This Lent we follow Jesus as he faces evil in the hours before his death. What is evil? Who is doing evil against Jesus during Passion Week? What are ways in which we are complicit in evil? Do we take evil seriously? As we experience evil in our own lives, discover how Jesus stands in the face of evil.
Invocation
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who delivers us from all evil.
Invitation Prayer
Lord Jesus, you suffered evil at the hands of the religious establishment. Priests accused you of blasphemy. In their trial against you, they called the Good Shepherd evil. Forgive your people when we call evil good and good evil. We are sheep easily led astray. Renew us to be your people, clean and holy. Amen.
Word
Luke 22:11
“And say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’”
Meditation: Invite Them In by Susan Becher Schultz
Ah, how I love the season of Lent. Give me all the darkness, the broken, the shattered. Strip the niceties away and allow the brutal honest nature of the human condition to bare itself. Without light, without grace, without the man who died on the cross—what are we left with?
Forgive me as my 13-year-old emo self comes to life this Lenten season. But I can’t help but marvel at the juxtaposition of Lent and Easter. Of death and resurrection. Of dark and light. Without a long winter there would be no spring. Without the death of Jesus there would be no promise of eternal life.
I chose Luke 22:11 to meditate on today because it reminds me of a favorite poem of mine by Rumi called “The Guest House.” It begins in this way:
This being human is a guest house.
every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
A mental health counselor shared this poem with me years back. I have a tendency to push away emotions, as most people do. This poem, like the season of lent, invites us to clear the way for all of our emotions. To make space for depression, anxiety, terror. To allow the darkness to enter and make itself at home. Rumi continues:
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
As difficult as seasons of darkness can be, they have a way of forcing us to face evil so that we can truly know goodness. We start to recognize what was once mundane as beautiful. When all is stripped away, we see just how much we’ve been given. When we’re allowed to wallow, we give ourselves permission to feel the complexity of the human experience.
There will be a lot of talk of evil over the next six weeks. Just as it is interwoven in our current society it was in the time of Jesus. We may face how much more we are like Judas than like Jesus. But it’s that same juxtaposition, our darkness against the light of God, that teaches us to accept our ineptitude.
We fall short. We need Jesus. We are imperfect, flawed humans who have to rely on grace and forgiveness. And it’s okay to sit with that. It’s okay to sit in the darkness.
Lord, help me sit with all the emotions that come up this season. Remind me how you too suffered during your time on earth. Allow me time to invite the darkness in so I can more clearly see the grace and goodness you bring to my life.
Sending
In the face of evil, may the God of faithfulness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Jesus Christ. Amen.