03/29/2024
The Informed Spirituality of the Holy Week
The passion narratives in the gospel of Mark tells us three important informed spiritual insights for us to observe the Holy Week. First is an informed faith; secondly, an informed discipleship; and thirdly, an informed theology. Join with me to understand what scripture has to offer to us.
The informed faith that we find in the passion narratives emerges out of divine human conflict in the life of Jesus. Humanly speaking, Jesus wanted the suffering on the cross to be taken away from Him. He prayed, “Father…take this cup from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.” Look at the human pain for both the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. For Jesus, this pain was unbearable, and he cried out loudly, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Mk 15:34). Which father in the world could see his son going through the pain of death on the cross? We see this loving Father turned His face away during the entire period of Passion and the death of Jesus Christ. Where was the voice from heaven that said in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” (Matt.3:17) There was no answer from His father when Jesus cried out for help. The informed faith comes out of this divine human conflict. Father had no choice except to lay His son for the salvation of the world. The Son had no choice except to obey His Father and go through this pain. But the good news is, God raised His son and celebrate the life together to offer the gift of salvation to each of us.
What is the gospel for us? The faith we have in Jesus is very much informed through the cross. To this end, Jesus said, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt.16:24). We are blessed with this informed faith we have in Jesus. Therefore, we face the challenges of in our lives with confidence in Jesus Christ. Consider what Paul says in Romans 8: 35-39, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” May this informed faith be our guiding principle in our life journey.
Secondly, we also find an informed discipleship in passion narratives. Peter’s role is crucial here. He denied Jesus. I wonder how was this possible in the school of Jesus. How could Peter who experienced everything Jesus had for him had to deny Him at one point of his life? Notably, this part of his discipleship was part of God’s plan, and it was informed to Peter ahead of time that he would deny Jesus in the manner it was going to be. We see Peter invoked God to say that he would not deny, but eventually he did. Peter discovered discipleship involves moments of weakness and even a crucial time to deny this informed faith in Jesus Christ. The significance of this informed discipleship is Jesus remained faithful. Jesus restored him and Peter returned to his discipleship. This tells us how our discipleship could be the subject of our own weaknesses and failures. But the good news is Jesus takes control of our weakness and He is able to save us. Consider what Paul tells the Thessalonians, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it” (I Thess. 5:24) May we continue to remain faithful to Jesus as we have received this discipleship from Him.
Thirdly, informed theology. This informed theology is about His identity that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah. The trails set by both the Jews and the Roman officials deal with His identity. The High Priest’s question “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” (Mark 14:61) point to the crux of Jesus’ trail regarding His identity. Pilate asked, “Are you the king of the Jews?” (John 18:33). This identity is central to our theology, and this theology is informed for the Jews, the Roman officials and to all of us. Jesus answered yes to all of them. Both the Jews and the Roman officials could not find any wrong with Jesus and His identity. He proved who He was and eventually even the death could not keep Him. We follow a theology that never dies. We follow a theology that never put us down. Our theology is rooted in this undying gift of informed theology.
May this Holy week help us to discover the mysteries of these informed faith, informed discipleship, and the informed theology in the life of Jesus as well as in our own pursuit of our life on this earth. Amen.
