Monday, March 29, 2021
Monday in Holy Week
Linda Cheatham
The Collect
Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other that the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings: Isaiah 42: 1-9, Hebrews 9: 11-15, John 12: 1-11, Psalm 36: 5-11
As I reviewed today’s readings, I was especially struck not only by the particularly loving beauty of the passages from Isaiah and Psalm 36, but also by the realization of what I must have somehow overlooked the first time(s) I’d read the passage from John, who tells us that when Jesus took his disciples with him to visit Lazarus and his sisters at their home in Bethany six days before the Passover, Lazarus was one of those at table for the supper they’d made for him, and… “When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came, not only on account of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus also to death, because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus.” As perversely logical as their plan for Lazarus was, it simply hadn’t dawned on me that they would deem it politically necessary to kill him, too. So that very fact heightened my understanding of how truly great a threat they perceived Jesus to be.
In so doing, it reminded me of what is for me the most moving stained-glass window I’ve ever seen – so much so that I made a point of sitting where I could see it while at church every Sunday that I was in Washington, D.C., during the last 26 years of my Foreign Service career. Should you ever find yourself on Capitol Hill some post-pandemic, post-insurrection Sunday morning, consider popping into St. Mark’s Episcopal Church for a look at the huge Tiffany window that dominates the back wall of its nave. As you’ll see, it’s of Jesus allegorically on his way from – rather than to – Golgatha. At least that’s what I see there, because in it, someone else is carrying the cross while Jesus strides toward the foreground, upright, unsullied and positively radiating strength, power and calm. I’ve attached a photo in the hope that you might see what I mean.
