It is well documented that we all experience external things in a different way. Your blue isn’t my blue; your Marmite (yum) isn’t my Marmite (yeuk). So here is a question – how do we see Jesus?
In Lent the intensity with which we observe Jesus is ratcheted up as we follow his path to the Cross. We have an intense Gospel passage today. Paul is equally powerful and succinct. As for Ezekiel I feel sure that you are allowed a stately progress round your living room to the sound of ‘them dry bones hearing the word of the Lord’.
In the Gospels, then, how do we see today’s protagonists. Perhaps Thomas, who offers the only light relief today (basically ‘we’re doomed’) is an easy one. I see him as a cross between Private Fraser, Eyeore and Marvin the Paranoid Android. You may wish to differ.
And Jesus? Do we see a quietly calm nobility, do we see a divine revolutionary, do we see a humble peacemaker- a teacher, preacher, healer, revealer, victim, pilgrim, redeemer, king- just like the plum stone rhyme, tinker, tailor etc.? Do we see all these and more?
Yet how often, in our mind’s eye do we see our Lord in tears? Which brings me to my text, verse 35 of our Gospel; ‘Jesus wept’. Leaving aside the likelihood that this is probably, in exasperation, the most commonly repeated Bible verse in this country we surely are a little surprised. If we cast our minds back we recall that Isaiah prophesied a Messiah who would be ‘a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief’ but I suspect our day to day Lamb of God is a man in control.
In one way of looking here is a test of authenticity. You or I might have written of a calm figure who stands above the misery that follows from a good man taken before his time. John says that Jesus was ‘greatly disturbed in spirit’.We can explain this away, as some commentaries do, but isn’t there comfort in the image of the Son of God distressed by the death of his friend? Is Jesus now more someone we can talk to through our tears.
And we will weep. These are times for tears of all kinds. At the very least we weep tears of frustration-our lives locked down. Maybe you have had your wedding cancelled. Maybe I miss a walk on Snettisham beach. Maybe our hospital is sadly under-resourced, its staff exhausted.
Then to tears of isolation and tears of separation. How we long to sit our grandchildren on our knee, to hug mother or grandma, to hold the hand of a friend who is dear. You will be reading this on a Sunday when you long to be in a congregation that holds you close. Peace be with you.
We weep.
And, at a level more bitter and profound, over our anxiety about what the future holds, for our welfare, our prosperity, the fabric of our culture, for the peril visited on those we know to be vulnerable;
We weep.
And, harshest of all, some will cry the saltiest, most inconsolable tears as their loved ones die alone. What then do we do? It’s not for me to tell anyone how they should react in a time of pandemic, even suggestions would be an insult to the depths of fortitude people are finding. But there is a hint in today’s Gospel where we have a contrast between the crowd gathered in Martha and Mary’s house and Jesus. The crowd’s tears were aimless. I too have been aimless-switching from BBC News to Channel 4 to Sky then repeating the cycle again. You too may have nursed a glass of wine and said how awful it all is.
Jesus was not aimless. He had the the power to raise the dead-we can’t do that but we do have the power to influence events. As an example;the world is full of hatchets that need to be buried at this time. Setting aside past slights brings the Divine more into our human lives. And we are blessed with the fruits of the spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. Now is the time to work from this list, and we are seeing evidence all around us-what can I do, who can I support, who can I encourage, who can I console?
And let’s also be constant in prayer so that, as with Jesus outside his friend’s empty tomb, we can say ‘Father I thank you for having heard me’.
Amen