Holy Week (E)

The Joy

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.  (Hebrews 12:1-3)

This Day of all days, is the Day when the love of God for us, and the desire of God for us, brings into stark expression that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.

What was “the joy set before” Jesus Christ, how did He endure the Cross, why was He able to despise the shame? While it was certainly that He rejoiced to do the will of His Father, wrapped within that will was...what? How did Jesus endure such pain, and grief, and hostility?

How did He run the race with endurance? How can we run our race, in Him, with endurance? How did Jesus stay in the game of life?

Look at Jesus, running the race. Or perhaps we should call it a gauntlet.  What characteristics of Jesus do we see in our passage?

We see that Jesus endured opposition.  We’ve all known pressure and opposition, but have we really known the intensity of opposition Christ encountered?  Do we forget that immediately after His baptism by John, that Christ encountered evil, wickedness, and darkness itself as Satan confronted Him in the wilderness?

Do we forget that everyday of His public ministry there were people trying to destroy Him?  He was the object of assassination plots. He was the object of slander. He was accused of being mentally unbalanced.  His words and deeds were deliberately misrepresented in order to discredit Him. He was hated. Segments of society that were normally enemies of each other joined together to destroy Him.  Christ was the lightning rod, the focal point, of all that was evil in the world…He was the object of its hatred.

How did Christ endure this opposition?  How did He remain on the playing field? How did He stay in the game of life?

The night in the garden of Gethsemane, the mob comes to take Him to the kangaroo court of the high priest and religious leaders.  Torches in the night sky, kissed by one who betrays Him, deserted by those whom He had lived with and loved; manhandled, beaten, laughed at…mocked…made fun of…what is He thinking during this time?  What is in the mind and heart of Jesus?

False witnesses at the trial…telling lie upon lie upon lie about Him…calling Him godless…one who blasphemes God…imagine…calling the one who loves God as no one has ever loved God...calling Him a God hater...and with no one to speak in His defense…what is going through His mind and heart?

Off in the corner of the high priest’s house…during the trial proceedings…in the midst of His pain…of His beatings…of hearing the slander and mockery…Jesus hears a voice…it’s a familiar voice…a voice that He loves…a voice that He has yearned for…the voice says, “I don’t know Him…I am not one of His…”  And the rooster crows the second time.

What is He thinking?  What is in the heart of Jesus?

From Pilate to Herod He is taken.  The holy Lamb of God handled and abused by the unholy hands of men, men whose hearts are consumed with the fire of hatred and malice…men whose judgment is a foregone conclusion…they will see Him dead…they will see Him crucified…

The crowds, which just days before had been shouting, “Hosanna, Hosanna to the Highest…”  Are now shouting, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him. Give us Barabbas the murderer, but crucify Jesus!”

What is He thinking?  What is in His heart? How is He staying in the game?  How will He be able to cross the finish line?

Out of the city, up the hill, on the Cross, His body racked with pain…spit upon…mocked…deserted…alone…how alone?  Darkness over the land…for the light of the world is being snuffed out…bearing our sins…the object of not only the anger and wrath of men…but now…as our sin bearer…the object of God’s wrath and anger…and He cries out, “My God, my God, why have you…forsaken me?”

What is in His heart and mind?  How is He staying in the game?

You, my friends, are in His heart and mind…you are how He is staying in the game.  “For the joy that was set before Him, He endured the Cross, scorning its shame…”

To walk with us through times of separation and grief…to rejoice with us…to hold our hands…for the joy of bringing us into the family of God…He endured the Cross, and scorned its shame…

You were in His heart and mind when He was before the high priest.  You were in His heart and mind when the whip was tearing the flesh off His back…you were in His heart and mind when nails were being driven into His body…you were the object of His love and joy as darkness enveloped the land…and His cry, His decree, His proclamation…of “It is finished” was His cry of triumph…knowing that on the other side of the empty tomb He would find us…He would find you…His prize…

Jesus stayed in the game because He saw us.

We can stay in the game as our eyes are fixed on Him.

Holy Week (D)

So when He had washed their feet, and taken His garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a slave is not greater than his master, nor is one who is sent greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (From John 13)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (From John 13)

“This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you.” (From John 15)

This is Maundy Thursday, remembering the night that Jesus celebrated the Passover with His disciples, the night that He instituted the Lord’s Supper, the night that He gave a new commandment to His people, and the night that He was betrayed. The word “maundy” comes from a Latin word for “command” - hence the term Maundy Thursday with a focus on the new commandment that we should love one another as Christ loves us. While John chapters 13 - 17 contain many other commandments that Jesus gave on this sacred evening, this particular command is designated as a “new” command.

This is the mark of the Christian, this is how others are to know that we belong to Jesus Christ, by our love one for another - but it isn’t a nebulous form of love, it isn’t a “feel good” kind of love that can be here one moment and gone the next - it is a love with precise definition and character, for the measure of the love and the quality of the love is none other that the measure and quality of the love that Jesus has for us, for you, for me. It is the love that lays down its life for its friends. As the Apostle John writes in his first letter; We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Jesus leads into this commandment by washing the feet of His Apostles, including the feet of Judas Iscariot. He then says that as He was washed their feet that they should wash one another’s feet. If He is our Master and He has done this, then we ought to do it, in fact, we’re commanded to do it.

I think that when we leave the house in the morning that we ought to carry a wash basin, a towel, and water with us; and that we should be attentive to whose feet we can wash each day. While I do think that physically washing one another’s feet is something that the church ought to do periodically when it gathers, or do in small groups, we ought to be washing feet every day of our lives - we ought to be refreshing others, washing the dust and dirt of life off of their hearts and minds and souls. We live in a dirty, toxic, polluted society and its hardness and lack of compassion, not to mention lack of plain courtesy, can cause a hard crust to form on our inner selves - we need to take our basin and water and refresh others; speaking a kind word, sharing Christ, praying with them and for them. How many people go through a day or a week and never hear a kind word, never receive a kind action, never know what it is to have someone actually care how they are doing?

But Jesus doesn’t just say, “Love one another,” He says, “Love one another as I have loved you.” If Jesus said it He means for us to do it, and there is no excuse for not loving as Christ loves. Throughout John chapters 13 - 17 Jesus makes clear that He is to be our source of life, that we are to abide in Him, that the Holy Spirit is coming to live within us, that the Father and Son are living in those in relationship with them - Jesus commands us and He gives us the power to fulfill His command - this is our calling, this is the mark of the Christian. This is actually what Maundy Thursday is about, or should be about...to partake of the Cup and the Bread is to partake of Christ and of one another in Christ, it is to partake of the New Covenant, of His body and blood - it is to live by the life of God in Christ.

Jesus Christ loves sacrificially. He does not love conveniently, He does not love only when things are easy, He does not love only when we think ourselves loveable; Christ loves us when we are unlovable, when we are untouchable...He lays His life down for us...this is how Jesus loves...how do we love?

The world has a right to judge Christians by their love for one another - what does the world see? In our lives? In my life? In your life?

Whose feet have I washed today?

Whose feet have you washed today?

Holy Week (C)

Faces in the Crowd

On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” John 12:12 - 13.

The day before Palm Sunday a large crowd had gathered to see Jesus in Bethany (John 12:9), and now on Palm Sunday another large crowd comes out from Jerusalem to escort Jesus into the city. This practice of what we might call “rolling out the red carpet” was significant in the ancient world, for it not only was a demonstration of welcome, it was also given to military leaders returning from a victory. Many arches in the Roman world were built to commemorate triumphal leaders, and the victory parades were called “triumphs”. To be given a “triumph” was a great honor. What were these people thinking as they welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem? As Jesus looked into the faces of the crowd what did He see?

In our passage above we’re told that the crowd “had come to the feast”. This was the feast of Passover, the great commemoration of God, through Moses, leading His people out of Egyptian slavery, through the Red Sea, and eventually into the Promised Land. The people in the crowd had come to Jerusalem to celebrate deliverance from an oppressor; while at the same time they were living under what many considered Roman oppression - might not Jesus be another Moses, about to lead Israel out of slavery?

First century Palestine was a place of political and military ferment, the Jews had a history of rebellion against outside governments. There were groups of Jews advocating the overthrow of Roman rule and periodic armed insurgency occured throughout the time of Christ, culminating in a full-blown war in which Jerusalem was destroyed (A.D. 70). The thought that Jesus might be on the verge of leading a rebellion might have been in the minds of some in the crowd.

How easy it is to create Jesus in our own image. If we need a political or military leader let’s draft Jesus.

Of course Jesus knew all about crowds. In John Chapter Two is an account of Jesus at the first Passover of His recorded ministry, consider what John writes:

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.

What did Jesus know was in man? Our fickleness? Our selfishness? Our faithlessness?

In John Chapter Six, after Jesus fed the multitude we read:

Therefore when the people saw the sign which He had performed, they said, “This is truly the Prophet who is to come into the world.”

So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.

Jesus, once again, was not entrusting Himself to man.

What did Jesus see in the faces in the crowd? If I had been there, what would He have seen in my face? In your face?

A few days after Palm Sunday Jesus would face another crowd, but this time there would not be shouts of praise to God, this time there would be no welcoming throng with songs of joy, this time the crowd would be shouting “Away with this man!” As we read the following passage can you sense the increasing vehemence of the crowd, its insistence that Jesus must be crucified?

Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people, and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one who incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined Him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against Him. No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us; and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him. Therefore I will punish Him and release Him.” [Now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner.]

But they cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!” (He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.) Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again, but they kept on calling out, saying, “Crucify, crucify Him!” And he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in Him no guilt demanding death; therefore I will punish Him and release Him.” But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail. And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted. And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will. Luke 23:13 - 25.

The crowd chose a murderer over Jesus, perhaps the murderer would set them free.

Of course, Jesus came for Barrabbas just as He came for you and me; He died for Barrabbas just as He died for you and me. The Worthy for the unworthy is the story of the Gospel, and in that sense we are all in the place of Barabbas. How do we feel when we hear the crowds shouting to crucify Jesus but free us?

Even though the crowds spoke out of hatred, even though like dumb animals they had been incited to demand the death of One whom they had been praising just days prior to Good Friday...there is a sense in which they spoke truth - Jesus had to die, the just for the unjust (1 Peter 3:18). In a sense the crowd spoke just as the high priest spoke just days before Palm Sunday:

Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all, nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.” Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. So from that day on they planned together to kill Him. John 11:47 - 53.

If Jesus saw my face in the crowd on Palm Sunday, would He have also seen my face in the crowd on Good Friday, crying, “Crucify Him!”

If Jesus sees my face on Sunday morning as I gather with others to worship Him, does He see my face in the crowd of a world gone mad, rejecting His love and grace, Monday - Saturday? Am I His follower for a few hours on Sunday, and then do my words and actions and the ponderings of my heart shout, “Crucify Him!” the rest of the week?

Does my choice of entertainment shout “Crucify Him!”? The way I spend my time and money? The language I use? The decisions I make? The way I treat people?

When Jesus sees my face, when He sees your face, as I write this and as you read this...what does He see?

Holy Week (B)

While John Chapter Nine occurs prior to Holy Week, due to its proximity to the sacred week in John’s Gospel, and also because it is fresh in my mind, I want to share a thought or two. This is the story of Jesus healing a man who was born blind. I’ve included two excerpts from John Chapter Nine, but you should really read the entire chapter to get the flow of events, it is beautiful and instructive in so many ways.

“As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of Him who sent Me as long as it is day; night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.” When He had said this, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which is translated, Sent). So he went away and washed, and came back seeing. Therefore the neighbors, and those who previously saw him as a beggar, were saying, “Is not this the one who used to sit and beg?” Others were saying, “This is he,” still others were saying, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the one.” So they were saying to him, “How then were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man who is called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes, and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash’; so I went away and washed, and I received sight.” They said to him, “Where is He?” He *said, “I do not know.”

The above is the start of the story. The disciples’ question reminds us that we really don’t know why specific things are the way they are, and I find that asking the question “Why?” when it comes to the pain in the lives of those around me is usually not helpful. Even in my own life the question “Why?” is often not helpful; sure there are times my wounds are self-inflicted, but even then when I start to analyze cause-and-effect, chains of events, and the what-might-have-beens, I typically end up in despair at having even attempted to answer the question “Why?” I am not as smart as I think I am, not as wise, not as bright, and my vision is impaired - I am better off trusting our kind heavenly Father to work things out, to comfort, to heal. As for others, if I can be available for them, to give what I can in Christ, even if it is just being there for them...well, I think that’s probably better than being able to explain “Why?”

I suppose the disciples could have spent all day asking “Why?”, “Who sinned?”, and all the other questions we like to ask. But Jesus says, “Look, it’s daytime, we need to get to work.” Have you ever been around people who, when a problem arises, are more interested in fixing blame on someone than solving the problem? Jesus is the Light of the world and He is interested in giving light to others. Since Jesus says that we are also the light of the world (Matthew 5:13 - 16) we would do well to get with the program and be a blessing to others.

Now I’ll admit that making an eye ointment with dirt and spit isn’t my idea of being a blessing, but that shows you what I know. Can you imagine what people are thinking? I wonder what the blind man was thinking as he listened to the actions of Jesus, as he felt the mud and the fingers and hands of Jesus on his face. If he had already heard of Jesus, which seems reasonable, no doubt he’d heard that Jesus heals by simply speaking, or by laying hands on the sick - he may not have heard that Jesus heals sometimes by mixing His spit with dirt and rubbing it on a person’s body.

Well, another reminder to me to not be quick to judge how God at times may move and lead my brothers and sisters to minister to others; and of course a reminder for me to be open to God speaking to me in ways that I may not expect, through people I may not be looking for, in words and actions that I may not find comfortable.

I wonder how it felt to be touched by Jesus. I wonder how often the blind man felt the touch of another person? His blindness made him less than a person in the eyes of many around him. I wonder what the fingers of Jesus felt like? What His hands felt like? Isn’t it strange that we can live and work in close proximity to others and yet be strangers? Strangers even in our own households? Strangers to those whom we’ve sat next to at church for decades? Strangers to long time coworkers?

Sin has robbed us of the comfort of touch. The sexualization of the body, the pollution of the mind, the lust of society, the degrading of men and women and children - we must now think twice, and think again, and think again before we touch others. Well, the fact is that we need touch and when we touch with love and respect and compassion and healing and comfort - then we touch in the name of Jesus. Oh how the touch of Jesus must have felt, what it must have communicated. Holy touch, blessed touch. That we would learn to touch as Jesus touched.

“Jesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” He answered, “Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?” Jesus said to him, “You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you.” And he said, “Lord, I believe.” And he worshiped Him. And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.” Those of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these things and said to Him, “We are not blind too, are we?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ‘We see,’ your sin remains.”

The intervening verses that come between these two excerpts describe the interrogation the man endured by the religious leaders. The pressure was so intense that the man’s parents backed away from supporting their son lest they be expelled from the synagogue. The Pharisees were livid that a man born blind should dare to say a good word about Jesus. When they repeatedly tried to get the man to renounce Jesus he said, “Whether He is a sinner, I do not know; one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”

As the pressure to denounce Jesus intensifies the man then says, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

Wouldn’t you have loved to have been there? While this man may have been blind since birth, his mind was anything but blind, his heart was anything but hard, “Well, here is an amazing thing…” What a turn of phrase, the religious poobahs must have been taken aback, they were accustomed to others going along with their authority, they were accustomed to the folks in pews never questioning the decrees of their councils. After all, to buck the system meant to be “put out” of the synagogue, to be shunned from the hub of religious and social life.

The man born blind had courage; courage to tell the truth, courage to refuse to “go along to get along”, courage to face the pressure of family and the religious leaders. We might think that, having received his sight, that he would want to meld into society, to start to enjoy life, to cash in on his celebrity; he may have been able to write his own ticket with the civic and religious powers - but no, he will not do that, he will not sell himself, he will not prostitute himself, he will not lie, and he will not betray. He will not trade physical sight for spiritual and moral blindness.

They answered him, “You were born entirely in sins, and are you teaching us?” So they put him out. Do you think the Pharisees were mad? The effrontery of a man born blind, a man without rabbinic education, a man who received healing on the Sabbath and thus (in their minds) violated the Sabbath - the audacity of this man to question their authority, of refusing to go along with them, of failing denounce Jesus. He had to go!

It is one thing in our society to talk about God, it is another thing to talk about Jesus. Groups of people may put us “out” if we talk about Jesus, but what else can we do, those who were once blind but now see - how can we not talk about Jesus?

When Jesus hears that the man has been “put out” Jesus finds him and reveals Himself to him in an even deeper way, and the man worships Jesus. Well, that must have really set the Pharisees off, for they were apparently watching and listening. The Pharisees are quick to proclaim their own sight, they are anything but blind, and because they insist that they have sight their blindness is reinforced. This is a theme throughout John’s Gospel, the more people insist they can see, the more they insist they are slaves to no one, the more they insist that their upbringing makes them righteous - the greater their darkness, the more abject their slavery, the more toxic their religiosity.

Picture the man who has been healed, he has been “put out” of the synagogue, not even his parents would stand with him. His very first day of eyesight and he has been cast off by the very people who should have rejoiced with him, by the people who should have stood with him, by people he had known all of his life. Instead of these people being happy for the man they want to use him to destroy Jesus. Ah, but what courage the man has - a rare thing then, a rarer thing today.

And then...and then a man approaches him. He does not know who the man is until He speaks….because the man once blind has never seen Jesus with his natural eyes. He has heard Jesus’ voice, he has felt Jesus’ touch, but he has never seen Jesus with his natural eyes. When the man hears the first syllables coming from Jesus’ mouth what joy he must have felt...oh my...how he resonated with the Man speaking to him, the Man who healed him, the Man he refused to deny...even if it meant losing everything on his first day of sight, even if it meant being “put out”.

Do we hear Jesus? Do we know His touch? Can we see Him? The man once blind “saw” before his sight was restored, and having his sight restored and worshipping Jesus he continued to see, he continued to live in the light.

Can we say with the man born blind, “One thing I know, once I was blind but now I see”?

Holy Week (A)

How important did the Gospel writers view what we call Holy Week and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ? Matthew’s Gospel has 28 chapters, chapters 21 - 28 are devoted to these events. Mark’s Gospel has 16 chapters, chapters 11 - 16 are focused on these things. Luke’s Gospel has 24 chapters, 19:28 - Chapter 24 are centered on Holy Week and the Resurrection. John has 21 chapters, beginning with Chapter 12 John turns our attention to Holy Week and the Resurrection.

Also, all of the Gospels have a lead up to Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. So there is a sense in which the accounts of the life of Jesus Christ in the Gospels prior to Holy Week serve as a prelude to Holy Week, a prelude to the rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus speaks of His death and resurrection in Chapter Two (2:18 - 22), and John the Baptist speaks of His crucifixion in the first chapter with the words, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (1:29). Jesus was born to die, born to suffer for us, bearing our sins, bearing us, ourselves, on the Cross. Thank God that He was also born to conquer death and rise from the dead.

Perhaps you could explore Holy Week in your Bible this week? You could begin by reading the accounts of Palm Sunday in Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, and John 12. What are the similarities in these accounts? Are there any points that one writer emphasizes? What are the reactions of the people and religious leaders? What might you have thought had you been there? How do you see yourself in these passages? What questions are raised when you read these passages?

There are often many dramatic portrayals of Holy Week and Easter in movies and on television, some of them are better than others. But there is nothing quite like reading the Bible yourself and talking about it with God and with others. There is nothing quite like asking God to speak to you as you read His Word. Holy Week is centered on Jesus Christ, and being centered on Jesus Christ it is centered on His love for you - for He loves you so much that He suffered and died for you - and rose from the dead for you - so that you could have an intimate and loving relationship with God. This is the most amazing love story in the universe, it isn’t a fabricated myth, it isn’t something conjured up in a backroom - it is played out before an entire city, before religious leaders, before the Roman governor and his soldiers - and His death was witnessed by a crowd and certified by a centurion who knew death as a way of life.

And His resurrection? Women and men saw Him, touched Him, spoke with Him, ate with Him, and their lives were changed - not just in ones and twos, but in groups. And to this day people still see Him, and many more talk to Him, and He speaks to many of us in many different ways. His appearing and speaking is without regard to culture or ethnicity or education or anything else what we might think would precondition people - in many instances He appears to those who are opposed to Him or who know virtually nothing about Him. He does this because He loves us, He loves all of us.

One of the central ways He speaks to us is through His Word, what we call the Bible. This is a good week to explore Jesus in the Bible, it is a good week to say, “Speak to me through the Bible. Please reveal Yourself to me.”

If you are unfamiliar with the Bible, I invite you to begin with the Gospel of John, you can start with the beginning (Chapter One), or since it’s Holy Week I’d invite you to begin with Chapter Nine.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”

The Piercing Sword

By: Robert L. Withers

“And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34 - 35).

A sword into my soul?

What might this mean?

The fall and rise of many?

How might this come?

A sign to be opposed?

My baby boy, oh why?

Marvelous have these months been,

These strange and wondering months.

Gabriel, who had appeared to Daniel,

Invading the quiet of my day,

“Hail, richly blessed! The Lord is with you.”

He tells me not to fear, but now this from Simeon.

My dear husband Joseph,

O how he was perplexed,

What a quandary he was in.

I trusted him.

God trusted him.

He trusted God, he trusted me.

My cousin Elizabeth exclaiming,

“Blessed are you among women,

And blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

I had not written her. No one had told her.

Yet she knew, yet she proclaimed.

My soul and heart were large then, they were whole.

But now, “A sword will pierce my soul.”

How? Why? When?

The shepherds, humble and kind and gentle.

Beholding a Lamb like no other.

Those strange and mysterious and generous men from the East.

They bowed before my son.

Then the warning to my husband,

“Flee, flee right now. Go to Egypt, rush,

Take the child and his mother, Herod comes to destroy him.”

Destroy my child? Moses was saved from mass slaughter,

But why single out my baby boy?

Was this what Simeon meant, that my soul would be pierced?

That time when we could not find him.

I thought, “Is this what Simeon means?”

Have we lost my boy, my Jesus?

How could we have lost sight of him?

We found him in the Temple, speaking with the rabbis and priests.

So strange, so very strange - I thought my heart would break in the search.

Then the tranquil years, peace in our town and land.

How I delighted in seeing him grow in favor with God and others.

What a joy to have him around, to see him with Joseph,

To see him with all in our town.

So thoughtful, so considerate. And O how he loved me,

How so very good and kind he was to me.

Then that day came, when he said he was going

To see that strange man John the Baptizer,

To the Jordan he was going. It was not like him

To chase after the novel, to run after the popular.

Yet I knew in his eyes and his voice that he was not running,

He was not hastening, there was something else within him.

As I watched him walk down the dusty road away from our home

I was reminded of two things in my heart, in the recesses of my mind.

At first I could not clearly envision them, it was as if the skies

Were changing from bright and blue to clouds bearing a storm.

Then I knew, coming up from the depths of my soul,

Tremors were shaking me, foreboding was enveloping me.

There was I again in the Temple with Joseph and Jesus.

Jesus was saying, “Do you not know that I must be about

My Father’s business?

Then in the Temple again, bringing our baby to dedicate,

“And a sword will pierce even your own soul.”

Is God taking my son whom we dedicated?

Could this be it? The piercing? The work of the sword?

That which was given to me I gave back in dedication.

Now I watch my boy, for my “boy” he shall always be,

Walk away to seek that strange man John,

Elizabeth’s child now grown, our sons’ paths now meet.

What strange thing is this? O my soul! O my soul!

That Sabbath back in Nazareth, when my Son stood before

The congregation, “The Spirit of the LORD is upon me.”

How angry they became, they wanted to kill my boy,

How frightened I was, and yet, and yet, peaceful at the same time.

I saw that He was at peace, I saw Him unafraid.

I recalled Gabriel’s words, “Fear not...Mary.”

How many times during the next few years

Did my heart and soul almost break?

I knew many meant Him harm, and yet when I saw

His love and compassion for others, His kindness,

His tears, His healing, His sorrow for others,

Surely, I thought, God will preserve Him.

And through all these years, from boyhood until now,

O how He has always loved and cared for me.

Even when I have not understood at times His words and ways,

He has been tender to me, caring for me, gentle with me.

He is now a Man, O but what a Man.

Yes, a Man, but also my son, my boy.

Terror! Terror! Betrayed by Judas.

His flesh lacerated! His brow bleeding from a crown of thorns.

Mockery! Drenched with spit! Hatred in the air!

Murder in their hearts! The crowd, the mob!

What of the palms? What of the hosannas?

No! No! I cannot bear to hear it! “Crucify Him!” they are shouting.

I follow with my friends, with Mary Magdalene and others.

They hold my hand and lead me, an arm around my waist

Supports me, I cannot see through my tears,

I cannot speak through my sobs.

My body is convulsed with sorrow.

I am in shock, I tremble, I tremble, one foot in front of the other.

O such cruelty inflicted on the One who loved as no other.

The hammer striking the nails - O that sound!

The jolt of the cross striking the earth.

My boy’s body shaken. He looks at me, He looks at John;

“Woman, behold your son! Behold, your mother!”

Darkness descends, it is night as the light of my life is snuffed out.

Darkness yes, but I am His mother. I hear Him.

My heart sees Him. He is there, night or no night.

He is my boy. But what is happening? Terror!

I sense terror. I sense something not of this world transpiring.

O my boy, my son - I am hear my son. I love you my son!

Take me! Let Him go - take me...O please take me, take me, take me.

Mary Magdalene holds me on one side, John holds me on the other.

They wash me with their tears. We hold each other.

A cry, a piercing cry! “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

And I cry within, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken us?”

And as the light chases the darkness my beloved boy cries again,

“It is finished. Father, into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

Gabriel, you told me not to fear, that God was with me.

Elizabeth, you told me that I was blessed among women.

Shepherds, you told me that my boy meant great joy for all people.

Strange men from the East, you called my boy a king and worshipped Him.

Anna, you gave thanks for my Son in the Temple.

Simeon, Simeon, where are you now?

What did you say Simeon? What did you say to me?

That my soul would be pierced with a sword?

O Simeon, my soul is not pierced,

How could you be so wrong, why not tell me all Simeon?

My soul is not pierced, O no Simeon, it is not pierced,

My heart, my soul, my life...I am broken, shattered.

O MY BOY! MY SON! MY JESUS!