The work of Jesus was love. On this day, we consider the depths of
that love. It is steadfast, never-ending. It conquers death and the deepest
sense of abandonment.
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| Detail of a painting by Eustache Le Sueur |
I have been thinking about this reading from Mark all morning. It
tells us Jesus was crucified at 9 in the morning. I have been thinking about
the memories that would have been in the heart of the women and other onlookers
who watched him suffer the depths of abandonment.
John writes about Jesus in his gospel saying, “in him was Life,
and the Life was the light of all people.” (John 1:4) When I gaze at the cross,
I see a continuation of love. I consider the work Jesus undertook with outcasts
and sinners. I see him sit at table with the privileged and the marginalized. I
witness him teaching and healing. He gave it all away – and he did not come
down from the cross.
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| Marc Chagall - "Jesus in the Night" |
I remember reading Bonhoeffer say that when the worst was done to
Jesus, thrusting him onto the cross, the powerful good news is that Jesus went
through the cross and into the arms of God. I want to have that trust. I am
teaching myself to lean on the steadfast love and mercy of God.
In these days of Covid-19 pandemic, we all feel thrust into a
state of abandonment. I pray that you will do the work of love. Jesus did the
work to the end so that we might begin anew.
“I discovered later, and I’m still discovering right up to this moment, that is it only by living completely in this world that one learns to have faith. By this-worldliness I mean living unreservedly in life’s duties, problems, successes and failures. In so doing we throw ourselves completely into the arms of God, taking seriously, not our own sufferings, but those of God in the world. That, I think, is faith.”
ReplyDelete― Dietrich Bonhoeffer