Saturday, April 4, 2015 (Holy Saturday)

Saturday, April 4, 2015 (Holy Saturday)

Job 19: 21-27a

On this transitional, somber day between Good Friday and the Resurrection of Easter, we read a passage from Job that reflects both despair and hope. His words in verses 21  and 22 might help us to more fully comprehend Jesus’s pain and sense of abandonment. 

The passage, though, concludes with hope (if you stop at 27a instead of b, at least). In the light of our experience of Christ it has become normative to read into verses 25 and 26 the seeds of the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, and the reference to a Redeemer (which our Christian Bibles tend to capitalize) as pointing to Christ (Handel’s Messiah has had a lot to do with this, I think). For us this reading is possible so long as we remember that it is not the original or only interpretation of these verses. In its original context, Job and the book’s readers would have understood the redeemer or vindicator to be a figure such as a kinsman who would stand up for him. Having just labelled God as his opponent, it does not make sense for Job to, in a few short verses,  start talking about God as his champion. 

I bring this up not to rob anyone of their favourite sections and stories from the Bible, but because at this time of the year we are especially aware of the need to read the Bible carefully, sensitively, and appreciative of the many layers of meaning at play. For us this reading can echo our faith in Christ’s victory over death. But reading it at another level we can gain some insight into Jesus’s pain, in having been abandoned by so many of his loved ones. This reflection on abandonment and pain might bring us to recall our many faithful Jewish brothers and sisters throughout history for whom Holy Week has sometimes been a time of persecution, where the human tendency toward tribalism and finger-pointing has at times fashioned the gospels’ Passion accounts into a weapon. My prayer is that our reflection on the Passion of Jesus will encourage us to face and challenge those systems of injustice and victimization in the world. I believe that our reading of the Passion should foster in us a greater identification with the voiceless and oppressed in society. The Jesus we pushed on to the cross -- where and who is he today?

- Matthew Kieswetter