Meditations on St. Matthew s Gospel for Holy Week 2014 Lori Sbordone There are days that are as light as flower petals; they bloom, wither and fall to the ground with little global or eternal consequence. There are other days that cause people to pause and shake human institutions to their foundations. As a New Yorker living in the 20 th century, I have lived through such a day. Holy Week culminates in a day so massive it reverberates backwards and forwards across time. No one can escape its wake. Throughout their history, the Jewish people have lived as exiles. They have survived by remembering their story. The story becomes their home when home is generations away. The Christian story begins where we part ways with our Jewish brethren and sistren, and humbly beg to differ about the identity of this first century Palestinian carpenter. Scripture is a diamond with infinite facets; just when you think you have seen them all, light comes blazing through another plane you never noticed before. The account of Christ s passion is very familiar, yet in preparing these meditations I found light blazing through small details I previously scanned past. Walk through our story slowly, as you would on a beach. Stop to pick up a few small stones. Turn them over in your hand. God will do the rest.
Monday, April 14 Matthew 21:1 17 Spread Your Garment A celebrity s foot must never come into contact with pavement. Apparently this tradition extends unto ages of ages. No sooner has Jehu been anointed Israel s king, do the people throw down whatever cloth they can find to cover the street where he steps (2Kings 9:13). The people are doing more than bowing to venerate nobility; they line his path with their garments in hope that he will choose their blanket, tunic or t shirt to step on. It will become a treasured family heirloom, a souvenir recording the moment when the King walked amongst them. A first century version of taking a selfie with a celeb. So what s the messiah of the people doing walking the red carpet? He s using their iconography to tell them something important about himself: Indeed I am your long awaited king, but I am also not the man you expected. By the end of this week, more will be turned over than mere tables and chairs. Holy Week is a spreading of garments; we lay aside time in our busy lives hoping to see God s footprints. Maybe we need to know that God is near. Maybe we have strayed away from our Friend, so we sit still hoping to hear his familiar footsteps again. Encounters with God are rarely comfortable, and never go as we plan. Nevertheless, spread your garment before the Almighty, and God will reach across eternity to greet you. Hosanna, in Hebrew Save, we beseech you. Almighty God, walk across our lives this season.
Tuesday, April 15 th Matthew 26:1 13 Breaking the Jar Bethany gatherings were intimate meals. No crowds here, nor lawyers and leaders plotting to destroy the master, just a circle of friends who d become family, each of whom are about to walk into a nightmare. Jesus tries to warn them; he utters the scariest word they know, crucified. Not one of them hears it, save one woman who has been listening with her heart. Her mind could not hold the awful word and the name of her Lord together. The very thought was ludicrous, but as her heart began to absorb the weight of what he was telling them, and she acted from there. She reached for the best thing she had and smashed open the bottle because the lid could not open it fast enough. With these actions, Jesus knew that she got it. There would be at least one to bear with him the awful truth. The disciples jump all over her. The Passover collection for the poor is coming, and that jar of oil could ve fetched a tidy sum. Jesus, who broke a single loaf of bread and fed multitudes, is leaving, and they are worrying about how to pay their pledge. The woman knows what she has heard. It is her heart, not the jar that has broken. Foolish love is costly. Who knows this better than God? Help us to hear with our hearts the words we cannot comprehend with our minds, so to know You all the more.
Wednesday, April 16 Matthew 26:14 19 No Sell Out Thirty silver coins are the only evidence the Gospel writers give us as to why Judas made his grave mistake, but I have never found the profit motive convincing. Betrayal requires intimacy; when Jesus sees Judas in the garden, He calls him friend. People don t cash in close friendships over money alone. Judas is one of the twelve. The other disciples are Galilean hicks, but Judas has a map of Jerusalem in his head. Maybe he thinks Jesus should ve sought his counsel before running into the Temple and picking fights with the moneychangers. He would have been happy to introduce Jesus around, put together a couple events a miraculous feeding in the middle of Passover would definitely get buzz. By mid week, Judas has nursed that little resentment into a screechy beast. If only Jesus would ve given him a little play, the temptation might not have been so beguiling. He forgot that Jesus loved him. He forgot that he was called to be an agent of light. I see Judas walking away from the Sanhedrin justified in his own mind, feeling entitled to a few coins for his trouble. He had no clue of the consequences. We never do. It s easy to dismiss Judas as some low life thief. Matthew testifies that the apostles all abandoned and denied Jesus. So do we, more than we care to admit. Thankfully, the heart of God overflows with mercy. Lord Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner
Thursday, April 17 Matthew 26:20 30 Pass Over The apostles complained that Jesus spoke in parables. On this last night, Jesus holds before them a matzo and says, See this, this is my body, and breaks it. Nothing obscure there. Jesus told them, more than once, that He was about to be crucified, but the disciples dismissed the warnings as poetic license. Here, as the broken bread is passed from hand to hand, the nightmare is beginning to get real. Passover pours four cups of wine, which represent four promises made by God to Israel I am the LORD; I will bring you out from the Egyptians, I will free you from slavery, I will redeem you, and I will take you as my own. (Exodus 6:6 7) After supper, Jesus raises the third cup, the cup of blessing, and announces that it is a blessing as no other. This cup inaugurates a new relationship between God and all humankind. Jeremiah prophesied, I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts they will all know me, from the least to the greatest for I will forgive their sins and remember their wickedness no more. (Jeremiah 31:31 34) This parable in bread and wine prepares Jesus and the disciples to withstand the unthinkable. Their last supper as comrades becomes the first Eucharist of the new covenant; circles of remembrance that continue to sustain until that day when we all drink it anew in our Father's kingdom together. Thank you God for feeding me from the riches of your grace.
Friday, April 18 Good Friday Matthew 27:27 54 Cup of Consummation Last night, Jesus raised the cup of blessing with his friends. Today, he drinks the cup of consummation to its most bitter dregs. The prayer for this fourth cup of Passover remembers God s promise to make of us God s own people. Today God makes good on this promise and extends it to all, but at terrible cost. The plotters and religious pretenders who have been nagging Jesus throughout this Gospel swell into a huge storm that sweeps Jesus from His moorings; He is consumed within a boil of spite and malice. Jesus is twice offered wine in Matthew s passion mixed with gall. Many scholars believe the drink was either a poison or a tranquilizer intended to numb the pain. Jesus refused the gall twice. His fate is not death by poison, but crucifixion. He chooses to scream through his pain because we scream through ours, and when we do, He screams with us. The clueless taunt Jesus to save himself, as if he has ever once been concerned with saving his own ass. Rather, as Paul writes, he pours himself out unto death, (Philippians 2:6 8). For this perfect act of love, Yahweh rips the curtain in their temple, as if to say, I will never forsake my Beloved, and leaves the building. Henceforth, God s seat resides in the hearts of those who look upon the Cross and are speechless. What language can I borrow, to thank Thee, dearest friend?
Saturday, April 19 Matthew 27:55 66 Love Sown in Hope Up to the very end, people taunted Jesus to give them a sign and they would believe. His body in the tomb would seem to be the ultimate evidence against him. The naysayers puff out their chests with cynicism, preening in their decision not to believe the good word Jesus brought. But for those who believed, for those who allowed themselves to hope that Jesus actually could have been the Messiah of God, the stone that sealed his tomb might have crushed them as well. Grief always falls hardest and those who love deepest. Mary Magdalene and another Mary were amongst the women who watched Jesus die. They received his body and began the ritual for burial. Matthew says they sat opposite the tomb when the soldiers rolled the stone before the entrance. They are the first ones there on Sunday morning. I see them sitting the whole time, resolved not to move until the evidence of their eyes could be reconciled with the evidence of their hearts. They sought outwardly the one who inwardly taught them to keep on seeking. So they found that in Christ, love sown in hope does not die, but is raised up. At the end of Israel s exodus, Joshua returns from Canaan and preaches one sermon over and over, Be not afraid. The angel has the same words for the Marys. Resurrection is our promised land. Enter in with joy. Oh welcome happy morning.