“HE IS YOUR BROTHER”
Isaiah 53.4
Lententide Midweek III: 22 March Anno Domini 2006
Fr Watson
In pagan Greek mythology the rebellious and traitorous Titan, Atlas, is punished by having to hold up the sky, the “heavens,” upon his shoulders for all eternity. Though the weight is unbearable the rogue must bear it in pain and solitary loneliness. In their mythological underworld of Hades, the punishment inflicted upon Sisyphus is to bear the weight of a huge boulder all the way up a mountain to the top, and then over and over again an infinite number of times as it invariably rolls back down the other side once he reaches the summit with the burden.
Don’t think you’re good. You are not. Don’t think you are better than your neighbor. You are not. Don’t think you are less guilty than the blasphemous non-believer or arrogant atheist. You are not.
Elsewhere in the Holy Ghost’s inspired writings by Isaiah, He makes the truthful statement that all of your “righteous” deeds, all of the great works that you think you do which you think make you good, decent, acceptable, and better than others, are as filthy, feculent rags.
You can’t bear your own griefs. Without the Lord as your deliverer you either deny that you have griefs that need to be lifted up off your scarred backs--thus leading to the sinful psychosis of “eat, drink, and be merry,” or, you become overwhelmed with damning despondency, self-abasing guilt, and no hope at all. You can’t bear your own griefs. The load is too heavy. Each and every one of your sins is so colossal that it’s a million times greater than a million times a million universes (which, remember, is said to be constantly expanding).
When you get that feeling sometimes that you can’t even get up out of bed, that the weight of everything is just too great to bear; you are correct. These physical and emotional and psychological symptoms are part and parcel of the more deeper and invisible spiritual dimension of the weight of original and actual sin. Someone has to lift that ugly cross off your back and neck. Someone has to pick you up, straighten out your spine, clean you off and give you some real nourishment; and then, a place to go and be at home.
You cannot carry your own sorrows. If even before the fall it was “not good that the man was alone,” how much more true is this reality after our descent into decay? It is not good to be alone. It is worse to be by oneself attempting to cope with sorrow. Ultimately all sorrow stems from loss. Our loss of Eden is now reflected in our loss of eternity with the Triune Lover of our souls. All is now loss, or as TLH # 552 (“Abide with Me”) says: “change and decay in all around I see.” That loss of mother and father; the loss of friends, children and spouses; and even the loss of your own childhood memories and present health, is so devastating that it produces sorrow that is tangible, raw, and paralyzing at times.
Lententide is not about wallowing in self-pity; but likewise it’s not about deluding oneself about self-help. Lent hits you with the Law: “you are not okay; and I am not okay, we are both damned sinners who screw up everything we touch or breathe upon.” But, Lent most assuredly points you to the real focus of the Season, The Man hanging on the Tree. Lent gives you the only “Good News” that is good. The “Good News” is the “Good News” and that God is the Man Christ Jesus; the Redeemer Whom the Prophet Isaiah was writing about: “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows…”
Are griefs and sorrows the same things; are they synonyms? Does it matter? By yourself you are just not right. Alone you are only a rotting corpse pretending to be human the way the Lord meant for humans to really be. Without the Lord it is all play acting in the cemetery.
Grief, sorrow, however it is denominated, you ache and you hurt and you cry out “Lord have Mercy.” And there He is; in your midst. There is God of God, wearing your skin, covered in the same hair that you have, breathing the same air, walking, talking, eating, drinking, sleeping, laughing and crying.
The Man from Galilee, the God from before all eternity, was carrying your griefs and sorrows from the moment He took on “embryonic-ness” in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. He carried your sin of origin; He bore up under your sins of omission and commission. How did Jesus do it? How could He even walk one step with the “beyond-infinite” weight of sin; I don’t mean the sin of the world, I mean just your own trespasses, the weight of even just one of them would make the denseness of a “Black Hole” seem like a dandelion seed floating in the breeze. How did the Savior manage to walk down the Via Dolorosa carrying not a cross on His shredded back, but you?
Because He loves you. Period. Unconditionally. No strings. He loves you even though you are un-lovable. He loves you because He made you, you belong to Him, He wants you with Him back in a heaven which will surpass even Eden. He loves you because it is His will and nature to love you. What makes Grace so Amazing is not just that it is so wonderful. What makes Grace so amazing is that Grace is the Lord taking on flesh to obey for you; to carry your sins for you, do suffer, bleed and die for you…. you.
How could He carry your weight? Why would he embrace you and hoist you up on His precious shoulders? Dr. Luther points you to the answer when He writes in His Christian Question and Answers Drawn Up for Thos Who Intend to go to The Sacrament: “Q: What was it that moved Him to die and make satisfaction for your sins? A: His great love to His Father and to me and other sinners, as it is written in John 14; Romans 5; Galatians 2; Ephesians 5.”
The “primary theology” is theological, words of God from Holy Scripture: “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.” [Rom 5. 6-9]
The “secondary theology” is examples, stories, illustrations and life’s events which can give us “handles” for the Word of God through the actions and words of His followers. In the 1941 motion picture “Men of Boy’s Town,” Spencer Tracy portraying the famous Father Flanagan happens upon a troupe of poor destitute street urchins. Upon noticing that one of the older boys is holding, carrying, a younger boy who cannot walk, remarks in a kindly way: “I betcha he’s heavy” The older boy innocently, but truthfully, speaks the words that Jesus says to each and every one of you this evening: “Oh no Father, He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.
In the Name of The Suffering + Servant