The Passion of Christ
Leads to Our Discovering Our Passion
Here is part of a sermon I preached a few years ago on Good Friday.
Good Friday is a time when we remember and reflect on the Passion of Jesus – everything that happened during that week in Jerusalem until his death, and the horrors of the crucifixion. In many of our churches, on Good Friday, the church is dressed in its most somber and stripped down aura out of the entire liturgical year. The altar area behind the altar rail symbolizes Jesus’ tomb. Rightly so.
Unless we pause to remember – to honor – the ultimate sacrifice and depth of the suffering of Jesus, we will not experience the true height of the joy of Easter, the healing love of the Resurrection.
Unless we pause to remember and honor the grief of the disciples and the grief of the Mother of Jesus, we will not experience the dizzying uplifting sudden rejoicing-full-of-hope Day of Resurrection.
So let’s reflect for a few minutes on the passion of Christ, and what it means for us. Every step that Jesus took that week, he made because of a choice, one choice after another after another. He chose to ride that donkey into Jerusalem knowing that He would be announcing to those who knew Scripture, that He was the Messiah.
He chose to become the servant who washes the feet of his disciples. He chose the cup that he knew would lead to his death. He chose to remain silent in the presence of Pilate. He chose to walk the Via Dolorosa, the Way of the Cross.
He chose to forgive, beseeching the Father on behalf of his crucifiers, saying that they don’t know what they are doing. He chose to quote Scripture from the cross, directing our attention to Psalm 22, which begins with these words: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.”
In making all those particular choices, he gave up something. He gave up his time of being human. He gave up the possibility of growing old. He gave up continuing to teach, heal, and love while in this life. He gave up his time of being the Incarnate God on earth.
What was his legacy? What did He leave us? Even if his life on earth was all there was? Even if the Resurrection hadn’t happened? What did His life, the way he lived it, leave us?
Love – He left us the greatest love the world has ever known. He left us the example of being a servant because of that Love. He left us a particular interpretation of a body of teachings for us to study, to take on as reality for us, and to bring those teachings to life for the sake of others. He left us with the sure knowledge that miracles are possible. He left us with the hope and faith to pray for miracles in our day.
He left us with a new Commandment: to love one another in the same way that He loved us. He takes us and burns away what is unneeded and superfluous and that separates us from being the loving persons He has created us to be, in relationship with Him. He chose that cup of creating that legacy.
Can we drink that cup – to accept that inheritance? Can we make the necessary choices it would take, for us to intentionally choose to become the loving person He has created us to be? What would we have to give up for that to happen, not just for Lent, but for a lifetime?
If we did make those choices and drank the cup of deeply following him, sooner or later, we would enter our Passion. What would our Passion look like, do you think? What would our legacy be? How would our obit read?
What Jesus would want it to say is simply this: “See how they loved one another.” For there would be radical forgiveness, the sacrifice of ego-driven desires, sacrifices made for the sake of someone else, serving other’s needs as a full expression of the greatest love ever known.
Look again at the events in Jesus’ life during Holy Week. Can we, as Jesus’ disciples, stay with him in His Passion, every step of the way, as we hear that story again? If we can, His love and strength will help us choose to live into our Holy Passion in Christ, that the community outside the walls of our church can know and love Him also.