Scattered

Easter is raw for me.The week leading up to Easter Sunday threatens to unglue me. The Cross is all I can think of at Christmas when we celebrate our Lords birth. I am always conscious that God gave his precious Son, knowing fully what would be demanded of him and what humanity would do to him. 

It is a discipline to enter into the narrative. It is emotionally jarring.

Holy Week starts with Jesus arriving in Bethany Saturday night. He shared a meal with his followers. The evening ends with Mary, the sister of Lazarus, anointing Jesus with perfume that would have cost enough to provide for her through her lifetime. Large crowds begin to gather.

On Sunday Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. Crowds cheer, worship and celebrate. It is a welcome worthy of a King. 

I keep thinking of how the disciples must have felt. It must have seemed like things were coming together. Something big was going to happen. All the years they had spent with Jesus, everything they had left behind, now what they had all been waiting for was just about to happen. 

Jesus weeps over Jerusalem.

Monday, Jesus enters the temple and explodes with disgust as he is confronted with the sinfulness of humanity, they dared to turn his Fathers house into a place for selfish gain and dishonesty. 

Jesus goes back to the temple on Tuesday and teaches. The Priests are so disturbed and angry they challenge his authority. Jesus replies with a question that stumps them. If they answer that his authority comes from Heaven they will be challenged for not believing. If they say his authority comes from human authority they risk angering the crowds. They play it safe and say they don't know. 

Again, I think of the disciples.  They must have felt satisfied with how Jesus managed the situation. It probably felt like he had the upper hand. Crowds gathered. The powers that be were nervous. It must have been so confusing. Externally everything looked great. Yet, in their time alone with Jesus, he kept telling confusing parables and trying to prepare them for his death. 

On Wednesday, Jesus teaches at the temple again. The religious leaders are so threatened and angry, they plot to kill him.

Thursday night he shares the Passover meal with his disciples, humbles himself by washing their feet and asking then to follow his example. Again he tries to prepare them for his death.  They do not understand. Despite his warnings, it seems they are riding the high of his popularity.

After dinner, they go to Gethsemane. Jesus asks them to pray, he goes off alone and enters an enormous Spiritual Battle. The intensity is so incredible that he sweats blood. 

His disciples sleep. 

They are not aware, they are not concerned. They do not seem to recognize his anguish and dismiss his call to prayer.

The next time he rises the disciples the religious leaders come with a guard, Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss and Jesus is arrested. 

For the disciples, I am sure it felt like they were on top of the world and then, with no warning, everything crashed and fell apart. 

The disciples scatter, Peter denies knowing Jesus. Jesus is falsely accused and a trial is held in secret at night before the Jewish leaders. He is mocked and beaten for sport "who hit you that time?" It is a long and painful night.

Friday morning they bring him beaten and bruised before Pilate, the local Roman authority. Again, he is falsely accused, Pilate recognizes this, he sends then to Herod hoping he will do the dirty work. Herod will have none of it and sends Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate tries to get the upper hand by giving the crowds a choice. They are permitted a prisoner to be freed. He finds the worst criminal he can and asks them who they want released, Jesus whose only wrong is that he claims to be the Messiah or this well-known felon who is vicious and cruel.

To his dismay, they ask for the criminal to released and call for Jesus to be crucified.

How fickle a crowd can be. Only a day ago they had gathered around Jesus to hear him teach. 

Where are the disciples? Only John is there with some of the women. What is going through their minds? 

Pilate washes his hands and declares that's the blood of Jesus is not on him. He hands Jesus over to the bloodthirsty crowd.

The soldiers dress him in a royal sash.

They spit on him.

They mock him.

Jesus endures 40 lashes, his flesh ripped to shreds, a crown of thorns piercing his head. He is then burdened with the cross beam that he will be crucified on and charged to carry it to the Place of the Skull where they will kill him.

The Journey is too much, Simon of Cyrene is recruited to do the heavy lifting and walks Jesus' last steps with him. A difficult task. I am sure Simone was forever changed by it.

Still, John is the only disciple amongst the crowd.

Jesus is nailed to the cross, brutally. An innocent man among thieves. A sign placed above him declaring him King of the Jews. Delighted by his suffering the religious leaders continue to mock him.

Jesus, whose love endures forever, prays for them "Forgive them Father, they do not know what they do.

For the first time, Jesus feels the weight of sin. All sin, from all of history and all time. Past, present and future.

He, who has never been apart from his Father is now separated from him. Cut off.

The physical pain, the emotional pain and the spiritual darkness Jesus faces are indescribable. Too difficult. 

At noon, darkness falls over the land. Jesus cries out asking his Father why he has been forsaken.

The darkness stays until three.

A final cry and Jesus' spirit departs.

The earth quaked.

Rocks split. 

The Centurian, who had likely crucified many people and never seen these displays declares, "Surely he was the Son of God."

The heavy veil, 4 inches thick that separated the Holy of Holies was torn in two announcing that we are no longer separate from God, through the blood of his precious son we have access to God himself. 

Joseph of Arimethea gets permission to gather Jesus' body. They place him in a tomb with guards to make sure no one snatches the body. 

This is how Good Friday ends.

Jesus dead, the disciples scattered.

Are you scattered? Disillusioned because what you thought was the plan turned out differently than you expected? What part of Holy Week do you find to bring up emotions, reflections or reactions?