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| Jesus is looking to us. |
March 28, 2021—Palm Sunday and Passion Sunday
A look can say a lot. That first long stare between a couple destined to be together forever. Friends actually trying not to look at each other because if they do they’ll both crack up laughing. Or, that “look” that typically a mother gives her children to let them know without even speaking a word that their behavior is out of line. Yeah, a look can say a lot. With masks constantly covering the lower halves of our faces this last year, I imagine all of us have gotten better at reading other people’s eyes—their looks. I wonder if we have gotten better at noticing Jesus’ look.
In the earlier Gospel lesson for today, the one from the Liturgy of the Palms, Jesus, upon entering the Holy Temple just a few days before his betrayal, torture, and death—just a few days earlier Jesus “looked around at everything” in the Temple. Perhaps this would appear a throw away line, but in Mark—nothing is superfluous—in this the shortest of the Gospel accounts every word matters. So, when Mark tells us that Jesus looked around at everything it was not simply a way signifying that Jesus was curious about the Temple’s décor. No, Mark was giving us, the readers a heads up to pay attention, to look with Jesus.
Several times throughout this telling of the Good News, Jesus looked around, but why? What was he looking at? Was it a way of showing love for another, a collegial look, a way of reprimanding someone, what lay behind these glances? Jesus was concerned throughout Mark with not only looking, but truly seeing. So let’s look at some of these looks.From early on the Pharisees seemingly were blind to the larger truth that Jesus illuminated. On a Sabbath day, right before Jesus healed a man, he looked around in anger at the Pharisees who were more concerned with the tradition of human beings than the suffering of a human being. The text even tells us that Jesus was grieved at their hardness of heart. After healing this man, the Pharisees conspired with their enemies the Herodians on how to destroy Jesus. They were blinded to who Jesus was and what he came to do! Jesus looked and saw the truth, but these religious ones had scales upon their own eyes—such that they were unable to see God in their midst.
Later in this Gospel account, Jesus decried how the love of wealth makes one blind. When a rich young man wondered, “What must one do to inherit eternal life?” and when this same young man said he had followed all the commandments Jesus prescribed, Jesus lovingly looked at this one. Of course, Jesus then told the young man that true life would come from selling all his possessions and following Jesus’ way. This sent the man away grieving, unable to see the freedom in Jesus’ words. Mark tells us that Jesus again looked around, this time at his disciples, then he told them, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” Are you seeing a trend with these looks? A controversial healing, a difficult teaching, but what about today’s words from the Liturgy of the Palms?
Jesus was again looking around. He took in all the Temple preparations happening before the Passover. Was this surveying his surroundings a hint that he was about to do something controversial, difficult, maybe even impossible? Three times he had already foretold of his impending suffering, death, and eventual resurrection, so yes, I believe Jesus was pointing to the impossible, at least for humans, for God all things are possible.
Still, it is hard for us humans to see the impossible, let alone to believe in it—to trust it as the truth. After miraculously feeding many, Jesus wondered about this with his disciples, “Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember?” Jesus yearned for his followers to truly see that God was making the impossible possible, but the disciples and others continually could not take in the full picture. That’s what our Passion Gospel for today tells us.
We might focus solely upon Judas or Peter, but all of the disciples, the religious hierarchy of that day, and the political machine of Rome were all unable to see the truth that Mark laid out from the very beginning—that Jesus was and is the Son of God. Judas could not see this truth because of his greed. Peter worrying for his own life denied his own vision of Jesus as the Messiah. Other disciples bleary-eyed with sleep, first slumbered, then ran when Jesus needed them. Religious leaders thought Jesus was a blasphemous heretic and stoked up an already fervent crowd in Jerusalem for the Passover. Pilate attempted to free Jesus before political expediency or the crowd changed his mind, thus he knowingly sentenced an innocent one to death. Ghastly soldiers drunk on power and blinded by allegiance mocked Jesus as he suffered at their hands. All of these individuals and groups could not or did not see truth. They missed that Jesus was the Son of God, the Messiah, the Christ. But, before we think we are beyond such sightlessness—let me wonder for us, “What about us?”
What do we see? So often we miss Jesus. Blinded by fear or greed or even seemingly good desires like success or servanthood, we do not see that Christ Jesus is still here. In each other, yes, and in our families, friends, and neighbors too, but more specifically Christ Jesus, God Incarnate always dwells with those who suffer from oppression, hardship, or grief. Our Holy Scripture brings this truth to light over and over and over again. God is with us all, and God is particularly with those whom the world has left behind—those who suffer discrimination, those picking up the pieces after yet another devastating storm, and those who mourn the loss of their loved ones by this Pandemic, mental illness, or yet another senseless act of gun violence. God with us is with all. And that repeated image of Christ looking around makes me wonder if now he’s not just with us but looking to us. What does he see?
What does Jesus see us doing and how are we being with him? Yes, this service and the beautiful liturgy throughout Holy Week is an expression of our love and devotion to Our Lord. And yes, this community reaches out to those in need in devoted and profound ways. But, instead of simply comforting those who suffer from oppression, hardship, or grief, what if we were to discern how we as the Body of Christ might help end systemic discrimination, better care for God’s Creation, and stop not only this Coronavirus Pandemic, but also the endemics of suicide and gun deaths.
Jesus is looking to us. Lovingly seeing us as ones who belong through him to the family of God. And he is also looking to us—the story of Jesus’ Passion does not have to be one that endlessly loops on repeat as we continuously see our brothers, sisters, and friends in God’s family suffer a similar fate—the loss of innocent lives.
In the Passion of Christ we see that God’s love has no limit, no condition, nor a time frame. We observe that Christ’s love is infinitely wide—wider even than his outstretched arms on the cross. We open our eyes to behold that love for each and every one of us. And yet, if we merely receive this love, then we too have scales on our eyes, for we miss Christ Jesus suffering right beside us. Jesus looks around—looking to us to share the limitless, unconditional, and eternal love of God with everyone whom we meet.
May we look to Christ, may we see Jesus beholding us—shining the love of God even from the cross, and may we see Jesus in one another—sharing Christ’s love especially with those who most need that love. Amen.
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