Words fall flat in light of this reality. For the few people I know who do have loved ones fighting this virus, I listen more than I talk, and then I don’t offer advice. Then when I’m alone with my thoughts, I reflect on where I find God in all of this. Different days have different reflections, but today is Good Friday. Today I’m thinking about the loneliness Jesus experienced while he was dying.

The Crucifixion in the Gospels

I’ve read the accounts of the crucifixion from all four Gospels today. I looked at the kind of community Jesus had around him as he was dying. Luke and John include details about the few friends or family (mostly women) that stuck around until the end. Luke includes the interaction with the criminal’s belief that day. John includes the conversation where Jesus commissions John to be a son to Mary. Matthew and Mark focus more on the mocking and jeering crowd. These two writers don’t mention family or friends. In these accounts, Jesus even asks God why he’s been forsaken.

I believe dying is inherently lonely for most people. Who can truly know what a person is experiencing physically or emotionally at that point? I’m glad that we have the accounts from Matthew and Mark’s gospels. They make it impossible to focus on side conversations. They don’t allow us to turn away from the trauma.

What Jesus Experienced

There are theological reasons for the crucifixion, which I won’t dive into here. I‘m focusing on the way Jesus, the man, experienced death. As we worry about those we love who are vulnerable, or who may already have this coronavirus, we know that Jesus also cares deeply about them. When we read about the terror of those who are denied a ventilator because their chances of survival are worse than another person who needs that ventilator, we know that Jesus sees them and knows the turmoil they’re experiencing. As we hear about people who have died, we know that Jesus had compassion (suffered with) those people while they were dying.

Jesus was rejected and died alone on that cross. We don’t know what Jesus was experiencing when he asked God why he was forsaken. We know at the very least it was an expression of isolation that Jesus was feeling as he died. Death on a cross usually resulted in death by suffocation, either through the loss of oxygen or because the bodily position made it difficult to breathe. Our current pandemic is bringing people to a cruel end, and Jesus knows what these loved ones are experiencing. The comforter, the Holy Spirit, can meet them in their isolation with the true comfort of one who knows.

Jesus Knows

I hope and pray for a sudden decline in deaths from this virus. Or for the day we have a vaccine, or a greater amount of herd immunity, so that those who are sick can receive care. I look forward to the day when our health care workers can rest and are no longer fearful for their own safety. While we’re in the middle of this, and especially on Good Friday, I’m able to reflect more deeply on the agony of the cross, the hidden emotional aspects of the crucifixion. I’m also reminded that Jesus our savior, is also the God who knows—knows our pain, our fear, and our grief.

What are you experiencing right now? Where do you need comfort today?

Photo credit: by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash

I’m not being clever or relevant–this is what’s happening here. The religious leaders find something on which to charge Jesus. It’s clear to Pilate that Jesus is not a threat to the empire. He tries to push this trial off onto the local courts because to try him for treason would mean execution. Jesus and the disciples obviously aren’t making a power grab for anyone’s throne, but since his accusers push for this trial Pilate has no choice but to have Jesus executed.

Experience of Minimum Sentencing

Jesus knows the pain of betrayal and the injustice of a false charge. Here Jesus is identifying with those who are targeted by unjust governmental systems. Pilate wants to give him an “out”. You can be sure that Jesus perceives what he’d need to say to tip the scales in his favor. Jesus doesn’t cooperate with Pilate’s musings about truth. He mostly remains silent and receives an unjust sentence as many before him have received and many after him continue to receive.

Yes, this was part of the redemption plan. However, with Jesus, it’s never just one thing. Jesus very clearly identifies with the oppressed. As I wrote in Defender of the Poor, God does take sides. Sometimes God does this through the hard path of experiencing what the oppressed experience.

Our Justice System isn’t Just

I could talk theoretically about what the oppressed people of the Roman empire experienced, but I don’t want to. Today, in America, we are enslaving people through mass incarceration. The numbers of those in prison are the highest in our history. We even have the highest percentage of our population imprisoned in the world—even the parts of the world that we Americans think of as “third world” and barbaric.

Mandatory minimum sentencing allows injustice to occur against minor offenders, without a villain to blame. We as a society can just shrug and say the defendant should have followed orders better, while they are locked up for the rest of their lives, or buried. You can move on without stopping to question whether the punishment fits the crime. We can do this without asking whether there was even a crime.

I haven’t studied the justice system enough to write about the skewed laws that are built into it. I can’t adequately describe the sociological reasons why African American men and women are incarcerated at higher rates than other races or how this is orchestrated by systemic bias. There are books that describe this problem in depth, including Rethinking Incarceration by Dominique Gilliard. My challenge to you is to inform yourself about this system, which you, as a voter, have the power to change.

Jesus Stands with the Oppressed

This short scene with Pilate can be lost in the whole crucifixion narrative. It’s one small part of the Easter story. It may be small, but it’s a significant story for those who have experienced this kind of oppression. Jesus knows what “legal injustice” feels like.

When you have power (and yes, if you’re an American voter, you do have power) you shouldn’t abdicate your responsibility to be informed when people’s lives are at stake. What will you do about it?

Photo credit: by Dev Asangbam on Unsplash

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. Very truly, I tell you, whoever receives one whom I send receives me; and whoever receives me receives him who sent me.” After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, “Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me

This preamble to the washing of the disciples’ feet starts out with a lot of subtext. It tells us that Jesus is aware that his hour has come, he will soon be crucified. Then the verses move on to say that the devil had already entered Judas to incite him to betray Jesus. The passage goes back to Jesus reflecting on who he is, his mission, and his relationship with God.  After doing that he washes the disciples’ feet—including Judas. That piece can get lost in the mix because our focus is often on the interaction Jesus has with Peter, but Judas is also there.

Something inside of me wants this to not be how it went down. I’d like to see the whole foot washing happen when it’s emotionally safe, when Judas has already left and Jesus isn’t humbling himself to the person who will betray him, just hours later. Having Judas receive that gift is something we should look at fully and directly.

Jesus Meets us With Humility

We also start out as enemies of God. When Jesus gives us new life, he meets us where we are.  This is where the parallel breaks down, but what I want to look at is Jesus. The incarnational way Jesus comes to us is itself an act of humility.  Sometimes our distance from God doesn’t seem that bad or it doesn’t seem like we’re opposing God, but it’s a condition we can’t overcome on our own.

We need Jesus to bring his mercy to us. It should be no less startling of a picture than Jesus washing the feet of Judas. This act gives us a picture of what God’s mercy really is. It gives us a picture that helps us to reflect on the dire nature of our situation.  When we look at this Jesus, it should fill us with confidence and gratitude. Confidence because “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” and gratitude because “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Wooden floor photo by Bogdan Kupriets on Unsplash

Hands photo credit: Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash