The Pattern

The scriptures referred to are 1 Peter 1:17-23 and Luke 24:13-35.

A writer once said that Agatha Christie told him that when she wrote her mystery novels, she stopped before the final chapter to consider which of the suspects she should make the murderer. Then she would go back and adjust the clues she had scattered throughout the book to make her last minute solution work. Most other mystery writers say this is, to put it politely, poppycock. Her novels are so intricately plotted that doing it that way would be even more complicated than simply knowing who had done it ahead of time. Certainly some of her most famous works, like The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, And Then There Were None, and Curtain, couldn't have been done that way. In her best works, the solution not only works mechanically but psychologically as well. Otherwise her books would resemble the stories we know were started without a proper ending in mind, like the TV series Lost or How I Met Your Mother or Game of Thrones. In a good story the ending, however surprising, should feel in retrospect inevitable, like recent HBO series Watchmen.

As human beings, we are adept at discerning patterns in reality as well. Without that capacity we never would have developed science. In fact, sociologist Rodney Stark argues that the reason science developed mainly in the West rather than the Far East is because of the belief in one God, who created everything and who created human beings in his image. That means that we can use our minds to follow the logic of the mind of God revealed in his works. And indeed what underlies all science is the belief that when all the data has been uncovered the universe will make sense. Science is, like all human endeavors, faith-based. It all depends on what you put your faith in.

In 1 Peter the writer is, like a detective at the end of a mystery, or a scientist when presenting her work, explaining how all the data comes together to give us a coherent picture. There is a discernible pattern and everything operates according to certain principles. Neither the scientist nor the Christian should resort to a deus ex machina.

Deus ex machina, or god out of a machine, refers to a technique used by ancient Greek playwrights like Aeschylus and Euripides to resolve plots in which they had written themselves into a corner. An actor playing a god would be lowered by a crane or rise up from a trap door and magically solve all problems, usually bringing events to an unexpected and unlikely happy ending. In today's entertainment you find it in the James Bond film Live and Let Die when the secret agent's watch suddenly has the hitherto unrevealed ability to spin like a circular saw so he can cut through his ropes and kill the bad guy. You see the deus ex machina way of resolving problems parodied in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when a cartoon monster chasing our heroes disappears because the animator has a sudden heart attack. Or in Monty Python's Life of Brian when the titular character falls off a tower only to land unharmed on a passing alien spaceship—in 1^st century Judea!

The writer of 1 Peter is making the point that God didn't come up with his plan for Jesus to become one of us and to die to save us as a desperate last minute ploy.

He starts out, “And if you address as Father the one who impartially judges according to each one's work, live out the time of your temporary residence here in reverence.” (NET) I understand why the NRSV translates one Greek word as “exile” but the NET's use of “temporary residence” is a bit closer to the root meaning. The writer is saying that this life is like a temporary stay in a foreign country. As the Jim Reeves song goes, “This world is not my home; I'm just a passing through.” Because it turns out that feeling that we get that something is not quite right in this life is true. We were created to live in the paradise God prepared for us. Now we've ruined it and that's why certain features of this world are somewhat familiar and yet somehow wrong. It's like going to your old neighborhood and finding that it's been replaced by a Walmart and they've put the gas station where your childhood home was.

Although unlike the Jim Reeves tune, heaven is not our home. It's just the waiting room for our final destination. True, just a few verses earlier 1 Peter speaks of “an inheritance imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, who by God's power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:4-5, NET, emphasis mine) But it isn't supposed to stay there. In Revelation 21, it says, “I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband.” (Revelation 21:2) Our ultimate destination is heaven on earth, the new paradise, God's new creation, populated by God's resurrected people. It's as if the Walmart went bankrupt, was torn down and your neighborhood was restored but better than before. And you, completely healed of all your ailments, are living in your dream home.

Now you might be troubled by the part where 1 Peter talks of God judging people by their deeds and that we should live in, as the NRSV puts it, “reverent fear.” Aren't we saved by grace through faith and not works? Yes, but as Jesus said, you know trees by their fruit and people by what they produce. You should see signs that a person is saved though what you see in that person is not what saved them. For instance, I didn't do my own cataract surgery. I had to trust the surgeon to do that. But I had to go back for follow up visits. The doctors checked for signs that I was healing properly and to look for any symptoms of infection or inflammation. I was quizzed about what I was doing and not doing to my eye. And I took my eye drops religiously because I wanted to be healed. In the same way, Jesus saves us. He did on the cross what we couldn't possibly do. But if we are being saved, there should be signs of spiritual health. And any symptoms of spiritual illness should be dealt with immediately. If we really trust the doctor, if we have faith in him, then we will carry out the doctor's orders with a healthy respect for what he says. The same goes for Jesus, the Great Physician.

Then it says, “You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed...” The NET translation of “empty” rather than the NRSV's “futile” is more accurate. Without the God who is love revealed in Jesus Christ, our lives are empty. Everything else with which we try to fill that emptiness—wealth, fame, social position, our careers, pursuits and distractions—will end and leave us even emptier. In this life, even those we love will be taken from us, or we from them. But it's from that ephemeral life that we have been ransomed. The Greek word for “ransom” can also be translated “redeemed.” Both mean being bought out of slavery. In those days a slave was either born into it, or sold themselves into it to pay a huge debt, or was captured as a prisoner of war and made a slave. So not only was our former life empty but it limited what we could do and enjoy.

“...you were ransomed—not with perishable things like silver and gold, but by precious blood, like that of an unblemished and spotless lamb, namely Christ.” (NET) Silver and gold only have value because we assign it to them. True, they once made good currency, because they were scarce and yet not too rare. You can easily melt them down and shape them into ingots or coins. And while silver tarnishes, gold is rather inert chemically. And it's beautiful. But the reason we don't use it as the basic currency is that its scarcity doesn't let an economy expand beyond the supply of gold. And aside from its uses in computers, electronics, and dentistry, it's mostly decorative. As King Midas found out, gold is no substitute for food or drink or the people you love.

Our value is based on something more precious than some pretty and malleable metals. It is based on the fact that Jesus shed his blood to redeem us from our slavery to sin. “The wages of sin is death” we are told in Romans 6:23. But usually it's a gradual way of killing yourself, like smoking. And when things don't kill us quickly, we humans don't respond as quickly--or at all! If a puff from a cigarette acted like a dose of cyanide, nobody would touch one. If COVID-19 killed people like the Black Death did, where 2/3s of those infected died within 2 to 7 days, very few people would be clamoring to leave their homes. So to reinforce the idea that sin does kill, God instituted sacrifices. You sin; it costs you. In an agrarian society, where your livestock was your wealth, sacrifices hit you in the purse. Especially since only your best animals, those without blemish or defect, were what you had to give up. Oh, and it was messy and gross. You had to kill the animal yourself or hold it while the priest slits its throat. (Leviticus 1:4-5) It was like those proposed warnings on cigarette packs that show pictures of diseased lungs or people on oxygen or with amputated toes due to poor circulation. Because, unfortunately, tame warnings don't do the job as well.

The cost of what we have done to our lives and to each other is the shed blood of Jesus. That's how seriously we have ruined this world God gave us. If you smoked and drank and ate so badly that your heart was failing, the only way to save you would be for someone to die and donate their heart. Jesus had to die to give us new life.

But as I said, this wasn't something God and his Son improvised when all other methods failed. “He was destined before the foundation of the world, but revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.” The word translated “destined” really means “foreknown.” The Triune God foresaw that giving creatures free will would mean they could chose not to love and obey their Creator. In fact, God foresaw that they would abuse this power of choice and he foresaw that he would have to do something to save them and he foresaw that only his becoming one of us and dying would be sufficient to redeem a whole world gone wrong.

And the clues that this was God's plan were there all along. In the movie The Sixth Sense, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan plays fair and plants clues to the movie's big plot twist throughout. And he used the color red to denote when scenes went from the world of the living to the realm of the dead. In the same way, there is a “scarlet thread” that weaves its way through the Hebrew Bible that presages what Jesus does in the New Covenant. No doubt this is what Jesus was revealing to the 2 disciples on the road to Emmaus. As they say to one another afterwards, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” They felt like readers of the Harry Potter novels when they realized that what Harry had to do to make Voldemort mortal again and allow him to be defeated was foreshadowed long before the last book was written. Except this wasn't a story set in a fictional world. This is the key to understanding our world and the God who loves it enough to die for it.

So what? How does this affect us? Our passage tells us: “Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.” Because of what Jesus did for us and because God raised him to life again, we realize this is a God we can trust. And the resurrection is crucial. Had Jesus stayed dead he would be just another martyr. And not necessarily a martyr to the truth. Merely being killed doesn't mean you were right. Any crackpot can say they are speaking for God and many have. Often they are just silenced because they are considered troublesome or even dangerous, and not because they were telling the truth. But not even death could silence Jesus. And it isn't just that his words live on; the Word of God Incarnate lives on.

The Bible has a very straightforward test for a false prophet: “Whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.” (Deuteronomy 18:22) Jesus kept predicting he would be betrayed and executed and then rise again. And that's exactly what happened. So we can trust him on the other things he said. And we can trust the Father who sent him and pin our hopes on the one who gives life to the dead.

What next then? “Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.” By having the proper response to the truth, by letting God into our hearts, they are purified. And that results in mutual or brotherly love. We should love our brothers and sisters in Christ, deeply, earnestly, fervently, as the Greek says. Everything God does, he does out of love for us. For God is love, the Father loving the Son and the Son loving the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit for all eternity. And that love flows into all God does.

And if we open ourselves to receive God's love, our cup, as it were, overflows with it. And it flows into all our thoughts, words and deeds and into all our relationships. Immersed in the love of God, “You have been born anew, not from perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.” This verse has a mix of images. First, it is one of the very few places where the Bible uses the term “born again” outside of the 3^rd chapter of John's gospel. More commonly the metaphor is that of being made alive in Christ (Romans 6:11, 13) and it is usually tied to resurrection. His tomb becomes a womb. And through baptism we are united to Jesus' death and resurrection. (Romans 6:3) 

The image of seeds recalls the parable in which the sower sows the word of God. (Mark 4:14). The seed is good; the key factor in whether it grows well is the soil in which it is planted. But this verse seems to be talking not merely about the written word of God but about Jesus as the living and lasting Word of God. As it says in John's gospel, “The Word was with God in the beginning. All things were created by him, and apart from him not one thing was created. In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.” (John 1:2-4) He created us in his image and gave us life. So it is not surprising that when he comes to rescue us from ourselves he gives us life again, and this time eternal life.

All the clues were there in the Old Testament: the Spirit who gives life (Job 33:4), the Lord who provides the sacrifice in place of Isaac (Genesis 22:9-13), God's suffering servant (Isaiah 53), the One who rescues us from the grip of the grave (Psalm 116:3-4), the Lord who swallows up death (Isaiah 25:7-8), the God for whom nothing is too hard (Jeremiah 32:17), the God of resurrection (Daniel 12:2). The disciples didn't see it. Until Jesus pointed out the pattern. And it all made sense. And our lives make sense. Yes, things can get bad. Yes, we will die some day. But that's not the whole story. We see the real pattern of life in Jesus.

We are people of the resurrection. Jesus underwent death and came out of it the victor. Though we too shall walk through the valley of death, we need fear no evil. For God is with us. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies.” (John 11:25) That is good news. We should spread it. We should make it go viral, to counteract the despair and cynicism infecting our world. As Paul said, “...in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!” (Romans 8:37) So let us proclaim this good news, not only with our lips but in our lives.

Getting Closer to God: The Three-Fold Gift

The scriptures referred to are John 20:19-31.

Even during this lockdown I am still going to the jail as the chaplain there. No, I cannot go into the secure envelope but I sit at my desk in my cubicle and answer the inmates' requests via the internal computer system. I pray for them and their families. I send down Bibles, Qurans, rosaries, Bible studies and books. I send down copies of my sermons.

I do miss meeting with them though because a large part of being a chaplain is just listening. I am the only person on staff with the time to simply sit with someone as they pour out their pains and regrets and fears. I try to be a comforting presence when a family member on the outside is sick or dying and they can't be there. That's something those of us on the outside are experiencing for the first time but it happens all the time in jail. To a young person who is there because of a stupid mistake and who thinks their whole life is now ruined, I can give hope. To the person struggling with an addiction, I can give encouragement. To the person grappling with doubts, I can help bolster their faith. I answer tough Biblical and theological questions, even if I have to get back to them after doing some research. I bring them communion. I pray with them. By the terms of my contract, I cannot help them financially. I can't pass messages in or out of the jail or even between units within the jail. I can't give them a hug. All I can offer is my presence.

We have been talking for the last 8 weeks about getting closer to God. And the most basic part of getting closer to someone is just being there. In fact, there are times when there are no words that can magically make a situation better. When you don't know what to say, don't say anything. Just be there for the person. Often that is the best thing you can offer them.

I imagine that most sermons preached today with be on poor old “doubting” Thomas. But in reading our gospel passage for the day my attention was drawn to the odd thing Jesus does when he first meets the disciples behind the lock doors of the room they are isolating in. He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” It's unexpected by us because we think that nobody gets the Spirit until Pentecost.

The key word might be “breathed.” As it says in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living being.” God's breath gives life. And sure enough, when a baby is born, the important thing after it coming out of the womb is it taking its first breath. In the movies, the doctor dramatically helps it by slapping its bottom. In real life the nurse suctions its nose and mouth of amniotic fluid and that unpleasant sensation is often enough to make it cry. And then we score the baby on its color and respiration among other things. With its first breath, we know it is alive and we want it to stay that way.

On the other hand about the only movement the baby can make is to breathe and suckle. It can flex its arms and feet and kick and even grasp things put it its palm, like your finger. But as any parent knows, anything more in the way of activity has to wait. It's a big day when the baby can turn over by itself, maybe 4, 5 or 6 months down the road.

I submit that by breathing on them Jesus is making the disciples spiritually alive. As we've said before, in both Greek and Hebrew one word is used for breath, wind and spirit. They need the Spirit because, as he says in the passage, he is going to send them out as the Father sent Jesus. But before that, for the next 40 days, he is going to teach them what they are going to need to know to function without his physical presence. (Acts 1:3) As Paul says the person without the Spirit cannot understand spiritual things. (1 Corinthians 2:14) On the night before he died, Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it doesn't see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:17) He goes on to say, “But when he, the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth.” (John 16:13) The disciples are but babes in the faith. Just as an infant has to take in the physical world and learn how it works before it is safe for it to move and act within it, so the disciples need to learn the nature of the realm of the Spirit before they can do much with that knowledge.

One thing a baby learns very early is the importance of the presence of its parents. That's why we are moved to act when a baby cries. It is powerless but it knows that the presence of Mom or Dad means safety and food and warmth and that its messes will be cleaned up. Sensing the presence of the person caring for it is important. I took care of my granddaughter when her mom had to go back to work. I found out that when she went to sleep I couldn't put her down. If I did she was awake and crying in about 5 minutes. If I held her, she slept. I had to learn how to type sermons with one hand and do other things with a baby in one arm. In fact, that's how I reconcile the passages about how in the afterlife we are both considered “asleep in the Lord” and yet somehow aware of his presence. My granddaughter could only drop into a deep sleep when reassured she was still in my arms. During the period between death and the resurrection, we can sense we are securely in the everlasting arms of our loving Father.

One function of the Holy Spirit is to be the presence of God in our life. As Jesus put it, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up our residence with him.” (John 14:23) Occasionally Paul calls him “the Spirit of Christ” (Romans 8:9) and the “Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:19) When Jesus says, “I am with you always,” (Matthew 28:20) he means through the Holy Spirit. When we don't feel him, it is usually because we are too busy to notice his presence. It is often when people in a crisis stop flailing and sit still that they feel the presence of the God who is there and has been all along.

But not only does the Spirit offer us his presence but also power. Right after saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit,” Jesus says to the disciples, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” This is power in the sense of having authority. Jesus is handing the baton off to his students (for that is what “disciple” means.) And it is as if Jesus knows that they are going to encounter moral issues they did not see him deal with during his time on earth. For instance, in the larger Greco-Roman world, when people could not afford to raise a child, or if it was a girl and they wanted a boy, they would leave the baby on the side of the road. Maybe someone would take and raise it as their own. Maybe they would raise it as a slave. Or maybe the scavengers would get it. Very early in the life of the church, it was decided that this was not acceptable. There is nothing in the Bible that explicitly condemns this practice but plenty of denunciations of the practice of sacrificing children and much about how children are a blessing. And of course Jesus loved to bless children and used them as an example of faith. So the church took a stance on something not specifically mentioned by Jesus but clearly contrary to his Spirit. We do not throw away children.

The Spirit gives us power in other ways as well. We will talk about them in greater length at Pentecost but a quick overview shows that the Spirit gives each of us gifts and talents to use as followers of Jesus. The Spirit also produces in us such qualities as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) It doesn't happen overnight. They grow slowly like fruit and take time to mature. But provided we do not hinder the Spirit in his work within us, he will empower us to do the work set before us.

And that is another vital thing to know about the Spirit. He is not an impersonal power. There are a lot of powerful things that can be used to help or to harm. The internet can connect you with virtually all the knowledge of the world, or it can used to spread misinformation, lies, propaganda, slander, gossip and instructions on how to do terrible things. Lord Acton famously observed that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. And we see all the time that giving people power tempts them to use it not for its intended purposes but for personal pleasure, social enhancement, and wealth for themselves, their families and their friends.

But the Spirit doesn't work that way. Being of one mind with the Father and Son the Spirit will not lead anyone away from God's will. The trick is learning to listen to the Spirit. Too often people think their own internal voice is that of the Spirit. That's why people have done horrible things “in the name of Christ.” They have burned heretics, hanged witches, enslaved people, classified the poor as lazy so they needn't help them, considered the imprisoned as irredeemable and exhibited xenophobia towards all who were different. They have ignored Christ's command to “love their neighbor.” In fact he left us with no one we can hate. Jesus said, “But I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you...” And he gives us the reason we must do so: “...so that you may be like your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:44-45) The goal to be more like God. In fact that is the whole purpose of Christianity: to become daily more like the incarnate God we see revealed in Jesus Christ.

And that is the purpose of what the Spirit is doing. As it says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all, with unveiled faces reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, which is from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” The Spirit is working in us to restore the image of God in which we were created and which has been marred by what we do to ourselves and to others. Jesus is, as it says in Hebrews 1:3, “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature...” (ESV) When we look at Jesus we not only see what God is like but also what we can be; what we were meant to be.

Of course, God is infinite and we are finite. To become like him is a lifelong project. In fact it will take an eternal life. We are meant to keep discovering more aspects of God in ourselves, more opportunities to grow and develop. And by ourselves, I mean as a group. The Spirit gives us different gifts and abilities. You know you are good at some things and interested in others but maybe not so much in still other activities or areas of life. Yet you know that there are people who can do and want to do those other things. That's what keeps civilization functioning: multiple people doing different things for the good of all.

And so it is in the kingdom of God. I am a good preacher but not a composer. I can paint pictures with words, but others do so with actual paint, or pixels, or with sculpture. I am a nurse but not a medical researcher. And I am hopeless if you want something built. I can't do it all; none of us can. And we don't need to. There are myriad ways to express ourselves and countless ways to be helpful. As it says in 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.” The Spirit is the source of all of our gifts and talents. Ultimately the way we finite beings can best reflect the image of an infinite God is by coming together like a mosaic, each of us revealing a different aspect of our Creator.

The Spirit of God is broadly a three-fold gift. He gives us the presence of God. He gives us the power of God. He gives us the purpose we were made for: to become more like and thus ever closer to the God who is love.

Getting Closer to God: The Gift We Dare Not Ask For

The scriptures referred to are Matthew 28:1-10.

Two things are certain: death and taxes. Except that some people and companies have become quite adept at avoiding taxes. But nobody can avoid death.

And at a certain point in childhood, we all grasp this. We realize that those we love will someday die. And then, with icy horror, we realize we will die. There will be a day we cease to exist. And most of us try not to think about it any more than we have to.

The Bible mentions it more than we like. Part of that is because, as we said recently, people didn't live as long in the past and died from things we can treat or even cure. These days we are getting a glimpse of what it was like before modern medicine, with people dying everyday from a plague we can't control. At least not yet.

But the main reason the Bible talks about death so often is that it is concerned with ultimate things and ultimate values. Death is about as ultimate as this life gets.

For most of the Old Testament, death was accepted as the natural end of life. The only glimpse of an afterlife is Sheol, which means “pit” and “destruction.” It is pictured, in the words of the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, as “a realm of sleepy, shadowy existence in the depths of the earth.” Though it is said that Sheol is the fate of the wicked in Psalm 49:14-15, in other places seems that all the dead end up there. (Psalm 89:48; Ecclesiastes 9:10)

Resurrection does appear here and there in the Old Testament, though many scholars think it is mostly used as a metaphor for the revival of the nation of Israel. Yet Isaiah says, “Your dead shall live; their corpses shall rise. Wake up and sing for joy, dwellers of the dust, for your dew is a celestial dew, and the earth will give birth to dead spirits.” (Isaiah 26:19) And in Daniel it says, “And many from those sleeping in the dusty ground will awake, some to everlasting life and some to disgrace and everlasting contempt.” (Daniel 12:2) But these revelations are not built upon in the Old Testament.

If the Old Testament concept of the afterlife seems as murky as Sheol, things get a lot clearer in the New Testament. The belief in the resurrection was common among the Pharisees and many Jews. (Acts 23:8) But it was something set on the last day of the present evil age and the dawn of the Messianic age. The idea of someone rising from the dead before that was unthinkable. (John 11:23-24) That's one reason the disciples had trouble with Jesus talking about rising on the third day. As it says in Mark, “But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.” (Mark 9:32)

And N. T. Wright points out something that shows just how unprecedented Jesus' resurrection was. He says that whereas the gospels tend to quote the Old Testament to show how everything Jesus did was prophesied long ago, those quotations stop when we get to the resurrection. They did not see this coming. Which also shows that the disciples did not contrive the story of Jesus' resurrection. It's not anything they would have expected.

Jesus is unique among religious figures. Buddha was not resurrected, nor Mohammed, nor the Bab. They left behind wise words and ideas that people are free to adopt or debate or reject. But Jesus came back from the dead. Had he not, he would have been another martyr to the the truth, in the same category as Socrates or Gandhi. He would be revered but his words would have a “take it or leave it” option. But if he is the conqueror of death, if he returned from that “undiscovered country,” then above all, we must sit up and take notice of what he said and did. It's the difference between reading an article about a great event and listening to the person who was there and made it happen.

The resurrection immediately became the center of the Christian faith. In the earliest piece of Christian writing we have, the first letter to the Thessalonians, in the first chapter Paul writes, “For people everywhere report how you welcomed us and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus our deliverer from the coming wrath.” (I Thessalonians 1:9-10) He mentions Jesus' resurrection in most of his letters. And this makes sense since Paul encountered the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. Paul, the highly educated, scrupulously observant Pharisee, was not converted by arguments but seeing and talking to the living Christ.

In the gospels, the first witnesses to the resurrection are the women who went to the tomb to anoint his body. They see him and believe. When they tell the male disciples, they don't believe...until Jesus appears to them. Even after the others have seen that Jesus has been raised, Thomas who was absent doesn't believe—until he sees and touches him himself. These were not credulous people buying into wish fulfillment. These were normal rational people who know that folks don't come back from the dead. Until Jesus did. Then everything changed.

Because the implications were that if Jesus rose, so will those who follow him. Yes, many Jews believed in the resurrection on the last day. But that was a distant and unproven hope. It's like some of the features of Einstein's theories. Physicists accepted that they would turn out to be true, but it took decades to actually observe them and prove that they were more than mathematical concepts. It's one thing to accept that there will someday be a bodily resurrection; it's another to see and hear and touch and eat with someone you just saw die 3 days ago.

Let's face it: when you read about the disciples in the gospels there are times you wonder what Jesus saw in these guys. They are pathetic! And Peter, Jesus' second-in-command, is all over the place, being brave and then cowardly, loyal and then denying he even knew Jesus. What about them made Christ think they could set up and spread his kingdom?

And then he is killed and buried and raised to new life. And that's when we see it. Their encounters with the resurrected Jesus galvanizes them. It's like the difference between a lump of soft dough and the loaf of bread coming out of the oven or the malleability of pure iron and its hardness when combined with carbon and heat to make tempered steel. By the book of Acts we see these ordinary men doing extraordinary things.

We have been talking about getting closer to God during the recent church season of Lent. We talked of what we can do for God and what God has done for us. We called the self-sacrifice of Jesus to save us from our slavery to sin the gift we didn't know we needed. His bodily resurrection is the gift we dared not ask for. All living things die. We wish it were not so but eventually we have to accept it. A recent Book TV panel of scientists on longevity said that no one was seriously thinking about achieving immortality. They weren't even primarily interested in lengthening life. They were trying to make people healthier for a longer part of their lives so that they wouldn't be sick and invalided for the last 8 years of life as so many of us are. This body has its limits.

As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection body is different. And we see from what the risen Christ does that he is not limited by time and space, being on the road to Emmaus one moment and inside a locked room in Jerusalem the next. Defeat death and the other limitations of this life are next to go.

Death is real. Many of us are surrounded by its undeniable reality during this plague. Some may not make it. And for those who do, death is just delayed. We will all face it eventually.

But whereas death was murky and dark and frightening before, now we know that it is not to be feared. Because on the other side of the tomb is someone who has been there and done that and is waiting for us. One day like Lazarus we will hear his voice and awaken from the sleep of death and rise and walk out into the light to see the face of the One who is the resurrection and the life.

With His Last Breath

The scriptures referred to are Mark 13:24, Luke 24:34, 43, 46 and John 19:26-28, 30.

Just today I was reading a Time.com article by Charlotte Alter about a day in the life of a paramedic in New York. Out of the 11 patients Alanna Badgley got called to take to the hospital that day, 9 had the coronavirus. One was a 45 year old man with difficulty breathing, a high fever and chest pain. His wife also has some symptoms of COVID-19. Badgley says to the man, “I know you're in a lot of pain, okay? But the most important thing is just try to focus on breathing as much as you can.” Of course, the wife can't go with him in the ambulance, nor visit him in the hospital. Knowing that this may be the last time she sees her husband, the wife tells Badgley, “Please don't let him die.” “We won't let him die in our ambulance,” the paramedic tells her. But Badgley doesn't really know that. So she says to the wife, “You breathe, he breathes, everybody focuses on breathing, okay?”

The article points out that every life begins with a breath. And, of course, every life ends after the last breath leaves the body. In between those two breaths, for most of us breathing is something we take for granted. We just do it automatically and only at certain times are we even aware of it. I was aware of it when I threw a pulmonary embolism while in the hospital for my accident. My left lung just shut off. I could breathe but only at half my normal capacity and it was labored and scary. These days I get short of breath after very little exertion and sometimes for no reason at all. It is unpleasant to say the least.

Surprisingly one of the many possible causes of death by crucifixion is pulmonary embolism. Another proposed cause is hypovolemic shock, which happens when the body loses more than a fifth of its blood or fluids, making it impossible for the heart to pump enough blood to the body. Organs start to fail. Considering that Jesus was whipped before being crucified and had nails driven into his wrists and ankles, this is a very likely cause of death. But in either case, it means breathing would be hard for Jesus. It would be rapid and shallow. So the last thing you would think he would do is talk.

Yet in the 4 accounts of his death in the gospels we have 7 quotes of his from the cross. And what is remarkable is what he felt he had to say, considering the struggle it must have been to speak.

The first of the 7 last words from the cross is found in Luke 23:34: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He is talking about the people who have just crucified him. Rather than cursing them, he asks God to forgive them. Jesus had said that we must love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. (Matthew 5:44) And at a time when any normal person would have a hard time being so charitable, Jesus proves he was as good as his word. And it wasn't a silent prayer. He said it for all to hear, including his executioners. And he felt that was more important than saving his breath.

The men being crucified on either side of him join in mocking this king, hanging on a cross rather than ruling from a throne. But then one changes his tune, perhaps upon hearing how graciously Jesus intercedes for his executioners. Who does that? Jesus of Nazareth is nothing at all like their confederate, the murderous Jesus Barabbas, whose place Christ took. So one of the condemned criminals rebukes the other, saying, “Don't you fear God, since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus says to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:39-43)

Why did Jesus say this? Perhaps because the criminal similarly “wasted” his breath, rebuking his confederate and then acknowledging Jesus' kingship and asking for merciful consideration. And Jesus felt that assuring this man of his salvation was more important than saving his breath.

John tells us that Jesus' mother Mary was at the cross. Like the wife in the Time article, for all she knows, this is the last time she will see her son. She must have been a mess. And despite his pain Jesus sees her pain. And he also sees his beloved disciple. I am inclined to believe New Testament scholar Ben Witherington's theory that this unnamed disciple was actually Lazarus. He lives nearby in Bethany, he knows the high priest (John 18:15), and having been resurrected by Jesus, he has no fear of death. (John 11) In addition, he is well off enough to support 2 unmarried sisters, one of whom anointed Jesus' feet with an expensive perfume. (John 12:1-3) Jesus' mother was a poor widow. Her last days need not be spent in poverty. So Jesus looks at her and says, “Woman, here is your son.” He says to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And this disciple takes her to his home. (John 19:26-27) Jesus was able to able to pull his mind out of his excruciating present to think about his mother's future. And he thought this was more important than saving his breath.

The earliest gospel, Mark, says, “Around 3 o' clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, 'Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?' which means, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?'” (Mark 15:34) This is a quotation from Psalm 22 which we traditionally read on Good Friday. But it must have fit Jesus' mood at the time. As the pre-existent Word of God, who was with God from the beginning, you wouldn't think he could feel this way. How could God feel abandoned by God? But Jesus is also fully human. In Philippians we are told that “Christ Jesus, who, though existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to cling to, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, having been made in the likeness of men.” (Philippians 2:5-7) He emptied himself of certain divine prerogatives. So we see that Jesus needs food and sleep. He doesn't know everything because he can be surprised by the centurion's faith (Matthew 8:10) and doesn't know when his second coming will happen. (Mark 13:32) And he feels grief (John 11:35) and sorrow and depression. (Mark 14:34) So yes, at this time when he is in great pain and being mocked and has been deserted by most of his disciples and is watching his mother grieve, he feels like God has abandoned him as well. Just like we do when everything looks hopeless. And it is comforting to know that Jesus knows how I feel at such times. And he felt that expressing it was more important than saving his breath.

John tells us that Jesus next said, “I thirst.” (John 19:28) In Greek it's just one word. Remember he has lost a lot of blood and sweat. His organs are starting to go into shock. Soon they will shut down. A transfusion of IV saline might help but a couple of sips will not. He is helplessly spiraling towards death. But all he knows is that his mouth is dry. So he croaks out, “Thirsty.” He appeals to his executioners to grant him his last wish. It may sound like the least of his problems at this point. But he felt it was more important than saving his breath.

And they respond. They soak a sponge in wine vinegar and put it on a stick and give it to him. And having wet his lips, he says, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Again one word in Greek. He has almost no breath now. But what does he mean by it? What is finished?

The most obvious answer is his suffering. John indicates he dies shortly after saying this. Creeping numbness may be overtaking him. Still why tell anyone?

He may have meant his life is finished. There is no earthly way he can survive this. But again, this is not news to those around him. They can see he is finished.

He may have meant his mission is finished. Jesus lived to love and serve God and love and serve his fellow human beings. That is finished. And in a rather ignominious way.

The Greek word has another meaning besides “finished,” however. It can mean “paid.” (Matthew 17:24) Could Jesus be saying, “It is paid”? And what would be paid? Think of it this way: if you pushed your child out of the way of a car only to get hit yourself that would be the price you paid for saving their life. If you took a bullet from a school shooter while holding a door open so that your classmates could escape, that would be the price you paid for saving them. If you donated your kidney to someone dying of renal failure, that would be the price you paid to save their life. His death on the cross was the price Jesus paid for saving us from the spiritual damage we have done to ourselves and each other. Our estrangement from God is finished. There is no obstacle, no price left to pay to bridge the gap between our imperfect, unlovely selves and our perfectly loving heavenly Father. It is paid. Jesus said so. And that was more important to him than saving his breath.

After that ringing declaration, Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46) Jesus is again quoting a psalm, this time Psalm 31:5. Traditionally this is also a prayer made at the evening offering at the Temple, which was at about the time Jesus died. William Barclay says it was a prayer Jewish children were taught to say at bedtime. The long horrible, painful day is over. Jesus is laying down his body and going to his Father. As John says, he gave up his spirit. Since the Greek word for “spirit” is the same one for “breath,” it can signify he breathed his last.

All that is left is the cleaning up. When I was a nurse, when a patient died, we had to clean the body and cross the arms and tie the wrists and ankles together. We put them in the body bag and put them on a stretcher and covered them in a sheet and took them to the morgue. Something similar was done to Jesus' body though it was much less clinical and much more public.

And it's still not over. Not for Mary his mother. Not for the women who supported and followed him. Not for the male disciples, hiding from the authorities.

And not for Jesus. And unknown to those lost in grief, all that long, silent Sabbath, creation was holding its breath for what was going to happen next.

Getting Closer to God: Sharing a Meal

The scriptures referred to are Exodus 12:1-4, 11-14; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26, and John 13:1-17, 31-35.

We meet a lot of people for the first time over a meal: the person you date, your future in-laws, your friend's fiancée. You also get to know people better over meals: your coworkers, your gaming group, your fellow church members. We bond over food. It starts when mother and child get to know each other as one suckles at the other's breast. It used to be that families ate dinner together and talked over how their days went. And we may be returning to that. But it seems that feeding our bodies and feeding our social needs are somehow connected.

And our Creator knows this. So maybe that's why he decides to come together with us in a meal.

We having been talking about getting closer to God. And from the beginning of priestly Judaism, some sacrifices have included a meal. Specifically, in the fellowship offering. While some of the sacrifice was burned, the rest was shared with the worshipers. And the instructions were that they finish it up, so family and friends were invited and it was a feast. (Leviticus 7:15) And because some was burnt as an offering to God, in a sense the worshipers were sharing a meal with him.

On Maundy Thursday we commemorate the last supper, which is called by various Christians the Lord's Supper, Communion, and the Holy Eucharist. And we read the oldest account of what Jesus did at that meal, the one in the first letter to the Corinthians, written perhaps 15 years before the first gospel, Mark's. In fact this is, as far as we know, the first account of any words Jesus said to be put to paper (or papyrus). That's how important it was.

Paul points out that this isn't just a regular meal but a sacred one. Christians used to dine together in the same way guilds or clubs would. The host was usually a rich member of the church who had the space for them all to meet in his or her home. The host often had a triclinium or dining hall. They might also provide the food and drink or people may have brought their own. At a certain point in this Love Feast, as they called it, they would commemorate the Lord's Supper. But some people were not getting a fair share of the meal and others were getting drunk. So Paul says, “Don't you have your own homes to eat and drink in?” (1 Corinthians 11:22) Paul is starting the practice of making the Eucharist a separate ritual meal rather than just a feature at a drunken party.

To that end Paul warns about eating the bread or drinking the cup of the Lord “in an unworthy manner.” He says “Everyone should examine themselves before they eat the bread and drink from the cup.” (1 Corinthians 11:28) We have already talked about how God regards those who worship in the wrong spirit. So how should we approach it?

Jesus says of the bread, “This is my body that is for you.” And of the wine, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” Of both he says, “Do this in remembrance of me.” He was taking elements of the Passover meal, that commemorated God liberating the Jewish people and delivering them from Egypt, and reinterpreting them. The unleavened bread at Passover represented “the bread of affliction our ancestors ate” (cf. Deuteronomy 16:3). Jesus takes it and declares it to be his body, which will be afflicted to save the world. In Passover the blood of the lamb was smeared on the door frame that death might pass over the inhabitants of that home. Jesus is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of the world. (John 1:29) As it is his actual blood that will be shed the very next day, he takes one of the cups of wine and declares the blood of the grape, as they called it (Deuteronomy 32:14), to be his blood, shed for the new covenant. He was no doubt thinking of the passage in Jeremiah where it says, “'But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,' says the Lord. 'I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33) Covenants were sealed with a sacrifice.

So the proper way to approach the meal in which we share bread and wine is to see them as his body which was torn and his blood which was shed, for us. As the Passover meal takes Jews back to when God redeemed them from slavery in Egypt, Holy Communion takes us back to when Jesus redeemed us from our slavery to sin and death. So this is not something we approach lightly or in a perfunctory manner.

When we were going through my late father's belongings we came across a bullet. It had come from a Japanese sniper who had shot at my dad when he was a Marine in the South Pacific. It was meant to kill him but miraculously got lodged in his helmet. Had it not been stopped by his helmet it would have not only ended his life, but neither I nor my brother would have ever existed. Nor would my brother's daughter, nor my son and daughter have lived. Nor would my granddaughter be here. It's about as close to a holy relic in our family as you could get. My son has it now.

In a sense Jesus took the bullet for us. So approach the elements of the Eucharist as you would something that granted you life, for indeed it does.

Speaking of life, another layer of meaning is embedded in the fact that we use real elements of food. After all, we eat because we need to. If we don't, we get physically weak. In the spiritual realm it works much the same way. We recognize that we come to the Lord's table because we need to. If we don't, we get spiritually weak.

And that's one of the problems we are facing during this time of a highly contagious pandemic. We are physical beings and so is the virus. So the wise thing is to isolate, as they did in the Bible when someone had leprosy or another communicable disease. But we are also spiritual and we long to share the meal with our Lord.

The internet pages I frequent are full of debate about virtual communion, people getting their own bread and wine and considering it blessed when the clergy does the Eucharistic prayer on video. Both of my bishops say “No.” But both say we can do something called Spiritual Communion. It's a long-time practice for those who cannot receive communion, like, say, when you are in medical quarantine. St. Thomas Aquinas defined it as “an ardent desire to receive Jesus in the Holy Sacrament and a loving embrace as though we had already received him.” (Emphasis mine) The prayer we will share during communion recalls the woman who merely touched the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed. I think more apt parallels are the times when Jesus healed someone from afar. Such as when he told the centurion that his slave back home was healed (Matthew 8:5-13) or when he told the Syro-Phoenician woman that her child at home was healed. (Matthew 15:22-28) Distance did not diminish Jesus' powers and he did not always have to touch people.

So I will share this prayer on camera at the appropriate time and we will pray it together. When the Samaritan woman asked about which of the two temples was the proper place to worship God, Jesus said one day it won't matter in what physical location one worships God. He said, “But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship God in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4: 23-24) There have been other times when Christians, sheltered in place from persecution and plague, could not come together with clergy to take communion. God did not love them less nor was he less present with them. As Thomas Merton says in one of his prayers, “But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.” When your kid gives you a piece of paper with a scribble on it in crayon that in no way resembles you but says it is a picture of you, you are pleased. God looks at our hearts and sees our faith and love and not the particular results of our finite attempts to imitate him.

And we can all of us look forward to a meal we will share with our Lord whether we make it through this present trial or not. One of Jesus' favorite pictures of the kingdom of God was the wedding feast. In his day this was a very big thing. The groom was carried on a bier by his friends to the bride's house. They would usually take a route designed that everyone in the village could see him. Then his bride would be taken aboard and taken by the same circuitous route to his house or his parent's house. The procession would be accompanied by music, singing and dancing. And if it were night, lamps. Once at their new home they would hold the wedding feast and people would come in festive garments. If the groom were rich enough, he would provide the garments for those who couldn't afford them. And the wedding festivities lasted for a week or more, which is why Jesus had to make more wine at the wedding he attended in Cana. Jesus frequently calls himself the bridegroom and the church is his bride. Few people realize that one of the highlights of the book of Revelation is the “marriage supper of the Lamb,” the glorious gathering of Jesus and his followers. (Revelation 19:9) So contrary to the unbiblical picture of the afterlife being folks sitting on clouds playing harps, the Biblical picture is that of a great party! That's what we are looking forward to.

At the supper before his death, Jesus said, “I tell you, from now on I will not drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29) If he can hold off that long, we can hang on until it's safe to come together again as the body of Christ to share the body and blood of Christ.

Jesus said of that interval while he is gone, “Who is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord finds doing so when he comes.” (Matthew 24:45-46) In other words, look for Christ in those around you and serve them as you would serve him. Jesus also said something surprising about how the master would treat such servants. He said, “Be like men looking for their lord, when he will return from the marriage feast; that when he comes and knocks, they may immediately open to him. Blessed are those servants, whom the lord will find watching when he comes. Most assuredly, I tell you that he will gird himself, and make them recline, and will come and serve them.” (Luke 12:36-37)

Which sounds like something Jesus would do. And he did do it on the night before he died. And we will focus on that shortly.