Mark 15

How appropriate to conclude the Gospel of Mark this week.  I didn’t plan it that way but I’m glad it worked out this way.  So to help it, I decided to send out a reflection today, Good Friday, and then we will finish on Easter. 

This past Sunday, Palm/Passion Sunday, I visited my sister’s church and they were doing a series called “An Unlikely Lent” and each week they have talked about the extraordinary people of the Easter story.  That day they talked about Joseph of Arimathea, and the pastor asked the question, “What changed?”

What changed in Joseph?  What changed in the crowd?  What happened that made Joseph act?  What called him to action?

Jesus’s death.

That’s what happened.  She said up until that event, Joseph had remained cautiously curious.  He had remained at a safe distance.  But with the death of Jesus, his eyes were opened and he knew he needed to stand up and do something even at great risk.

As she was asking the question, what changed?  What happened?  My thoughts went to the No Kings protest the day before.  What happened that brought over 8 million people across our country out to gather together to say, “Enough is enough.”

My first thoughts were of Renee Good and Alex Pretti and their deaths and how that got a lot of people on their feet.  

But then I thought of the sick people without affordable healthcare or any for that matter, or hungry children in school, people being detained, abducted, separated from their families, children left in cars on the side of the road… the abuse happening in the detention centers… abuse of children by grown men who are never held accountable but instead continue to live in power over others… or low wages, the rich profiting off of the poor, school shootings, WAR, destruction – “just for fun”. 

The list goes on and on.  When will it be enough for us to stand up and say no more!  When will Christians (more christians) stand up and answer Jesus’ call to feed the hungry, heal the sick, welcome the stranger, love our neighbor, seek justice?  What will be the “thing” that happens to finally call the rest of us to action?  Not just christians, but HUMANS, all the children of earth, to stand up say, enough is enough and answer the call of humanity?

Today, on this Good Friday, may we hear the call to action that this day is and DO SOMETHING.  Do something good for our neighbors, for the children, the strangers – to stand up and do something, even at great risk. 

Until next time…♥️