Your Sorrow Shall Be Turned Into Joy

In Chapel this week two different Scripture passages were read. At the Junior School and Grade 10 chapel services, a passage from Luke was read about the healing of the centurion’s servant. At the Grade 11 and Grade 12 services, a passage from John’s Gospel was read about the meaning of the resurrection seen in terms of the transition of sorrow into joy.

The first reading notes the interplay and interrelation of cultures out of which Christianity emerges. “Say the word,” the Centurion says to Jesus after having asked the elders of the Jews to ask Jesus to heal the slave “who was dear to him.” They had told Jesus that the Centurion is worthy because “he loves our nation” - the Jewish people - and has built a synagogue for them. But the  Centurion himself runs out to say he is not worthy, just “say the word and let my servant be healed.” The Centurion is an officer in the Roman army who has charge of one hundred men. This reminds us of the world in which Jesus historically lived in the convergence of three important spiritual forces: Roman law and authority, Greek philosophy and intellectual culture, and Jewish religion and ethics. This is the context for the emergence of the Christian faith and world.

There is a sense not of opposition and hostility but of mutual respect that is at work here in the interplay of things Roman, Greek, and Jewish. “Say the word,” the Centurion says, and explains the whole concept of order. Commands are passed on down through the ranks. There is a sense of being part of an ordered whole, of a rational community. Jesus marvels at what he says. The Centurion sees in Jesus the power and truth of God as something for everyone, even for him and for his slave. His insight is into the power and nature of the divine word which alone creates and heals. This contrasts with our words which do not create and heal; at best, we are “secondary creators” (Aquinas) who respond to what has been given in the order and structure of creation. The Centurion has grasped this essential insight that occasions wonder on the part of Jesus. What he has grasped cannot be constrained to one culture or group.

The students of the School last Wednesday were all part of the Cadet Corps that marched down to Christ Church. They stepped up and into what was asked and expected of them in an exemplary fashion; a kind of miracle of education. Why? Because it means respect and honour and taking responsibility for what belongs to our life together. It was an illustration of the theme of the Church Parade: To Govern Is To Serve. A wonder indeed!

And one which belongs equally to the Eastertide readings about the meaning of the resurrection and how it is grasped and understood. The second reading this week was a passage where Jesus encounters the disciples in their bewilderment and perplexity about what he is saying to them about his passion and resurrection. They admit their confusion. Jesus tells them that it is all about his “going to the Father.” It is a loaded theological statement. It signifies the radical meaning of the going forth of the Word and Son of God in creation and the return of the Word and Son of God in redemption. This is the radical gathering of all things back to God from whom all things have come; a gathering which the Church Parade readings about Christ the Good Shepherd also showed.

He explains its meaning by way of the image of childbirth. “A woman in travail has sorrow because her hour has come: but as soon as she is delivered, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a child is born into the world.” Her hour alludes to his hour, the hour of his passion and its deeper meaning. He is using this image of child-birth and mothering care to explain the transition from sorrow to joy that belongs to his going to the Father having accomplished all that belongs to human redemption. It signals the true nature of pastoral care as what nurtures and nourishes life and growth in contrast to what negates and smothers the life of others.

Again, it all relates to the concept of service and care. Suffering and sorrow are part of human experience but they don’t totally define us. The care and service that properly defines us is grounded in the very life of God. The images of our pilgrimage are gathered into the pilgrimage of God himself in the going forth and return of the Son to the Father. The interplay of images is striking and opens us out to the deeper meaning of words and images without turning them into things. The reification of words and images is reductive and results in turning ourselves into commodities, things to be used, but results in an endless power game about who controls the narratives and in what way. In other words, it is simply about power as domination, the antithesis to leadership as service.

The stories of the resurrection all confront the confusions and uncertainties of human experience but, as Jesus says and shows by these images, “your sorrow shall be turned into joy,” a joy that nothing and no-one can take from you. A blessing indeed and at the very least a counter perspective to our confusions and uncertainties.