Tell Our Story Again

Marissa and I were discussing the Seder meal yesterday and if it’s appropriate for Christians to celebrate. A book she had read was of the option that it is offensive but I think it’s important. These ancient stories and rituals that we observe, especially during Holy Week, are relevant to us because they help us remember that these are OUR stories. God didn’t act once a long time ago and roll over and go back to sleep. He is alive and active in this world and in his people.

WE were slaves in Egypt.

Many years ago I attended a “real” Seder run by straight up Rabbis and everything. Obviously there was no overt Christian slant in an authentic Jewish Seder, even though they were kind and gracious enough to ask the Jesus people there how we interpreted it. My favorite part of the evening was sitting in the Rabbi’s living room and going around and speaking of what we had been released from that year. It was a powerful time of testimony and rejoicing.

We all begin our story as slaves in our own special Egypts. Our bondage may be to addiction, or crippling self-doubt, or even something as pernicious as un-forgiveness. God is continually setting us free. He is battling the tiny gods we cling to, proving them worthless, and leading us through the waters into becoming a new people, a holy priesthood.

Today is Good Friday and that is our story too.

WE are the mob. WE killed Christ.

Last Sunday we hailed the coming King with palm branches and shouts of Hosanna. It’s about time God fixed things, we thought. Look at this world! It’s dangerous, it’s broken, riddled with disease, poverty, crime, injustice. Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t he come and save us?  Hosanna to the Conquering King! The Son of David should show up to overthrow our oppressors and make us important again.

Except Jesus isn’t the king we want. He’s not about violent revolution, or Making America Great Again, or giving us a desperately sought sense of security. Rome was in charge when he was born and still in charge when he left. The Promised King of Israel did absolutely nothing to stop the Romans from paving over the temple and slaughtering everyone in sight in 70 A.D.

Some king, we think. This king doesn’t meet our expectations so we, in our fickle humanity, reject him and look for a better one. A politician can get elected in a landslide and a year later tank in the polls. That is who we are. Get rid of this Jesus and we’ll find a new one, a better one, who will do what we want.

Crucify him. Crucify him.

We aren’t only slaves in Egypt, we’re also evil and depraved. We lynched God.

Jesus isn’t the king we want, he’s the king we need.

He’s not looking for the next step up. Jesus is all about the next step down. He who was rich became poor; the Almighty of Heaven became a regular man, walking around in our painful, dying skin and bones. He ate with the hated and shunned, he took the rabbi-school dropouts under his wing and made them his crew. He showed us how to live in freedom, how to BE the holy people of God.

Our story could have ended at the cross, as it has ended for so many would-be revolutionaries and saviors, in violence and death. But, as Tony Campolo proclaims, that was Friday. Sunday’s a coming!

Death no longer has the final word. Love wins. Jesus is the king we need. The king who overthrows, not governments or invaders, but the power of Death itself. We try so hard to make God tiny and predictable like our nice Egyptian gods, but when the Lamb is slain and the Firstborn die, the seas split and we can walk right out of slavery and into adoption.

WE are the children of God.

Easter is our story too. Just as everything is looking bleak and hopeless, God comes to us. Jesus is alive! We are forgiven!

These stories are important – not because they happened, but because they happen. The Kingdom has come AND it’s coming. Redemption’s work is done AND it continues.

Maybe right now you are feeling hopeless, weighed down by life, overwhelmed by the world. Lift up your head. Love is coming. Easter is almost here again; New Life is bursting forth to kick evil in the teeth. Hope is born once more.

Welcome to the story, friend.