“Were you there?”
A Sermon for April 4, 2023, Palm Sunday
The Rev. Deborah Hawkins
Were you there? It is called the Good News but sometimes I wonder.
A few years ago a friend told a story. During Lent adults in her congregation were paired with children, kind of like prayer partners. They would gather for a few minutes after church each week and talk about God and Jesus and life. One day her little friend, who was 4 or 5, came up to her crying, “Why did Jesus have to die for me? I don’t want Jesus to die for me. Next year I’m going to be really good so Jesus doesn’t have to die for me again.”
I wonder, why did Jesus have to die for us? And I wonder, does he continue to die for us year after year after year?
Some say God decided that people are so wicked someone was going to have to pay for our sins. Justice demands punishment but the punishment was more than we could bear so God in his mercy sent his only son to pay the price for us. Others think God saw the wickedness of the world and knew Satan had us all in his power. Satan was holding the world for ransom, a ransom that was paid when Jesus died. And yet others say God sent his son to live among us to show us how to live but we, in our wickedness, ignored the message and killed the messenger? Could it be that whenever we refuse to take responsibility for our own actions are we crucifying Jesus again? When we ignore a wrong or turn away when it is in our power to intervene or offer support, do we crucify Jesus again?
I don’t know. Sometimes one answer seems to be right, sometimes another, most of the time there seems to be no answer at all.
One of the great horrors of the crucifixion of Jesus is that it wasn’t a unique event. It is all so normal, even expected. An innocent person suffers and dies at the hands of others. It happens all the time. The details may change but the underlying causes and responses: impatience, fear, greed, intimidation, complacency, paralysis…??? We not only hear the story in church once a year but it echoes in our lives and in the news throughout the year, each year.
I wonder, did Jesus have to die for us and continue to die for us because we are so wicked? I have done wicked, destructive things in my life but that little 4 year old? It doesn’t make sense except she knew Jesus died for her. She knew it! And like a prophet, she declared Jesus continues to die for us. Maybe it was just the ‘why’ she misunderstood.
Maybe the answers are not found in wickedness at all, but in love – A self-giving love like the love of that child who was willing to dedicate her life to the well being of someone else. A love so big it assures us even when our lives are wasted with grief and that is all we can see the story is not yet over. A compassion so large there is more than enough room to hold us in our anger and impatience and fear and complacency so that when we suffer we can know we are not alone. God in Christ has already entered into the suffering and is with us opening arms wide to enfold us into God’s self. I wonder.
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