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, evil often comes from those closest to us. Peter denied you and Judas betrayed you. You know the pain of evil that comes from your friends. Comfort us when we are hurt by those we love. Lord Jesus, without you we fall. With you, we stand. Stay with us, Amen.
Word
Luke 23:14-15
“You brought me this man as one who was misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him.”
Meditation: Failures of Justice by Megan Roegner
This Lent I’ve been pondering how the events leading up to Jesus’s crucifixion not only reveal how Jesus paid the price of our sins but also how evil pervades almost every aspect of the human experience in this fallen world. It’s easy to see the evil in individuals, like in Judas’s betrayal or in the chief priests’ plotting. But more and more, I understand how the Passion story exposes how evil has infiltrated even the things that we think of as good. For example, as the disciples bicker over who is the greatest, we see how even friendship can be tainted by pride. When they fall asleep in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the frailty of our bodies—even when our spirits are willing, our flesh is weak.
When the chief priests take Jesus to Pilate, who then sends him to Herod, who then sends him back to Pilate, we are confronted with the failure of institutions that promise justice. Three different levels and contexts of leadership interrogate a man who has done nothing wrong, and they know he has done nothing wrong. Yet, Jesus is still beaten, mocked, and executed.
For me, Pilate is the most poignant symbol of the failure of authority here. He is the one with the most power, the one with the most objectivity, and the one who is most troubled by the crowd’s demand for Jesus’s crucifixion. Yet, even from a position of strength and clarity, Pilate, the administrator of Roman law, does not do what he knows to be just. He capitulates and chooses the easy path instead of the right one.
I know it’s not rare for people to be cynical about systems and institutions. But I think most people do trust in them to some degree. Maybe it’s the leadership of a religious denomination. Maybe it’s the political party we identify with. Maybe it’s an advocacy organization we support. Maybe, for Americans, it’s the Supreme Court. We all want to believe there’s a higher authority that we can appeal to, a system that will right wrongs for us, leaders who will ensure justice.
But as Jesus’s story so clearly shows, there is no human authority that is untouched by evil. Sometimes the evil is dramatic and malicious. And sometimes the evil is just a matter of compliance or incompetence. The nature of Jesus’s death—the betrayal by a confidant, the failure of friends, the conspiracy of countrymen, the madness of the mob, the passivity of government—strips away any hope that we can save ourselves.
What grace, then, that Jesus came not to just expose our evil but to save us from it. He is the higher authority, the hero of justice who never fails.
Dear Jesus, thank you for saving us from the evil that surrounds us at all times, from the evil that is within us. With your love and mercy, help us to do justice and to love kindness to the best of our abilities here on earth. Amen.
Sending
Lord, in the face of evil, you call us from death to life, from silence to speech, from idleness to action. Go with us now. Send us with your gifts. Sustain us by your promise. Amen.