Father John McGinn, Rector

Saint John’s Episcopal Church

Sandwich, Massachusetts

 

April 1, 2007                                              Palm Sunday

 

 

Imagine for a moment this morning that you are directing a movie.  It will be about the life of Jesus, and suddenly at the Sermon on the Mount, your lead actor who plays Jesus is struck by lightening.  Someone sees fire on the left side of his head and light all around his body.  Smoke is seen coming out of his ears and cast members are screaming.  Wouldn’t you think if you were the actor playing Jesus that maybe God was telling you something?  Such an event really occurred.

 

During the shooting of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, Jim Kabesal, the actor who played Jesus was struck by lightening.  And for a moment, in his own words, he looked as if he “went to (boxing promoter) Don King’s hairstylist.”  Now I don’t believe that God was trying to send Jim a message. At least I don’t think so.  That is not the way God works.  Still the movie did offend many people who thought the movie was overly anti-Semitic.  Of course Mel Gibson’s later run in with the law did nothing to dispel that perception, and that is a shame.

 

Many people, including myself, were moved by Gibson’s portrayal of Jesus’ Passion.   And why shouldn’t they be?  It tells the story of the most magnificent drama ever recorded.  You know the story well.  It begins on the Mount of Olives, where Jesus and his disciples have gone to pray. “Pray” Jesus says to them, “that you will not fall into temptation.”  And then Jesus withdraws a stone’s throw away. He kneels down and says, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; let not my will but yours be done.”  And something beautiful and mysterious occurs.  An angel from Heaven appears to Jesus and strengthens him. In his anguish he prays more earnestly his sweat like drops of blood falls to the ground and rising Jesus returns to the disciples and finds them asleep.  “Why are you sleeping?” he asks.  “Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”  And while he is still speaking a crown comes up led by his former disciple Judas, and Judas approaches Jesus and kisses him.  Jesus asks Judas, “Are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”  And of course he is.  One of Jesus’ disciples wants to defend him and he draws a sword and strikes the servant of the high priest, cutting his right ear.  Jesus touches the man’s ear and heals it.  They come to him to do him harm and he comes to them to heal not only their bodies but their hearts.  Then the seize Jesus and lead him to the house of the high priest, Simon Peter following cautiously behind.  He warms himself in front of a fire where they are interrogating his Lord.  There in that courtyard on that fateful night, Simon Peter denies his master three times just as Jesus predicted he would.  Inside the house, the men who are guarding Jesus begin to beat him.  The Pilate begins the interrogation, but can find no basis for charging him, so shuffles him off to Herod.  Herod is pleased and wants to see Jesus perform a miracle.  Herod taunts, in the words of Jesus Christ Superstar, “So you are the Christ, Yes the great Jesus Christ.  Prove to me you are no fool; walk across my swimming pool.”  But Jesus ignores Herod, so Herod has him beaten. Pilate wants to wash his hands of the whole business, so he offers to the mob a choice: Jesus or the murderer Barabas.  “Give us Barabas” they scream.  “But what about Jesus?” Pilate asks.  “Crucify him.”   And there he hangs, with two criminals and in the midst of all this Jesus prays.  “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do.”

 

The soldiers divide his clothes by casting lots, one of the criminals hurls insults at Jesus and the other rebukes him but asks to be remembered when Jesus returns to his kingdom.  Jesus tells them “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Darkness descends over the land for three hours.  All three of the synoptic gospels tell of something fascinating and significant.  When Jesus was crucified, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. I think a very important symbol.

 

Torn curtain was the name of a movie during the Cold War, by famed director Alfred Hitchcock.  It featured a rocket scientist (Paul Newman) and his fiancée (Julie Andrews), a spy movie set behind the iron curtain in Germany.  Many of us grew up with a real significance to the figurative curtain that hung between the Communist world and the free world.  Later we saw this curtain torn down.  It happened so quickly and unexpectedly, but the tearing of the curtain between east and west was not nearly as significant, as the torn curtain that we celebrate today and this week. 

 

All of us are familiar with curtains.  Many of us think of the lace of window curtains or the plastic shower curtains.  Do you remember the curtains in the house where you were raised?  To paraphrase Robert Frost; there is something that doesn’t like a curtain.  Sometimes it takes courage and compassion to listen to someone on the other side of the curtain.  It takes even more courage to tear a curtain down, a curtain that has been raised by your peers.

 

The curtain of the temple was torn in two.  The curtain that was torn on the day Jesus died was more critical than the hospital curtain, or the curtain of segregation, and yet it speaks to both of them.  The curtain of the passion drama is the temple curtain.  The curtain used to separate the place called the Holiest of Holy, from the rest of the temple was there to perform a double function.  On one hand it was there to keep mortals out.  A warning to humanity to stay away, to keep a respectful distance from all of the mysteries of God.  On the other hand it was there to shut God in, for behind that curtain there was silence like death, and darkness black as night. The people were fearful of whatever lay behind the curtain, in fact, whenever the high priest entered the sacred area, they would tie a rope around his waist in case he died while standing in the presence of God they could pull him out.  The curtain said “Keep you distance, God is not for you.”

 

Only the High Priest could enter God’s presence and Priests could come closer than Jewish men and Jewish men could come closer than Jewish women, and Jewish women could come closer than the gentiles.  The curtain was part of the system that kept up barriers between Jew and gentile, male and female, clergy and lay people.

 

Today we celebrate that at Jesus’ crucifixion, the curtain was torn.  Matthew and Mark, like Luke tell us it was torn top to bottom.  At that moment humanity entered a new relationship with God and with one another.  It is impossible to overstate the importance of the torn curtain, but there is one more curtain that was ripped in two on that cross 2000 years ago.  It was the curtain that veiled death.

 

The curtain that separates us from those before us.  I will talk about that more next Sunday, but as I get older I think more and more about what comes next.  I know there is something else after this life is over; I believe that because I can’t grasp the alternative.  I can’t imagine that through all eternity, I will never see anyone I love again or that my whole awareness will be obliterated.  I can’t believe that we are only bodies passing through this world. 

 

When I think about this I think of all the memories with my father, it is inconceivable that I had this wonderful period of my life and then the curtain dropped. Instead I want to believe that I will meet up with my father again.  I also want to catch up with my mother if only to tell her what I forgot to tell her.  I do think they are in heaven waiting.

 

When Jesus was crucified, the curtain of the temple was torn in two.  The curtain separating the people from God, the curtain separating humanity from one another, the curtain separating us from those we love.  This is how the drama ends.  Jesus calls out, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And saying this he breathed his last breath. A centurion who had seen what had happened praised God and said “Surely this was a righteous man.”

 

This morning on this Holy day, I want to thank God for that torn curtain. Amen

 

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