Palm / Passion Sunday, Year C

Do Not Weep for Me

Readings: Luke 19:29-40; Isaiah 45:21-25; Psalm 22:1-11; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 22:39-23:56

This week Christians worldwide are focused on the final days and hours of the earthly life of Jesus. Millions of people will devote their attention to the cross and Passion of our Lord. Perhaps it will be by listening to one of the magnificent works of Bach or singing the familiar hymns of the Passion. Perhaps it will encompass walking the way of the cross. Images of the death of Jesus will come to the forefront. In whatever way we commemorate the Passion, we will be moved to compassion and horror as we are reminded of his suffering for us. Perhaps in the midst of it all we will take time to ponder his words to the women of Jerusalem. “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.”

Jesus is saying no to simply offering an emotional response to what is happening. He is not saying that tears are wrong. He is simply saying that at this moment in time tears are not enough. Tears are not the appropriate action for us to be taking. They are misdirected. Tears simply to relieve tension are far from what is needed in this situation. Tears for the physical suffering of our Lord are simply not enough. They focus on the wrong things. They come from the wrong emotions. They stem from pity rather than true sorrow for the wrongs we humans have perpetrated. Pity is cheap. It in no way meets the demands that Jesus makes from the cross. Jesus on the cross demands a total change of direction in our lives.

A number of years ago Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ brought the story of the Passion to the forefront for many people. It’s graphic portrayal of the Crucifixion grasped the attention of millions of people. At the time, I grappled with whether or not to even go to the movie. Finally I went, accompanied by a couple of parishioners. I knew that I could not simply ignore it.  Indeed, it opened up many useful conversations.
 
On the one hand, a teenaged daughter of a friend of mine told me that if that was my God she didn’t want anything to do with Christianity.  On the other hand, a neighbour told me that it persuaded her to renew her relationship with the church.  “I came away feeling as if I had to do something about it,” she said to me.  “I feel so guilty about all the years I have not gone to church.  If God did that for me …” Many people said that the movie left them feeling totally bereft.  I myself came away feeling numbed by its sheer violence and terror.   While it bore a reasonable portrayal of the gospel stories, it did not portray the true message of the Passion.   For that we need to look at why we tell the story year after year.
 
Is it our fascination with violence?  Is it because bloodshed is so commonplace in our lives anyway?  Are we so used to seeing violence on television and in our newspapers that we need the grisly reminder?  It certainly must strike us as we read the story year after year just how little humankind has changed. In every war we hear of violent attacks and abuse of prisoners. In every society there are power hungry individuals who manipulate and cause suffering to countless people. There are many who wash themselves of any responsibility for the state of the world. Countless people shout slogans and take up a cause rather than thinking for themselves about what is right or wrong. Are we hungry for the tragic?  Do we want to assuage our sense of guilt with the reminder that there is nothing we could have done differently? There will always be those who stand by and let the innocent suffer. Do we want to lay blame on others?  Do we believe that our participation in the Passion of Christ is a necessary sacrifice? 

It is impossible to observe the Cross of Christ in a detached way. To be there is to be involved. We are implicated in the story one way or another. Most of the disciples were not prepared to participate in the story. They ran away. They were not ready to be involved. The women of Jerusalem were not ready to be involved. That is the reason for the tears. They preferred to pity Jesus. And in pitying, we only deceive ourselves. It does not make disciples of us.
 
So why are we here commemorating the Passion of our Lord. Hopefully we do not come together as church out of a sense of duty or shame, nor are we here to make atonement for our sinfulness.  We are here to be reminded of what God has done for us.  We are here to celebrate the great gift of salvation that God has offered us in the death of Christ. 
 
We are here to confess, not our sins and our brokenness, but our hope, our hope in the resurrection.  It was not for our wickedness that Christ died, but for our weakness. 

We are here because God has called us, not to pity him, not to pity our brothers and sisters, but to feed them and clothe them, to visit them in sickness and in prison. We are called to become involved in their lives, to act on their behalf, to become involved more deeply in the world. We are called to see the sufferings of the hungry and the oppressed in the light of the crucifixion. Every human suffering comes together in this one event. For in this one event Jesus carries the sin and suffering of the whole human race. He is the promise of ultimate salvation.
 
We are called to be here at the foot of the cross.  We are called to be here at the foot of the cross because God will not let death have the final say.  God will not let death separate us from the great love of a great God. 
 
From our place at the foot of the cross we know fear, sorrow, grief, pain, and confusion, but we know too God’s glory and love.  There is hope from that vantage point as we look out on God’s new creation.  We can view the cross as the greatest of failures.  Or we can recognize and be convinced of God’s great love and compassion for humanity.  In that death, God suffered and died.  That is the measure of God’s love.  Can we understand the love behind the cross?  Can we take it and transform it into a thing of loveliness and glory that inspires us and others to take up that cross and follow those steps?  For in dying Jesus showed us God’s glory and passionate love.  There was no other way.  There is no other way but the way of the cross.   

This Passiontide do not weep for Jesus. Jesus does not need our pity. Weep for yourselves. Weep for a world which has turned its back on God. Weep for a world where violence and war still prevail. Weep for a world where people go hungry. Weep for a world bent on destroying itself. Then our tears of pity become the tears that help to heal a fractured and broken world. Amen.