Serenity

Serenity

There are fundamentally two attitudes attributed to Jesus in the four Gospel narratives of his Passion. Matthew and Mark emphasize Jesus’s sense of abandonment, as in the only words of his that they quote from the Cross — My God, my God, why have you abandoned me. In different ways, Luke and John emphasize Jesus’s serenity. Luke’s Jesus remains calm enough to give mercy and forgiveness to those around him — Forgive them Father, for they don’t know what they’re doing — Today, you will be with me in paradise.

John’s Jesus is someone who knows that he has won simply by enduring the worst that his enemies can do to him. He is serene enough to show no fear, or deference, or defensive anger to the most powerful man in Jerusalem — So, you are a king? — You say that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this have come into the world, that I might testify to the truth. Anyone who belongs to the truth hears my voice.

Jesus is serene enough to know that he doesn’t need to defend the truth by any human means. He doesn’t have to engage in evasion – lies – for the sake of his “higher truth.” He doesn’t need to accumulate an overwhelming force of soldiers or voters to impose his truth on the unbelieving. He is content to trust that when, in the words of the prophet Zechariah quoted in today’s Passion reading, “They will look on the one whom they have pierced,” some will then believe, and they will be enough for Jesus.

This serenity of Jesus’s is more than passively accepting the things he cannot change. It is an active trust that God’s truth cannot be destroyed or forever disregarded. Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus has made it clear that he judges no one. People judge themselves by their response to the truth when they hear it. And on the far side of any controversy, the truth will still be there. And all will look on the truth that has been pierced, and by their response, shall judge themselves.

As Jesus said earlier in this Gospel, this is the truth that shall set us free: free to testify to the truth of how each of us has looked on the one whom we have pierced, and responded with faith, and received the judgment of mercy: free to not despair if others dismissively say to us, “What is truth?” and in their own way crucify that truth.

Stat crux dum volvitur orbis: The world turns, the Cross remains. And the Truth endures.

April 18th, 2025

Good Friday

The Rev. David Kendrick