Reading the Gospels for Lent

 

Read ~ Mark 12-14

 

Jesus enters Jerusalem and Mark slows his narrative down.  Jesus is no longer rushing and racing.  Jesus talks about the reality of violence in chapter 12, knowing that the cross has fallen upon his path.  Jesus confronts the systems of power in taxes.  The subversiveness here is the tension/contradiction every person of faith lived with ~ you had to pay taxes to Caesar or else face punishment.  You had to pay taxes to the guy who thought he was the son of god then put his image on a coin that you had to work hard to earn just to give it back to that same guy ~ talk about a vicious cycle. 

 

Jesus wants to break us free. 

 

I am not sure if Jesus paid taxes.  I am not sure if Jesus carried around coins with Caesar’s face emblazoned upon it, which contradicted the commandment against graven images.  I am not sure that I will ever be able to know fully the rules of what belongs to the powers of this world and what belongs to God ~ because I know deep in my heart that my life ~ every minute and breath ~ belongs to God.  If all I am and will be is already in God’s hands, how do I live my life?

 

Jesus then answers this convoluted question about resurrection.  Remember, the Sadducees don’t believe in resurrection, so they are already outside their lane.  It would be like me asking a religious question about predestination or about being a professional auto racer.  I also love how this caricature of religion still holds ~ as people of faith we can complicate almost anything.  Too often we can philosophize or endless question thinking that at some point we will “figure” things out. 

 

Jesus wants us to break us free from thinking we are just brains with legs or that we are souls caged in bodies.

 

As you keep reading, Jesus is once again anointed.  Notice how often this has happened in our holiest week.  In the gospels, a woman, sometimes named other times not, comes and blesses Jesus with a fragrant love.  We have heard this story before and prayerfully pondered who are the women and people who have blessed us with a fragrant love?  During March, which is women’s history month, celebrate the women whose fingerprints have made you who you are.

 

In Mark’s telling of the Last Supper I picture Judas is at the table.  As he eats, he looks for that time to slip out the side door to betray Jesus.  Hold the truth of people who are close to us who have wounded us.  Hold the truth that people we loved, rejected our love for their own gain.  Not only Judas, but Peter also hides in the shadows ~ curious but not wanting to get caught up in the trial Jesus will face.  How often do I stay in the shadows of the sidelines, saying, “I am here,” ~ even as I have one foot ready to run in the opposite direction should anything bad happen.  Jesus prays in the garden ~ we will return to this part of Scripture during Holy Week but hold the words Jesus says with tears in his eyes and anguish in his soul.  A prayer position and posture so many of us have known in our lives.  Finally, Jesus is brought before people who did not understand his ministry, couldn’t pick him out of the crowd, but wanted to blame and shame someone so they pick him.  We continue this story in our lives ~ we all put others on trial as the “problem” then serve as judge and jury.  We blame and shame others who are different than us based on flimsy evidence that we cling to in the conviction of our own minds. 

I say this not out of guilt, but for our own growth.  Not to be ashamed, but aware of how we keep repeating and replaying out this heartbreaking and soul aching scene in our lives.  I wish that family tables where love is offered didn’t have betrayal and desertion returned in response.  I wish that we didn’t convict one another.  I wish that we didn’t shame and blame one another so quickly.  Whether what the Gospels say really happened on the last night of Jesus life I don’t know.  But I know it is true because it is in the paper and social media and woven in our individual stories every day. 

 

That is why we need Good Friday, to lay our ways at the foot of cross and stand before God’s sacrificial, self-giving love as the gospel, good news that can set us free.  For me, the cross is not a transaction.  God didn’t have a debt problem or some accounting imbalance, God has sought us with holy love time and time and time again in Scripture and we keep thinking, “Just not sure this whole “love wins” thing will really work, God.  So let me try it my way!”  I pray that Mark’s powerful and profound words about God’s love in Christ, the pain of the cross, will meet you in the pain of life today in ways that can help heal and guide and ground you to a new life, good news and resurrection life that makes a difference.  Amen.