How I crucify me & you: ruminations of a retired priest
When we judge, mistreat, devalue or abuse ourselves we are essentially crucifying the Christ that dwells with us. Likewise, when we despise, debase, devalue or deny another person, we may just as well be pounding nails into their feet and shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify her!”
The Christ, the Word made flesh, lives and breathes and finds its being in and of and as each and every human being. Divinity, the Christ, is not distant, remote or other. Divinity is incarnate. This awakens in human consciousness through the life and ministry of Jesus. God is present and active in all of creation and every human being. If this were not so, God would not be God (regardless of what name you call the Mysterious “Something More”) !
Therefore, when we judge ourselves as too short, too old, not smart or good enough; when we abuse our bodies with food, substances or neglect; when we disregard our need for security, safety and affection, we are essentially crucifying the Christ (the Divinity)that dwells with us. Likewise, when we despise, debase, devalue or deny another person, we may just as well be pounding nails in their feet and shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify her!”
Toward the end of Matthew’s gospel Jesus tells the disciples and us a story of how to sort what is good and life giving from what is not good, not life giving. Jesus says, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.’ (Matt 25.40) I do not think Jesus’ words are metaphorical or hyperbolic. I believe they are literally true. The way we treat one another is the way we treat Jesus, the Divine Presence with us, our own True Self.
It may be difficult to wrap our minds around the prospect of our own Divine inheritance. It certainly was for the religious officials whom we hear in John’s gospel castigating Jesus, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, though only a human being, are making yourself God.” Jesus answered, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” (Here Jesus, a good and faithful Jew, is quoting the Hebrew scriptures, Psalm 82.6 “You are gods, children of the Most High, all of you.”) Jesus tries to explain to the irate religious officials that this is not blasphemy. This is the true identity of human beings who from the beginning are made in the image and likeness of God. “If those to whom the word of God came were called ‘gods’-and the scripture cannot be annulled- can you say that the one whom the Father has sanctified and sent into the world is blaspheming because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? (John 10.33–36) Remember, this is what actually gets Jesus crucified… claiming his identity with God.
We are living, breathing, particular revelations of God, all of us. But we resist this message because we see where it gets Jesus — crucified! In spite of the fact that some of us were raised with the notion of original sin and if not that we have received countless messages declaring that in some regrettable way we do not measure up because we are ‘only human,’ the message Jesus delivers to humanity is contrary. Jesus brings the message of original blessing. Like Jesus we are children of God, inherently good, unquestionably valuable, meant to find our identity, our True Self, with God.
The way we treat ourselves and one another is the way we treat God. When we value and care for ourselves and one anther we are turning toward God and revering the Christ that abides with all people. On the other hand, when we devalue, degrade or otherwise fail to care for ourselves and one another we are crucifying the Christ, our ownTrue Self.
Here is the thing. We humans are fickle. In religious language we call it faithless. One minute we come into church and sing “Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth,” and before we leave the sanctuary something the preacher says, or words we overhear during coffee hour, stir us up, prick our ire and we lose our peace.
By 2:00 o’clock Sunday afternoon we are frustrated because we still have not heard from our adult kids, “…they could show a little respect,” or perhaps we are discomfited because our young kiddos will not stop shouting for our attention. As the week tumbles on we stub our toe, loose our keys, are kept waiting too long and the “goodness and love that God reveals to us in creation” is vanquished when the proverbial straw breaks the camel’s back. Whether we shout it out or stuff it inside, the peace and the glory, the goodness and love of God are swiftly supplanted by our agonizing anxiety, alarming aloneness or tortuous fear, if not the actual words, “Crucify him, crucify her.”
This is our human condition. We are fickle. We are faithless. One minute we are all in with God, and the next we turn away. And faithful God loves us anyway. This is the message at the heart of Matthew’s Passion Narrative. (see text below) Even when our least, lost and lonely selves show up, God is with us because, if God is God and God is all then God cannot not Be with us.
Our brother Jesus did not escape the fickle fate of the human condition. His woeful words echo in our hearts when from the cross at, “… about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice… “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus, who day after day, hour after hour, found his peace in God, aligned his will in the Will of God, and saw goodness and love in all of creation, even Jesus stubbed his toe on the persecutor’s block and gasped at the excruciating pain of suffocating nailed to a cross.
“My God, my God why have you forsaken me?” may be the most precious words uttered from the lips of Jesus because with these words Jesus speaks directly to my divine humanity. In the depths of his suffering Jesus is united to this stumbling, bumbling, vulnerable, anxious, judgmental, fearful woman. In his weakest moment Jesus reveals, he is not other than I am.
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Matthew 27:11–54 Jesus stood before the governor; and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You say so.” But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he did not answer. Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many accusations they make against you?” But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now at the festival the governor was accustomed to release a prisoner for the crowd, anyone whom they wanted. At that time they had a notorious prisoner, called Jesus Barabbas. So after they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Messiah?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that they had handed him over. While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.” Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” All of them said, “Let him be crucified!” Then he asked, “Why, what evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!”
So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” Then the people as a whole answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” So he released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on his head. They put a reed in his right hand and knelt before him and mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They spat on him, and took the reed and struck him on the head. After mocking him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.
As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they had crucified him, they divided his clothes among themselves by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept watch over him. Over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
Then two bandits were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” In the same way the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking him, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he wants to; for he said, ‘I am God’s Son.’” The bandits who were crucified with him also taunted him in the same way.
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
