Holy Week ended in disaster, and yet its beginning was so promising. Jesus had entered the city of Jerusalem and the crowds had cheered him. By the end of the week Jesus was dead, horribly dead and buried, his closest disciples had fled in all directions and one woman, Mary Magdalene kept vigil outside his tomb, a tomb that had been given by a dissenting member of the council that had condemned Jesus.
Although we know what comes next in the story, the resurrection of Jesus, Good Friday is not incidental, nor is it entirely over, as Rosemary Reuther put it;
“The crucifixion of the Messiah by the unredeemed forces of history cannot be overcome by the proclamation of Easter and then transformed into a secret triumph. Easter gives no licence to vilify those who cannot “see it”. Indeed, we must see that Easter does not cancel the crucifixion at all. There is no triumph in history. Easter is the hope against what remains the continuing reality of the cross”.
The continuing reality of the cross…’ The reality of the cross continues in Ukraine, Afghanistan, the war in the Yemen, in continues in those who suffer whatever its cause, and it is not over come not completely by Easter, not yet.
What is God doing? One answer came from Dietrich Bonheoffer a German theologian murdered by the Nazis.
‘God consents to be pushed out of the world and onto the cross; God is weak and powerless in the world and in precisely this way, and only so, is at our side and helps us. Christ helps us not by virtue of his omnipotence but rather by virtue of his weakness and suffering’. This is the crucial distinction between Christianity and all Human religiosity [which] directs people in need to the power of God in the world. The Bible directs people toward the powerlessness and the suffering of God; only the suffering God can help. [E]liminating a false notion of God, frees us to see the God of the Bible, who gains ground and power in the world by being powerless’.
This echoes the writing of St Paul in his letter to the Corinthians he wrote:
“The Lord said:
‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’
So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me’”.
(2 Corinthians 12:9)
And in the letter the Philippians he wrote:
“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross”. (Philippians 3:5-8)
The God of the Bible, the God revealed in Jesus, this God is a self emptying God.
It is true that power can solve things in the short term but lasting change depends on something different. Martin Luther King said;
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
The solution is love, the self emptying love of God, and it is a love that works through weak and compromised individuals like us. Our imperfection and weakness is not the problem, it is our seeming inability to accept our imperfections and weakness, and the imperfections and weaknesses of others, and it hinders the work of grace in us.
Holy Week ended in disaster; the following week began with a miracle, a miracle that defies our attempts to pin it down and understand it. The risen Jesus said to Peter, ‘Do you love me?’ ‘Then feed my sheep’, he added “Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” (John 21:17-18). God does not look to our abilities and powers to make a difference, God looks to the heart and draws out our love without which our abilities, powers and qualifications are as nothing.
Easter is implemented by love not power; it is a work grace in us that can change the world, little by little, person by person; and it is a love that tells us that our abilities whatever they are are enough.
‘Love proves itself by deeds, so how am I to show my love? Great deeds are forbidden me. The only way I can prove my love is by scattering flowers and these flowers are every little sacrifice, every glance and word, and the doing of the least actions for love’.
St Thérèse of Lisieux
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