Mark 15:33-37
By Rev. Todd Penson
It was early on in my Pastoral Internship at First Lutheran Church in Brainard, Minnesota. That November morning I was driving from the farm home where we were living into town, heading to the church for my day’s work with Dallas Young, my intern supervisor. I was playing some music on the car radio.
Suddenly there was a break in the music for an important news announcement. A commentator came on and carefully related the tragic news. The President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, had been shot to death in Dallas, Texas during a large parade honoring him as President. The assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald was soon arrested, and while under arrest was shot to death by Jack Rudy as Oswald was being transported to a jail cell. Shock waves of grief engulphed the nation and wider world, especially among those who were his closest followers and supporters.
Tyger and I recently watched a series of DVD presentations entitled “Reconsidering JFK”, where this episode from his life was presented. As I was reflecting on our upcoming Christian remembrance service on Good Friday, the parallels between that day and JFK’s assassination day flashed through my mind. For us as followers of Jesus, who call him our Lord and Savior, Good Friday has every reason to cause us to again pause in grief and wonder and to rehearse in our hearts and minds why Jesus so suddenly had to die and in such a cruel and seemingly senseless way.
“For our sins” is the reason I have always been given, regardless of who history decides was legally responsible. Too much hatred and vicious wars have been generated by people out to revenge that death of Jesus. Others try to see Almighty God somehow responsible, as if God needed Jesus to die before God could or would forgive our human transgressions.
This week, as you struggle with the question “Why did Jesus die?” and how that relates to your faith life with God, remember that God sent Jesus into the world in the first place because “God so loved the world” (John 3:16), and God loves us as much as Jesus did and does still.
Prayer: Gracious God, let the words and music of Good Friday and Easter worship help me sort out my answers to these questions. Amen.