Friends to Jesus

Sermon for the Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday (March 25, 2024) at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day.

Image via Flickr, detail from an Italian fresco, mid-1300s.

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There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem. from the Passion according to St. Mark

Edited Transcript

May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.

What stands out in Mark's Gospel is exemplified in the last words of Jesus in the passion according to St. Mark: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

There is a profound loneliness to Jesus in Mark's telling of the Passion. As Jesus says, "You will all become deserters." And when they get to the Garden, Mark says, "They all deserted him and fled." Everybody sat at the table and said, "Not I! Surely, not I!" found themselves, even Peter, running away, deserting him, and fleeing.

And the loneliness of Jesus through his trial, through his suffering on the cross, culminates in this question to God: Why have you forsaken me? Where are you? And there is no answer.

But Mark's story of profound loneliness and abandonment is bracketed by two stories of companionship.

At the beginning, a woman comes in with a jar full of costly ointment. She breaks it open, she pours it over Jesus, and everybody says, oh my goodness, the money spent on that should have been saved for the poor. But Jesus says, she is anointing me for my burial.

There is only one person, anonymous, who isn't in denial about what is going to happen to Jesus (besides Jesus), and that is this woman. When everyone else is avoiding the things he's been telling them about why he is in Jerusalem and where he is to go, this woman comes to say, I see you, and I'm here. And she anoints him for his burial. So that everything he goes through is covered in that anointing of friendship and companionship.

And then when we think that Jesus is most profoundly alone on the cross, saying, my God, why have you forsaken me? And when every follower, every disciple has run away—one so eager to get away that he leaves his clothes behind—Mark tells us there are three women who stand a little way off, but as close as they can.

Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of Joses, and Mary Salome. They stick around. They are there. They see him buried.

This story of profound loneliness is surrounded by two stories of people who—though they could not stop what was happening, could not save Jesus, could not take away even a moment of his suffering, could not even take away his profound loneliness—they nevertheless were his companions and showed up for him and stuck with him, through all that he suffers.

In our lives, we too are surrounded—many of us live intimately with—suffering of people we love. We can't control that suffering; we can't save those people. We can't take away one moment of their suffering or one bit of their pain. Sometimes we can't even get through their profound loneliness.

The invitation of Mark's Passion is to show up anyway.

Show up anyway. Like these women, we can be companions and friends to the ones who suffer. Even if it seems that it changes not one thing, even if it seems that it makes no difference.

In the Passion, we can't see God. Even Jesus says to God, Why have you forsaken me? Where are you?

This week a friend gave me this illustration. I wonder if you've had an experience of a parent, any kind of loving figure (maybe when you were small, but not necessarily) holding you close. You can imagine your face pressed against the fabric of their garment. When we're being held close like that, we can't see who is holding us. We might only see darkness. And when we're in the depths of pain, we might not even feel comfort from what is embracing us. But we are embraced.

There is such a thing as being so close to God that we can't see God.

And this is what this illustration proposes is happening to Christ on the cross. For those of us who have been reading Rowan Williams' book about Mark's Gospel, you'll remember he says that it is at the very moment that Jesus says "God, why have you forsaken me?" It is at that very moment that there is no longer any separation, any differentiation Jesus and God. It is God on the cross: so close that we can't see.

It all seems like darkness, but God is at the very heart of it.

So the invitation for us in this Holy Week is to walk with Jesus. As he has been a friend to us, we are his friends. As he has been our companion through our suffering, we are his companions in this Holy Week.

This is how we learn to live our lives for one another. We are friends to Jesus. We are called to be friends to one another, to be companions. To not leave one another, even when it seems that our presence makes no difference.

Where we are present to one another, God is truly there. Amen.