Scriptures: Isaiah 50: 4-9, John 13:21-30
And now we see that part of the challenge of walking through Holy Week with John in one hand and Isaiah in the other is that we are called to forgive. We are called to forgive people who’ve let us down, the systems that have let us down, the people and organizations and structures that hurt us and people we love, that have done bad and callous and betraying things to us and our friends and have walked away laughing. Now we add all of that together, and all the wrong done here and all the frustration and sadness of recent decades, and we place it before t he foot of the cross. Now, we name and shame the things that have defaced our community, and we weave them into the story of Jesus alongside Judas, alongside Caiaphas, alongside Pilate. And we pray that over the coming days we will have grace and strength to leave them there, to believe that Jesus has dealt with them on the cross. And we wait, as the disciples waited without knowing what they were waiting for, to see what God will do next once the cross has done its work.
There is more to the meaning of the cross than just this: much, much more. We will spend a lifetime exploring that further meaning. But for now, for the moment, let’s gather up all the betrayal that has blighted our lives and see Jesus taking it on himself, in and through the action of Judas, so that we don’t need to hold on to it any more. Let’s pray for grace to forgive, to find new starts, to know that we have been vindicated by Jesus’ vindication – and beyond that, that we are loved for ever with Jesus’ great and powerful suffering love.
From N.T. Wright’s Christians at the Cross
