Ordinary 34

The Thirty – Fourth Sunday in Ordinary TimeThe Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe 2019 – Cycle C 2 Samuel 5:1-3; Psalm 122; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43

On the Feast of Christmas an angel will tell us that a saviour has been born for us. [See Luke 2:10-11]  The important word here is for…for us.  But this angelic announcement can only be characterized and heard as “good news”; as a reason for deep joy, if you and I realize we need to be saved.  Otherwise the news of the angel and Christmas falls flat.

Numerous people throughout the sacred scriptures know they need to be saved, do we?

“Lord, save us!” the disciples cry out during the storm on the lake.  Two blind men cry out to Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on us!”  As Peter begins sinking while walking on the waters, “Lord, save me!” is his cry.  “Have pity on me, Lord, Son of David!” a mother pleads for her possessed daughter. A woman weeps at the feet of Jesus and bathes them with her tears A silent yet profound cry for help.  A guilty, dying criminal musters the courage to defend the innocent Jesus and then simply pleads, “Remember me…” 

All cries for help.  Cries from people who are in some form sinking.  Is that you?  Do you feel overwhelmed?  In what aspects of life are you about to drown?  Remember Pharaoh of Egypt.  He and his entire army drowned in the Red Sea.  People in power or think they are in power drown.  Drowning always results in death.

Are you caught in a storm of life?  Issues in your marriage or other relationships?  What addiction overwhelms us?  Pornography?  Greed?  Laziness?  Frivolous spending?  Are you experiencing betrayal?

Are you blind?  And realize it!  For there are many of us who are blind but do not realize it.  There is an arrogance mixed with bitterness in such people.  They wander aimlessly in life, in a “no man’s land” like Cain.  “Distracted from distraction by distraction…” as the poet T. S. Eliot put it.  [Four Quartets, Burton Norton, T. S. Eliot]

How many of us want to simply have a good cry.  Are not tears a cry for help like that woman at the feet of Jesus?  Are you in deep mourning?  Are you financially burdened?  Is loneliness overwhelming you?  Is a son or daughter caught in a web or gone down a path, deaf to your attempts to help them?  How often the scriptures record parents crying out to Jesus to save their children from possession, sickness and death.  We who have no children will never understand that pain and depth of crying out.

Numerous women and men throughout the sacred scriptures know they need to be saved, do we?

How ironic then that Jesus, whose name means “God saves” is three times told in today’s Gospel to save himself.  “…let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God”.    “if you are the King of the Jews, save yourself”.  “Are you not the Christ?  Save yourself…!”

Odd isn’t it.  The thought that you can save yourself from anything.  Yet it is our culture that has coined the phrase, “self – help”.    Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?  That is probably one reason why our culture and many Christians celebrate the “holidays”; a corruption of “holy days”.  We party rather than fast.  We hang up glittering lights rather than embrace the crisp darkness.  We immerse ourselves in noise and possessions rather than contemplate.  “Distracted from distraction by distraction”.

There is no good news for a people who have no need for a saviour, whether a new born infant or, least of all, a crucified God.  Upon how many of us has it even begun to dawn what our God has and is doing for us? There’s that phrase again…for us.  “I proclaim to you good news of great joy…a savior has been born for you…”  See, at the root of Christmas is not a new born child but sin; our sin from which we cannot free ourselves.  We, whether we realize it or not, need a saviour.  But how often do we cry out to Jesus, the one who saves, to save himself.  Are we not imposing our “self – help” mentality on God rather than taking on God’s self – emptying?

Is it because we cannot deal with a crucified, saviour God…for us?