Why Should We Not Imitate Him?

John 18:1-19:42

So far, this Church year has felt in many ways like a very long Good Friday. Multiple horrific mass casualties, an ongoing genocide of an entire people who share a homeland with our Lord, violence raging in the Sudan, a humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, personal losses and illnesses on our own doorstep. I have not struggled, this year, to imagine how the same humanity that welcomed Jesus to the Holy City with Hosannas could also shout “Crucify him!” days later. I have not struggled to believe that we are capable of such things, that we would inflict the horrors of the cross on an innocent person. It is impossible to deny the human capacity for violence in the face of such things.

The Passion of Christ, the ritual of Good Friday, does not ask us to deny any of it. The journey from the garden to the grave takes us through every possible failure of nerve. Those present at the Last Supper could not bring themselves to believe the predictions Jesus had made about the betrayal to come. Those in the garden with Jesus could not keep themselves awake for even an hour in solidarity with their friend. Judas could not resist self-serving temptation, and the religious and political leaders could not pass up the opportunity to eliminate a threat to their way of life. Peter could not resist the impulse to strike out when threatened, and he could not bring himself to claim his teacher when doing so put him in danger. Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate each tried to pass the buck, refusing to acquit Jesus despite having no just cause to imprison or kill him. Each one hoped the next person would take the blame and suffer the consequences.  The soldiers and police struck Jesus every chance they had, and ridiculed and humiliated a defenseless prisoner, wielding their power ruthlessly against him until the bitter end. Numerous opportunities were made for someone to intervene, for someone to make a case in Jesus’s defense. No one stood up. No one spoke up.

This is what humanity is capable of. Active violence, and the passive permissiveness that allows violence to occur on our watch and even on our behalf. Betrayal, abandonment, persecution, cruelty, torture. Human beings did all of this to Jesus, and human beings continue to do these things to one another to this day. It is cruel, and sinful, to pretend otherwise. Humanity built the cross, and humanity drove the nails through Jesus’s hands.

But humanity was on the cross too. Jesus of Nazareth, fully human and fully God, begotten not made, endured it all. God was a human being when he bore the cross from Gabbatha to Golgatha. God was human when he looked down at the face of his grieving mother and entrusted her to the care of his closest friend. God was human when he shared the first Eucharist with Judas, and when he washed the feet of Peter. God was human when he worked miracles to feed thousands. God was human when he healed bodies and touched hearts and taught minds. God was human when he taught us how to love each other. Because God became human, Humanity is capable of all this too.

There is a tradition of the church that holds that on the way to the hill where he was to die, Jesus fell three different times under the weight of the cross he bore. Even God himself, who could control the winds and the seas and could command demons with a word, struggled under the devastating weight of death. Saint Therese of Lisieux, a young Carmelite nun, wrote about this to a friend struggling with her faith. She said “Jesus offers you the cross, a very heavy cross, and you are afraid of not being able to carry it without giving way. Why? Our Beloved himself fell three times on the way to Calvary, and why should we not imitate Him?”

Jesus offers us a very heavy cross, the same cross that at times even he could not bear alone. God offers us the same opportunity, the same free will to choose how we will bear our humanity. Will we strike out with the sword, or will we turn the other cheek? Will we betray our neighbors for a few pieces of silver, or will we offer up everything we have until everyone has been fed? Will we take every opportunity to humiliate our opponents, or will we wash the feet of those with whom we disagree? Will we deny knowing what is right, or will we tell the truth even when it seems no one is listening? Humanity is capable of devastating evil, there is no denying that on Good Friday. And humanity is capable of world-altering love, the kind of love that will lay down life itself for the world’s sake. Our Beloved himself bore his humanity by choosing the way of love. Why should we not imitate him?