The Plan B of God
Luke 23: 26-41
March 27, 1999
There is a passage in Saint Luke’s gospel where the friends of John the Baptist ask who Jesus is. Jesus responds to them, the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the dead are raised, and the poor rejoice. Quite a list of accomplishments. And then Jesus adds one more. This is the one who is not scandalized by me. This could be translated, lucky you are if you are not upset by my actions.
Well, on this Palm Sunday, I for one and very upset. I’m scandalized that we would be presented with such a story. Couldn’t we present something that would make more sense on a beautiful morning like this? What we just read about is too upsetting for my religious sensibilities. Let me state my case.
The far better story is about the Camelot experience. The triumphant entry in this story, we were beginning to feel what a real Camelot could have been like. Jesus was going to be King Arthur. The crowds were anticipating a new reign of God. The disciples were to be Knights at the Round Table, shining in their armor, battling evil. As the song from the show goes, the rain would never fall after sundown. By 8:00, the sun would disappear. There is a legal limit to the snow. July and August would never be too hot. It was going to be Camelot.
The time was ripe for Camelot. Jerusalem was poised for change. The bands had been practicing tunes like Happy Days Are Here Again and so when Jesus decided to ride like a king, tourists from all over Israel lined the streets and cheered wildly. The crowd shouted Hosanna and cheered until they were hoarse. They laughed, danced, and sang. It was a great festive day, a day worth remembering and celebrating. A day in which I could really immerse myself.
Here we are presented with the Golgotha experience. A real downer. Everything goes wrong. Jesus loses control. we are shown him branded as a criminal. The crowd, that you and I, the bystanders. The crowd becomes mean and surly. Suddenly, they change from a holiday mood to a lynch mob, from cheering a potential king to booing and looking for a scapegoat.
And furthermore, the Golgotha experience focuses on the power structure. Everyone knows that the power structure will opt for the status quo. Peace at any price, as long as someone else pays the price. And then the story portrays the disciples, Peter and his friends, not as Knights of the Round Table, instead, they were shown as cowards at the bar of justice.
In the Golgothan story there was no laughing, dancing, or singing. Just a slow March. A March to the Killing Field. And, the principal seemed to this place in all places a garbage heap.
Well, there you have it. My case for choosing Camelot over Golgotha.
Let’s be honest. If you or I were God, which experience would you choose for the defining moment of your ministry, Camelot or Golgotha? Which makes the most sense to you?
I want to shout, if God be God, all powerful, all knowing, why not choose a parade? I’m not into crucifixions, I don’t even approve of the death penalty, Golgotha offends me. 2 violent, 2 bloody, too embarrassing. And yet, if we were to stop with Camelot, we might never understand how God works.
Thinking about Golgotha, do you honestly think it was part of God’s plan? Do you think Jesus came to die on a cross, to be rejected, to suffer, to be executed? I don’t. As I read the gospels, I see Jesus calling people to live the new life of openness, of trust, of knowledge, of healing, of faith in God. I really think God would have preferred everyone to cheer his son, to accept Jesus’ teachings, to get on the bandwagon, to join in the parade. I don’t believe it was God’s will to allow Jesus to be put to death. I think plan A was for Camelot. But God doesn’t always work through plan A’s. When Plan A didn’t work, God switched to Plan B. Plan B is working in a limited, broken, sinful world, and bringing good out of the most tragic events. Plan B is where God uses Golgotha to produce something wonderful. From the garbage sheet, God can make a rare flower to bloom
Simone Wiel, one of the great martyrs of the Second World War, once wrote, The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering, or a way to avoid tragedy. Instead, it offers a supernatural use of suffering.
Plan B is the supernatural use of suffering. In a sense, God is passive, allowing humanity to choose the time and place. And yet, we learn through Golgotha that God can turn even the worst of moments into the most shining hour.
To the casual observer, the Palm Sunday passion story may be a gruesome way of perishing, but to me, Palm Sunday is following a God who brings new life from dead things and resurrections from Golgathas. So, be upset with the scandal of the requiem story. But be thankful that God has a Plan B. Amen