First reading: Isaiah 50:4-7
Psalm: Ps 22:8,9,17-20,23-24
Epistle: Philippians 2:6-11
Gospel: Mark 14:1-15:47
Then Jesus said to them,
“All of you will have your faith shaken, for it is written:
I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be dispersed.
But after I have been raised up,
I shall go before you to Galilee.”
Choices:
We like to think of faith, of the Church as a series of choices. We like the idea of choice. As we reflect on Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the reading of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to St. Mark we reflect on choices that were made. Let’s looks at those today. Was everything a choice or there was something more.
The choices:
They said, “Not during the festival,
for fear that there may be a riot among the people”
The chief priests and the scribes chose to avoid a big showy arrest during the festival. They chose to avoid publicity and to hide the sin they were committing, the persecution and murder of an innocent man.
a woman came with an alabaster jar of perfumed oil
The woman who stepped forward was courageous. She knew the impact of what she was doing. She heard the murmur of the bystanders. She chose to anoint Jesus, to be faithful to something greater than choice in the midst of condemnation.
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve,
went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them.
There’s the big choice. People think Judas had to betray Jesus; he had to do so or salvation would never come. Some see him as weak, even sympathetic, and perhaps a forgivable part of the plan. That only works if there is no choice, but Judas had a choice. Faith or betrayal? He chose betrayal. For that Jesus would say:
—woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
It would be better for that man if he had never been born.”
Judas, like the Pharisees, the scribes, the Sadducees, the priestly class, Pilate… they all had a choice to make. How often Jesus would tell them: You have God right before you, your Messiah, and you don’t recognize Him.
This weekend’s paper had an article on Claudia Procula, Pilate’s wife. The article goes in a lot of different directions, but the key point is that she is counted among the saints. If you recall, she had a dream about Jesus and told Pilate to leave Him alone. She chose to speak-up, to tell of her dream. Pilate missed the sign, not because he was destined to, but because he chose to. Claudia, for her part, remembered the dream and chose to follow Jesus, chose to follow Him because of something greater than choice.
The disciples chose to sleep rather than to pray. When the betrayer and the cohort came they fled. Peter spoke boldly, but when the moment came he chose cowardice over witness:
He began to curse and to swear,
“I do not know this man about whom you are talking.”
The false witness chose to lie under oath. They chose to condemn Jesus rather than to recognize Him. Like Peter they said they didn’t know Him.
An inexorable call and a choice
In each scene, at each step, choices were made. The key to all of these choices is that they are not choices in a vacuum.
Jesus knew that each man and woman He encountered carried within themselves the inexorable call to God. God is all goodness, all charity, all truth, all justice. He is perfection. Each of them, and each of us, carries that unavoidable call to perfection, to oneness with God. It is part of us, put into us by God, the longing of our souls. Psalm 63:1 captures the inborn longing that is part of each of us:
O God, thou art my God, I seek thee, my soul thirsts for thee; my flesh faints for thee
Choices aren’t just choices. We have to see each choice in light of the call that pulls us toward God. The woman who anointed Jesus – she drew closer to God, not just in anointing Him, but in doing right before scoffers. Pilate’s wife chose to speak, and drew closer to God. Judas, Pilate, the Jewish leadership, the false witnesses, Peter, the other disciples all chose to distance themselves from God. They drew away from Christ and we see the result — He stands alone, on trial, mocked, derided, killed.
Both
As Jesus’ people, as the Church, we recognize that every choice is a chance. Every choice is an opportunity that has been laid before us. Do we choose to fulfill the call to closeness with God, a call that lives in us, or do we choose distance. Do we leave Jesus standing alone or do we keep Him company, even at the cross.
Living life subject to falls
We live a life subject to falls. Jesus washed His disciples’ feet for a reason. Afterward He said:
“Do you realize what I have done for you?
You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.
If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.
I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”
Jesus knew we would fall; fall over and over. Jesus fell on his way to calvary. Three times He fell to the ground and arose again. In His physical weakness He recalls and pays for our spiritual weakness.
Living life faithful to the call
We will fall, and we will rise. Jesus provides us the means to rise over and over, to live faithful to the call to witness to Him, to make the choice for Him, and to return to Him. Our call is to stand by Christ, to love Him, to proclaim Him even when the shepherd is stricken. The world strikes at Jesus over and over. The world actively endeavors to strike Jesus, to make Him not God, not truth, not the only way to heaven. The world tries to make Jesus offensive and His people mistaken in their choice. As they strike we must choose where we will stand.
The world strikes and we could choose to scatter, to run away, to deny Christ. Even if we do the call remains. The call to live in faithfulness, to stand with the shepherd. Jesus beckons us. The Sprint inspires us and gives the grace necessary to hear the call. There is no denying what we hear.
Living life faithful to the choice
If we live faithful to the call we will show our choice. Our choice will be apparent to the world. The world’s strikes against the shepherd are of no account and are without merit. The truth speaks to us from within and shows those strikes to be untrue. Knowing they are untrue we stand at the cross, looking up, saying: “He is my hope!”
The risen Christ has gone before us to prepare the way, the way that gives us reason for our hope. Amen.
