to handle suffering.  Our denial, our activities & busyness concocted to avoid facing hard realities, or even escape them, (those approaches) teach us nothing healthy about hard times.  They do not help us deal with life.   They do not lead to a positive resolution. 

 

          Did you know that the average person actively grieves for two years when a spouse dies?  And it takes seven years to really recover from the death of one’s beloved.  Those are the norms.  New research teaches that it’s even worse for divorce & unemployment.  Even though the divorcee may remarry, even though you may find a great, new job, the feelings of loss, failure, & inadequacy haunt for more years than a spouse’s death.[1]  So, if it’s going to take two years, or seven years, or longer, why not work on these difficulties & work through these losses with Jesus & other Christians?  And if life’s going along just fine right now, & you enjoy being a happy, energetic, lively person, learning from Jesus may help you when bad times do come.  His lessons may lessen those statistical averages I mentioned a minute ago.  We have so much to learn from Jesus.

 

          It’s hard, I know.  And I happen to think it’s harder still for Protestants.  Roman Catholics have a crucifix upon which Jesus is on the cross hurting, sacrificing, dying.  They see it every time they’re in church.  They gaze at it & touch it, when saying the Rosary.  It’s as though they’re given permission to be sad, as Calvary is ever-present for the Roman Catholic.  And they better be in church on Good Friday, too.  They’re not allowed to miss.  Our Roman friends are taught how to handle suffering.

 

Yet, we say, “I’ve never been to church on Maundy Thursday & Good Friday.  Isn’t that Catholic?”  Jesus’ suffering & death are non-denominational.


Protestants, though, so proud of our “empty cross” of resurrection, almost feel guilty about being blue.  We focus on the resurrection – good thing! – but we, essentially, ignore Jesus suffering.  We’ve excised from our hymnals most of the hymns that mention blood.   So, we rely on ourselves, not Jesus, & put on our best smile & soldier on.  Or, if we find even that expectation too demanding, we just don’t come to church at all when we’re feeling down, when tragedy hits.

 

 “Those happy church people can’t relate to me,” we say to ourselves.  We end up mired in pain, thinking no one understands, (all) alone.  Well, Jesus understands.  We’ve never really learned how much he cares, though. 

 

I wonder what a difference we would find in our lives, if we were to be with Jesus in these days, if we were to read how he handled things, if we spent time meditating on the passion narratives this week, if we walked with him as he walks with us on bad days, if we abide with him as he hangs on Calvary.  I know, Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him, & all of the disciples fled, save one.  Only his mother, a few of her female friends, & that lone, disciple, John, remained with him.  No wonder Jesus calls him “the beloved disciple.”  He was with Jesus ‘til the bitter end.  So, abandoning Jesus is human.  I guess it’s even biblical, to avoid Jesus at this desperate time.

 

But can we take the time to learn from Jesus in these days?  Will we contemplate the Bible passages for Holy Week or in our Lenten devotionals?  Will we dine with him at that bittersweet Passover Feast of the Last Supper on Thursday evening?  Will we be with him, & that minority of true friends who inconveniently stick by him, on Friday?  In the process, will we find that after encountering the most terrible of days, there really comes the most joyous of resurrections – not only next Sunday, but in our lives, too?  I guess we really do need reminding.

In the Name….                         Copyright 2010 by G.D.Knerr at Lansdale, Pa.  All rights reserved.


[1] - Richard Lucas from Michigan State University in Current Directions in Psychological Science, as reported by Faye Flam, “Study: Don’t Get Divorced or Fired” in The Philadelphia Inquirer, 12MAR07, p.E-1.