Easter

I have atttempted, mostly unsuccessfully, to observe the passion week and will celebrate the Resurrection tomorrow. I've been sick and overbusy, but have tried to see the passion anew. We become far too familiar with it. Jesus died for (because of, in place of the punishment for) our sins. Maybe we should also say, Jesus died as our sins. "He became sin for us who knew no sin." There are several New Testament references to this facet of the cross. As I heard a Christian radio host say this morning, we should face holy week in silence, and if we really want to understand the emotion of the cross, we should read the Old Testament, especially Isaiah 53 and some of the psalms.

As our sins, Jesus bore all our shame. It hit me this morning that Christ was naked on the cross. Truly naked. The Romans didn't care, and some of the Jews would have perhaps taken an evil pleasure in how violated this made their enemy. And how hard this would have been for his followers to see this. He was put to an open shame. And somehow that made me finally get it, the depth of all the sacrifice. I got the suffering part, but not the shame part, not the "total identification with our sin" part.

And tomorrow, we face the day that marks history. The day that makes us who we are. Christos Anesthe, Alethes anesthe. (pardon the poor Greek)