Friday, March 30, 2007
Lent Bible Reading Challenge Day 34
The Last Supper
This passage is mysterious. Here's the last night of his life. Jesus has seemed to be so in control, so wise, so prophetic in knowing what will happen, so fearless in the face of disbelief, opposition, and even deep betrayal....yet he loses it on the last night. The passage reminds us of the mystery of what we call the incarnation: that Jesus was both human and divine, both
limited and limitless, both fearless and fearful. A book I'm reading, Cross-Shattered Christ, sums it up well:"'Mystery' does not name a puzzle that cannot be solved.
Rather, 'mystery' names that which we know,
but the more we know it,
the more we are forced to rethink everything we know."
The last night in the Garden is a mystery - the revealing of Jesus most human-ness - fear and his most divine-ness - trust. Maybe that's what made Mel Gibson's movie - the Passion of the Christ - so powerful for so many - it opens with this scene, Jesus praying quietly and passionately in the garden...and then flashes both backwards and forwards. Maybe we all live this mystery - in a different way - in each day as we travel back and forth between fear and trust?
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