Risking the Strange Ways of Jesus
*If you’ll be joining us at Lafayette on 4/3 at 6pm for our in-person Good Friday remembrance, you might not want to read further here. This reflection is an at-home version of that service. So instead, perhaps you’d like to simply spend a few minutes right now with a breath prayer, like INHALE: peace, EXHALE: love. And we’ll see you later tonight!
(Full Easter weekend details can be found HERE.)
*If you’re reading and this is your Good Friday remembrance, welcome. This will be a little longer than usual, moving through four short pieces of Scripture, with optional tactile experiences. Please move through it at the pace that best fits you. You could also read, discuss & pray with friends or family over a meal.
Supplies to gather if you’d like the tactile elements:
Paper and pen/pencil
Your communion supplies (whatever your daily bread and drink are) and an empty glass or mug to pour the drink into
1) Risking the Strange Way of Friendship, Matt. 26:36-38
36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
It was and is always about friendship for Jesus - about creating welcoming, diverse communities of care and justice. His is the strange way of friendship. But friendship, life in community, is tricky. Sometimes we need care and connection - sometimes we’re invited to give care and connection. Sometimes we mess up and need forgiveness (like Jesus’s friends, who are about to fall asleep as he weeps) - sometimes we’re the ones asked to forgive.
You’re invited to take a piece of paper - on one side, draw or write honestly about what you need these days. Then flip the paper over and draw or write about the needs of your friends and your community that weigh on your heart. Take a moment to thank God for the strange gift of friendship and to pray for the needs you wrote down.
2) Risking the Strange Way of Sorrow, Matt. 26:39
39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Jesus is so human here. He knows the pain, the loneliness and loss, that is to come, and he is filled with grief. His is the strange way of sorrow and honest lament. If there is any way to avoid this pain, and still do the good he’s committed to doing in the world - still love the way he’s committed to loving - he asks God to show him that way. He asks that God would take the cup of suffering away from him.
Whatever daily drink you’ll be using for your communion later, take an empty glass or mug. As you fill it with your drink of choice, name what grieves you these days - feel that weight as you hold the full vessel. Acknowledge along with Jesus the parts of yourself that resist drinking - that long for an easier way to wholeness. “Yet not as I will, but as you will.” How does your heart respond to that statement? Talk with God about it.
3) Risking the Strange Way of Peace, Matt. 26:50-52
50 ...Then the men stepped forward, seized Jesus and arrested him. 51 With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear.
52 “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword."
Love one another, Jesus has told them, over and over. His is the strange way of peace, of good triumphing over evil. Yet Peter picks up his sword. We all have tools of violence - from the tools of war and empire (like the cross Jesus will hang on & the nails that hold him there) to the cutting words we say to one another in anger. Jesus asks us to lay them down and walk in the power of love. Make a fist, gripping it tightly as you imagine it filled with anger, with rage. What tools of violence do you find yourself lamenting tonight? What would it look like to relax that fist - to lay those weapons down?
4) Risking the Strange Way of Courage, Matt. 26:53-56
53 "Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?”
55 In that hour Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. 56 But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.
If you have time, you might also READ THIS POEM meditating on Christ’s death.
When the religious leaders and the soldiers come to arrest Jesus and lead him to his death, Jesus reminds them that he is going voluntarily - peacefully, despite the dramatic confrontation they have staged. His is the strange way of courage. He will drink this cup of sorrow, for the sake of his friends, for the sake of the world. He believes his death will be for the world’s healing.
It takes courage even to receive that grace Jesus is offering us and to allow him to usher into a new way of living - his strange ways. You’re invited now to receive that grace in the form of communion, the body and the blood of Jesus given for you. May this spiritual food and this spiritual drink fill our whole selves with courage to join Jesus on the path of love for the sake of us all.
A Closing Prayer of Faith
We believe Jesus lived and died in a human body,
fully experiencing the joys and sorrows of this life we know.
We believe Jesus was accused, tried, and sentenced to torture and death by those in power.
We believe that in his suffering, Jesus joined the suffering
of all who are oppressed, wounded, and cast aside.
We believe his death demonstrates his great love for us,
giving us a chance to be made whole.
We believe in the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross,
changing the narrative of power, inviting everyone to receive the gift of grace and love.
We believe Jesus, the bread of life, nourishes the world
and satisfies our deepest hunger through his breaking and rising.
We believe this strange story is not over, and love will have the final word.
Amen.