Prospect
The
Rev'd Robert Warren
John 20:1-18
New beginnings are marked by dramatic turns of event.
We do our best to avoid drama, don't we, at home or at work? Our life's plan is to build on well-known
foundations. Floods of emotion or inner
personal turmoil we associate with our adolescent selves: we remember those
years painfully. Dramatic changes in our
circumstances may have been linked to the loss of our first career or the death
of a relationship or some other bereavement. We would walk very far to avoid
that particular crossroads again. New
beginnings are associated with the death of old ways. No matter how promising
the new life might be there will always be some part of us which hesitates.
In the course of Jesus' last week with his disciples and the
dread and beautiful events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday we watch as good
people behave badly and reasonable foundations crumble away. We are observers of the drama of God's
redeeming acts. These are acts which Jesus says God will accomplish in spite of
human weakness, the rottenness of Empires and the emptiness of official
religion. Disciples are almost nowhere
to be seen - one betrays Jesus, another denies him - the crowds are fickle and
change sides at the drop of a hat, the Roman Procurator is weak and
vacillating, the High Priest is a stooge.
Jesus is taken, he is handed over, he leaves the place
where he can have power over his movements and his fate. He is acted upon.
Typically, in the life of a parish church the events are
performed in the rites of a Seder Supper, or a congregation walking around the
perimeter of the church carrying palm branches or in a dramatic reading of the
Passion gospel. We become characters in
a story which unfolds. We speak the
painful words which are written down in the script for us to speak: Crucify him! Release Barabbas! I tell you for the third
time, I do not know the man!
