XI. Jesus is nailed to the cross
Jesus was nailed to the cross, and for three hours he was dying. He died between two men. One of them said to the other: “We are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong” (Luke 23:41) Jesus lived his dying completely for others. The total exhaustion of his body, the abandonment by his friends, and even of his God, all became the gift of self. And as he hung dying in complete powerlessness, nailed against the wood of a tree, there was no bitterness, no desire for revenge, no resentment. Nothing to cling to. All to give. . . . By being given away for others, his life became fruitful. Jesus, the completely innocent one, the one without sin, without guilt, without shame, died an excruciatingly painful death in order that death no longer would have to be ignored, but could become a gateway to life and the source of a new communion. . . . We all must die. And we all will die alone. No one can make that final journey with us. We have to let go of what is most our own and trust that we did not live in vain. . . .In dying, all of humanity is one. And it was into this dying humanity that God entered so as to give us hope.
Excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s Walk With Jesus, Orbis Books. Posted with the kind permission of the publisher.
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March 13th, 2008 @ 10:01 pm
My death has come along a little today. I live in a first-ring suburb of Detroit. Worship in what mostly has been a white congregation. Our Pastor, for three years now, is African-American. He comes originally from the city of Philadelphia. He is getting me to see that the suburbs, even those which seem most affluent, have poor people in them too. Mostly other people around me don’t need to have me see that–because everyone is trying to live under the same illusions. My Pastor needs to have me and others here see that. It has to do with our relationships with each other and our relationships between suburbs and city. It’s really a personal thing with him to have me not see Detroit as just a poor city and the suburbs not having many of the same problems. I’m nailing prejudices right in my own back yard to the cross today, it’s kind of hard to see the suburbs as not really different in problems to the city but there you have it, that other kind of thinking is what I have to give up, let die in me for a better future.
March 13th, 2008 @ 11:23 am
Jesus is nailed to the cross – Jesus tells us to take up our cross daily. He knows that as human beings – like the grain of wheat – to be alive spiritually means to die to ourselves, our nature, conformity to the world about us. “The way we die has not only to do with the way we have lived but also the way that those who come after us will live.” How is your death coming along today? For me, I’m working on crucifying a judgmental attitude. It’s difficult to love someone like Jesus and be willing to die for them like Jesus if in my heart of hearts I think they are wrong, less worthy. How are you dying as you grow in the walk with Jesus? How are your “dying moments” an example to those about you? What are you “nailing to the cross” today?