| Readings for April 1, 2012
We hear this Sunday from the Gospel of Mark the story of Jesus' passion and death. The story is absolutely central to our faith yet each year I wonder how to listen for something new instead of getting distracted by how long we have to stand to hear the whole thing out.
Sometimes it's helpful to focus on the individual characters in the story, people once as real as you and me. Although the story tends to flatten them, their lives were complex too and driven by all sorts of forces. Three people caught my attention as I pondered how to listen to this story.
The first is not Judas or even Peter, but one of the unnamed disciples who, quickly chiming in with all the others, said to Jesus, "Surely it is not I?" Imagine this disciple secretly fingering the culprit as he looks around the room. "Hmm, I've always wondered about that Thomas... He's never seemed committed. I'm not even sure he really believes!" Then Peter loudly interrupts these thoughts and says to Jesus, "Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you!" And our unnamed disciple strongly vows the same ("And they all spoke similarly"). But, as we know, this promise didn't last the night. In the darkness, they all left. Why could they not face their own duplicity, their own lukewarm commitment? Why can't we?
The second is the young man who followed Jesus when the others fled. Was he just a paparazzi hoping for a scoop? Or was he, in the zeal of youth, an earnest follower? Whatever his motivation, he was seized by the cloak of his intentions and stripped of his façade. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, he knew his nakedness and ran. Why could he not stand still in his humiliation long enough to look in Jesus' face and receive the garment of his love? Why can't we?
Third are the women, some of the many women who followed Jesus to Jerusalem. They followed on out to Golgotha and from a distance ministered to him until he breathed his last. And then they followed on again, right to the place where he was laid. They must have stayed there because they were first to see him when he rose up from the grave. Could they already face their own faithlessness? Did they already know their own fearfulness? Were they already aware of their own nakedness? Perhaps this gave them, paradoxically, the courage and the strength to follow on instead of running out. Can we?
Risen Lord, may we like all the Marys be
Honest in our fearfulness,
Undaunted in our nakedness,
Faithful in our following,
That we may rise with you,
Now and forever. Amen
Daniel Cochrane has been a member of Ascension for more than a decade. He sings in the choir, cantors and occasionally serves adult catechumens and candidates in the process of Christian Initiation. He is an assistive technology coordinator in the Wheaton-Warrenville school district.
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