Is It Nothing to You?

I sit almost daily in the coffee shop, sipping my chai latte and, very often, writing these blogs. And as I think and pray and process, I tend to stare off into the distance. The Starbucks I go to most often sits along one of the busiest roads in Portage, and I watch as people hurry here and there, often driving way too fast and barely stopping to look as they pull out of the parking lot. I wonder if they are even aware there are other people around?

On this Good Friday, I can't help but reflect on something the Gospels tell us, that Jesus was crucified in a very public place. Crucifixions always happened that way. No sterile environment, no "invited guests only." He was hung on a tree out in front of everyone, in front of one of the busiest roads in and out of Jerusalem. It was such a public place and a crossroads of humanity that the charge against him had to be listed in three languages, Latin, Aramaic and Greek, to make sure everyone who walked by could read it.

Don't you wonder how many people hurried by, too busy and too important to stop for a moment and ponder the cross? Don't you wonder how many people were so used to seeing crucifixions that they no longer saw them? Don't you wonder how many weren't even aware that there were other people around, let along the savior of the world dying for their sins on a tree?

Jeremiah asked a question long ago that might have come to the minds of those followers of Jesus who did stand by the cross. When the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, Jeremiah lamented, "Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?" (Lamentations 1:12). Doesn't anyone care? Is what happened here just something you rush by and ignore? Jeremiah was certainly giving voice to his grief over the city's destruction, but the same must be wondered about those who passed by the cross.

And the same must be wondered, too, about those who, this day, are too busy to be bothered by the cross, by the one dying on the cross. Even as Christians gather for worship today, many will pass by and not give this day a second thought. Many Christians, too, want to ignore this day, and rush by it in order to get to Easter. But we can't really understand or fully celebrate Easter if we ignore Good Friday. We can't get to the resurrection without going through the cross. Is it nothing to you? Is what he has done nothing to you? Is the destruction of Jesus nothing?

Or is it, in fact, everything?

Rachel at one of the chapels, Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 2012