Matthew under the arm 138

[Perhaps it seems strange to be writing about Matthew’s account of The Passion, The Tomb and indeed about The Resurrection at this time of year. However, I remind myself that the mystery of Christ’s birth is really only perceived through the prism of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. What is more, there is a strange and painful irony in that the Passion narrative is a matter for meditation during the appalling scenes of suffering, death (including children), hunger, fear and the creation of refugees within the small piece – Gaza…]

I had wanted Columba and I to by-pass what we were informed to be troubled territory, but Columba reminded me that a pilgrim must be faithful to where the path leads, including into the ‘heart of darkness’. Early one morning, a crowd passed our host’s house. Columba and I quickly moved among them to discover why they were looking so disturbed. They were holding aloft a painting of a young person who had spoken out against local leadership and had, as a result, been murdered. ‘What was the young person’s greatest quality?’ Columba asked. ‘Gentle integrity’, was the answer. “That’s a painting”, responded Columba, “that is carried aloft when you live gentle integrity yourselves.”

Matthew 27:62-66
One of the ways of undermining the humanity of those who are a threat, even when they’re dead, is not to name them, but to label them. A name brings intimacy. A label distances. The Christian Churches tragically find it all too easy to label rather than to name. Labelling someone is an attempt to ensure that we are protected from what seems alien. This is, of course, in total contrast to the Christian dynamic which is to love the alien. So Jesus, in the tomb is labelled as an ‘imposter’- a sham. What is more, a ‘leader of the people’ is perhaps more powerful when dead than when alive. For example, Che Guevara has now legendary status, after his death, as a guerrilla, someone who fought in South America for the oppressed. So sealing Jesus’ tomb was perhaps a futile attempt to erase Jesus memory, let alone undermine any story of resurrection.

I WOULD KNOW INTIMATELY THE LIFE OF CHRIST WITHIN ME, IN MY MEMORY, MY PRAYING AND MY LIVING.

One of the tragedies of modern conflict, particularly when it includes genocide, is not just the destruction of a people, but erasing as much evidence of the history as possible of that people: ‘shredding the papers’ of it’s story. The numbing fear of nuclear holocaust is not simply about millions of deaths and the turning of the earth to glass, but the erasure of any memory of humanity: the sealing of our tomb. That is why this passage is perhaps the most chilling of all in the New Testament. The sealing of the tomb is the final destructive act as it suffocates hope. What history of your life do you regard as essential and would be lost behind ‘the sealed tomb’? What would you do in order to keep the memory alive, so that what may seem lost at your death may be ‘raised’? Use the sentence to enter the exercise prayerfully.

+Martin
Bishop of Argyll and The Isles.