With Friends Like These

03-24-2024Pastor's LetterTom Schmidt

This year, we hear the Passion from the gospel of Mark. One thing unique about this reading is the emphasis on Jesus being abandoned by his disciples. First, the leaders of the disciples, Peter, James, and John, cannot even support Jesus in his agony in the garden: They fall asleep, three times. Then there is Judas, who seeks out the chief priests to make a deal with them, Peter, who denies Jesus three times, and the disciples who flee when he is arrested. The crowds who cried, “Hosanna!” a few days before, now call for him to be crucified. Even Simon the Cyrenian had to be forced to help carry the cross.

What does this tell us? With friends like these, who needs enemies? No, the point is that Jesus died specifically for these people, not because they were once friends, but because they were sinners, who needed Jesus. All but one of them ended up as saints. And the one who didn’t was Judas, who gave up on Jesus, instead of coming back to him for forgiveness. When we find ourselves in sin, when we think that everything we do is wrong, or when we think we can’t possibly deserve to be loved by God—that is when God can help us, if we just stop hating ourselves and start loving and trusting the Lord. It is not the time to pretend we have avoided the big sins, or to brag about some of the good we may have done. Instead of trying to convince God that we deserve his mercy, simply agree that you need his help. God loves sinners who know they need his forgiveness and don’t deserve it.

But maybe you have already been forgiven and wonder what’s next. Remember the ones you would not expect to support Jesus: The centurion supervising his crucifixion proclaims him Son of God. A member of the Sanhedrin gives Jesus a burial place. The women who were there to the end. These were people who did not claim to be worthy, just did what they could to show their love. Ask Jesus each morning when you wake up, “What can I do for you today?” and do what you can.