Original art by Maria Hupp 2025
It is Holy Week. On these days leading up to Easter, Christian communities gather to hear stories about Jesus giving a new commandment “To love one another,” before eating a final meal with his friends and his startling arrest in Gethsemane. We recall his brutal beating and makeshift trial. We remember a denial by the charcoal fire and the crowds screaming “Crucify him!” We try to insulate ourselves from the bizarre parade to execution hill beyond the city walls and the violence of fear and hatred which took his life.
I wish that all of the gruesome events of these solemn and shadowy days were sequestered in the past, but unfortunately our embrace of sin continues to propel similar occurrences right into our days and newsfeeds. Greed, selfishness, and betrayal runs rampant. Hate and revenge dismantles friendships and allegiances. The struggle to maintain power and cling to self-preservation distorts otherwise clear-headed thinking. Manipulation and judgment rooted in fear continues to be lived out in real time right in front of us.
As I write, politicians and lawyers are arguing over what to do with Kilmar Ábrego García after he was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador prison. Russia and Ukraine continue to launch bombs at one another. Israel and Hamas are at a seeming stalemate as lives continue to be destroyed daily. The Sudanese civil war marks a two year anniversary with more death and starvation. Chaos reigns at our Southern border and a flurry of tariffs strain international relationships. Democrats and Republicans point fingers and blame one another as they dig in their heels. Military budgets swell as countries fortress themselves for the future. Countless children continue to go to bed hungry. Like the disciples, we are paralyzed by waiting and wondering as the shadows lengthen and threaten to overwhelm us.
In the gospel according to John, Jesus refers to himself as light and speaks to the realities that come with that brightness. He tells us that we won’t stumble, our vision will be transformed, and mobility will look different with his encompassing light. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8). The Lord of Light doesn’t say that the darkness is gone, but promises that the veil of gloom will not dominate the landscape of our lives. The Light of Christ shines into every shadowed corner and cranny.
Pastor Daniel Erlander describes it this way: “We do not find God. God finds us – in our darkness, our pain, our emptiness, our loneliness, our weakness… [For us, this] is a new way of seeing… It is here, on the cross, that God meets us. Here God makes Godself present: hidden in weakness, vulnerable, suffering, forsaken, dying… As God meets us where we are, the Holy Spirit opens our eyes to see the Cross is God’s embrace – the Cross is God’s victory!”
This line of thinking is called Theology of the Cross. In the cross of Jesus, we see forgiveness, reconciliation, power, hope, life, unconditional love, and triumph. In the cross of Jesus, we are reminded that the goodness of God is stronger than any evil. In the cross of Jesus, God declares that death does not have the final word.
Filled and fueled by these promises, we live as people of Hope who are waiting and watching for something beyond the struggle and pain of now. We cling to God’s resurrection promises! Pain and suffering isn’t the end of the story. Jesus bursts into our presence as the one who once was dead, but now is alive.
Leaning into Hope!
Pastor Lowell Michelson