Scripture: Luke 23:32–38
I have an important question for you today: Is there someone, right now, that you would like to punch in the face?
Now, I know that there are a lot of good pacifists out there, so maybe this isn’t something that you think about. And I know that for all of us, the correct Christian answer is “of course, I would never do such a thing.” But I am not talking about “going to.” I am talking about “want to.” And maybe I shouldn’t put this on you at all. Perhaps I should just start with me.
I have a list.
Not like an actual list, like the guy in Billy Madison, but in my head, there are a handful of folks who make me really pretty angry. Angry, like I have a hard time even hearing their voice or even seeing their face, without noticing that anger rising up in me. There is a lot of injustice happening in our country and the world right now, and I find myself pretty angry when I read the news, or even think of certain people that I associate with that injustice. Folks who are causing it. Folks who have the power to stand up to it, but don’t. Folks who have nothing to do with it, but are filled with apathy or even glee to see people hurting and afraid and oppressed and beat down. Maybe this is just me, but sometimes that anger boils over…
- Maybe when I dare to pick up my phone and open the news app
- Maybe when I hear news about someone I care about impacted by injustice
- Or sometimes, when I am off by myself, driving in the car or out on a run, I find myself literally yelling out loud at people who are not even there!
- And even occasionally, I fanaticize from time to time about punching them right in the nose, even though I know it wouldn’t do any good.
- We as Baptists believe in the priesthood of all believers…thank you for being my priest and hearing my confession today.
Perhaps some of you have a list, too.
Who would be on Jesus’ list?
It might be hard for us to think about Jesus having a list of people that he was angry at, but if we believe that he was fully human, how could he not? Bruce Malina and Richard Rohrbaugh write about the social science context of the Bible, including the power and purpose of the crucifixion. They suggest that in Jesus’ cultural context, honor was the greatest commodity and shame was the biggest weapon. Therefore, the purpose of the crucifixion was not only to cause physical pain, but largely to cause social shame and embarrassment. They and other anthropologists call this a status degradation ritual. Jesus was publicly beaten, intentionally embarrassed and put on display, and hung naked from a stake visible from the gates of the city so that people could stand and gawk or jeer. Our culture is not honor/shame based in the same way as this, but within our lifetimes, we can look to the Cultural Revolution of China in the 60’s and 70’s, when they held “struggle sessions” where intellectuals and political rivals of the government were publicly humiliated and made to renounce their beliefs. When an individual was targeted, it would often be required for family members to publicly denounce or even physically attack the targeted individual, to show their allegiance to nation over family. If shame is a weapon, the crucifixion was a carpet bomb of shame and degradation.
Before we judge the disciples too harshly for abandoning Jesus, we have to understand that any association with him would have been weaponized against them, bringing them into permanent financial ruin, physical retribution, and likely death. In this shame/honor context, we can certainly imagine why the disciples might have chosen to escape to live another day.
Though it meant that Jesus would have to endure alone such a shame-inducing, pain-inducing, anger-inducing experience. Who would have been on his list, in those moments? The religious officials, who caused this assault because of their own small-mindedness and fearful defensiveness? The political powers-that-be, who had the power to stop it but chose to do nothing or even participate to gain their own brownie points with the people? The people right in front of him, jeering and sneering as they carried out their orders? Would Jesus have imagined the absent faces of those closest to him…James and John who left him…Peter who denied him…Judas who betrayed him? We don’t know who Jesus would have had the most anger toward in that moment, or even if anger is what he felt. I would have. Perhaps you would have, too.
Which is why his prayer from the cross is so striking. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
As you read the text for today, you may have noticed that this prayer is in brackets. Some early manuscripts of Luke did not include these lines. Last week, we didn’t include some of the bracketed words, because there was evidence to suggest that they were added later to Luke’s original. On the flip side, scholars suggest that today’s prayer might have been removed from Luke’s original text, because they could not imagine Jesus saying it. There was likely plenty of unresolved anger in the Early Church, and would it be surprising if someone read those words and said, “they aren’t getting off that easy! Surely Jesus didn’t mean for us to forgive…them!”
But those who have read the whole story can believe why Jesus would have said those words. The Jesus who taught his disciples in Chapter 17 to forgive. The Jesus who in Chapter 6 taught them to love their enemies. The Jesus who prayed constantly in the Gospel of Luke…and the Jesus who taught that we must love and forgive…now brings those truths together in what might be one of the most powerful prayers in existence: “Father, forgive them.”
Let’s go back to our lists. And talk about forgiveness.
Jesus found a way to pray for his whole list at once, but perhaps that feels a bit overwhelming for us. So is there…one? Maybe not even number one on your list, but two or three, or even four or five on the depth chart? Can you start by choosing one person who regularly makes you angry…and pray for that person every day of this Holy Week? Not choosing to agree with them ideologically. Not abandon your commitment to work for justice. But pray for someone who makes you so angry you could spit. Or worse.
Please understand that I am not equating the body-crushing and soul-crushing violence done to Jesus at the hands of the Empire…with the guy that posted that thing on Facebook that made you so angry. This is not a false equivalence. Not the same injustice. Not the same forgiveness. When Jesus forgives, it is world-altering. But when we forgive, even just a fraction of the way that Jesus forgave, we are participating in that alteration of the world. And ourselves…Jesus knew that this kind of forgiveness makes us more whole and healed than screaming at people who aren’t there on country roads.
Can you do it? Can you choose one? To be honest, some of you may be saying, “No. The anger is too great. There is too much at stake. I simply cannot.” And my response is, “You are correct. You cannot do this. At least not alone.” Scholar Fleming Rutledge writes in her 669-page book about the Crucifixion that there are close to a dozen different Biblical and theological motifs through which we can understand what is happening in the Crucifixion. But the one that she chooses to end the book with is what is sometimes called Recapitulation. She spends 35 pages alone on this one, so I am going to way oversimply here, but the short version is that the Bible teaches us that just as all of us participate in the brokenness of humanity, of ADAM, the coming and death of Christ means that we all now participate in the healing work of Christ. Beginning with Paul, who talked about Jesus as the New Adam, and continuing with the early theologian Irenaeus, the idea here is that Jesus recapitulates, or overwrites our programming from broken ADAM to restored new creation. The language of the Irenaeus and some of those early theologians was almost like a horror movie, where one entity possesses another. They suggested that Jesus does that, but in a good way. That we and all of humanity become changed in ways that make it possible for us to do and be what we could not be without Christ.
The Jesus in me sees the Jesus in you…and forgives, healing the ADAM in both of us.
That is the lesson that we learn from Gustavo Parajón. In preparation for our trip to Nicaragua, our team has been reading the biography of Parajón, the doctor, pastor, and peace-worker who started the community-based medical mission that AMOS is based on. During his lifetime, Dr. Parajón had plenty of people attack him, physically and verbally. He endured attacks by violent soldiers, by politicians in the U.S. who didn’t like his peacemaking…and worst of all, by self-righteous Christians who thought that because he disagreed with them he must be doing something immoral or illegal.
But instead of giving into the anger that this must have caused, Dr. Parajón would look those folks in the eye, call them “hermano” (brother) or “hermana” (sister), open up the Bible and start to read, and forgive. This doesn’t mean that he backed down from his principles, or gave into their political pressure, or allowed them to make up lies about him. But out of a heart of forgiveness, he changed the entire nation of Nicaragua. He was able to go into places that others were not, and broker peace. He was able to take vaccines and medicine to children and poor people who needed it most. He was able to preach the Gospel, with words and actions, because he forgave.
Never underestimate the power of forgiveness, to change our hearts, and heal our world.
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