Painting With Ashes

Palms Away

Today we celebrate Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of Holy Week. Today we remember that Jesus was received into Jerusalem as a king on Sunday, and suffered a criminal’s death on Friday. We recognize the paradox, that the people who shouted Hosanna! Glory to God in the Highest when they saw Jesus riding into town on a donkey only days later shouted “Crucify Him!”

And this allows us to name and recognize the tension in our own lives and hearts. These people of Jerusalem who so quickly tossed away their palms and instead chose raised fists against their king are also us. We are them. We clutch our palms and shout the glory of God in Christ when it is convenient for us, only to toss those palms aside and raise our fists in protest against the type of righteous living that God has called us to.

But the good news of this week is that God doesn’t hold our rebellion against us. The good news is that the cross happened to Jesus for us. The cross happened to Jesus for the people of Jerusalem who called for him to be placed upon it. The cross happened so that we might know just who we are dealing with when we make a decision to follow this Jesus. The cross happened so that you and I and all those who have come before and who will come after us might not have to truly deal with the eternal consequences of raising the fist of defiance in the face of God. The cross happened so that death would lose its power when the tomb was found empty. But that’s a story for another day.

The story for today takes place after Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The People greeted him as the one who would save Israel from the oppressive regime of Rome. They greeted him as the king they prayed for, the one who would deliver them. But what they quickly learned was that Jesus was not there to raise up the sword against their enemies. Jesus had come to raise up awareness that the greatest oppressors of the people of Israel were the people of Israel themselves. And the people didn’t care much for having the mirror held up to themselves.

Jesus went into the temple and saw that it had become a place of blasphemy. There was an entire economy being run inside of the temple walls that took advantage of those who were simply seeking to practice the God instituted Passover celebration. There was an economic barrier being placed between people and the worship of God. Jesus flipped over tables and expelled these people from the temple. He publicly stated that the temple was so corrupt that he would tear it down and rebuild it.

People in power didn’t take kindly to these words and actions. And so the plot began to have Jesus arrested and crucified. They found an inside man: Judas Iscariot, and paid him 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus. The plan was set. The pieces were in motion.

The Wounding of Christ

But while all of this was going on, Jesus and the disciples prepared to celebrate the passover together. Jesus had a plan. He sent out the disciples to find the place where they would celebrate together. The venue was secured. The table was set. And so it is written in Luke 22:14-23

Luke 22:14–23 (NRSV)

When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him.

When the hour came, he took his place at the table, and the apostles with him.

He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;

He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;

for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

for I tell you, I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.”

Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves;

Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he said, “Take this and divide it among yourselves;

for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

for I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table.

But see, the one who betrays me is with me, and his hand is on the table.

For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!”

For the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that one by whom he is betrayed!”

Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.

Then they began to ask one another which one of them it could be who would do this.

Jesus knew that he wasn’t the only one with a plan. He knew that this would be his last meal with his friends.

And this is the beginning of the wounding of Jesus. Jesus endures the emotional wound of saying goodbye to his friends at the hands of one of his friends.

Later on that evening, after the supper was over Jesus and the disciples went to the garden to pray. And this is what happened, this is Luke 22:39-46

Luke 22:39–46 (NRSV)

He came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples followed him.

When he reached the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”

Then he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, knelt down, and prayed,

“Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.”

Then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength.

In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief,

and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.”

Here we see the spiritual wounding of Jesus. The anguish that his soul endured knowing what it was going to cost for him to follow God’s redemptive plan. He tried to bargain with God, to no avail. The price was high, and he knew it.

And after this time of prayer Jesus was arrested, mocked, beaten, and sentenced to death on the cross. Luke’s gospel goes on, this is Luke 23:32-34

Luke 23:32–34 (NRSV)

Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him.

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And they cast lots to divide his clothing.

Jesus’s final moments on earth included the tearing of his flesh, the penetration of his body with nails, and the absolute brutality that occurs when a broken and beaten body is hung to die. Jesus’s final wounding was of course - Physical.

And so, Jesus endured emotional, spiritual, and physical wounding. The same types of wounds that you and I and everyone who has ever traversed the human experience has lived through.

The beauty of this Holy Week is that it absolutely validates our human connection to Jesus, because in Holy Week we find a God who absolutely understands human suffering in all of its dimensions. We find a God who absolutely loves us, despite the fact that the best idea human beings could come up with was to put God on the cross and kill him. During Holy Week we find a God who still finds it in his heart to utter words of forgiveness over those who have inflicted emotional, spiritual, and physical wounds on him.

Wounded Healer

What we find most in the death of Jesus is that the cross became the ultimate way for God to paint with the ashes of human iniquity. While we may have been content to put Christ on the cross, God was not content to let the brokenness of our world that made us think that was a good idea win. God used the death of Jesus to overcome the powers of evil that have had been holding humanity hostage for all of history and paved the way for the world changing revolution to begin. Jesus, while wounded, became the one who would heal us. Jesus became the one who would heal our world.

And so what we find in Holy Week, what we find in the death of Christ on the Cross is the very gift of purpose for us as people who follow in the way of Jesus. Jesus’s life and death modeled for us the way of the wounded healer. From the ashes of death, God began to paint a new future and destiny for humanity. From the ashes of death, God makes us new through the gift of Christ. And through the ashes of death God give us an example to follow.

God has recognized our wounded-ness. God has experienced our wounded-ness. And God meets us in our wounded-ness to enable us to become wounded healers. God wants to use us to become wounded healers. God wants us to be people who don’t look back on our past with shame. God doesn’t want us to be people who simply go on with new life in spite of our past mistakes and wounds. God wants us to go on to be people who use the experience of our own mistakes, wounds and brokenness to testify to the transformational power of the cross. We are people who claim victory over the brokenness of our lives and then help others to find their way out of that same mess.

Perhaps the most obvious example of this comes from the 12th step of the 12 step program. Recovery programs by nature deal in brokenness. The steps are a means of bringing about the psychic and spiritual change needed for people to break the grasp of a cycle of behavior that is wounding them. The crux of the program is that it works because it inherently pushes people outside of themselves to help heal those who are still suffering.

Alcoholics Anonymous’s version of this step states:

Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all of our affairs.

In a reflection on what this step entails, the AA literature says this:

“Practically every A.A. member declares that no satisfaction has been deeper and no joy greater than in a Twelfth Step job done well. To watch the eyes of men and women open with wonder as they move from darkness into light, to see their lives quickly fill with new purpose and meaning, to see whole families reassembled, to see the alcoholic outcast received back into his community in full citizenship, and above all to watch these people awaken to the presence of a loving God in their lives — these things are the substance of what we receive as we carry A.A.’s message to the next alcoholic.”

What AA has figured out is that being saved from our brokenness is only really rewarding if we are using our new life to impact and rescue others. And this is really the main substance of what happened on the cross. Jesus overcame death in order to show us a way to live that leads to life, to enable us to live in a new way that seeks out and offers that same type of love and compassion to those who are still living in the midst of their own wounded-ness.

But all of that is necessitated by our own wandering through the mess. We can’t skip over the healing part, or else we won’t have the experience to offer anyone else on how to they might find healing themselves.

And so it goes with Holy Week. We are naturally inclined to want to skip over the darkness of the story of the cross. We are naturally wanting to go from the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem to the glory of the resurrection on Easter Sunday.

But to do that is to rob ourselves of the fundamental truth about what the resurrection has done for us. We can’t skip over the wounding of Jesus. We can’t skip over the cross, because it is in this pain that God begins to paint something beautiful out of the ashes. Taking this time to sit with the discomfort of Jesus’s final week allows us to truly understand the victory of the cross and the glory of the resurrection. It allows us to reflect on how God wants to use our brokenness — our ashes — our story — to heal the world. It shows us how God wants to teach us to paint with ashes too.