How Low Can You Go?

I've been reading Mark in my quiet times lately, and appropriately enough for the week leading up to Easter, I've been in chapter 15. Mark tends to be short and to the point, and even in his account of this last week of Jesus' life, he's very economical with his words. What caught my attention this week was his decription of the two thieves on the crosses next to Jesus'. Just two verses (27, 31):

   And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.

   Even those who were crucified with him were reviling him.

That's it. No mention of what they said. Nothing about how one of them pleaded with Jesus and how He promised him entrance into His Kingdom that very day. Just: they flanked Him in crucifixion and mocked Him in the process. That promise Jesus gave the one is pretty important, but Mark skips right over it! (Mark is also the one who leaves the Gospel narrative hanging in suspense, so apparently he didn't have the same need of closure that I do.)

I'm intrigued by this minimalist treatment of the thieves. Mark could have written more, but didn't. So I assume he wants us to focus on what little he did write: two robbers, while being crucified, reviled Jesus. Two dying robbers mocking Jesus along with the rest.

In this paragraph, Mark is careful to note that the chief priests and the experts in the Law mocked Jesus. Those who passed by mocked Him. In the previous paragraph, the soldiers mocked Him. And these two robbers being crucified.

In other words, Jesus was mocked, not merely rejected, by the religious authorities, by the military authorities, and by the general population. And these two robbers being crucified. He was mocked by not only the establishment, but also by the lowest of the low!

You can't get much lower than a convicted felon presently suffering a languishing death penalty, publicly displayed for full humiliation. They were rejects, mere rubbish to be disposed of. Those who society rejected rejected Jesus. How low can you go?!?

Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus, who died for our sin in a way that required Him to be utterly rejected, even by the lowest of the low.

I'm stunned by how complete His rejection had to be, so that His resurrection would be that much more victorious. I suspect Mark left out part of the story to focus us on that very point.

I'm Too Busy for Easter

Christmas is always a crazy time, crammed full with parties, shopping, travel, cooking, and extra events with the church family. Some people jokingly dread Christmas - some have very real, debilitating anxiety over Christmas. The best part about New Year's Day is that it's a real day off without Christmas stuff to do. (Am I alone in finding an unsettling irony that a calendar holiday is more relaxing than a Christian holiday?)

Easter is not much better - gotta buy the eggs, gotta prepare the eggs, gotta hide the eggs, gotta help the kids find the eggs, gotta remember where the last three eggs are hidden so that they don't stink in a couple of weeks. This Easter has been particularly busy, with the odd weather and an illness in the family and taxes due right around the corner. Don't get me wrong - I love Easter and I'm a decent fan of Christmas. But my calendar and task list are wearing out.

I'm too busy for Easter! (And I'm a pastor!) I don't have time this week for it. I'd like to reschedule it, please.

That's exactly the problem: I'm too busy for Easter. Not that my stuff is more important than Easter, but that I haven't left room for that which is truly important. I have made choices that make my life too occupied, too crammed full, and too full of myself.  I have not created adequate space in my week for the most important holiday on the calendar. Worse than that, too often I have not created adequate space in my life for what this most important holiday means. I'm too busy for Easter and all that it embodies.

The beauty of Easter is how everything is centered on one, single truth. The one sacrifice by the one and only Son of God, once for all, calling on us to do but one thing in response. By grace through faith in just this one reality, I can be forgiven and have all the time that there will ever be in order to be with Him and to do His will. Compare this one thing to the hundreds of laws of religion, the millions of animals that have been sacrificed on altars, the myriads of demands that religiosity has placed on its captives. Just that one act by the One. Simple. Focused. Not too busy for anyone or anything.

My life should be about just this. I should never be too busy for Easter or for all that it means, because my entire life should always be all about it. Sure, I can do other things that are not directly tied to the substance of Easter, but my life should never be about those things. And especially, my life should not be so crammed full with them that I don't have time for Easter - the Easter holiday this week, the Easter event two millennia ago, or the Easter life to be lived in its 2000-year-long shadow.

I'm too busy for Easter. I should be too busy with Easter.