Thursday, March 29, 2018

Passover and Easter: Questions and Glimpses


Every year Passover and Easter share an intimate relationship on our calendars.  They dance and wrestle with one another.  Passover, this year, begins on the evening of Good Friday, the day Christians remember the murder of Jesus. 

Both holidays begin with questions.  The Jewish seder or meal starts with the youngest person present, asking “the four questions”, as to why this night is different from any other night.  And Good Friday scriptures talk of Jesus on the cross in Mark and Matthew’s gospels asking the question: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”  These questions lead to stories of deliverance, the Exodus and the Resurrection. 

But, did you notice?  From year to year the questions do not go away.  They keep being repeated.  The questions are an integral part of our traditions.  The questions remain questions because all the talk of deliverance from sin, death and evil is just that, talk!  In our time, sin, death and evil are doing quite well, Torah and Jesus notwithstanding.  The stories of deliverance are glimpses of hope yet to be completely fulfilled for Jews or Christians. 

During this season, we hold on to both the questions and the glimpses.  After all, Jews and Christians are two communities that continue to wait and wait and wait, at the same time doing what we can to reduce the madness of human beings.

Despite all the differences between Jews and Christians, and these should not be ignored or diminished.  The argument between them is important.  But this time of the year is about remembering, remembering who we are, where we came from, the questions we must ask, and the hopes that motivates us to get out of bed in the morning. 

Passover and Easter remind us not to forget. “In memory lies redemption.” And these holidays are ways we try to remember the problematic fragility and mysterious substance of our hopes.

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