Elements of the Passion - Number 4: Wine

On Good Friday I will be leading a Good Friday Meditation at one of my churches called Elements of the Passion. During the meditation I will be taking seven elements that are present in the Passion story and exploring them in turn. (I'm not a scientist so I'm sure that some of my seven are not strictly elements so please humour me!)

I thought that I would share them with you here over the next seven days so here's the fourth which is on wine.

Jesus is Given Wine

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), “ I am thirsty”. A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of Hyssop and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had finished the wine, he said, he said, “It is finished”  Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.                (John 19:28-30)

A jar full of wine, does that image ring any bells? It would have done for Jesus. It would have reminded him of happier times at a wedding in Cana when the hosts had run out of wine. And, following some gentle persuasion from his mother, Jesus turned six stone jars full of water into wine. Wine so good that the steward, not knowing where it had come from, called to the bridegroom and told him that he saved the best wine till last.

John’s gospel tells us that turning the water into wine had been Jesus’ first miracle, the start of a journey that had led him to the cross.

Mark’s gospel records Jesus as saying that new wine should be poured into new wine skins. What had he meant by that? Was he saying that he was the new wine and that we are the new wineskins? Is it another sign that salvation is being opened up to all of humanity both Jew and Gentile?

And wine had also been a sign of love and healing. Jesus told his disciples that they should love their neighbours and in the story of the Good Samaritan he showed them what that meant. When the Samaritan finds the traveller who has been attacked he goes to him and pours wine on his wounds before bandaging them. The wine will cleanse the man’s wounds and help to heal them.

And of course on the previous evening Jesus had come to supper with his friends and had given them the cup of wine and said drink this all of you, this is my blood of the new covenant which is given for you and for many for forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. Wine had brought cleansing and healing on the road to Damascus and now in an upper room in Jerusalem it was bringing forgiveness and redemption.

So the journey that had started at a wedding in Cana was now coming to an end on a cross at Calvary. The wine was no longer sweet and good as it had been at Cana, it was sour now. It was no longer the taste of happiness and love but the bitter gall of suffering. 

And the question for us is, are we new or old wineskins? When the new wine is poured into us will it be too much for us and just leak away. Or will it fill us and through us be a source of love, healing and forgiveness in the world?

Elements of the Passion - Number 3:Cloth

On Good Friday I will be leading a Good Friday Meditation at one of my churches called Elements of the Passion. During the meditation I will be taking seven elements that are present in the Passion story and exploring them in turn. (I'm not a scientist so I'm sure that some of my seven are not strictly elements so please humour me!)

I thought that I would share them with you here over the next seven days so here's the third which is on cloth.

The Soldiers Divide Jesus’ Clothes

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfil what the scripture says,

“They divided my clothes among themselves,

And for my clothing they cast lots.”

And this is what the soldiers did.                                        (John 19:23-25)

Mark Twain once famously said that:

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.”

How wrong you can be. Like all of us Jesus came into the world naked and his mother wrapped him in swaddling cloth. Jesus never worried about what clothes he wore and he told others to do the same. Luke’s gospel records Jesus as saying to his disciples;

 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear.  For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.  Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!”

Jesus knew that clothes were not worth worrying about. When he sent his disciples out in pairs he told them not to take two tunics with them because he knew that they only really needed one.

But some people did worry about clothes because they thought that clothes made a statement about who someone was. We are told that the rich man at whose gate poor Lazarus sat was dressed in purple and fine linen. Purple clothes were the sign of power and wealth.  Jesus warned people against the scribes who liked to walk around in long robes.

And when Jesus visits the country of the Gerasenes and is confronted by a man possessed by a demon one of the signs of that man’s demon possession is the fact that he has worn no clothes for a long time. And when Jesus has cast the demons out the man sits at Jesus’ feet fully clothed. 

But on one occasion Jesus’ clothes had said something about who he was. At the transfiguration Jesus’ clothes had become dazzling white as he was revealed in all his glory to Peter, James and John.

And clothes have an important part to play in the passion story. On Palm Sunday we remembered how the people laid their cloaks down on the road in front of Jesus as he came into Jerusalem as a sign of welcome. But on Good Friday there was no-one there who was willing to offer their clothes to cover Jesus’ nakedness.

And clothing had been used ironically on that terrible day. The soldiers had stripped Jesus and then dressed him in purple robes as befitting a king or an emperor and then mocked him.

And now this final humiliation. The soldiers take Jesus’ clothes and divide them amongst themselves even casting lots for his tunic. Jesus’ humiliation is complete. The story has come full circle. Jesus came into the world naked and now he is about to leave it naked. 

And as we reflect on the naked Christ hanging there on the cross we should perhaps reflect on the fact that this is the fate that awaits all of us. At some point we will all stand naked before the Lord, our earthly pretensions stripped away. And when that time comes we will be able to stand there with confidence because of what that naked man on a cross in Jerusalem did for us.

Elements of the Passion - Number 2:Wood

On Good Friday I will be leading a Good Friday Meditation at one of my churches called Elements of the Passion. During the meditation I will be taking seven elements that are present in the Passion story and exploring them in turn. (I'm not a scientist so I'm sure that some of my seven are not strictly elements so please humour me!)

I thought that I would share them with you here over the next seven days so here's the second which is on wood.
 

Jesus is Crucified

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’                           (John 19:17-19)

Jesus would have been used to the sound of nails being hammered into wood. It would have been a familiar and comforting sound to him, the sound of his father Joseph working away in his carpenters shop in Nazareth. Nails being hammered into wood was the sound of family, love and security.

And throughout his life wood had been everywhere around. Born in a stable in Bethlehem he was laid in a wooden manger. Much of his travelling had been in wooden boats back and forth across the sea of Galilee. And he had turned over the wooden tables of the money changers as he angrily drove them out of the temple.

And this carpenters son had talked about wood in his teaching. He had used it as an example when he had warned people about the dangers of judging others. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye he has said when you do not notice the log in your own eye. You hypocrite, he said, take the log out of your own eye first and only then are you in a position to help take the speck out of your neighbours eye.

And you can’t have wood without trees. Jesus must have smiled when he saw little Zacchaeus up in that tree which he had climbed so that he could see Jesus. The wood of the tree had been the beginning of the path to salvation for Zachaeus. From it he had been able to see the Messiah clearly, something that many others who had been stood next to Jesus had not been able to do. Jesus called him down from the tree and went with him to his house. And sat at the wooden dining table with Jesus in his own house Zaccaeus accepted Jesus into his life and chose the path of discipleship. As Jesus said “Today Salvation has come to this house.” It was a story that started with a man up a tree.

Now it was about to end with a man on a tree. The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy says that “Cursed is he who hangs on the tree” and the Jews regarded crucifixion as one of the most cursed and shameful ways to die.

And now here is Jesus being nailed to a tree, being nailed to a cross. Once again Jesus hears the sound of nails being hammered into wood.  But this time it is not a sound that speaks of family, love and security. Now it is a sound of rejection, abandonment, pain, suffering and desolation. He has been judged by people who could not see clearly who he was because of the logs in their own eyes.

And yet, despite how it seemed, this tree that Jesus was nailed to was to become a tree of salvation just as Zachhaeus’ tree had been for him. In Luke’s gospel Jesus said

“Each tree is known by its fruit”

And this was truly a tree that would be known by its fruit because as Jesus had also said in Matthew’s gospel;

“every good tree bears good fruit”.

The cross of shame had become the instrument of salvation, and the tree of death had become the tree of life, with its leaves for the healing of the nations.

The sound of the nails being driven into wood is a heartbreaking sound for us because we know that Jesus is suffering there on that tree because of our sin. But from that tree comes the opportunity for redemption for us. Jesus calls us from the cross to be wood that he can use, he wants us to be trees that will be known by their fruit, he calls us to be good trees that bear good fruit.

Elements of the Passion - Number 1: Water

On Good Friday I will be leading a Good Friday Meditation at one of my churches called Elements of the Passion. During the meditation I will be taking seven elements that are present in the Passion story and exploring them in turn. (I'm not a scientist so I'm sure that some of my seven are not strictly elements so please humour me!)

I thought that I would share them with you here over the next seven days so here's the first which is on water.

Reading - Pilate Hands Jesus over to Be Crucified

So when Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took some water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, ‘I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.’                                                                                      (Matthew 27:24)

  

Water flows through the Gospel stories.

Water had been a sign of people’s acceptance of God into their lives. John the Baptist had appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and Jerusalem had gone out to him to repent of their sins and to accept God into their lives. John baptised people in the water of the River Jordan, water to wash the people’s sins away. But he had made clear to the people that water was just the start. He had said to them I have baptised you with water but he who is coming after me will baptise you with Holy Spirit.

And it was through water that Jesus Christ, the one who was coming after John, was revealed. John the Baptist had said;

“I come baptising with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel”

And he was revealed. As Jesus was coming up out of the water of baptism the Spirit descended on him like a dove and a voice from heaven said “You are my Son”.

Water was a place of a place of encounter with God in the gospels. Matthew’s gospel tells us that it was as Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee that he saw two brothers casting their net into the water. So Jesus cast his net into the water, he called on the two brothers Peter and Andrew to follow him and they did. Their lives were changed by an encounter with God by the water.

Someone else whose life was changed by an encounter with God by the water was the Samaritan women that Jesus met at the well. Jesus tells the women about the water that he can offer to all who come to him. He tells her that his water is living water and that everyone who drinks of his water will never be thirsty again and that it will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. The woman’s life is changed by that encounter with God by the water.

And crowds of other people encountered God by the water. Sometimes so many people flocked to see Jesus at the waterside that he had to get into a boat to teach them. The water was a place of encounter and teaching and it was also a place of reassurance.  Chapter six of John’s gospel tells us about how the disciples were in a boat on the Sea of Galilee when a fierce storm blew up and they all became terrified. Then they saw Jesus walking towards them on the lake and he said to them “It is I, do not be afraid” And those words of Jesus echo down the centuries, whenever we are tossed about by the storms of life, Jesus reassures us saying “I am here, do not be afraid”.

And water had played a key part in events on the night before Jesus’ encounter with Pilate. At supper with his disciples Jesus had got up, tied a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin and washed his disciples’ feet. And when he had done that he said to them

“I have set you an example. If I your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s’ feet.”

Yes, water had been there throughout Jesus’ ministry. He had taught on it and through it, it had been a place of encounter and reassurance. And right back at the start of his ministry it had been a sign of people’s acceptance of God. But now water was a sign of the peoples’ rejection of God. Pontius Pilate washed his hands of Jesus. And by doing so he mirrored what the people had done, they had rejected Jesus and washed their hands of him. They turned their back on the person who could give them living water.

And what of us? What are we going to let water be used for? Are we, whose sins were washed clean in the waters of baptism, going to wash our hands of Jesus? Or are we going to come to him who is the source of living water? Are we going to remember all that he taught by the waterside, are we going to be streams of living water flowing out into the world? We can be like Pontius Pilate washing his hands of Jesus. Or we can be like the Samaritan women at the well desperate for the living water that only Jesus can give us. The choice is ours.