PASSING THE BATON
A meditation by the Rev. Dr. James G. Kirk
Harundale Presbyterian Church
Text: “It is finished.” (John 19:30)
First
According to Jewish tradition, as soon as the sun sets on one day it is the beginning of a new day. So, I want to put the story of the upper room in the context of Jesus’ last words as he hung on the cross on Good Friday, “it is finished.” For it’s only in juxtaposing or overlaying one text with the other that both of them make sense. Jesus gives the disciples their marching orders on the one hand and proceeds to the end of his earthly ministry on the other.
While in college I trained with the quarter milers, some of the fastest runners in the school. I was no where near the speed they were, but trained with them in the passing of the baton for the quarter mile relay. As many of you’ll know who’ve ever watched a track meet, the crucial moment in the relay is when the baton is passed. The one receiving the baton has to start to run at just the right time, so that no time is lost in the exchange. Looking ahead and never looking back at the approaching runner he extends his arm, opens his hand and puts it in just the right position to receive the baton. If for any reason one of the runners drops the baton the race is over for them. So, over and over we’d train in just that one technique, so that, in time, it almost became second nature.
That’s what Jesus is doing this evening. He’s passing the baton to the disciples. They will be the one’s who’ll continue the race in his name. The race is going to consist of two things, service to others and unconditional love. So that by the time we hear Jesus’ last words, they’re not words of resignation. They don’t mean, as some have interpreted, that Jesus gave up. Nor do they mean that somehow he lost the battle. Rather, when he says, “It is finished,” it means that his time on earth has ended. He has done the work he needed to do. He’s prepared the disciples as best he could and now the race is theirs to run.
Neill Hamilton, in his book, Maturing in the Christian Life, makes the point that Jesus had to go, otherwise the disciples would forever have been dependent on him. They would have looked to him for everything. They would have wanted them to solve all of their problems for them. They would have wanted him to continue to do all the healing, the miracles, the teaching he’d always done throughout his ministry. He had to go; otherwise they’d never mature in the faith.
Again, like the quarter mile relay. Each runner sprints for a quarter mile. No one could expect them to sprint any more than that. Each runner is trained for three races, the 100-yard dash, the 220-yard dash, and the quarter mile sprint. After the quarter mile he’s done all that he could; he has to pass the baton to the next runner. Jesus has passed the baton and now it’s time for the disciples to run the race. “It is finished.”
But that doesn’t mean that they’ll be left on their own. Remember how in the fourteenth chapter Jesus reminds them how, “These things I have spoken to you while I’m still with you, but the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. And now peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give it unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled and neither let them be afraid.”
Tonight’s service of Tenebrae comes from the Latin word meaning “shadows.” It’s a somber service when we remember the night on which Jesus was betrayed. It’s somber because it reminds us that we, too, have betrayed him. Like the disciples we’ve denied him. We’ve failed to answer his call to serve. We haven’t loved others, as we should. There’s been many a time when we’ve dropped the baton, and failed to persevere in the race as Paul admonishes us to do. In other words, we’ve chosen so often to live in the shadows of darkness rather than in the light of God’s love.
Yet, in spite of it all the table is spread with the bread of life and the cup of salvation. God in God’s infinite grace once again offers us God’s hospitality and bids us to come and savor the goodness of God’s love. That’s why tomorrow is called Good Friday. The shadows of darkness never have the last word, God does. And God will continue to bid us to come and follow the Christ, the source of life and to be led by the Comforter, the Holy Spirit who will teach us all things and bring to remembrance all the Jesus has said to us.
Thanks be to God,
Amen