God's NO

Why didn’t somebody do something? Why didn’t somebody stop this?

Judas didn’t go up to the soldiers and say, “Wait, I’ve made a huge mistake.”

Peter didn’t tap the servant girl on the shoulder and say, “No, I was with him. I’ll go with him wherever he goes.”

The high priest said it was better for an innocent person to die.

The people handed him over: he was a criminal; they knew his destination was death.

For all of those who couldn’t – or wouldn’t see – it is strange that Pilate asks, “What is truth?” Pilate admitted Jesus’ innocence, but still did not stop this.

It is really easy to point the finger, thinking we somehow would have behaved differently, that we would have stopped it. But today all the finger-pointing ends, the blame game stops, and the world watches the one through whom all things were made is destroyed. He is crucified as a criminal, an insurrectionist, as someone who didn’t capitulate to how the forces of evil think the world ought to work.

But how often – like Judas – have we looked the other way when we knew the right thing to do… when we knew we should have spoken up but the moment passed… when we decided to preserve our own self-interest instead of risking a hit to our pride?

We come to the cross, anonymous, because the crowd mutes the sound of the voices of the things we should have, would have, could have done differently.

How often – like Peter – have we told a white lie to save our own skin? How often has the fear of being found out led us to try to backpedal or deny the truth?

We come to the cross, silent, our lips having betrayed us.

How often – like the crowd – have we just wanted an easy way out, someone to blame?

We come to the cross, humbly, knowing our complicity in systems of injustice.

How often – like Pilate – have we asked God what the truth was but not listened long enough to find out the answer?

We come to the cross, scared of the answer to the question what is truth.

Today is the day we live in the world as though it is all that exists. Today is the day that we live in the world without God. "We cannot be honest unless we recognize that we have to live in the world etsi deus non daretur… [because] God lets himself be pushed out of the world on to the cross.  He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us," (Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 360).

“He is weak and powerless in the world, and that is precisely the way, the only way, in which he is with us and helps us.”

Jesus on the cross is for you in a way that he could not be for you otherwise. At the height of our failure and insecurity and fear, the cross marks God’s NO to our betrayal, to our denial, to our anonymity, to our tendencies to cling to half-truths as though they were the whole story.

Today is the day that Christ goes to the God-forsaken place: for you and for the sake of the world. This is the day that God refuses to allow suffering and pain to be invisible.

For every person who suffers under the rubble of natural disasters… in Chile, Venezuela, those affected by Hadrian, Japan…

For every person aboard Malaysian airlines 370 or the South Korean ferry who remains lost...

For every person living in uncertain political situations… Ukriane, Middle East, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel…

For every person living in places of war and violence… in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Israel, Venezuela…

For every person who is a victim of laws designed to protect perpetrators rather than victims…

For every person who has died serving his or her country this year…

For every child who died or watched a classmate die at school this year… at Davidson Middle School, Temple High School, Santa Monica College, Lanier High School, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Arapahoe High School, Purdue University, South Carolina State University, Bend High School…

For every person who has been abused by someone they trusted…

For every person who has been defined by hurtful words…

For every person who has felt lost in anxiety, in depression, in addiction, in illness, in fear…

For every person who has built walls between themselves and those around them…

For every person who experiences guilt for things they cannot change…

For every person who questions – in light of all this – whether your promises are true…

Today is for you.

Today is for all of these people, but it isn’t just for them: today is for you. It is the day that God says NO to the forces that threaten to destroy this world. Today is the day that Christ goes to the God-forsaken place to ensure that there will never again be a place that is God-forsaken. Today is the day Jesus says: You will NEVER be God-forsaken. You will never be forgotten. Today, Christ has borne the weight of human suffering and sin at the hands of humans. Someone should have done something to stop it, and this is precisely what Christ has done.