It started with tradition, the Passover supper to commemorate that dark night when Israel huddled in fear, even though they were promised salvation. The Supper was simple, as was necessary for the one who alone knew He had to remain focused.
Friendship would fail Him; His father would turn from Him. How much did He let sink in? He was, after all, human. He would be betrayed by a friend who had known his love; had witnessed miracles; had eaten dinner with Him surrounded by the stars that shown on the Sea of Galilee; had been given the confidence and responsibility to hand the movement's money. Condemn him only if you have never sold out or left a friend in their worst hour.
Another betrayal by the one who had been saved in the storm; had once had the strength of heart to walk on water with his mentor and friend. He denied the relationship out of fear. He too, was human. A man, like us, who wanted the call but was not ready for the consequences of it. We have all been in it for ourselves at least once.
Then we read the prayer, a plea, "Don't leave me". But they did leave him alone; alone in the sadness and human fear with no one to hold his hand. The brutality of feeling every pain; every rip of his flesh; the pain of a broken heart when no one begged for the life of one who had only visited with compassion and love.
We see the end-Mercy! Final release from a world that wasn't ready and still isn't. The mystery, the finality, the death, the day the sun went out, the darkness fell and with one thick suffocating breath; it was over. The only hope for life was dead. Time was split like the veil that separated the "Holy Alter from the inner court".
They scattered guilty, dispaired, broken, and hopeless. The doubts of history congealed the blood of an innocent man, but was He who He said He was? The followers were lost again. No place offered solace from the empty life that rushed like the wind and stole the solid rock from beneath their dusty feet. Then there was the fear. It would come to them and they would hide. Only a few, whose lives meant no more without Him dared to hope and walk face first into the same condemnation that had cost the man they loved his life.
But they could not slink into the ground remembering the joy and the light and the purity of truth and love. It was real, in a day where willingness to give, and self surrender, and compassion degenerated to the lowest of depths ever known. So they braved; because in truth they had nothing now without him. If it took their life and their blood was spilled as his, it would only end the misery of a life without him. Fear leaves no mark in the path of love and they found that three days after the darkest moment in the history of all time and all universes, there was a light. And those who had the least to give and the most to lose; ran to spread the word…He was alive.
“But I will come again. Do you trust me this time? Do you believe in sunrise?
I will take your doubt and fear. I will hold them for you, if you will give them to me.
I will know every emotion, every heart break, every dark moment, and never let the light in your soul go dark.
The vague world beyond this one is frightening; but it is only in that moment that we will learn; that we will see the image of God in the mirror.
We don't take that last breath alone.
Find the wonder of spirituality and tolerance this Easter.
