The cross reveals power of vulnerability
Peace and shalom of Jesus, the risen Lord!
PASSION and the Cross are two of the most important Easter and Christian symbols. They reveal who God is and He redeems humanity. To understand the Easter message, we must understand the wisdom behind the passion and the cross and how they give meaning of life.
What is passion?
Passion refers to Jesus’ life from the Last Supper to his death on the cross. Passion comes from the Latin word — passio which means passiveness, non-activity, absorbing something more than actively doing anything. Jesus’ passion refers to the time in his life when stops being the actor. Instead, people were doing abusive actions to him.
We can speak of two moments in Jesus’ ministry:
i. Active Ministry: In his active ministry Jesus was the doer, in command, the active one, teaching, healing, performing miracles, giving counsel, eating with sinners, debating in Church authorities. He was busy – even at times not having time to eat. For most of his life Jesus was actively doing something for vulnerable peoples or speaking for justice and truth.
ii. Passion: From the moment Jesus enters into the last supper and begins to pray at Gethsemane — all activity stops. He is no longer the one who is doing things for others, but the one who is having things done to him.
In the Garden the Roman soldiers arrest him, bind his hands, lead him to the high priest, take him to Pilate. He is beaten, humiliated, stripped of his clothes, eventually nailed to a cross where he dies. Jesus entered into his passion. In his passion, he ceases to be the doer and becomes the one who has things done to done to him.
The church’s teachings teach that we are saved by Jesus’ passion (his death and suffering) rather than his activity of preaching and doing miracles. How does this work? We will understand passion when we place next to the cross.
What does the cross reveal to us about God?
What the cross tells us, more clearly, is that God is absolutely and utterly nonviolent and that God’s vulnerability is a power for intimacy with God and with each other.
God is love, light, truth, and beauty; a gentle invitation, one that never threats. God is like a mother, gently trying to teaching her child to take another step.
God is infinite patience and that endures all things; not as a great avenger, not the hero in the movies, who kills the bad guys.
The Cross of Christ reveals that God works far differently than do our movies and our imaginations. God never overpowers anyone.
God’s power works in vulnerability.
St Paul explains this well: “When I am weak then I am strong.” (2Cor 12:9-11) God’s power and authority to influence, is different from the Scribes and Pharisees. God’s power is not associated with power, energy, authority.
Excousia
The Greek word for the God’s power is exousia.
Exousia can only be explained in an image. If you place a strong man and a baby in the room — who is more powerful?
The baby possesses a different kind of power, a far deeper power, one that can move things that muscles can’t move. A baby has exousia — authority.
The baby’s vulnerability is a greater power. It does not need to out muscle anyone. A baby invites.
The cross reveals the power of God in this world, a power that is never the power of muscle, speed, brilliance, physical attractiveness or a presence that leaves another no choice. The world’s power works this way. Movies show this kind of power.
God’s power is the power of exousia — a baby that lays helpless, muted, patient, looking for help. It’s this power that has the last words.
The book of Isaiah speaks of the power of vulnerability:
“Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to the slaughter or a sheep before the shearers, he was silent and opened not his mouth. Oppressed and condemned, he was taken away, and who would have thought any more of his destiny?”
It is this form of power upon which love and community can be created because it alone softens rather than breaks the heart.
Exousia enables us not to give in to bitterness and grow vicious when we fail, our dreams crushed, helpless, make mistakes; we admit to our brokenness and helplessness.
The Cross of Christ tells us that at those moments of painful helplessness when we can’t impress or overpower anyone, we are acting in a divine way, that is nonviolently.
Passio has exousia – authority. It is in vulnerability lies the secret of coming to love and community. To be vulnerable is an attractive power. This is the power of the passion and cross.
This will also be the power of the resurrection. Vulnerability is the form power that draws people to change.
This is the form of power that Mahatma Ghandi, Dr Martin Luther King, Dorothy Day, Nelson Mandela used to bring radical social and political change.
Jesus’s passion and cross has much to teach to our political and traditional leaders on how to bring about social and political cohesion and reconciliation.
May the peace – shalom of Jesus the risen Lord be with us all.