From time to time I have seen and read some of those descriptions of the physical pain that would have been inflicted upon Jesus during Holy Week. I was reading this morning a sermon about the physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual pain that Jesus must have endured. It caused me to reflect upon the fact that in my Presbyterian experience we have exhibited our intellectual tradition by ignoring or downplaying the grimy and bloody part of the story. We might talk about the pain of being betrayed by one of the people you had picked and trusted. We might mention the torture of the guards with the crown of thorns, and we might talk a little about the sweat of blood in the garden, but we would not be comfortable, I don't think, with a focus of the sweat, the strain, the stumbling, the fatigue of Jesus as he carries his cross. Certainly to spend a lot of time talking about what happens to the body of a human on a cross would not be appreciated, I don't think, by a Presbyterian congregation.
Perhaps I am wrong, but I do not think that many Presbyterians would want a preacher to dwell too much on the labor pains, the sweat, the hurt, the blood, the afterbirth of Christmas either. The human reality, the spit, the dust, the dirt, the tired, the frustration of teaching disciples who do not get it, the git and grim of the ministry of Jesus is not something that has been a big part of years in the church.
And I wonder if that has been a loss to us or a matter of little consequence?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment