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 Lord, you know the power of the evil foe. You endured his temptation in the wilderness for 40 days. Answer our prayer to “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Keep us from the devil and his schemes. Guard us from the fiery arrows of satan. Grant us life by the power of our victorious King, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Word
Luke 23:48-49
“When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching these things.”
Meditation: Hopeless by Susan Senechal
I wonder about those people who witnessed the crucifixion. What was going through their minds? For those who had yelled, “crucify him,” were they thinking it’s over, he got what he deserved? The soldiers who mocked him…was it the kind of reaction when you don’t know how to respond to what you are seeing so you laugh nervously and join in? A kind of gallows humor? The criminal on the cross, hurling insults, not believing Jesus had any more ability to save himself than the criminal did to save himself? Did they all see a poor, pitiful, powerless Jesus?
And once he breathed his last, did those who loved him and followed him ache in despair? Did they feel hopeless and helpless? Did they hang their heads and cry as they watched, knowing their world would never be the same? I imagine they did.
It’s our reaction, too. When tragedy happens, the unthinkable, we despair. When we face illness in a child, a parent, a spouse, we despair, how could this be? The death of a spouse makes us question how we can go on. A wayward teen, a job loss, alcohol or other addiction: Satan uses all these things to bring us down to the depths of despair. At times we doubt everything we believed about the goodness of God. Everything we thought we knew about his love for us, his tender-loving care. Yes, when evil overwhelms, Satan carries us straight down into the pit.
It’s possible that you’ve never been there with me, but I bet you have. The evil one is so good at getting us to believe our eyes, to see only darkness and despair. To feel hopeless, abandoned, alone, forgotten. He wants us to sink even deeper into the muck and the mire. We look at the world surrounding us and know we will never be the same—nothing will ever be the same. And it’s true: the world will never be the same.
But Jesus. Jesus, who says, “Father forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus, who tells the other criminal on the cross, facing certain death, “today you will be with me in paradise” (23:43). Jesus, whose dying breath says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (23:46).
Jesus shows us that while what we see with our eyes may look and feel hopeless, we are never without hope when we commit our spirits to the Father. It might appear hopeless today, but Friday is not the end of the story; Sunday is coming. We hope not in the seen, but in the unseen. And we know that the God who conquered death is alive and fighting for us.
Dear Jesus, help us to look past what we see, where we despair, to the glorious hope we have when we commit our spirits to you. When we trust in you, our world will never be the same. Amen.
Sending
In the face of evil, may the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.