COSTLY LOVE by Cheri Holdridge (with an assist by Kurt Young)

There is a legend about an old priest in the tradition of St. Ignatius, who was the founder of the Jesuits. The young priest came to the wise old priest where they both lived in Paris. The young priest was discouraged. He told his mentor that he was going to renounce his vows and leave the priesthood. The older priest said he was, of course, free to do so, but that he must first do one thing. He told him to go to the 800 year old Notre Dame Cathedral, walk down the center aisle to the great altar, look at the massive sculpture of the crucified Christ and say this three times: “You did this for me and I do not care!” “You did this for me and I do not care!” “You did this for me and I do not care!”

Well, the young priest was resolved, and went to the cathedral, confident that he could accomplish this simple task. He said it once. He said it a second time, his voice, faltering. But he could not say it a third time. He fell to his knees, weeping. He did not leave the priesthood, not that day, not ever.  (Story referenced in Mother Tongue, by Paul Nixon, pp. 93-94, unpublished manuscript; he references Ignatius of Loyola, in Spiritual Exercises, recommended imaginary conversation with Jesus, especially Jesus on the Cross.)

This is the week we Jesus-followers call Holy. This week is the high point of Jesus’ life. This is the point where we see the fullness of his humanity and his divinity. This is the holy of holies, the good, the bad and the ugly. If Jesus’ life were a novel this would be the point where you stay up late into the night to read the last few chapters because you can’t put the book down. If Jesus’ life story were a Hollywood movie this is the point in the movie where you don’t get up to go the bathroom because you can’t bear to miss one second. 

Holy week starts with Jesus arriving in the Holy City, the center of religious life for his people, Jerusalem. And the people greet him with a little parade. They pull down palm branches from the trees and wave them – whatever is handy – to wave and create a sense of something important. They shout “Hosanna!” which is a word of praise and joy. They are welcoming him as a sort of king or hero.  He is a healer, an amazing teacher and preacher.  They are people who need hope. Who doesn’t need hope? But these Jews are living under foreign rule. They have been waiting for a Messiah. This new teacher named Jesus has developed quite a following as a healer and as someone who is bold to speak the word of God. He is not afraid to stand up to the authorities. They love him!

Well true to form, as soon as Jesus enters the city and he immediately gets into trouble at the Temple.  You know how, when you are reading a good book, or watching a movie, and the tension starts to build, and you know something bad is going to happen? The music changes, right? You know it’s coming. The camera shots get more angular. Well, that is what happens, Jesus walks into the temple and loses his temper. He sees people selling things. Now, in their defense, they were probably selling birds or other things for offerings in the temple. It was a practice that had been going on for a long time. But Jesus had had enough. He said, “You have turned a place of prayer into a den of robbers!” And he threw the tables over. Well from that point on, the week went from bad to worse in a hurry.

There was a bright spot, when he had a nice dinner with his disciples to say good bye, and that is where we get our practice of Holy Communion, that we will celebrate in a few minutes and on Thursday. But after that it was all downhill.

Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him. Again, just like a blockbuster movie, you can tell that the climax is coming. It was all set up from the start. 

Looking back, we can see how it happened. From the beginning of his ministry, the high priests and religious leaders saw him as a threat. Jesus was just too radical. So day by by day they built their case, and they turned the people against him. You know what crowds are like, don’t you? You know, how the crowd mentality goes. All you have to do is get a few people riled up for or against a cause (usually against), and the rest will follow.  

That is what happened in the end. They took Jesus to Pontius Pilate. He tried to hand him off to Herod. And the chief priests just kept saying: this man is a traitor. He is setting himself up as our leader but he is not. He thinks he is the messiah but he is not. He even thinks he is the king, but we all know Caesar is the ruler of the Roman Empire.  

In the end, the people had a chance to save Jesus. There was this festival, and every year one prisoner could be pardoned. They had a chance to save him, but they chose another prisoner to be freed, a political prisoner names Barabbas. For Jesus, they shouted, “Crucify him!” And that is just what happened.

Next week is Easter and we get to hear the wonderful ending to the story, but today, we’re going to linger right here on this walk to the cross with Jesus.

Because you see, we need to understand what this is all about, as best we can. You see, we are followers of this man, Jesus, and we need to try to wrap our minds around the events of that Holy Week, and what led up to it, what this cross means.

You see, until God came to earth in the human form of Jesus, God was distant from us. God was sort of like an absentee landlord, owning property but not really seeing it first-hand, not experiencing what it is like to be us. 

Oh sure, God always has interactions with human beings, through prayer, the odd burning bush and vision. But it wasn’t enough. God felt the message of God’s love for us was not getting through and so God sent Jesus. We can’t really wrap our minds around this. Words really can’t explain, but we do our best. God put on a human body and came to earth, to love us and to feel our pain and our joy. God came to experience every human emotion and experience that you have ever had, and that you will ever have.  Just let that sink in for a moment.  Can you imagine?

And then, we human beings, do you what we did, our foremothers and forefathers on this planet . . . we killed God. 

If we go back to the metaphor I was using of Jesus’ life story being like a great book or a Hollywood movie, I think the reason we get sucked into a great book or movie is because we see ourselves in that story. Either we see our own experiences, or we feel things that we would like to experience but we know we never will. Or we see the ugly side of ourselves that we know is there and we hope will never come out. Jesus came to see and experience all of that, and he did. 

He saw humans at our best, and at our absolute worst. In his last days, he saw the worst. We killed Jesus because we humans are weak.  We are human as God made us to be. We give into our fears. You see, Jesus came and asked us to be generous and kind and forgiving and just. You want to be all those things, don’t you? But people don’t like to be pushed into being too generous and kind and forgiving and just. We can only take so much and then we snap. Of course, we like it when other people are generous and kind and forgiving and just toward us, don’t we? But in the end, the people got scared. The religious leaders wanted their power, and they didn’t like Jesus getting in on the action. The people started doubting whether God’s love and power could really be that amazing. IT IS THAT AMAZING, BY THE WAY, but that is next week’s message. Even Jesus’ best friend Peter gave into fear.  Has your best friend ever let you down? Later Peter would become a preacher that would draw thousands in a day to turn to God and be baptized. But on the night Jesus was arrested, Peter cowered and denied even knowing him.   Poor Peter, I feel sorry for him, and I’ve been him. 

Some days, we are Peter, in our actions. Oh sure, we get up in the morning, ready to live like those Palm Sunday crowds, wearing Christian symbols on necklaces around our necks and claiming that we are followers of Jesus and we want to change the world and mean it. But then someone at work does something stupid. They ask for forgiveness, and instead we ream them out, denying that we even know Jesus by our unmerciful actions. Then we come home driving our cars with a “wage peace” bumper stickers on the back and we walk in the door. We get into a fight with our spouse about money or whose turn it is to do the dishes and or what we are going to do this weekend.  We don’t listen to one another. The listening is the key here. The kids see us fighting rather that making peace. Again, we betray really ever knowing Jesus. On Sunday we decide to catch up on work or sleep in because it’s just too hard to get the kids going and we skip church. We don’t make space in our lives for the one who gives us life and breath. We wonder why, on Monday morning, our bodies and souls are dragging. Because you see, a little piece of God lives inside of us, but when we don’t give time to nurture our souls, we kill God, as surely as we had been in that crowd and shouted, “Crucify him.”

And you know what. God says It’s okay.  That’s the crazy part. God knew it was going to happen. And God loves us so much, God came as Jesus anyway. God is willing to pay the cost of loving us. God knew that we would kill God Jesus, and yet God came in the form of Jesus anyway, because God loves us that much.  Can you imagine sending your child to this? But Jesus came and carried that cross and died once and for all, so that we don’t have to carry this cross through life. We don’t have to be weighed down by fears that God is not enough. God’s love is enough. Being generous and kind and forgiving and just are enough. We can do these things when we allow the Spirit of Jesus to live in us. And when we fail, which we will, we come back here to this community for encouragement, and we pick ourselves back up and try again, because God always loves us and gives us another chance.  Jesus carried the cross so we don’t have to. That is the message Jesus came to give. And he died so that we might live. 

Jesus carried the cross, so we don’t have to. Give thanks for that cross in this Holy Week, how much that God loves us, that God showed us even in death how much God love us, and receive God’s gift of his costly love.