From the Study

April, 2007

Try to Imagine

               

During our first night of Lenten Study, small groups were asked to discuss the following question, “What benefits and problems does the church have when it owns buildings”. It was easy for the groups to list the benefits, but only one group discerned a problem. Their answer to that part of the question was that when we have a home, we are less sensitive to people who are homeless. When we are warm, or safe, or comfortable, we are less sensitive to those who are cold, vulnerable, and anxious.

            That’s an important insight for us at Easter time. We are in post-resurrection. We know the end of the story and it’s hard for us to imagine what it must have been like for the people around Jesus during the week before his arrest, crucifixion and resurrection.

            Last night I asked the class to imagine being in the crowd when Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey. They had a hard time doing that. So would we all, but it’s crucial that we try because unless we imagine what it was like for them, we won’t be much use to the ones today who are where they were.

            Think about it. The crowd that watched Jesus enter Jerusalem was excited. Some of them expected Jesus to drive out the Roman armies that were at the most a danger to resisters and at the least, a burden to the populace because they had a different life-style than the Jews, worshipped other Gods, including the emperor, and could demand that a common citizen carry their load on occasion. Some of them knew that Jesus had brought Lazarus from the tomb and expected to see other miracles, perhaps bringing benefit to them in some way. Others were there just because there was a crowd. There were also skeptics that wondered how long he would get away with the implied claim that he was the King of the Jews. The skeptics waited for the fireworks that were sure to go off.

            If you compare the world the crowd lived in and ours, there are many differences in look and technology. But if you look at one factor, they are the same. These people looked to Jesus for hope. They were poor, felt pushed around by Rome, spent their day simply getting by, trusting that there would be enough for themselves and their children. There are many people today like that.

            When Jesus was arrested and crucified, many of the people who had gathered around the city gate, simply gave up. Even the disciples, for a time, gave up and hid. Peter had followed as Jesus had been led from one house to another and though he had wanted to be there with his Lord, he had denied him three times to protect himself. What must that week have meant to him.

            We need to imagine ourselves with Peter and with the crowd so we can recognize the hopelessness that is so prevalent around us. Our world seems insane. Parents kill their children, brothers and sisters fight and kill each other in nations all over the world because of sectarian jealousy. Robbers beat up 100 year old woman to take their money. War seems endless. Death seems to rule our lives. Can you imagine what it must be like in this kind of world not to believe that God loves us, that there is a promise that faithfulness to that God can bring light and love into it? This is the motivation out of which the author of Hebrews, (chapter 11) wrote, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. …  By faith, we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear.”(vss 1, 3)

            We are the carriers of that hope, and our witness of word and deed becomes the expression of that hope for those around us. To the extent that we are faithful, a hope that lifts others out of their despair is visible. To the extent that we are unfaithful, we simply leave people in their hopelessness.

Try to imagine what that means.

 

 

 

- Don