Friday September 15, 2017
Jesus is the one who suffered with us and for us, revealing how to be human in the face of pain and sorrow. All of us who are his followers must learn how to be obedient and how to remain faithful in the face of the violence, horror and misery that human beings inflict upon one another in sin.
Jesus dies broken, humiliated, and tortured through crucifixion-the legal and massively unjust form of capital punished used by the Romans on those that threatened their power. Jesus dies alone, except in John's gospel, where his mother, his mother's sister, Mary of Cleopas, Mary of Magdala, and the disciple whom Jesus loved, stand witness in his company, in silent sorrow and mourning. This is the beloved community. This is where all of us who are baptized are to be found-sorrowing with his mother and the others at the foot of the cross where millions still are crucified. Where do we stand together in witness and solidarity?
Alternative
It was women who featured most prominently at this first real altar of sacrifice, Calvary. So, the three women who stood by Jesus (in a most literal sense) were his mother, a relative, and his friend Mary Magdalene. They showed greater fidelity and courage than the men, nearly all of whom had run away (see April 11, 12).
I came across this remarkable prayer from the Methodist Service Book, “I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing.” That prayer may appear to some as an expression of purely passive spirituality; or some may describe it as “feminine.” But just think: how could you defeat a person who could truly pray that prayer? It would be impossible. Far from being an expression of weakness, it is an expression of the uttermost strength. Any spirituality that lacked this kind of strength would be shallow and partial. The Cross may look like weakness, but it is the power of God. And “God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1Cor 1:25).
