currently thinking about how Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem was hailed and celebrated by the people – how they shouted “hosanna,” an exclamation of adoration and praise; how they waved palms and spread their cloaks for his arrival……..and then turned on him. let the Romans take him and torture him and brutally execute him.
and how because this happened to Jesus, he knows intimately what it feels like when similar things happen to us. when we are welcomed at first and then, when we fail to meet expectations, we are vilified and thrown out – Jesus gets it. God really, truly, has been there.
a Black woman is employed by a church as part of a diversity initiative, and is welcomed by all – until she starts pointing out things that need to change, pervasive issues of racism and misogyny and cissexism that should be addressed. excitement sours into resentment, openness into anger; she is ostracized, treated rudely, isolated until the environment becomes so toxic she leaves. she is blamed for the way things “didn’t work out.”
parents promise their son their love is unconditional; he grows up hearing the promise to “love him no matter what.” but these parents are also not quiet about making their anti-gay views known. he has to wonder – will that unconditional love survive him going out?
a trans person comes out to their loved ones, who express support, a willingness to learn and a promise to work on the new name and pronouns. but months pass by and those loved ones are still misgendering them and growing more and more frustrated, not at themselves but at the trans person – “Why are you making life so hard?” “Why can’t you just be normal?” “Why would you even want to change your body like that?”
a congregant comes out to her pastor and some of the elders of the church, who respond with compassion and a promise that she’ll always be welcome at the church. the congregant is relieved, and even emboldened to bring her girlfriend to church a few weeks later. but the pastor and some church members confront her, horrified – “you can’t hold hands with another woman in a place of God!” “This is not okay! If you’re going to act on your desires, we will have to take severe action.” She realized that when the pastor promised her welcome, he’d assumed she would remain “celibate”…she goes home disillusioned brokenhearted. Church will never feel safe again, she tells her girlfriend.
i and people i love dearly have lived through some of these scenarios, and that kind of pain seeps into your psyche and nests in your bones.
but i do find comfort in knowing that my God has been there too – that the God who throughout the scriptures professed to know, really know the pain and suffering of Their people (e.g. Exodus 3:7) did experience it firsthand. it breaks my heart that Jesus, whom i love, knows this pain too….but it also brings me comfort. because he gets it – he really, really gets it.
and the God who knows, who sees, who feels with us, is a God whose power is compassion, suffering with and being moved to act – God does not leave us alone when faith communities abandon us; God shares our pain when others afflict us; and God will act to make things right.
as we enter Holy Week, i plan to meditate more on Jesus’ pain – the pain of rejection, of having loved ones turn on you, of being handed over to torture and death – and offer my deepest gratitude for that ultimate act of solidarity with all whom the world rejects and tortures.
thank you, Jesus. you share our suffering always – give me the courage to try to share your suffering with you, so that i may be moved to act for all who suffer today.
