Still at the Movies

Still at the movies: Rocky is incredulous.  “You asking me to pull an act, turn yellow, so those kids will think I’m no good…. Nothing doing. You want to help those kids, you got to think about some other way.”  Father Jerry is calling Rocky to make a substitutionary sacrifice. If you hold on to your dignity, he says, those kids will eventually die in shame. If you die in shame, their lives can be salvaged. Rocky refuses. But the next morning as Rocky walks to the execution chamber, he cries out for mercy in cowardly hysterics, and dies in apparent humiliation.

The gospel, however, is not just a moving fictional story about someone else. It is a true story - about us. We are those delinquent kids.  And to save us Jesus gave up something infinitely greater than celebrity.

But just what did Jesus give up?

The gospel narratives make it clear that Jesus did not face death with the courage that was generally expected in a spiritual hero.  The well-known Maccabean martyrs, who suffered under the Syrian rule of Antiochus Epiphanes, were notable examples of courage in the face of persecution. They were renowned for being defiant and having confidence in God even as their limbs were cut off.  That stands in blunt contrast with Jesus, who is deeply disturbed by his approaching suffering and death. “…He began to be deeply distressed and troubled” saying, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Mark 14:33-34).