John 19.23-27 Good Friday, 2009
“RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW”
“Woman, here’s your son,” said Jesus, gazing at his mother from the cross. “And here is your mother,” he told his beloved disciple, who took Mary under his wing from that day forward. What does this declaration mean? It means more than, “Look at us, sorry lot that we are. Look at how imperial power tramples holy dreams. Look at how the world crushes hope and snuffs every last ray of light.”
I know Jesus is saying more than this because he is Jesus. And while he faced fully into every darkness we could know, Jesus did not surrender to the darkness.
So what is he saying? I got a clue two weeks ago when my daughter called me. She graduates from
Long ago I learned not to preach at my girls. It is in vain. What surprises me is how deeply their lives preach back to me. “Isn’t graduating enough to busy us for now?” Lise asked aloud. “Can’t we be fully present in this moment?” Amen, Lise, preach to me, and to your friends. It is godly to dwell in the moment, when times are good, even when times are bad. Writer Fulton Oursler observed, “We crucify ourselves between two thieves, regret for yesterday, and fear of tomorrow.”
We know Jesus appreciated being present in the moment, whatever the moment. We treasure his words, “Do not worry about your life, about what you eat or wear. God cherishes you and knows all your needs! Worrying won’t help; it only hurts. After all, notice the lilies, how God has fed and draped them! Even King Solomon never did as well as one small lily. And if God takes care of tiny lilies, coming and going in the heat of the sun, won’t he care for those he loves in bigger ways? So rather than fretting for tomorrow, always keep God’s new order front and center. Today is enough for today. Save tomorrow’s worries for tomorrow.” (Mt. 6.25-34)
What was true of better days with his dear friends ranging about the rolling green hills of Galilee--working miracles, teaching, and feeding thousands--was no less true as he drooped on the cross, staring face first into his mortality. For as we hear Jesus’ last words from the cross, we hear words like “Father, forgive them”, “behold your son”, “I thirst”, “it is finished” and “I commit myself into your hands.” All of them convey how fully present he is right now even as it all happens to him.
Why is this so? “We crucify ourselves between two thieves, regret for yesterday, and fear of tomorrow.” But Jesus wouldn’t let these two steal anything from him. He wasn’t up there rehashing the past, pondering the wife and kids he might have had living another life, this being rightly identified as his last temptation by the 80’s film of the same name. Neither was Jesus up there dreading the future, fearful over how we would manage without him, although we didn’t do so well. Jesus knew it was enough that the world was crucifying him. God didn’t also re-quire him to crucify himself with regret and fear. How wise is that? And how will-ing are we to call this faithfulness no matter what comes and to live accordingly?
Of course, it’s no mean feat, living in this authentic, sensible, and contented way. Jesus makes it looks easy, being fully present to God and neighbor not just in his salad days of preaching to thousands but even as his enemies take him down. But it’s a daunting spiritual discipline. I for one profess no expertise here, staying enough within the instant to stave off all regret for yesterday, all fear of tomorrow.
But I still commend this to you, knowing that Jesus’ would have me do so today. For the first words out of his mouth three days later, the first day into his next life, are “Fear not,” or “Do not be afraid.” He says it to everyone who will listen, as he said it during his Sermon on the Mount, and said it within the agony of the Cross.
“We crucify ourselves between two thieves, regret for yesterday, and fear of to-morrow.” We do, but Jesus didn’t. The world can take our life from us at any time. Yet no one but we define what our lives mean for all time. Jesus modeled how we can send the right message not just through life, but even through death. Je-sus spoke from the cross not just by what he said, but by what he refused to say.
I tell you, our regrets over the past and fear for the future are thieves. They steal the vitality of being alive right now. So we let Jesus’ perfect love cast out all fear. For if we can live out of his freedom from fear and worry even in the face of death how much freedom might we enjoy even now, making the most of the sunshine?
In life and death, in life until death, in life after death, we are in the hands of the Lord. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. Do not only hear it and know it. Experience it and share with this fearful, regretful world. Amen.
Wise and Faithful Savior, today we complete with you your journey to the cross. We can hardly begin to wrap our arms around what such a journey means. Its meaning staggers us. All we know is that we hear you calling us, motioning us to follow you. And we would fall in step beside you to enter the fullness of living.
As we are tortured by regrets over the past, help us let go knowing that you have already done so, covering us like a blanket with your forgiveness. As we tremble with fear over what shall be, stop our catastrophizing as we play over and again in our heads painful scenarios that will never happen, like gerbils on a treadmill.
Grant us peace and ease to smooth the way for your coming reign. Grant us hope that we may not grow weary in waiting for your peace, coming to all people. Amen.
