Good Friday: Do I want justice or do I want mercy?

(Good Friday, year B)

The front page story of today’s Vancouver Sun describes the horrible terrorist attack in Kenya. Masked gunman killed 147 university students simply because they were Christian. The media has interviewed many people, victims’ relatives, politicians and members of the general public. They all express a desire for one thing: justice. This action was terribly wrong. This is not the way the world is supposed to be. Spoken or unspoken, those interviewed and all of us following the news ask the same questions, “Who is going to pay for this? Who will be held responsible?” Whether the hurt is grievous, like a terrorist attack, or minor, as when a friend insults us, whenever someone wrongs us our inclination is to want justice.

When we are the guilty party, however, things are very different. For example, at the end of one semester at university I become swamped with exams and assignments and completely forgot to do one essay. By the time I remembered it, the deadline had passed. I quickly finished the assignment in a day and went to the professor to personally hand it in. As I walked to his office, my mind was racing with excuses. There was too much to do! The due date was unclear! My computer crashed! Everything in me wanted mercy. But the truth was, I messed up. I was late and deserved to be punished by having marks deducted from my grade. What a difference in my response. When someone hurts me, I want justice. I want them to apologize, preferably in public, and make up for it. However, when I am guilty, I beg for mercy. I want to say sorry quietly and have my transgression quickly swept under the rug.

In his letters, St. Paul vividly describes the grave situation we find ourselves in because of our sins. “You were dead in your transgressions and sins… we were by nature children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:1,3). Let this reality sink in. We have all sinned, hurting others and destroying the order and goodness of God’s world. We all deserve punishment, not mercy. St. Paul explains that if justice were carried out, we would all be found guilty and sentenced to the ultimate punishment of eternal death. This is the hopeless situation sin leaves us in. We do not deserve mercy. We deserve to be held accountable for our sins.

But here we come to the reason why we call this Friday “good”. In the darkness of sin, the light of God’s mercy and love unexpectedly breaks through. When we look at Jesus hanging from the Cross, we realize that we did not get what we deserved! God gave us mercy, not justice! Justice looks to hold the wrongdoer accountable, following through with the appropriate punishment or consequences. However, in His infinite mercy, God chose to take the punishment for our sins upon Himself. He paid our fine. He suffered in our place.  “But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins ... by his stripes we were healed.” (Is 53:5ff). We did not get what we deserved.

Mercy is not meant to end at the Cross. On the Cross, Jesus unleashed a fountain of mercy that is meant to flow in and through us to those around us. God is merciful to us so that we can be merciful to others. Each one of us has been hurt. We have all been insulted or betrayed by friends, family or coworkers. Some hurts seem impossible to forgive. Jesus knows our pain because He suffered the same. Mercy does not pretend no wrong was committed. Rather, when we are merciful, we choose to cancel the debt others incurred against us. In doing so, we break the power these hurts hold over us and become free to love as Christ calls us to do.

Does mercy end at the Cross for you? Is there someone in your life that you cannot forgive? Is there some hurt you cannot let go of? Are there people in your life from whom you demand justice and stubbornly refuse to show them mercy? What might this say about your understanding of what Jesus has done for you on the Cross?

Today when you look at the Cross, think of one person who has hurt you. Look at the Cross and soak in the unfathomable mercy God has shown you. We did not get what we deserved! In view of the Cross ask yourself, what do I want for this person who has harmed me? Do I want justice or do I want mercy?

Are you a bandwagon Christian?

Mark 14:1 - 15:47 (Palm Sunday, year B)

In the world of sports, there seems to be no worse name that you can be called by another fan than “bandwagon jumper”. As I understand it, this is someone who only supports a team when they are winning. When all is going well, they claim to be the team’s greatest fan. As soon as the team starts losing, however, they distance themselves from the team, claiming they never supported them in the first place.

In the readings for Palm Sunday we find many followers of Jesus who are bandwagon jumpers. At the start of Mass we heard the account of Jesus’ triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. Jesus had many fans them. He was greeted by a jubilant crowd who acclaimed Him as their king and Messiah. If we fast forward to the Gospel reading of the Passion account from Mark, however, we find these same people calling for the death of Jesus. They beg Pilate to spare the murderer Barabbas rather than Jesus. Jesus’ inner circle - supposedly  his most die-hard fans - is also full of bandwagon jumpers. While in the garden with Jesus, Peter, James and John fell asleep when asked by Jesus to stay up and pray. Judas, one of Jesus’ closest followers, betrayed Him to the authorities. Peter, previously chosen by Christ to be leader of the apostles, denies three times that he even knew Him. When Jesus is apprehended, the authorities grab hold of the garments of one young man who leaves his clothes behind, choosing to run away naked rather than be arrested along with Jesus. He is a symbol for all the disciples of Jesus who became bandwagon jumpers at the start of His Passion. Those who once left all to follow Christ leave everything behind in order to flee from Him.

Why did Jesus’ supporters, both the casual and hardcore ones, turn into bandwagon jumpers, leaving His side when He became unpopular? Simply put, Jesus was not the kind of Messiah that they were hoping for. The crowds who greeted Jesus when He entered Jerusalem were expecting someone who could liberate the people of Israel from the tyranny of the Roman Empire. For those expecting this kind of savior, Jesus’ death at the hands of Romans meant He lost. He had no political or military might. He was a suffering servant who came to liberate us from sin, hatred, greed and ultimately death. This was not the kind of Messiah that most of Jesus’ followers expected or wanted. As a result, they deserted Him when they perceived He was defeated.

If I am honest with myself, I must admit that when it comes to following Jesus I can be a bandwagon jumper or fairweather fan. I suspect I am not the only one. It is fitting that in the liturgy for Palm Sunday, we begin by waving palms, acclaiming Jesus as king and finish by shouting for Him to be crucified during the Gospel. At times we wear the label “Christian” or “Catholic” as a badge of honor. When things get difficult, however, we can desert Jesus. We are bandwagon jumpers when:

• We conveniently ignore certain teachings of Jesus, like substantially sharing our money and goods with the poor
• Pretend that hard commandments like forgiving those who harm us and loving our enemy are more like suggestions
• Expect Jesus to be the kind of Messiah who removes all difficulties and pain from our life
• We stop praying or going to Mass when life becomes too busy

Though the readings are full of people who desert Jesus, we also find incredible examples of fidelity. We hear about the woman who anoints Jesus with oil from an alabaster jar in spite of being ridiculed by those around her. We find a group of women who watched the crucifixion from a distance: Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome. They could not comprehend the tragedy they witnessed, yet they stood watch and prayed when Christ’s victory seemed impossible.

In our lives too, though we can turn our backs on Jesus, there are many other times that we are faithful. We struggle to pray when situations in our lives seem hopeless. We try to cope with suffering, trusting that Jesus walks with us. We continue struggling to overcome sinful habits even after many setbacks. We keep the faith, pray and go to Mass in a culture which is complacent at best and hostile at worst towards religion.

Palm Sunday is a time to honestly assess our situation. As followers of Jesus, none of us are diehard fans. At the same time, none of us are purely bandwagon jumpers. The most important message of Palm Sunday is that Jesus does not call us by any of these labels. Christ went to die on the Cross for love of those who denied Him and for love of those who remained faithful. He calls us all beloved. He calls us all friend. Above all, He calls each and everyone of us to greater fidelity.

The Cross is Communication

John 12:20-33 (5th Sunday of Lent, year b)

Why did Jesus need to die on the Cross? I know… Jesus had to do it to save us from our sins. But, couldn't God have done this in some other way? Could God not just offer us His grace and forgiveness in some other, less brutal fashion, and we could just accept it and be saved? The Gospel today is taken from a turning point in the Gospel of John. Jesus has finished His preaching and working of miracles and is about to enter into His Passion. In the Gospel Jesus Himself states that it is necessary for the Son of God to suffer and die in order to give us new life: “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” Could there not have been some of other way? Why did God need to send His Son to die a terrible death on the Cross in order to save us from our sins?

The answer: it’s a mystery. Years ago when I was a student, nothing would get me more frustrated than when I would ask a question about our faith and the response I would get was “it’s a mystery”. I always saw this as shorthand for “I don’t know”. At times I am convinced it was. Now I see the concept of mystery somewhat differently. Some questions, like how to get from A to B, are problems. There is a definitive answer. Other questions, any which involve God, are mysteries. Mysteries are like spirals of infinite depth. We can go deeper and deeper in trying to answer the question and yet we can never answer if fully. We can, however, say much that is true about the topic under investigation. We just cannot fully or definitively answer the question.

The question “why did Jesus die on the Cross?” is a mystery. There are many angles from which we can approach this question. I would like to answer this problem by approaching it through the perspective of communication.

When we communicate with someone, we want to do two things: 1) transmit a message and 2) have the person we are communicating with act in response to the message. The degree to which we are successful in attaining these ends depends in large part on how we communicate the message. For example, if we want to warn someone who is about to walk into oncoming traffic, we shout “stop” loudly and forcefully in the hope that they will freeze in their tracks. Saying “stop” in a mellow, sing-song voice would probably not produce the desired effect. If, on the other hand, you wanted to tell your significant other how much they mean to you with the hope of eliciting the same feeling in them, you might say “I love you” in a kind voice, while gazing into their eyes and perhaps even handing them a gift. Shouting “I love you” at the person while throwing a glass of cold water in their face would be a less effective means of communication in this circumstance.

Throughout history, God the Father has been seeking to communicate to humanity. He wants to both tell us a message and have us act in response to the message. The message God wants to communicate is simple. He is an infinitely loving and merciful Father. He desires to be in relationship with us now and for eternity. Sin is a terrible, destructive thing. It hurts us and damages our relationship with God. In His great love and mercy, He has forgiven our sins, repaired the damage it has done and prepared a path for us back to Him. In response to this message, God desires that we all take one action: turn from sin and return to Him. This is what God has been trying to communicate all throughout human history.

Because of sin, we are have a predisposition not to listen to what God is saying and resist taking action in response to His message. Sin has given us a misguided understanding of God. We can think God is a vindictive tyrant or, on the other extreme, a permissive, non-demanding deity. We can fool ourselves into thinking that there is no such thing as sin, thinking “I’m okay - you’re okay”, to borrow a phrase from a famous self-help book. Sin makes us mistrustful, suspicious and even aggressive towards God. Even if we hear something of His message, our will is frozen and enslaved by sin. We avoid doing what we know is right.

In communicating His message, mere words are not enough to break through our sin-induced deafness. It takes more than a moral exhortation and Divine offer of grace to convert us. We saw this in history. God sent prophets to teach the people that He is a loving Father and to call them away from sin and back to Himself. All the prophets were rejected, their message largely ignored. Even the preaching and miracles worked by Jesus were not enough. All it served to do was unmask and provoke evil. Words were not a sufficient medium for God to communicate His message to us.

In order for us to truly hear God’s message and to respond to it, we needed tangible and convincing evidence to prove His message: the Cross. The Passion and death of Jesus is the only successful form of communication. It alone breaks through our deafness so we can hear clearly God’s message. On the Cross, God proves the infinite depths of His love and mercy. God became a man and took upon Himself and suffered all the effects of our sinfulness: hatred, violence, and ultimately death. He proved Himself beyond doubt to be a compassionate God. Every drop of blood shed by Jesus on the Cross screams to us how much He loves us. The Cross also tells us the severity of sin. Our sins did this to Him. Not only does the Cross allow us to appreciate God’s message, it alone is forceful enough to shake us loose from our fiercely defended idols and dislodge our chained will from slavery. When we look at the Cross it compels us to turn from sin and return back to our loving Father.

Why did Jesus have to die on the Cross in order to save us? Because it was the only way we would finally hear the message of how loving and merciful our Heavenly Father is and choose to leave sin behind and enter into a relationship with Him. The Cross is the ultimate means of Divine Communication. Each year during Lent we are given the opportunity to make sure we have heard the message and respond more fully to it.