I cringe at the violence of Holy Week; it sends shivers down my spine, sets my heart aching and my mind spinning/swimming to make sense of it all. And yet, I have a similar reaction to the violence we as humans continue to do to each other. Now, often in church, we don’t like to talk about it. We don’t like to talk about murders or domestic violence, even though we watch it on television. We don’t like to talk about children sold in slavery or people forced to live in refugee camps. We don’t like to talk about emotional violence or even the way churches today still use guilt in ways that damages the soul.
Yet, at the core of our faith is Jesus our Christ who faced violence. He faced the violence of false testimony, people lying about who he was and what he said, and the physical violence as well. We’ve all had moments when someone intentionally or unintentionally misheard what we said, misinterpreted what we meant. In those moments, we are often angry and we want to correct the mistake immediately. And yet, Jesus stood silently by listening to people twist his words and let them contradict each other.
When the high priest eventually stared in his eyes and asked if Jesus is the Messiah, he said, “I AM”. I capitalized that intentionally. Not only because it is an affirmation of who Jesus is, but more importantly those words echoes the words God spoke to Moses at the burning bush. Recall Moses wanted to know God’s name just in case someone in Egypt asked, and God said tell the people, “I AM WHO I AM” (or “I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE). The Hebrew word for that English phrase is, “Yahweh” (or “YHWH” as Hebrew has no vowels). This is an intentional echo. Are you the Messiah? Jesus reply is “Yahweh”. He takes on God’s name and the priest is highly offended and angry at Jesus’ response. The priest torn his clothing and yelled out ‘Blasphemy!’
It is difficult to stop violence. To break the cycle it takes strength and resilience and usually some kind of support from friends and I pray some kind of faith community. I think part of the reason why we don’t talk about violence is because we feel powerless to stop it, and part of the reason might be it makes us so uncomfortable. I sometimes wonder if hearing this violence is one of the reasons why Holy Friday services have become so unpopular. I also suspect part of the problem is we are not content just to hear the narrative, but pastors feel the need to say something about Holy Friday, as if preachers can make the text more palatable or understandable.
So, what do we do? I invite you today as you click on internet stories or read the newspaper or watch the news or listen to someone get angry to do a few things. First, grieve. We spend so much time in our culture convinced that being sad is not an okay emotion. I think it is. Being sad, just like its twin brother joy, tells me I am alive and connected to others. When I see the way children are treated or people pushed to the fringes in our world, I should be sad. Second, pray for those impacted. Prayer invites God into my life and what I am feeling. It also slows down the knee jerk reaction of responding to anger with anger. Third, ask for wisdom for your response. Sometimes the wisdom out of prayer is to talk to people or write a devotional that others might read! Sometimes the wisdom is to send money. Sometimes the wisdom is to find ways to stand in the midst of the pain as Jesus did. Sometimes the wisdom is to confess we can’t solve the problem, but maybe we can plant the sequoia seed that one day may grow into a solution. It is not easy. And neither is living a faithful life. And the good news of great joy is that we don’t have to live alone on an isolated island population of 1. We live in a community of faithful people where we can talk. And we live in relationship with God who stood with Jesus and stands with us in the midst of this messy, crazy, and beautiful world today.
Prayer: God whose presence makes all the difference, help us today to open our eyes to places that are difficult to see. God whose wisdom guides our life, help us know when to speak and when to keep silent. God whose love makes us whole, let that love be felt by those most impacted by violence today and grant us the courage to share Your love in a real way. In the strong name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
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