Humiliating God [Holy Wednesday]

 

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READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:

• St. Luke 22:1-23:53

Grace to you all and peace from Jesus.
 
Who speaks to you from His Passion according to St. Luke to the women saying,

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

 
Are we not in those days? Do we not already see the women of our own country choosing sterilization and abortion over bringing children into this world and to Jesus's Church? For to wish for the mountains and hills to cover us is to wish for death and burial in the face of this weeping and lamenting over a world turned from God.
 
I mean, if God Himself, the Creator, could not even be kept alive in His own Creation, then what good is there?
 
There are many things about this mad, sin-filled world that I do not understand. One of them is God walking around, as a man, on earth. Eating, drinking, speaking, interacting. Its not rational. Maybe you’ve noticed if you’ve ever seen a reenactment of the life of Jesus.
 
Just thinking about the patience it took to deal with His own people in the first century alone, boggles the mind. But to deal with all of us? It’s just too great. And He did so with humility. 
 
He faced and spoke to those who would betray Him, and yet forgave them, as He taught. He preached to the multitudes who would turn on Him at the drop of a hat, just for the comfort of going back to their homes.
 
He took the time to walk to places, instead of flitting or floating. He took the energy to deal with people, instead of bending their minds to His will. He took the path of humility, rather than call His Great Hosts down upon those who surely deserve it.
 
And they condemn themselves, multiple times. Tonight it was the thief on the cross admitting his guilt, when faced with the same punishment God faces. Monday, it was “HIs blood be upon us and our children”. Friday it will be heard, that one Man should die rather than a whole people.
 
And yet. And yet, He does nothing about it. He wills it to happen this way. Sure He gives a little threat to Pilate, speaking of legions of angels chomping at the bit for a last minute rescue, but none come.
 
Maybe, when He looked over at St. Peter after his denying Him three times, He smiled, knowing that St. Peter’s flesh was weak, but knowing also that his spirit cried out for salvation and redemption.
 
For St. Peter that cry looked like denial. For us, that cry looks like despair and apathy. We don’t know what’s going on in this world. What do we say? What do we think? What do we do? We sin.
 
It is at most moments with God, that He backs us into a corner. A corner, from which, there is no getting out without sinning. It is in that corner that the Christian discovers that he is weak. Too weak to do anything about anything, having come at last to the end of the rope. 
 
There it is that God reveals His weakness to us. And when we gaze on that weakness, it is so great, that the same Apostles who were able to remain conscious for the Transfiguration of Christ into Glory, can not even stay awake one hour at the Humiliation of God into salvation.
 
It is at that humiliation we bow and genuflect. Give glory to God? No. Give Humility to God made man. Give suffering to the Almighty in the flesh. Give weakness to God, for it is the weakness of God. “since he himself is beset with weakness” (Heb 5:2) and “he was crucified in weakness” (2 Cor 13:4) and “the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor 1:25) and His “power is made perfect in weakness” (1 Cor 12:9) where else do we turn and bow the knee?
 
The Humility and Weakness of God becomes the Glory of God in “Christ Suffering” and “Christ Crucified”. And He endures it. He doesn’t just endure it, He joyfully endures it. Willingly endures it. He spends all His vacation time to come to earth, hang out with sinners, and calls it Good that they hand Him over to crucifixion.
 
In that corner, we pray. We pray and we are relived. And the relief comes in the form of forgiveness. Forgiveness for not being bold, forgiveness for not being staunch, and forgiveness for not following Jesus even if we have to die. Because we are not forgiven to die, but forgiven to live. 
 
And Jesus wants to live. And the way to live is to die to sin and rise to new life before God. And Jesus wants you to live, but not in the same way He purchased it for you, but in a loving way. The easy yoke that Jesus gives is a Baptism into His suffering, death, and resurrection. The light burden that Jesus offers is belief counted as righteousness. 
 
The mountain and hill of the tomb of eternal death covers Jesus, instead of us. Death loses. Life wins. Easter comes. Salvation closes upon us, hands and lips.