No Good Friday, No Easter

On the Other Side - Peter Callesen

Here at First Lutheran, Bothell we have been focused this Lenten season on the Gospel of Mark. It has been an opportunity to get to know this gospel intimately. We learned about the way the author purposefully marches us through the life and times of Jesus to slow us down for the Passion story. The first 10 chapters uses the word "immediately" like a paddle pushing us quickly through the river of the narrative. Then everything slows down as Jesus is ushered into Jerusalem on the back of a colt.

The way Mark walks slowly through this part of the story emphasizes the importance of the last week of Jesus' life. The plodding of the story toward his eventual crucifixion allows us to reflect on the power of his economic and political criticisms of an ungodly system that rewards the rich at the detriment of the powerless, the poor, the widows, the sick, and the orphan.

Jesus is then caught up in this same system - a system that is threatened by anyone who pulls away the shroud of their gluttony and greed. The powerful must now condemn this nobody, this outsider, this Galilean who knows nothing how "Jerusalem" works because if what he says takes hold, their power is lost. The truth, you see, will get you killed.

That is the point in the end. Death must happen for their to be resurrection.

The false narrative that profit is the only good needs to die so that new life grounded in God's way of forgiveness and peace may break forth from the loam. The lie that only the threat of violence will keep us safe needs to die before we can truly live in a world free from fear.

On that cross, on that specific day, Jesus died. There is no other narrative really to add. Death as the last answer, died on that cross. God refuses to let the evil of our lives be the last word. On that Good Friday, Easter was made possible. On that dark night, when all seemed lost, God was just getting started. The Good News for the poor and weak that a great reversal is at hand was set free.

When those women ran from the tomb, the WORD was just about to be spoken ... and nothing would be the same.