They talk, but mostly they shout, in an effort to bolster their own sense of rightness and self-love. The are among those shouting at Jesus while he hangs on a cross, unsure of the religious reality they claim as the very reason for their being.
The one who goes through the ache and pain and abandonment has had their identity resolved. They are done trying to prove anything through relevance. They have heard the voice that calls us beloved. The demonic voice that tempts Jesus questions his understanding of his Jesus’ identity saying early in the gospel story, “if you are the son of God, throw yourself down.” This is the same thing that the religious friends of Jesus say to him as he hangs on the cross. The ones who were suppose to get him and get what he was about, they did not recognize him. Rather, it is at the cross that the religious take up the satanic theology from the beginning of the gospel and criticize who Jesus is, what he is about, question his very identity. It sounds like this:
your not good enough.
throw yourself down if you are the son.
prove it.
God isn’t with you.
you can’t be used only abused.
Among those watching and listening to the religious shout their critiques at Jesus was a Roman soldier. He surely didn’t get Jesus, his was so outside of the scope of what Jesus was about, maybe even standing in defiance to it. Or was he? The shouts rung and Jesus took them, forgiving in ways that blow my mind-working out what peace looks like when it is lived to its end. The empirical servant looked at Jesus in all this, then, in defiance to the religious he said, “surely this one was the son of God.”
In Genesis 9 God hung his bow in the clouds. There is no hebrew word for rainbow so the text literally reads, “God set his bow in the clouds.” This is after the flood and the image that should come to mind is a divine warrior who is done fighting. God then makes a covenant with the whole of the universe, a covenant of peace. At one point as the apostle Paul describes what it was Jesus had done at the cross he talks about the peace that now exists between peoples who are not suppose to get along. Paul says that, “he is our peace.” He is the sign of the covenant between God and everything.
I feel abused today, not crucified, just beat up-like many do as the death of winter melts and spring gets it’s chance. The curve, that unidentifiable marker that lingers, when you are trying your hardest to be fully you in God, is distracting and not worth the emotional energy. I’m learning the you fully in God is not found somewhere in the mountains or even in the mundane, it is in the pain and abandonment where love might win, again. This is where the arms of peace embrace us with firm resolve and tender nudges toward wholeness.
