Last Sunday we took a closer look at the concept of Passover as it relates to the Passion Week in Christianity. In Judaism, the Passover calls to remembrance the escape from slavery in Egypt to freedom as the Children of God. Jesus called us to come up higher and experience a new relationship with God, to let go into God, into wholeness. The symbolism of the wine and the bread, representing the lifeforce (blood) and the very substance (flesh) of our being represents the very living presence of the Christ within each of us. Jesus planted the seeds of understanding in the disciples which would bear fruit after the resurrection.
Good Friday represents the final rejection of Jesus by those who refused to accept Him as the Son of God. The Sanhedrin, bound by its rigid adherence to the Law and the temporal power they held, refused to even open up to the possibility of change, to receiving the Living Word of God. The chief priests and Pharisees tried to destroy the message by crucifying the man, thereby maintaining their control over the religious and secular lives of the Jews
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The disciples, frightened and confused, scattered like leaves driven before the winds of a storm they did not understand. These were men who were dedicated to the man and to the Son of God, men who had given up all that they had to follow him with a deep and abiding love for their teacher. When Jesus breathed His last, the Temple veil was torn apart and earthquakes split the very rocks around them, the Centurion proclaimed: "Truly, this was the Son of God!" I believe that the broken rocks and the torn veil in the Temple represent the breaking up of the rigid power and mindset which had rejected Jesus.
The body of Jesus was hastily moved to a burial tomb and a large stone was rolled across the stone in preparation for the Sabbath. The chief priests and Pharisees went to Pilate to demand that the tomb be sealed and guards placed before it so that the disciples couldn't steal the body of Jesus and then claim that He had fulfilled His promise: After three days I will rise.
The two Mary's returned to the tomb on the morning of the third day to perform the ritual preparation of the body. When they arrived at the tomb, the stone had been rolled away and an angel proclaimed the Resurrection to them and sent them away to tell the others. Joy and hope flew into the hearts and minds of all those left bereft by His death! His disciples had vested all their faith and hope in Jesus even though He had repeatedly told them that they had the same Spirit in them and could do all that He could do. But they could not even conceive of such a possibility while He remained with them. With the Resurrection, they finally understood the wine and the bread of the Last Supper--understood that Jesus was now and always would be with them as the very essence of their being.
His final command to them set them on the path of life:
All authority has been given to Me
in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things
that I have commanded you; and lo,
I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:18
Today and everyday, let us remember that the Teachings of the Master are with us always and that our very lives will be transformed by His Word. Carol's solo today carries the power of His message and His life.
What one man can do is dream...
dream a life open to the Word
What one man can do is Love...
the world enough to heal it
What one man can do is Speak
the Truth into being
What one man can do is change the world
and make it new again!
No matter how dark and hopeless it seems before the dawn, remember we were called to come up higher, called to make a difference in the world. Remember, what one man can do, we can do also!
