“WE WOULD LIKE TO SEE JESUS”
Scriptures: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Hebrews 5:7-9; John 12:20-33
On March 25 1965, Martin Luther
King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in
Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where
local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference had been campaigning for voting
rights. King told the assembled crowd: “There never was a moment in American
history more honorable and more inspiring than the pilgrimage of clergymen and
laymen of every race and faith pouring into Selma to face danger at the side of
its embattled Negroes.”[1]
The campaign in
Selma and nearby Marion, Alabama, progressed with mass arrests but little
violence for the first month. That
changed in February, however, when police attacks against nonviolent
demonstrators increased. On the night of
February 18th, Alabama state troopers joined local police breaking
up an evening march in Marion. In the
ensuing melee, a state trooper shot Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old church
deacon from Marion, as he attempted to protect his mother from the trooper’s
nightstick. Jackson died eight days
later in a Selma hospital.[2]
For all the
progress we’ve made in race relations this world just does not seem to be any
more simple or just. Violence dominates
the world, national, and local news: racial violence, religious violence, domestic
violence, youth violence! It is often
way to close to home. When do we get to
see Jesus?
Jesus’ response to
the two Greeks who request to see him, or lack thereof, is an interesting
shift. Recall when Jesus’ mother
requested his aid at the wedding at Cana, his response was, “my hour has not
yet come” (Jn
2:4). When the religious authorities wanted to
arrest him, they couldn’t because, His “hour had not yet come” (Jn 7:30). Today, the response is, “the hour has come
for the son of man to be glorified…” (Jn 12:23). It is time to consummate the new
covenant. A covenant that will be
written; not on stone tablets, not on scrolls or in new rule books, but on our
hearts. A covenant so intimate it
demands the rigors of a deeper relationship response.
Throughout Lent
our preaching has been focused on a Battle Plan with the tools and outlook
necessary to be in an intimate covenant relationship with God and his
people. Shared were the tools of fasting
and prayer; seven steps in seeking the wisdom of God, we talked about looking
inward and taking on the necessary task of cleaning our house and the
importance of communion. It is here that
we seek to satisfy our request to see Jesus AND contemplate the question “Can
You Drink the Cup?”
“Scholars commonly
refer to Jeremiah’s new covenant oracle as ‘The Gospel before the Gospel’
because it finds its fulfillment in the life, death and resurrection of
Christ. Jesus is the mediator of the new
covenant. Each evangelist and the author
of Hebrews portray Jesus through a slightly different lens. Mark is concerned with discipleship; Matthew
stresses doing God’s will; Luke recognizes the agony as a test; Hebrews
emphasizes Jesus’ humanity and the purifying potential of suffering in the
context of faith; John portrays Jesus’ willingness to give his life.”[3] “This is my blood of the covenant, which will
be shed for many.” (Mk 14:24)
If you want to see
Jesus, you have to pay attention to his Death & Resurrection. Do you want to see Jesus? … Then let’s talk
about the cup he had to drink. Henri
Nouwen in his book Can You Drink the Cup poses the question this way. “Can you drink the cup? Can you empty it to
the dregs? Can you taste all the sorrows
and joys? Can you live your life to the
full whatever it will bring? I realized
these were our questions. But why should
we drink this cup? There is so much
pain, so much anguish, so much violence.
Why should we drink the cup?
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to live normal lives with a minimum of pain
and a maximum of pleasure?”[4]
Jesus wrestled
with this same question, “I am troubled now.
Yet what should I say? Father
save me from this hour?” (Jn 12:27) Yet we know and celebrate with each
Eucharistic feast how Jesus held the cup, how he lifted the cup to his friends,
and drank the cup to the dregs from the cross.
“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s
friends.” (Jn
15:13)
·
Do
you want to see Jesus? Look to the
persecuted Christians in the Middle East who courageously put their lives on
the line for their faith. Many have drunk
the cup to the dregs.
·
Do
you want to see Jesus? Look to our
all-volunteer military forces and first responders within our communities, who
willingly hold, lift the cup to be ridiculed and shot at, yet they are willing
to drink the cup to the dregs for our safety.
·
Do
you want to see Jesus? Look to your
parents, family members, and friends who recognize the four cups of the
Passover: the Cup of Sorrow, the Cup of Joy, the Cup of Blessings and the Cup
of Salvation as they sacrifice their own desires and needs for the development
and care of their children, aging or sick family members and/or a friend in
need.
The new covenant, written on
our fleshy hearts begs us to pay attention to Christ’s death and resurrection,
it challenges us to be the image of Christ for others and it invites us to
drink His cup to the dregs.
[1] Martin Luther King Jr,
“Address at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March” 121
[2]
Webpage: http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_selma_to_montgomery_march/
[3] Living
the Word. Laurie Brink, O.P. and
Deacon Frederick Bauerschmidt © 2014.
World Library Publications
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