Three Crosses
Christ's solidarity with those who are in trouble.
As we continue in Holy Week, today is Holy Monday. We’ll keep on in our journey through John below, but you can also reflect on the traditional event of Holy Monday—Jesus Clears the Temple.
Too many Christians avoid being with those who are incarcerated, convicted, or with criminal records. It’s quite the contrast from what Jesus did.
It probably begins in childhood. We teach our children not to be around trouble. Garbage in, garbage out. Guilt by association. It’ll rub off. In one sense, we can understand parents’ desire to be so protective. We are called to be good stewards of these children. There is some certain truth in this kind of protectiveness—perhaps a three-year-old should not visit a prison.
At one point, when the Pharisees called out Jesus and the disciples, Jesus explains that it’s not proximity that defiles. It’s action from the heart. (Read it.)
Several times, some people point out that Jesus is hanging with the “wrong people.” His response?
Mercy, not sacrifice.
So there are ways to interact with those who are in a variety of troubles. If we don’t, we’re missing out on a key aspect of Christlikeness. The distance we first establish for safety will continue later on toward ignorance. And then we find ourselves to be adults who just don’t understand and don’t have compassion.
Charity? Maybe. But not compassion. There’s a big difference. It’s easy to donate clothes or food, but to actually sit with people who might need such things? [shudder] Truthfully, grace abounds in prison circles, recovery meetings, and shelters in ways that pristine sanctuaries struggle to emulate.
In the meantime, our savior hangs on a cross between two condemned ones.
John 19:18-22
That’s where they crucified him—and two others with him, one on each side and Jesus in the middle. Pilate had a public notice written and posted on the cross. It read “Jesus the Nazarene, the king of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city and it was written in Aramaic, Latin, and Greek. Therefore, the Jewish chief priests complained to Pilate, “Don’t write, ‘The king of the Jews’ but ‘This man said, “I am the king of the Jews.”’”
Pilate answered, “What I’ve written, I’ve written.”
Isaiah 53:12
Therefore, I will give him a share with the great, and he will divide the spoil with the strong, in return for exposing his life to death and being numbered with rebels, though he carried the sin of many and pleaded on behalf of those who rebelled.
Prayer
God,
You were counted among the condemned. Help me to not to look away. Indeed, show me my own culpability as a human being. I know I benefit from the sinfulness of others.
So give us courage to move beyond charity and into compassion. To listen, to sit, to learn—and to love like Christ, who never stood apart.
By your Spirit & in Christ,
Amen.