Scripture reading: John 19:17-24, 28-30
I had two jokes cross my Facebook wall in the last week or so. The first, showing up on St. Patrick’s Day, was a picture of a group of people in a bar, drinking away. The caption read “If Americans have a drink called the ‘Irish Car Bomb,’ do the Irish have a drink called the ‘American School Shooting?’” The second was a New Yorker-style cartoon showing a man and a pastor together on the front step of a church on Easter Sunday. The caption read “I hate to say it, Pastor, but I think you’re getting stale. Every time I come here, you preach on the Resurrection.”
The first is, of course, a bit of black humor which may be all the more fitting this week with what we see on the news. The terrorist attack in Brussels dominates the national news, alongside the local news here in Pennsylvania of a retired police officer who murdered two Turnpike workers. The common perception is that we live in ugly times and they are getting worse. That’s probably not entirely inaccurate. With Donald Trump doing his best “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” imitation and his more rabid followers doing their best to obey by sucker-punching protesters, it seems we’ve reached a very dark place in our election cycle. Add to that the seemingly constant screech of warnings from scientists about climate change and we’re all starting to ask why we’re all in this handbasket and where are we going?
In a lot of ways, there should be nothing surprising by all this. We live in a broken world, marred by sin and death. All the nightmarish images we see on the news each night are merely a reflection of that reality. To put it metaphorically, we all live on Good Friday, seemingly stuck in the shadow of the cross. Our only perception is that of death and suffering. The temptation to despair is strong in these times.
But a dose of perspective is in order. As ugly as things seem to be becoming, we have been here before. That is perhaps why the first joke, however grim, gave me a chuckle. There was a time, not so long ago, when terrorist violence in Northern Ireland was a seemingly everyday occurrence (much as mass shootings have become here). And while there is still much tension there even today, they have largely moved beyond the ugliness of random violence. The cycle of history has moved. That’s the way of things. Today’s crisis is tomorrow’s memory. Tomorrow’s crisis…well, we’ll deal with it when it gets here.
But perspective isn’t just this sort of recognition that the world has always been screwed up, it’s also knowing that the cross we witness is a precursor to something grand and glorious. The story of Christ does not end on Good Friday any more than our fates are bound to this present reality. There is something more that awaits us. To quote the old saying, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a coming!”
Which brings me to the second joke. Yeah, it’s funny that a guy who probably only shows up once a year on Easter gets to hear the same sort of sermon over and over again. But that’s what we should all be hearing not just on Easter, but every week. It’s all about the Resurrection. Christ is risen! Death does not have the last word. The Kingdom of God comes. Easter is real. It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a coming!
That is our hope and our destiny. The cycles of history will turn as they will. Today’s crisis will fade and tomorrow’s will emerge. But one day, perhaps soon, the promise of the cross and empty tomb will come to fulfillment. Christ’s words from the cross will echo across the ages. “It is finished!” And the world will be set right at last. Life will triumph over death. This is God’s promise to the whole of creation. It is not here yet. That is abundantly clear. But it is coming. It is on the horizon. And therein lies our hope.
Christ is risen. And one day, so too shall we.
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