Memento Mori

Remember your Death

One Sunday Morning the Youth asked me what Lent meant. I knew that I was not going to do well with this question. This is a hard topic to describe to young people for two reason. One, it is a BIG church term, a loaded church experience. The second reason is that it is hard to describe the Lenten experience as a joyful exciting one when really, it isn’t. If we are being honest, we say that Lent is a time where we remember that Jesus died for us. That is Good News because at the end of it all it means that our sins are forgiven. But as Christians, we are called to spend six and a half weeks just with the fact that Jesus died so that we don’t have to spiritually die ourselves. We die to our sins. And we will physically die someday too. But we have the gift of eternal life. Yet, before we start thinking about the joys of heaven we have to deal with the death of this world. Think about how you would tell that to a group of teenagers who many have not grown up in church.

What I will do in talking to teenagers and trying to relate to them is that I will fall back into my mindset of when I was a teenager and think, “how would I describe this to myself when I was their age.” What I failed to remember, or really did not have the time to process was the fact that I was a teenager in the 90’s which was the era of grunge, or all doom and failure. There was a saying back then that went something like, “You are dying from the moment you are born.” Out of my mouth before I could stop pours out this statement to our lovely happy young people. What I wanted to say was, “You are dying from the moment you are born, yet through the death of Christ you can live forever more.” They hear the first half of that sentence and begin to say, “What?” “What do you mean?!” So, I stop and tell them that I don’t mean that they are going to die right now, nor do I think or hope they would die soon. So I spend the rest of our time trying to back track out of that statement and really reflect on the true meaning of Lent.

Pray and Read Isaiah 53

Isaiah 53 NRSV

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity; and as one from whom others hide their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account. Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people. They made his grave with the wicked and his tomb with the rich, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain. When you make his life an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days; through him the will of the Lord shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light; he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge. The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus was not anyone really special when he first walked the earth. He was not handsome, he was not admired. The prophet Isaiah and even in the gospels we read tells us this truth. In fact, he looked just the same as every other Jewish male of His time. It would have been difficult to pick Him out from a crowd. Unless the crowd knew exactly who He was. As a matter of fact, depending on the location, Jesus was either sought after for His graceful healing or to be accursed for what was perceived by the elite as being a heretic and a rebel. He didn’t have anything that anyone would want. He healed, He taught on the majesty of the Kingdom of God and many wanted to be healed by Him and to hear what He had to say. However, to be His friend would mean that you too would be ostracized and rejected, possibly even killed. Who would want that? Even up to the every moment of His death, He was afflicted, bullied, and despised. He did have friends, who believed in Him, and really believed in Him. Yet they to would abandon Him when He was caught and executed.

He died a death that non of us would ever want, a death that was violent with excruciating physical pain, deep emotional afflictions and being shamed by society. Every kind of horrible death you can think of, our Savior experienced. Maybe we do need to spend some time thinking about this. Why? Because we will also die someday. Our death is not likely to be in the same manner as Jesus of Nazareth, but we will all die someday. Yet, because He died in such a way, we can live free of eternal pain, eternal shame and live in peace for all eternity. What a gift.

Do you realize what this really means for us? Do you really know why Jesus had to suffer like He did? Do you really know why Jesus lived like He did? Why He was poor? Why was He plain or average? Why did Jesus and His friends risk their lives for the message? Why was all His blood poured out? Why was He shamed and found guilty by everyone? Why did He have to bear all of our sins? Why is it that by His wounds we are healed?

May we seek His grace during these forty plus days. May we humble seek the answers to these questions and discern the gift that was given for each of us through our fasting, prayers, and in service to those in need.