Wednesday in Holy Week
No one doubts the violence
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be
whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept
joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the
glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever.
No one ever doubts the crucifixion.
No one ever says: “Jesus did not die in a terrible way.” No one tries to convince us there were not mechanisms of torture thousands of years ago. Or political posturing. Or innocent people brought unjustly to their deaths.
We all believe in violence.
How could we not? We hear about it every day. Often we see it, we experience it. Humans acting out our worst impulses on one another is commonplace. It always has been.
It’s not that Jesus really is the Son of God that takes the most faith, I don’t think.
It’s not even the metaphysical concept of being raised from the dead. It’s not the idea of heaven.
It’s the thought that beyond violence - beyond the ways we assert our power and will over one another - there is something else. There is something even more powerful.
What takes faith is the belief that love is indestructible.
“What takes faith is the belief that love is indestructible.” Amen. The Cross is the ultimate display of Love. It is God saying “no matter what you do to me or say to me or to the Creation I’ve given you, no matter how ugly and violent and vengeful and power-hungry you are, I still love you.”