Learn of Jesus Christ to Die

“Go to dark Gethsemane, ye that feel the tempter’s power; your Redeemer’s conflict see, watch with him one bitter hour; turn not from his griefs away, learn of Jesus Christ to pray.” So begins one of our hymnal’s most moving hymns for Holy Week. Learn of Jesus Christ to pray, and not only to pray, but to live, to suffer, and, finally to die. “Calvary’s mournful mountain climb, there, adoring at his feet, mark the miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete; ‘it is finished hear him cry,’ learn of Jesus Christ to die.”

Yet when we actually do climb to Calvary with the evangelists, especially with Luke, we see little of Jesus’ actual physical death. To be sure, Luke tells an important story between “they crucified Jesus there,” and “he breathed his last.” Even so, Luke provides no detail whatsoever of the agonies Jesus suffered, as he died like a common criminal. Unlike Mel Gibson in his “Passion of the Christ,” Luke’s goal is not to make me exclaim, “Thank you, Jesus, for suffering and dying for me.” Rather, Luke’s goal is to enable me to say, “Thank you, Jesus, for showing me how to live, pray, and, finally, to die.”

Long before the gospel according to Mark, the first gospel, was written, Paul wrestled with the idea of how followers of Jesus might participate in Jesus’ death and rising. In his letter to the Christians at Philippi, written not long before his own death, he admonished the disciples to “look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.” Taking up the words of what was probably a hymn, Paul charged them to “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,” who took on human form, humbled himself, and was obedient to the point of death. Paul knew that few disciples were called to be whipped, crowned with thorns, or nailed to a cross. But all of us are called to imitate Jesus in the way we live out our lives and in the way we die. All of us can follow Jesus in leaving behind our own petty concerns and in beginning the hard work of pouring ourselves out for others.

Among the evangelists, Luke gives us the clearest picture of Jesus as the man for others, Jesus as the man who maintained his love for those around him in the midst of betrayal and assault, Jesus as the man whose depth of caring extended even into his last hours. Did you get any inkling of Jesus’ care for others in the story you just heard? Even as Jesus was facing certain death following his last meal with his friends, his disciples were quarreling among themselves as to who was the greatest. You can almost hear the frustration in his voice – haven’t they gotten it yet – as he instructed them once again that, if they wanted to truly be his disciples, “the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the one who serves.” And he reminded them of what he had shown them in his very own behavior: “I am among you as one who serves.”

As the meal progressed, Jesus predicted that Peter – Peter the lead disciple, the one who was the first to say out loud that Jesus was God’s anointed one – Peter would betray Jesus. Can you hear Peter blustering and protesting as Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the cock will not crow this day, until you have denied three times that you know me.” Yet, Jesus also reminded Peter that he had already prayed for him, “Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail….” After supper, as Jesus led his friends into the garden at Gethsemane, even as he was staring his own death in the face, he turned back to his friends and warned them to, “Pray that you may not come into the time of trial.” Shortly thereafter, even as Judas was betraying Jesus with a kiss, Jesus stretched out his hand to one of the high priest’s slaves and healed his ear.

What agonies of body and soul must Jesus have been feeling when, after having been shuffled from Pilate to Herod and back to Pilate, after hearing Pilate declare that there was not case against him, he heard the religious leaders and their cronies call for his death and knew himself finally condemned. Yet, as he trudged to Calvary, with Joseph of Arimathea and the soldiers behind him, he passed the weeping women. His head was bowed and his body weak from hunger and assault. Yet even here his heart went out to the women, and he charged them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and your children,” for he knew that worse things than his death were about to befall them.

The physical pain that Jesus must have suffered is unfathomable. Yet the evangelist gives us no hints of Jesus’ agony at all. Rather, from the cross comes a prayer: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Whom was he forgiving? The disciples who ran away, the Roman soldiers who carried out the execution, the Roman and Jewish leadership who condemned him? All of us forever? Did they know what they were doing? Maybe in part. But does anyone of us really know the full effects of our sins or the full damage that we do? Jesus prayed, and God’s forgiveness covered them all, as it covers all of us.

Then there is Jesus’ ministry to the other two criminals. While one of the criminals criticized Jesus for not saving himself and them, the other rebuked the first. Turning to Jesus, he voices the prayer that could be on all of our lips, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replied? “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Even in agony, Jesus reached out. The message is clear: there is no time, there is no place, and there are no extenuating circumstances that kept him or should keep us from reaching out to another in love.

And finally Jesus’ death. Jesus models the faithful disciple for us one last time. “Into your hands I commend my spirit.” He offers back to God what he has been offering since the day he was born: his life into God’s hands. He has lived and died faithfully, proclaiming and demonstrating his complete trust in God. Do we need another lesson? Jesus has shown us how to live – for others – and how to die – in complete confidence that God will receive us.

“Calvary’s mournful mountain climb, there, adoring at his feet, mark the miracle of time, God’s own sacrifice complete; ‘it is finished hear him cry,’ learn of Jesus Christ to die.” We have walked this long journey with Jesus. We have watched him live and pray. We have watched him minister to others. We have stood at the cross with him. We have watched him die. Now we know our own call as his disciples: to live for others and to die faithfully. Are we ready to follow Jesus?