The Cross After Easter

"The fact that fidelity involves a cross, as also the fact that Christ was crucified just because He was righteous, are well understood by Christians when they are a suffering minority, as in primitive ages. But these truths are much lost sight of in peaceful, prosperous times. Then you shall find many holding most sound views of the cross Christ bore for them, but sadly ignorant concerning the cross they themselves have to bear in fellowship with Christ. Of this cross they are determined to know nothing."

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- A.B. Bruce, The Training of the Twelve, p. 185.

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For too many, "discipleship" is something you do in a group once a week. It is not a lifestyle, worldview, or guiding paradigm. Nor a relationship with a Master, for that matter.

The Best Christmas Art Ever?

(I have no idea as to the original source of this. If you know, please clue me in.)

Your Jesus is Dead.

Erzähle der Welt und dem Himmel die Not:
Dein Jesus ist tot!

Tell earth and heaven the sad news:
Your Jesus is dead!

-- From Bach's St. John Passion

Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday commemorates the evening of:

• The Last Supper


• Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet


• The Upper Room discourse


• The institution of the Eucharist (Communion, for my Methodist friends; Lord's Table, for the Presbyterians)

It's also the evening when Judas betrays his master and Peter denies knowing him at all.

Our mental picture of the arrest is usually something like this:

But if we had been there, I think it would have felt more like this:

Easter Meditation: More From the St. John Passion

Ich, ich und meine Sünden,
die sich wie Körnlein finden
des Sandes an dem Meer,
die haben dir erregt
das Elend, das dich schläget,
und das betrübte Marterheer.

I, I and my sins,
as numberless as the grains
of sand on the seashore,
have brought down on you
this misery that you face,
and this woeful host of torments.

There Was a Concert, Too

Had my car not been towed, the most memorable part of the weekend would have been the concert I mentioned earlier: the Atlanta Symphony and Chamber Chorus performing Bach's St. John Passion. What a nice way to spend a Saturday evening - to me, performances of Bach's longer choral works have the effect of being a worship service. The combination of Biblical texts, old hymns, and marvelous singing & playing can hardly be beat. It helped that I was in the first row, in the center, close enough to tell whether the soloists had trimmed their fingernails that morning. Being that close, the concert feels more immediate and personal to me, even if I can't see everyone further back on the stage.

So, this is Easter week and the St. John Passion is, of course, about the betrayal, trial, and death of Jesus. Here's one verse from a chorus in the work that I particularly like (the whole piece was performed in German, by the way; the English translation I give here is mostly the work of Robert Shaw, with a couple alterations by yours truly):

»Durch dein Gefängnis, Gottes Sohn,
ist uns die Freiheit kommen.
Dein Kerker ist der Gnadenthron,
die Freistatt aller Frommen.
Denn gingst du nicht die Knechtschaft ein,
müßt‘ unsre Knechtschaft ewig sein.«

It’s from your bondage, Lord, alone,
That now our freedom flowers.
Your dungeon is our mercy-throne
And liberty is ours!
Had you not chosen a slave to be,
We’d all be slaves eternally.

News You May Have Missed: Drive-Through Passion Scenes for the Busy Contemplative

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 3/29/07:

Sandy Springs United Methodist will present drive-through Passion Scenes, 8-9 p.m. April 6 in the parking lot of the Hitson Memorial Center. Scenes will depict Christ's entry to Jerusalem, the Last Supper, Crucifixion, burial and Resurrection. Presented by the youth ministry. The church is at . . .

What's wrong with this picture? I'm reminded of the old Keith Green lyrics: "Jesus rose from the dead, and you can't even get out of bed" - or cars, in this case.

As we enter the week leading up to Easter, it'd be nice if we all could spare more than five minutes on our way somewhere else to think about what it all means.

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(And while we're at it, would anyone like to ridicule the photo at the top of this post? I can't think of anything sarcastic enough to capture my feelings adequately.)

Noted & Quoted: Crucifixion (Easter is Coming)

"It has been remarked thousands of times that Christ died under torture. Many of us have read so often that he was 'a humble carpenter' that we feel a little surge of nausea on seeing the words yet again. But no one ever seems to notice that the instruments of torture were wood, nails, and a hammer;' that the man who built the cross was undoubtedly a carpenter too; that the man who hammered in the nails was as much a carpenter as a soldier, as much a carpenter as a torturer. Very few seem even to have noticed that although Christ was a 'humble carpenter,' the only object we are specifically told he made was not a table or a chair, but a whip."

• Gene Wolfe, Author, Engineer, and Father of Pringles, quoted in First Things, 4/07, p. 27