by the Very Rev. Jered Weber-Johnson
Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. So from that day on they planned to put him to death.
John 11:45–53
“From that day they planned to put him to death.” I’m always suspicious of language that implies some deaths are inevitable. Think here of the political rhetoric that says some people must die for their crimes, that some deaths in global conflicts are just unfortunate but unavoidable “collateral damage”, that some “essential” workers will have to risk their lives so the economy can go on.
I know death is an inevitability. Unfortunately there is a way in which we can transform that truth into something grotesque, with the result that we live toward death. Such a fatalistic approach to life shapes our behavior: as if faced by this limited window of opportunity, seeing the finite time afforded us, we seek to grab, scramble, hoard, and live as though we are only here to get ours.
The week ahead of us does not shy away from the inevitability of death, but it also refuses to let life be defined by it. Holy Week and the culminating feast of Easter tells us that God’s will for us is not death, but life, resurrected life, life to the full. Easter reorients us to the inevitability of God’s abundant, never-failing, gracious love – a love that makes real living possible. In the face of death, Easter promises that God’s love cannot be overcome!
Winterberry Holly – Ilex verticillata
These photographs, shared each day during Lent, capture the beauty of plants native to the Upper Midwest. As we spend time in Lenten reflection, these images of new life can remind us daily of our calling to be caretakers of God’s Creation.
Photo by Jo Anna Hebberger
