Little deaths: A Holy Week contemplation

Passages

This is Holy Week for Christ-followers. The time when we intentionally contemplate the events and attitudes which lead up to the crucifixion. It is a challenging week, focusing on all the moments where Jesus offers life and freedom, and those in power--the political and religious elite--try to find ways to silence him, kill him.

At first glance, the crucifixion seems to show how those in power always win--they seemingly succeed in silencing the voices longing for healing, for wholeness, for restoration--new life. Yet the crucifixion also puts this naïve assumption of the powerful on full display. The powerful attempt to violently silent the voices leading to freedom, not just for some, but for all. The hubris of this assumption is what Jesus exposes when he prays in his last breath, "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing."

On the cross, the humility and self-emptying life of Christ puts up a mirror to those in power. Not to shame them (that never leads anywhere good), but rather to show them another way, a more difficult way, yet a more life-giving way for all people.

The mirror is an invitation. The mirror invites all of us to pay attention to what within us must be put to death so that new life, abundant life for all (not just for some) can rise up from the ashes, breathe and be the animating force for our life together.

Jesus was (and still is) all about leading people to the little deaths in our lives which must occur so that new life can emerge. Our life in Christ is all about living out this undulating pattern which brings us closer and closer to becoming more like Christ. This is the very pattern that the Divine Creator has woven into the fabric of the universe. In the lingo of Christians, it's the story of death and resurrection.

Holy week has me wondering: What little deaths might we be called to give in to? What little deaths over the course of our life together this past year have we been led to by Christ but rejected because it seems too hard? Anger, resentment and bitterness? Clinging to "my way or the highway" kinds of attitudes? Fear of the unknown and the consequent doubling down on asserting absolutes and certainties? The scapegoating and blaming that serves to only fuel religious fervor and conspiracy theories?

These are the very ways that Christ holds up a mirror to on the cross--again, not for shaming. The mirror invites us to see deeper and to relinquish the illusion of control. Could we imagine instead what new life might look like if we allowed these little deaths?

I, for one, am hopeful. The opportunity is here before us. The invitation is given. Let us walk together through the necessary little deaths so that the promise of new life, abundant life now, can be experienced by all, not just for some.

 

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