Walking in the light of the risen Christ

Christ in Glory, a tapestry by Graham Sutherland in Coventry Cathedral

A reflection given at Compline in Killodiernan Church on the Tuesday of Holy Week, 15th April 2025

The reading we’ve just heard from John’s Gospel (12:20-36) is about the glorification of the Son of Man. The dictionary definition of the word ‘glorification’ in the Cambridge Dictionary is ‘the act of praising and honouring God or a person’.

Jesus in the Gospels often uses the terms ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Son of God’ almost interchangeably, in ways that can be seen as referring to himself, without explicitly claiming to be divine. This is probably because observant Jews would see it as blasphemy, a capital offence for which he is not yet ready. He leaves it to others to make the connection.

Notice that in this reading he does not explicitly claim to be the Son of Man, only that ‘when (he) is lifted up from the earth, (he) will draw all people to himself’. Voices from the crowd listening to him clearly think that he is claiming to be the Son of Man. They ask, ‘How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’.

In reply, Jesus does not answer their question directly. He says to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

Who or what is the light that Jesus is talking about? We know with hindsight that Jesus will soon be lifted up to die upon a cross. Is that when the light is no longer with his disciples? No, we believe that Jesus rose again from the dead on the first Easter day, and later the risen Christ promises he will never leave his disciples – that’s you and me. ‘Remember’, he tells us, ‘I am with you always, to the end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20). We are mortal, and our lives are short, but the light of Jesus, the glorified Son of Man, will remain with us to our dying moment. And he has left us his teaching to light the way for us, which he summarises as follows, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’ (Mark 1:14).

We believe as Christians that Jesus, the Son of God, is also the glorified Son of Man, and as the risen Christ, we believe he is also the light that shows us the way.

‘While (we) have the light, (let us) believe in the light, so that (we) may become children of light’.

Remove this cup from me

The Agony in the Garden, El Greco c.1590

A reflection on the Passion Gospel for Palm Sunday, 13th April 2025

That was a long reading (Luke 22:14-23:56), wasn’t it! But I am certain it is good for us to hear the whole story of Christ’s Passion from beginning to end at least once a year, so that we may better appreciate the enormity of those events.

You will be glad to know that I’m not going to preach an equally long sermon too! Instead, I ask you to reflect with me on Jesus’s prayer in the Mount of Olives:

‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet, not my will but yours be done.’

Jesus is distressed and agitated. In his anguish, he is certain that what he is doing is the will of God, his loving Father. He knows the likely outcome – his execution as a dangerous agitator, perhaps even the agonising death of crucifixion.

And he does not want to die. He is a man in the full strength and vigour of his early 30s. He loves life. He loves his friends. And he loves his ministry to those who need healing and forgiveness. So he prays to his loving Father for himself, that his death may be averted - ‘remove this cup from me’.

But that is only half his prayer. Even more important for Jesus than his own distress at the prospect of death is that his loving Father’s will should be done. So he finishes his prayer with ‘yet, not my will but yours be done’.

This prayer of Jesus should be a model for our own prayers. When I desperately wish for something, it is right and proper for me to pray to God for it. If I cannot ask God for it, who can I ask? But I must never forget how much more important it is for God’s will to be done, than for my wish to be granted. So I should always finish a prayer for myself with Jesus’s words, ‘yet, not my will but yours be done’.

The purpose of Christian prayer is not to badger God into doing what we want, but to align our wishes with God’s will.

In the end, like Jesus, we must trust that our loving Father knows what is best for us. 

Confronting the evil cynicism of authoritarian rulers

The Sanhedrin plot to kill Jesus

A reflection at Morning Worship with the Community of Brendan the Navigator on Tuesday 8th March 2025

A brief reflection on that reading from John 11:45-57.

The context of the reading is this: Jesus has just brought his friend Lazarus back from the dead. Standing in front of his rock-cut tomb, ‘(Jesus) cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.’ Because of this, many people believed in Jesus, that he had the power to raise the dead. His following was growing. But others reported what Jesus was doing to the authorities.

We have just heard, in John’s words, how the leaders of the Jewish client state in Jerusalem responded to Jesus’s growing reputation and influence among the people. They called a council of the elders, the Sanhedrin, to decide what to do about Jesus. They feared they might lose their own power, that the Romans might be provoked to destroy the Temple and their Jewish state. The high priest Caiaphas takes charge. He declares, ‘“You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed” … So from that day on they planned to put him to death.’

The Sanhedrin’s evil cynicism is breathtaking. They resolve to kill Jesus, an innocent man, not so much for the good of the nation, but because they fear he threatens their own power and privileges. The irony is that the Temple and the Jewish client state will indeed be destroyed by the Romans after a Jewish revolt a little over a generation later.

We see the same evil cynicism at work today, as authoritarian rulers seek to increase their power, and feather their own nests. We see it in Russia, where Putin’s regime marks  opponents for assassination, and hunts them down. We see it in the United States of America, where Trump vows retribution, and seeks vengeance on all who oppose him. And lest we think such things cannot happen in Ireland, remember the cynical murders of innocents carried out by paramilitary groups in the name of their cause.

News of the Sanhedrin’s plans spread and reached Jesus. We are told that he ‘no longer walked openly among the Jews’, but he sought refuge near the wilderness with his disciples. Jesus surely knows that the time is coming soon when he must go up to Jerusalem to confront the Sanhedrin. As Passover approaches everyone is wondering whether Jesus would show his face in Jerusalem, because the Sanhedrin ‘had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him’.

We know how it will end. Jesus’s friend and disciple Judas will betray him for 30 pieces of silver. Under arrest, Jesus will stand before that same Sanhedrin in a sham trial with a predetermined outcome. He will be condemned to death and die on a cross, guarded by Roman soldiers. But on the third day, Jesus will rise from the dead, defeating the evil cynicism of his time, and of all times. By imitating him, and with his help, we can and will defeat the evil cynicism we see today. We must take up our cross and follow him.