LAST SAYINGS OF JESUS

Artwork and Writings by Scott Erickson / Edited and Shortened by Eastown Church

The first 4 images take you through the last sayings of Jesus on the Cross before he gave His life for us. Take time to reflect on these images and each saying, as a reminder of His great sacrifice of love for you. Allow your heart and mind to consider the weight of your sin and my sin that He took on, so that we ultimately could experience forgiveness, freedom and new life in Christ.

Station 1

JESUS IS THE ONE RISEN FROM THE DEAD

Reading:

“But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in gleaming clothing; and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why are you seeking the living One among the dead? He is not here, but He has risen.”

-Luke 24:1-6a

Reflection:

No one saw the rising. No one witnessed it. No one actually saw a resurrection take place. It happened in secret, behind a stone, in the dark, without an audience.

Resurrection was something that happened to Jesus. “He has been raised” the cherub proclaimed, not “he raised himself by his intense willpower.” Resurrection isn’t about bootstrapping your way out of a tough situation. Ultimate transformation is not about your capacity for willpower. It’s about the process of transformation that will happen to you whether you like it or not.

I know “whether you like it or not” can make some of us comfortable with the lack of consent it leaves out. I understand that’s because of a certain degree of self-interest, self-protection, and healthy boundaries we learn to implement in a human life.

Surely you have been the recipient of unasked transformational love. Could not the Giver of Your Life love you without checking in with you, and you be ok with it? Like a friend who throws you a surprise party. Or a kind patron who unbeknownst to you pays for your meal at a restaurant. Acts of love are often not because they are requested, but because they are needed and it takes an almost impossible amount of humility to let someone love you deeply.

May the firmament that you discover to stand on be the promise that nothing, not even death, can separate you from His Love. 

May you SEE you have been raised to be loved.

Station 2

THE FOLLOWERS DISCOVER THE EMPTY TOMB

Reading:

“And the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.”

-Matthew 28:5-6

Reflection:

“He’s not here”

If I’m honest, “He’s not here” is something I’ve whispered to myself from time to time, referencing that feeling of emptiness inside. We may have different vocabulary to describe this feeling - anxiety, estrangement, incompleteness - but all of us have brushed up against the unease of the lack of something in our interior lives. 

However, my guess is that we know much more about God than we admit to know. God speaks to us much more often than we realize, or than we choose to realize. I think we get caught up in seeking objective truth for the existence of God. What we want is a mountain top, or hidden cave, or sacred shrine to hold the presence of God so we can, for ourselves and others, point to it and say “Here. See? There’s God right there. Satisfied?” But would we really be satisfied? Because if I could show where God is, then what good is a God that can be held in one place? If I could show you where God is then we might neglect all the other places where maybe we would find God as well. The places we don’t expect. 

Seeing the empty tomb, the disciples were motivated to seek the Risen One at work in their midst. The emptiness invited them to believe in the continuing presence of the Lord of Love. All the empty and lonely places of a human life are precisely where the Risen One wishes to work and be revealed.

I don’t believe our deepest longing is to find the objective proof of God’s existence. I think our deepest longing is the experiencing of Divine Presence in our lives.

May you SEE the empty places of a human life as the invitation to unexpected Divine presence.

*This post influenced by Frederick Buechner, A Message in the Stars

Station 3

THE RISEN ONE APPEARS FIRST TO MARY MAGDALEN, APOSTLE TO APOSTLES

Reading:

Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Thinking that He was the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you put Him, and I will take Him away.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary!”

She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” 

Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene came and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.”

–John 20:15-18

Reflection:

My guess is that all of us, even though it can be frighteningly vulnerable, want to be seen for who we truly are. More than our accomplishments. Much more than our failures. We want to be seen as our true identity - made in the image of the Divine.

Admittedly, we might not know ourselves what that is. We’ve all been bruised and battered by the storms on the great sea that we lost sight of where we were going. We’ve all had things said to us that chipped away at the granite of self-worth, diminishing the glorious sculpture of who we hoped we were. 

Mary Magdalen is said to have been one who had seven demons cast out of her, which is to say, for an extended amount of time, she was not herself. She did not have the faculty to take control. She did not have the where with all to curb the lies, gossip, and labeling of her name in the community she found herself. She became one who was put on hold from her innate dignity.

It is no accident that she was the first one at the tomb that morning. She deeply missed The One who dignified who she really was.  The One who called her back to herself. The one who knew her name.

Mary was chosen to see the Risen One first because she had the courage to look for life in the grave, for light in the dark. 

Mary is known as the Apostle to the Apostles. The first to proclaim that the grave is not the end. She was the one chosen to preach this resurrection message because the authority to proclaim light in the midst of our ultimate dark must come from one who has gone through the transforming love of God.

May you SEE that you have been given authority in what you have gone through.

* This post was inspired by Nadia Bolz-Weber’s sermon at Rachel Held Evans funeral.

Station 4

THE RISEN ONE APPEARS ON THE ROAD

Reading:

And behold, on that very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, which was sixty stadia from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place. While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing Him. And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they came to a stop, looking sad. One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You possibly the only one living near Jerusalem who does not know about the things that happened here in these days?” And He said to them, “What sort of things?”

- Luke 24:13-19

Reflection:

Before you label yourself a deserter, remember that the early followers in this story were Jews who believed that they were a part of a reformed movement within Judaism. They believed that Jesus was the one who was going to restore the glory of Israel. But then, to the follower’s horror, they witnessed the religious leaders of Israel torture and execute their hope for change.

Jerusalem, which was once a symbol of a safe place for them, has now become a haunted place. An unsafe place. I can’t help but see the connection to many of us who find themselves walking away from spaces which at one point felt safe. 

On the other side of this story, we see that though they are walking away from Jerusalem, they are actually on a collision course with the Risen One. It’s in the process of moving away from that they find themselves in the midst of. 

Sometimes the story of disillusionment and despair, a story of walking away, becomes a story of resurrection. These two on the road to Emmaus are simply having a candid and honest conversation about their vulnerable sorrow. What they hoped for. What they believed in. What stopped working for them. It was in the midst of this conversation that the Risen One shows up and asks to join their conversation. “What are you talking about?” The Risen One walks with us in our vulnerable and sorrowful conversations. God is available everywhere, but God is especially present when people get vulnerable.

These two eventually end up walking back to Jerusalem with a renewed vision. They are awakened to the presence of the Risen One on that journey and it reframes everything they think that is happening.  I can’t help but wonder if that may be our experience as well.  

May you SEE your disillusionment as the road to a whole new way of understanding.

* This post inspired by Jonathan Martin’s musings inThe Road Away from God

Station 5

THE RISEN ONE IS RECOGNIZED IN THE BREAKING OF BREAD

Reading:

“And they approached the village where they were going, and He gave the impression that He was going farther. And so they strongly urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them. And it came about, when He had reclined at the table with them, that He took the bread and blessed it, and He broke it and began giving it to them. And then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight. They said to one another, “Were our hearts not burning within us when He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem…”

- Luke 24:28-33

Reflection:

I love a good cooking show. The multiple chef competition kind. The recipe making kind. But no matter how well the plated cuisine looks, or a complete lack of “nailing it” in its presentation, the promise of food is not in how it looks but always in the experience of tasting it. That’s why we usually search the fridge for something to satisfy us on a commercial break. We want the actual participation, not just the removed observation.

I think it’s interesting that these leavers of Jerusalem did not recognize the Risen One when he approached them on the road to Emmaus. You would think that the Risen One’s scriptural exegesis would have opened their eyes! But according to this story, it wasn’t scripture that opened their eyes, but it was participating with the Risen One that helped them see him clearly.

One of my favorite quotes is from artist nun Sister Corita Kent: “He’s not dead. He’s bread.” I love it because it offers us a chance of participation with an otherwise invisible Risen One. We only know the risen one through observing and honoring the depth of our own human experience.

All sacred texts are helpful primers in preparing us for participating with the Risen One in the mystery we’ve been given in bread and wine, in loving our neighbors, the hungry, the thirsty, the imprisoned, the sick, the stranger, the naked, the poor. There are all kinds of tangible ways for the Risen One to be recognized in.

But just like the two at the table with the Risen One, awakening is there for just a glimmer and then it disappears. Just long enough to open our eyes to a larger reality, but just short enough to not let our eyes shut to all the other places the Risen One could appear through participation. We must keep searching. We must keep participating. He’s not dead. He’s bread.‍

May you SEE your daily participation as a holy sacrament.

Station 6

THE RISEN ONE APPEARS TO THE COMMUNITY OF FOLLOWERS

Reading:

Now when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were together due to fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst, and said to them, “Peace be to you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”

- John 20:19-21

Reflection:

I think a great misconception is that resurrection is the same thing as perfection. 

Without blemish. That’s what perfection means. The very definition of a blemish is something that destroys perfection. I think it’s fairly impossible to live a life without picking up some kind of scar. We’ve all slipped, skidded, crashed, nicked, banged into some immovable object. We’ve also, at some time in the healing process, been told not to pick the scab because “it’ll leave a scar!” That mark will always speak to the reality that you’re not impenetrable. That you’re vulnerable. That you bleed. That you can be wounded.

And what about the scars we can’t see? The trauma, abuse, and tragedies that can befall a human heart and psyche? What do we do with those blemishes?

In a locked room one night, The Risen One suddenly appears on the inside to the Followers and shows them his scars. Not easy scars mind you. Violent ones. Products of an imperial public execution. Scars attained from betrayal, arrest, and a hodge podge sentencing from his own blood tribe.

I guess asking why we get wounded is like asking why a porcupine is prickly. It’s the only version of ourselves we know. We are vulnerable. We are fragile. We are finite. We get scars. And if that’s the way we are in the world, then that must be the way in which God will work in the world. Because God works through human lives. Not around. Not despite. But in… like as incarnate.

The Risen One shows his wounds glorified, meaning they are honored and revered, meaning all our wounds will one day be honored and revered, meaning they can become something more than just scars. My guess is it’s because the process of healing, the process of resurrection, transforms our woundedness into something useful. Humbling. Empathizing. Surprising. Forgiving. Avenues for connection and healing. Doesn’t this already happen?

We all have wounds we carry. I guess the question we must all ask is what do they become when we carry them forward? Do they become embarrassing blemishes or honored scars? Can they either become avenues of bitterness or avenues for reconciliation? We seek to understand how the Risen One invites us to be wounded healers, ones whose wounds can become avenues for reconciliation, healing, solidarity, resurrection.

Sometimes I think what we think we want is a God who will answer all of our questions. Sorry to ruin your cake by the ocean, but we don’t get that. Surprisingly, what we do get is a God who’s willing to go through all of the questions. And on the other side of those questions are the resurrected scars that will heal the nations.

May you SEE our woundedness as the surprising avenue of holy transformation.

Station 7

THE RISEN ONE BREATHES PEACE & GIVES THE POWER TO FORGIVE

Reading:

So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be to you; just as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and *said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”

- John 20:21-23

Reflection:

What would you tell your friends about what’s most important about life after you’ve risen from the dead?

We have quite a few writings about the common regrets right before people die. Things like “I wish I would’ve stayed in touch with my friends” and “I wish I had the courage to be the person I knew I was, not the one people expected me to be.” All very important retrospective pieces of wisdom. But those are musings before dying, not after. 

Jesus was an innocent man executed on a public cross, most likely naked, humiliated, mocked, and tortured. He died on that cross. He is buried in a grave. Three days later he’s resurrected from the grave. He appears to his Followers and shows them the scars of being crucified. And then he says, “Let me tell you how to beat your enemies and be the winner…” 

No. That’s not what He says. 

But if I’m honest, doesn’t that feel like the message of a lot of today’s cultural western Christianity? The one obsessed with winning political power no matter what the cost. The one aligned with guns, weapons, and an ever escalating violent war machine. The one enmeshed with a narcissistic nationalism that sees any foreign refugees as harbingers of evil versus the answer to the age-old question of “who then is my neighbor?” 

Sometimes I think there is a version of the Christian faith that is actually disappointed in the power that Jesus gives in His resurrection. It wants the power to win in any situation, whether medical, physical, intellectual, political… not the power to forgive. What good is forgiveness in winning?

The cross is not a symbol that we are now invincible to human limitations. The cross is a symbol about human limitations. That there will be things that happen to us that are horrifying and unjust. But in those situations, there is more than just those powers going on. The cross is a symbol that reminds us we always have access to the deepest power in the universe, which is forgiveness. Jesus didn’t not die. Jesus forgave.

“Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”

Forgiveness is the deliberate and conscious decision to end the cycle of retributive destruction. It releases the feelings of resentment and vengeance towards a group or individual that has harmed you. Forgiveness doesn’t mean forgetting or excusing the harm done. Forgiveness isn’t even a restoration of a brokenness that the harm caused. Forgiveness is the choice to not allow destructive evil to continue its parade of death in your life, in the life of others, and throughout this world. 

Forgiveness is the presence of God in our midst right now. It is the path that allows the one who has been harmed to not be destroyed by the work of evil. It allows them to continue on with life walking towards physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. 

Forgiveness is actually the only thing that keeps giving me hope in this world.

May you SEE forgiveness as your Divine calling.

Station 8

THE RISEN ONE STRENGTHENS THE FAITH OF THE DOUBTER

Reading:

But Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

Eight days later His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus *came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be to you.” Then He *said to Thomas, “Place your finger here, and see My hands; and take your hand and put it into My side; and do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

-John 20:24-28

Reflection:

Dr. Curt Thompson in his book Soul of Shame says that doubt is a relational feeling. It’s the feeling when a relationship has taken a turn into the unknown, usually a turn where you don’t know if you can trust the other person anymore.

I think this is fascinating. Think about your feeling of doubt. I would suggest that the core emotion of doubt is not necessarily about facts, doctrines, or dogmas… but is instead a conversation of “can I trust this anymore?” 

Thomas in this passage had the same question. He knew Jesus. Had walked with Him for years. Saw him get killed. Knew he was buried. And then days later all his friends tell him “Hey, He’s alive! We’re ready to start doing this thing again!” But Thomas didn’t witness this, and He was like “Nope. I want to see it for myself.” 

I can’t blame Thomas. It’s a lot to earn trust again under the shadow of heartbreak. When was the last time you were heartbroken? Was it easy to get over? Did you immediately jump right back in? Or did you need a minute? A minute to wonder if it’s worth the risk to open your heart again?

What we can see with the Risen One and Thomas is that the Risen One isn’t offering knowing every mystery to Thomas, but a small starting place in knowing a larger mystery unfolding in their midst. 

“Place your finger here…”

Put your finger into the mystery. Walk the length of your knowing until you find the door of unknowing. It’s only until you bump the end of your knowing that you’re open to entering a larger world of knowing. As Father Richard Rohr says, “Mystery is not something you can’t know. Mystery is endless knowability.” 

Doubt will be your constant companion on this journey. Doubt will be the consistent wall of understanding that you bump up against as you pursue the Endless Mystery. Doubt is the doorway to each new way of knowing, each new perspective. 

Doubt is the feeling of your heart expanding for a larger capacity of Love.

May you SEE your doubt as the invitation to endless knowability.

Station 9

THE RISEN ONE PROVIDES FOR THE FOLLOWERS

Reading:

Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” None of the disciples ventured to inquire of Him, “Who are You?” knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and the fish likewise. This was now the third time that Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples, after He was raised from the dead.

-John 21:12-14

Reflection:

Isn’t it a great comfort to think we aren’t fully correct about our conclusions about ourselves? Maybe our perspective is too limited… and it’s a great gift for someone else to invite us into what they see in us from time to time.

Identity is a tricky thing. Forming one involves how you answer the questions of who do you think you are, who do you think others think you are, and who do you think you need to be in the world in the light of your ethnicity, family, gender, occupation, intelligence, etc. Identity is often described as finite, versus infinite—consisting of separate and distinct parts—meaning our impression of ourselves is less like a Van Gogh painting and more like a framed puzzle of a Van Gogh painting. The image of ourselves is a patchwork of conclusions about who we perceive we are to be.

Which should give us pause, from time to time, to contemplate what those conclusions are inviting us to, but more importantly, what they’re dismissing us from.

The Followers found themselves going back to their old occupations even after they had interacted with the Risen One. In fact, right after a kind of ghostly upper room encounter, Simon, who had been given a new identity as Peter, declared “I’m going fishing…” to which a good number of them said, “We’ll go with you.” This was their old job. Fishing is what they knew how to do, which must have felt so comforting in light of the falling apart of their entire understanding of what they were following. And yet they found themselves fishing all night and catching nothing, which must have been so disheartening. Have you ever found yourself in the place where nothing seems to be working anymore? Have you ever whispered to yourself, “Do I even know who I am anymore?”

Then a guy on the beach invites them to try again. And a miracle happens. And they recognize that The Risen One had once again come to them in their former identity. He invites them to bring their miraculous catch to the campfire breakfast and they sit and eat together.

It doesn’t say it was a silent breakfast, but the text alludes to it being an awkward one. No one was willing to ask “Who are you?” because they knew who the Risen One was. The awkward tension at the breakfast was likely not just about seeing their resurrected friend, but also about the uncomfortable question that “Who are you?” asks themselves…

“Who am I now in the light of the Risen One?”

To be a Follower is to ask the questions: Who does the Risen One invite me to be? Am I limited to my own conclusions about myself? Does the Risen One invite me to dismiss my identity? Am I possibly being invited into something unforeseen?”

Who is the Risen One? In His own words, The Risen One said he is the one who “seeks and saves that which is lost.” Lost does not mean damned or doomed. Lost means the one who has found themself in the wrong place, which I believe all of us know too well at times. “Seeking and saving” means a restoration of identity…understanding you’re invited to the family reunion. You’re a child of God.

The Risen One also said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Sinners is a tricky word. Some of us learned “sin” is an umbrella statement for all the shame and guilt we feel, but we were never able to transcribe that feeling into an invitation to get healed by the Great Physician, like the Risen One speaks to. We just kept our feeling of shame as the identity that we are just sick versus one on their way to being healed.

The heart of the Risen One is to bring you back into the fold, back to your dignity, back to your true identity… not keep you out.

“Who am I now in the light of the Risen One?”

We don’t always get a breakfast on the beach with the Giver of Existence, but we sometimes get the miracle of a change of perspective that leads us to question who we are going to be now. Maybe it’s in the awkward silence of the breakfast on your first day of being laid off that you begin to ask what’s really inside of you. Maybe it was in the pause given to us by a global lockdown that we began to unearth the unforeseen longings in us for a different kind of calling. Maybe it was in the ending of a relationship that you began to ask what kind of relationship you want to have.

There is something sacred in the falling away of an old identity. Painful? Yes. Awkward? For sure. Necessary? Absolutely. It’s only in the ashes of your breakfast on the beach campfire that Love can call you into your truer identity.

May you SEE that you are invited to be so much more than you have allowed yourself to be.

Station 10

THE RISEN ONE FORGIVES AND ENTRUSTS TO FEED HIS SHEEP

Reading:

Now when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?” He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Tend My lambs.” He *said to him again, a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” He *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.” He said to him, “Shepherd My sheep.”  He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me?” Peter was hurt because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?” And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.” Jesus *said to him, “Tend My sheep.

-John 21:15-17

Reflection:

Your most embarrassing moment is not the story you tell others about. We all have these moments. Moments where …we make choices, statements, or decisions that, in hindsight, are disappointing.What we’re talking about is humiliation - the painful loss of pride, self-respect, or dignity that unexpectedly happens in front of others. 

After a miraculous catch, followed by holy fish tacos on the beach, the Risen One takes Peter aside and asks him three times if he loves Him. It’s very hard to admit to someone that you’ve let them down. It was only maybe a week earlier that Peter had found himself publicly denying that he was friends with Jesus in an act of self-interest. 

Any faith-by-way-of-shame narrative falls apart in how we see The Risen One restore the relationship with Peter. He doesn’t ask Peter to publicly confess his sins to the congregation. He doesn’t make him sign a promise to purity. The Risen One doesn’t even bring up the past humiliating situation. The Risen One simply asks, “Do you love me?”

When unbeautiful places in a human life seemingly separate us, the Risen One invites us back through beautiful questions. “Do you love me?”

The psalmist penned “even the darkness is light to you”...what we think we can keep hidden, the humiliating embarrassing parts, has already been known. You’ve never been able to hide from God. All you’re hiding from is seeing the honest truth yourself.It is we who want to punish ourselves for our shortcomings, our embarrassments, our humiliations… because we still believe that we need to be better in order to earn Love. 

It’s my belief that the goal of your spiritual journey is to become a whole person, not a better person. If you think the goal is to be better, it won’t work. Wholeness is realizing everything is already in the Light of Love.

Peter wasn’t invited into a restored relationship with the Risen One because he was now no longer going to do anything humiliating, embarrassing, or shameful for the rest of his life. He wasn’t asked to help lead a new community of faith because he finally stopped making mistakes.Peter was chosen to do all these things because he was one who experienced that his whole self - the public outside and the hidden inside - was received in love. And he was asked if he, with his whole self, would love back.

May you SEE your wholeness in the Light of Love.

Station 11

THE RISEN ONE SENDS THE FOLLOWERS INTO THE WORLD

Reading:

But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated to them. And when they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some were doubtful. And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

-Matthew 28:16-20

Reflection:

How do you teach a song? A song can be so many things, so to make it easy, let’s just define a song as a combination of a melody and lyrics. Music is hard to describe with words because it’s something that you experience, enter into, embody. 

To learn a song is to remember the words while embodying the notes.

Before He departed, the Risen One invited the Followers to participate in the world by inviting others to follow, baptizing them into a deeper identity, and teaching them to obey everything that the Risen One has commanded to do. 

As I was meditating on this passage, I found myself very uncomfortable with what many have titled “the Great Commission.” I think it’s because from my experience the emphasis has mostly been put on the “making disciples” part, which some have  interpreted as team building…you must label who’s on the team and who’s not on the team. And then it can all be about building the team, managing the team, playing other teams, defeating other teams. 

This seems to leave out what’s at the heart of being a disciple… which is obeying the commands of the Risen One. He’s on record saying that “love God and love your neighbor as yourself” pretty much sums up everything. One time with his Followers, He got real specific and said people will know you’re my Followers if you “love one another.” So, basically, love. Loving one another. 

I wonder if “teaching them all that I have commanded” could be thought of more in the ways of how you would teach a song.

If you try to teach love just using words you’ll miss a big part of it, because love is something that must be embodied.Have you ever experienced the joy of finally finding the words to express what you have already intuited in what it means to live a sacred life? And have you ever experienced the disconnect with someone who knew all the right words but the tone of their life sounded so out of key? Belief is not just knowing the words. Belief is lyrics plus embodying the melody. 

I guess my question for us, then, is what is the song that we’re already singing? Some of us may need to really examine the song we’re singing. The words may be fine, but the melody is way off. Some of us have destructive songs that we believe we’re supposed to sing and teach others. What is the song you’re singing?

I think resurrection is singing a new song.

To sing a song you must first learn it. It’s only when you’ve internalized it that you can invite others to sing that song too. The song you are meant to sing is a love song. But if it’s not a love song you’re singing, I doubt it’s the song the Risen One has invited you to place inside of you. For me, the song that the Risen One put in me, the one that I’ve been learning, the one that has been put on eternal repeat, is “You are My Beloved.”

May you SEE that the song your singing is the song you’re teaching.

Station 12

THE RISEN ONE ASCENDS TO HEAVEN

Reading:

So then, when the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them, and confirmed the word by the signs that followed.

-Mark 16:19-20

Reflection:

I was discussing the Ascension with a brilliant clergy friend of mine, and at the end of our conversation he said “and that’s about all I know about this mystery.” …it’s so true. In talking about something mysterious, there is only so much we can know and so much we just need to admit we can’t know.

What does the Ascension really mean? How far did He have to ascend before he made it into the heavenly throne room? And what does it mean to sit at the right hand of God? 

For me, the details of this event are less important than the issue that the Risen One left. But even the Risen One is quoted saying it’s a good thing because He is going to send the gift of the Spirit.

An unknown Jewish writer in a letter we have titled “Hebrews” muses that Jesus has ascended to the ultimate role of being the High Priest for all of humanity. In the Hebrew culture, the high priest’s role was to represent other people in their dealings with God. It was not a wrathful nor judgmental role, but rather an empathetic one. The high priest is chosen because they know what it’s like to be human and have grace for the particulars of that.

If in this mysterious ascension, it is true that Jesus has now assumed the role as the empathic go between that which is human and that which is divine, then we can find some solace in the fact that He is not here as He was before. In Him not being here, we can find Him being everywhere. If He is the go between of everything human, it means He’s now involved in all human conversations. A member of the Trinity has human memories.

We too will ascend from this earthly reality to a heavenly one - wherever, whatever, and however that is. It’s a mystery we know very little about. But if the Risen One has ascended to the heavenly place before me, and has been undertaking the role of the empathetic go between this reality and the next, my guess is when we all eventually ascend, when we walk through the doorway of this life into that life holding all the dynamic conversations of a human life, we will be welcomed with an heavenly empathetic,

“I know.”

May you SEE that you ascend in Grace.

Station 13

UPPER ROOM VIGIL FOR THE GIFT FROM THE RISEN ONE

Reading:

When they had entered the city, they went up to the upstairs room where they were staying… All these were continually devoting themselves with one mind to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

-Acts 1:13a,14

Reflection:

The definition of imagination is the faculty of forming mental images or concepts of what is not actually present to the senses. It’s not the images or concepts themselves, but the faculty - the space - in which images and concepts are formed that don’t exist yet. We have a space inside of us where images can be formed that don’t exist yet. Why would we have this kind of space? It’s the space in which the future invites us forward.

Contemplation is the consideration of the kind of future that those imagined images/concepts are inviting us into. It took imagination to figure out how to put a man on the moon, but it also took imagination to invent gas chambers in concentration camps to annihilate a certain people group. Imagination can lead to flourishing or destruction. 

After the ascension of the Risen One, the followers didn’t know what was to happen next. They had imagined earlier they may just go back to their old jobs as fishermen, but that was squelched by the Risen One. Jesus called them out of the past into an unexpected future. But then He disappeared and left them to wait for the unknown. So, they dedicated a space to wait for a vision of what to do next. 

The upper room is the space where something new was birthed, outwardly and inwardly. 

A contemplative space is where the invisible becomes visible.

Throughout the history of the church there have been pioneering movements dedicated to prayerful contemplation, resulting in transforming action. Equality, dignity, provision, and hospitality have all stemmed from a Divine conversation. We look to the upper room as a symbolic place where we return over and over again, so that we can become contemplatives in action. As persons who are both prayerful and energetic in service to the Risen One, we must always keep vigil for how He wants to appear in the world. 

Or I should say, who He wants to appear through.

We can imagine all kinds of futures to live into. But contemplation aligns our imagination with the One who cares deeply about human flourishing. Who cares deeply about our flourishing. Who sees that the two flourishing’s aren’t mutually exclusive. Only the Giver of our lives can refresh our spirits and renew us to be the conduits of change. 

The surprise of contemplation is discovering the invitation to participate in Divine plans. 

May you SEE the future from your contemplative conversation.

Station 14

THE RISEN ONE SENDS THE SPIRIT

Reading:

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and remind you of all that I said to you. Peace I leave you, My peace I give you; not as the world gives, do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, nor fearful.”

-John 14:26-27

Reflection:

This resurrection station is the hardest for me… vulnerably… because I could never speak in tongues. If you don’t know what speaking in tongues is, it’s the phenomenon of being a conduit for a heavenly language, the words of the Spirit that will pray the things we don’t quite know we need to pray. Some followers today believe that it is essential that everyone who professes belief in the Risen One must pray in tongues.

I’ve earnestly prayed in secret and asked for the gift of tongues.. This is the hardest part of religion for me… when it doesn’t work. Am I doing it wrong? Unfortunately these are not only our own voices that we need to deal with. They can be corroborated by a community that is asking why we can’t do it like they all are doing it. 

There was a time where the Followers of the Risen One didn’t know what do. The Risen One had disappeared into a place unseen and in response they committed themselves to waiting for what was next. In one of those waiting gatherings, a noise like a “violent rushing wind” descended on the room, tongues “that looked like fire” rested on each one of the gathered, and then the Spirit gave them the ability to speak in different languages. This was important because in the next scene they are sent out and able to speak to the international audience who had gathered in Jerusalem that weekend, to proclaim what was happening in the native tongue of those listening.

The Followers were given what they needed to accomplish what they were being asked to do.

The Spirit gave them what they needed to share the good news of the Risen One: that resurrection was moving from one nation to all nations. What they needed was a bit miraculous…The Spirit gave the followers what they needed for Divine participation.

This series of images and meditations are about contemplating what perspective change happened in the Followers of the Risen One back then and how we can participate in that resurrection way of seeing today. The resurrection perspective that is still happening today is this:

You will be given everything you need to accomplish what you have been asked to do.

This infers that one has taken the time, like the Followers did, to wait, pray, listen and discern what one is being asked to do. Communally and individually. 

Next whatever movement happens will be predicated by something given by the Spirit. I don’t know about tongues of fire, but I know from experience that in my life from time to time I needed a spark to fan the flame of courage, hope, kindness, and forgiveness to see new life sprout in the places of death.

For me one of the greatest gifts of a new way of seeing is the knowledge that I don’t have do this on my own. Looking down the road of my life as solely my responsibility and my achievement leaves me overwhelmed and depressed. I think it’s because my calculating mind really sucks at surprise. It figures it all out, obsesses over ever detail, makes up a grandiose storyline, and yet I intuitively know that whatever goal I think I should be aiming for will inevitably be lacking in my desire to be fulfilled. What I really want is to participate. Participate in the Surprise that was happening back then and still happening today.

Maybe a great nickname for the Holy Spirit is the Great Surprise. It’s a Great Surprise that the Divine taps meek nobodies to participate in heavenly activities. It’s a Great Surprise that you will be given everything you need to accomplish what you have been asked to do.

May you SEE that the journey of your life awaits a Great Surprise.