Have Mercy on me, God, in your kindness. In your compassion blot out my offense. O wash me more and more from my guilt and clean me from my sin. (Psalm 51.) These are the words of King David recorded in Psalm 51. King David admits his guilt. But are we guilty? Are you and I guilty too, truly guilty? Have we not all failed miserably in living as we should? More significantly – have we not been complicit with sin itself? By our actions we have sinned, for flesh can be the highway to impurity, to greed, to division. By our thoughts we too have sinned, since it is enough to look upon another with lust and to be guilty of adultery. Left only with our words – can these at least be harmless? No, since by our words we are found guilty, and we will be accountable for every word we have spoken as Matthew tells us (Matthew 12:36). God demands holiness (Peter 1:16). The bar is set high, and we just cannot jump high enough to meet it.
By our thoughts and by our words, and by our deeds, we are guilty. From there it does not get any better, but worse. For our sins have done more, much more than merely mark as out as sinful failures. Our sins place us fair and square in the middle of the council of the Sanhedrin and in friendship with Pilate. For do our sins not ultimately seek a way to put Jesus to death – after all sin demands that we place ourselves over God. It demands an undoing by means large or small of that which is true. It demands that we turn away from Jesus himself and to put him behind us – out of sight and out of mind. But can it get worse than that?
It can. For while we live as sinners we can pretend for the sake of our neighbor and for ourselves that we are whole, entire, good, and righteous; hiding or explaining away our treachery.
This is the ugly truth; a truth hard to face. And here we would remain, helpless despite hoping or thinking that we are OK, or that we can help ourselves, or that we are good enough. Here we would remain with our prideful thoughts.
To know the truth of the ugliness of our sin. To know the real and eternal results of our missteps in thought, word, and deed we look at the cross. That is what sin demands and always ends with – death - the extinguishing of life and all light…. So where do we go from here?
The whole movement of Marks’ Gospel is to tell the Christian community who Jesus is – the one beloved Son of God. And that his mission was singular – to rescue humanity from sin of thought, word, and deed, and from the resulting darkness, by the sacrifice of his life. The truth the gospel teaches is, that which we cannot do for ourselves is done for us. Jesus’s desire unto death is to gather us up and gather us in. That is his mission, that is his objective, to gather us up and gather us in.
So, get up, cheer up, for the master is calling you. Let us rise and leave this place. Let us leave those who are amongst the Sanhedrin and those that seek the death of our one savior. Let us rise and pick up our palms and join the rejoicing crowds and welcome our King; the one riding humbly on a colt. Let us sing hosanna, and shout that blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And let us follow him. Follow him to the cross where our failings, our sins, our missteps, in thought, word and deed are firmly nailed, eternally fixed and forever undone. Let us go with him now to the cross and pass, by way of the cross, as if through a doorway, to the path, the only path that leads to forgiveness, to wholeness, and to new life.
Deacon Peter Bujwid
Saint Agnes, Arlington, MA.
March 24, 2024
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