Failure and Courage

The Passion according to Mark, read this Palm Sunday contains the following passage: Joseph of Arimatea, a distinguished member of the council, who was himself awaiting the kingdom of God, came and courageously went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

Insofar as the participants around Jesus at the time of the Passion show forth what is truest about themselves, the entire narrative is a display of the varieties of human failure. His friends abandon him, the religious leadership fails to apply the prescriptions of the Law in his case, Pilate refuses to take a stand on the justice of the case, and the crowds become frenzied by the mounting spectacle. More could be said. Grave would be the error to think that the participants were in some way particularly bad people. If we do that we miss one of the central points the Gospel writers wish to convey to us, namely that men and women cannot mount an efficacious display of courage in things that matter most. The human heart, left to itself, is revealed to be incapable of acting on the truth and justice of things.  It is one thing to see the justice of a matter at hand (the disciples presumably saw that), it is another to act on what is perceived. In this the disciples failed. And often enough, on account of pride, vanity or ambition, we cannot even see the truth and justice of things (as in the case of the civil and religious leadership to whom judgment was given).

They are us; we are them. On a good day we might adequately judge the justice of our daily human relations; on a bad day (and how many of those do we have?), we are blurred in our vision of it. What is it you want, Jesus said. Lord, I want to see. But the Passion shows us that even in seeing rightly, we need a courage to act on it. This is a second, all important grace. It is necessary to admit our failure, elsewise, we will never really be able to call upon the Lord as Savior. If we can see clearly and act justly merely by trying real hard, than we dispense ourselves from needing God to save us. But, among other things, this is what the Passion reveals to us: That God is Savior in Christ, and that we have dire need of Him.

Enter Joseph of Arimathea. After the death of Jesus, he approaches Pilate courageously. A simple word, that one, but a vital, all important one. Only after the redemptive work of Jesus is done, only after He gives Himself over to the Father on behalf of us all, does a spring-time sprout of green show itself in the narrative. Something has changed, Mark is telling us. A gift has been given. Justice and Truth have kissed. Courage in a heart other than that of the Lord shows itself. This is his gift to us. The horizon of truth lived with courage is opening up to us. There is hope for us, despite our failures to see truth and act with justice. The Savior has pierced through to our core. Let us welcome the cut.