What God Is Really Like

St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, Gainesville FL
The Chapel of the Incarnation, Gainesville FL
April 17, 2011

Year A: The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday
Matthew 21:1-11
Isaiah 45:21-25
Psalm 22:1-11
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:36-27:66

What God Is Really Like

We are told that the moment Jesus died on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.

That curtain – a large tapestry - hung in front of the Holy of Holies – the innermost part of the Temple where in a sense God was believed to dwell. The tearing of the curtain when Jesus dies symbolizes that now God is no longer hidden from view.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like.

We see a God who enters the world on the margins – in out of the way places like Bethlehem, born to a couple of nobodies, surrounded by shepherds and farm animals.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like.

In the life and death of Jesus we see God at work transforming this broken, messed up world into a kingdom – a downside-up kingdom in which blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, blessed are the merciful, blessed are the pure in heart, blessed are the peacemakers, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, and blessed are those persecuted on Jesus’ account.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like – building a kingdom for those the world thinks of as the losers.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see God’s power quenching thirst. We see God’s power giving sight to the sightless. In the life and death of Jesus, we see God’s power giving new life to those thought to be dead.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like.

And at the start of today’s service, we heard how at least some people greeted Jesus – how at least some people welcomed God into their midst – with a parade, with songs, with hope and joy.

Jesus’ parade is a parody of political and military parades. Jesus doesn’t enter the capital city riding a magnificent stallion the way a triumphant king or warrior would. There’s no army in uniform - just a ragtag group of supporters welcoming their unlikely king with branches and acclamations of “Hosanna!”

Maybe more even than Jesus’ own followers, the political and religious leaders saw the immense power behind Jesus’ humility and simplicity. The political and religious leaders recognized that this unusual parade was a glimpse of a kingdom in which they aren’t in charge – the kingdom in which it’s the losers of the world who are blessed.

The political and religious leaders saw very well the threat posed by this revolutionary rabbi from Nazareth – and so, helped by own of his own, they moved quickly against Jesus.

Matthew downplays the responsibility of Pilate and the Romans and places more blame on the Jewish religious leaders and the crowd that chose the bandit Barabbas rather than Jesus of Nazareth.

In truth, there’s plenty of blame to go around.

In the life and death of Jesus we see what God is really like. We see a God who is rejected over and over – rejected at the start of creation in the garden; rejected by the leaders and the crowds in Jerusalem two thousand years ago; rejected by us more often than we’d ever want to admit.

While there’s plenty of blame to go around, in this case it’s the Romans who do the deed. Crucifixion was a common and particularly brutal form of Roman punishment, reserved for non-citizens who were viewed as threats to the empire. It was a punishment reserved for the losers.

The victims were literally and figuratively stripped of their dignity.

For Jews, a crucified person was ritually unclean, an untouchable.

Many people mistakenly think that the crucified bled to death from their wounds. The truth is worse. In most cases they became gradually too weak to breathe and eventually suffocated – often after hanging on the cross for days.

Jesus himself died relatively quickly, perhaps a sign that the Son of God was already physically weak even before this ordeal began.

Matthew tells us that, not long before he died, Jesus cried out from the cross, quoting from the start of Psalm 22, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

In that cry of anguish, Jesus is united once and for all with the all the broken people of the world – all the broken people who in the midst of great suffering still hope and trust in God.

In that cry of anguish, Jesus is united once and for all with the losers who will be – who are – blessed in the kingdom of God.

When Jesus took his last agonizing breath the curtain in the Temple was torn in two. God is no longer hidden from us.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like.

In Jesus, born in an out of the way place to a couple of nobodies, we see what God is really like.

In Jesus, who taught about the downside-up kingdom of God, we see what God is really like.

In Jesus, who gave sight to the blind and new life to the dead, we see what God is really like.

In Jesus, who endured the pain, shame and abandonment of the cross, we see what God is really like.

In the life and death of Jesus, we see what God is really like.

Amen.