March 2024 eNews: From Bishop Monnot

Losing and Winning in Holy Week

I was at the House of Bishops meeting at Camp Allen in Texas the day that Caitlin Clark broke the Division I record for total points scored. I wasn’t watching the game, but the next day another bishop, who has roots in Iowa, broke out his Hawkeyes jersey with Clark’s number, twenty-two. I confess that I don’t follow college basketball, but even I have been aware of Caitlin Clark approaching and then surpassing this record. It has gotten loads of publicity, and Iowans of every college basketball fandom are proud. Americans love a winner, and Clark is truly a remarkable basketball player, and she deserves all the accolades that she is receiving.

Fast forward to today, and Holy Week is almost here, and of course it will bring the great three-day liturgy of the Triduum: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil. These three services are traditionally seen as three parts of one long liturgy as we follow in the footsteps of Jesus, from the Last Supper when he washed the disciples’ feet and gave them the commandment to love one another as he loved them, through the crucifixion, to the glorious celebration of the resurrection as the Easter Vigil moves us into Eastertide.

Easter marks the resurrection and with it the victory of God over the power of death. Many of our beloved Easter hymns have us singing about this victory. We celebrate with flowers and candles and lots and lots of alleluias. Again, Americans love a winner, and Easter is the ultimate victory, the biggest win of all!

Of course, there could be no resurrection without death: Jesus was only able to be resurrected because he died on the cross at the hands of the Roman Empire. Jesus was only subject to the whims of the Romans because he was truly human, which meant that he was just like any other human being and was a part of the systems that govern our lives. In Jesus’ case, that system was imposed by the Roman Empire on the people of Palestine against their will, and the oppression and violence with which Rome governed Palestine included the torture and death of many who ran afoul of imperial rule.

If someone didn’t know about Jesus’ resurrection, looking at his life and death would lead them to the inevitable conclusion that Jesus was just another loser who wound up executed by the Romans. He had no steady job and no family, and as he traveled around sometimes people joined him, but most of them also fell away. At the end, all of his followers abandoned him to the Roman guards who arrested him. The Romans tortured Jesus and then killed him, and only a few women showed up at the foot of the cross as he died. That’s all Jesus had to show for his life’s work: an execution worthy of a slave or a criminal, and a few weeping women. What a loser.

But we Americans love a winner! So we, who know the real end of the story and the glory of the resurrection and the final defeat of death, observe Easter with as much joy and celebration as we can possibly pack into it, just as we should.

However, I think that sometimes we Americans forget that the real glory of Easter wasn’t just God’s amazing power but that God voluntarily became human and lived a life on the margins, rejected by much of society and finally killed. The real victory of Christ over death came only because God was willing to become completely vulnerable to human frailty in the person of Jesus.

God is as much a God of weakness and vulnerability as a God of power and might, and for us, this is truly Good News. We don’t have to subscribe to the American cultural belief that winning is the only thing. It’s okay when we are weak, when we are overpowered, when we lose. Jesus is there with us at those times, sometimes even more powerfully than when we feel like we are winning.

When Easter comes, sing about victory and shout the alleluias, along with the whole church throughout the world. Remember, though, at any time, whenever you feel week, vulnerable, sad, or alone, Jesus is present with you in exactly what you are experiencing. The true meaning of Easter is not of God’s victory through overpowering strength, but of God’s victory made possible only through the very weakest and most vulnerable moments that a human being can experience. Americans love a winner, but God in Christ Jesus loves us also when we lose.

Yours in the abundant life of Christ,
+Betsey

The Rt. Rev. Betsey Monnot, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa