Welcome to the
Sunday of “The Big Why.” Many of us come today and leave today with this big
question of why. This is a question we usually ask ourselves in the depths of
sorrow, or anger, or fear. Why this? Why now? Why was my job eliminated? Why
did my beloved child get cancer? Why is my spouse developing dementia? Why do I
have to put up with this – whatever “this” is – for so many years? Why the
Holocaust? Why the slaughter of Innocents? Why the children in Syria? Why am I
suffering? Why me, Lord? Why them? Why us? Why?
The Big Why is
also a question many people ask about the journey to the cross and subsequent
death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s not enough to say death was necessary for
resurrection. It’s not enough to say Christ’s death was some sort of
substitution for our own deaths. It’s not enough to say Christ’s death on the
cross is the victory over sin and death. All of these theological theories highlight
parts of the reason but that is all
they can do for most of us.
It may be
comforting to know we’re not the only ones to wrestle with the Big Why. People
just like us have wrestled with these questions and so have and do theologians
and thinkers, intellectuals and even those who were with Jesus. The disciples
didn’t understand. The women at the tomb didn’t understand. The crowd didn’t
understand. Everyone is left empty at the foot of the cross wondering the Big Why.
I don’t have
the answer either. Jesus never gave a complete explanation himself. He never
gave us the details. He never answered the Big Why. He never answered the exact
reason for all that suffering and that devastating death. He predicted his
death frequently, surely, but never really gave us the Big Why.
Take comfort,
my friends on the journey with what Jesus did give us. He does give us an
answer to an enormous question, perhaps the most important question of all. Because
while the Big Why may puzzle us and confuse us, the question isn’t really why,
but for whom?
At the meal
before his death Jesus took bread, broke the bread, gave it to his friends and
said, “This is my body, which is give for you.”
For you. For
me. For the disciples who followed him. For the women who went to the tomb. For
those who betrayed him. For those who didn’t listen. For those who listened but
didn’t pay attention. For the sick, the hungry, the weary. For the poor, the
destitute, the hopeless, the suffering. For the wealthy, the arrogant, the
vain. For all, but most of all, for you,
for us, and for all.
The hardest
part of this Sunday and the gospel itself is that we never really get the
answer to why. But what we do get is
the answer to for whom. And in the
end, this may be the most important answer of all. The most important answer
because it is something we cannot explain, just as we cannot explain so many
other things in this life. Why suffering? Why death? Why now? Why me?
Remember this though, there are other
why questions that cannot be answered either. Why does my spouse or partner
love me? Why does my child love me? Why do people I hardly know welcome me? Why
do my friends put up with me? Why is God’s universe endlessly beautiful and
fascinating despite all our efforts to destroy it? Why does God love me? Why?
We may never
know the answer to why. What we do know is that God’s deep unchanging and
never-ending love is for all. Christ Jesus for us! Christ Jesus for you.
Christ Jesus for me.
And so my
friends in Christ, as you contemplate the events of Holy Week and this familiar
and yet confusing story of the Passion of our Lord, never mind the why. Listen
for the whom. For all. For us. For me. For you. AMEN.
The
Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2017
No comments:
Post a Comment