Dec. 17 "Behold, I am bringing you good news of great joy"

Saturday, December 17 | Acts 10:34-43

“Behold, I bring you good news of great joy.” The angels speak to “the least of these,” to folks struggling to get by, to pregnant girls giving birth in stables, to shepherds laboring on starvation wages, no benefits, no security. Luke writes at the height of the Roman Empire, with its colonized peoples and radical inequities, its tiny elite and struggling masses. Understandably, the multitudes on that first Palm Sunday hope this is good news of a political revolution. Good Friday kills that hope. But more profound hope is born— there is victory on the cross. In our mental calendars, Christmas precedes Good Friday, and Good Friday is a stepping stone to Easter. In reality, the triumph on the cross is decisive, inspiring conviction about manger and resurrection. What is the passion of Passion Week? It is the passion of Jesus, a passionate concern for all the Faces to whom he ministered, the passion named “agape.” This is the passion of the Good Samaritan, the passion of the prodigal’s father. It is the passion of Lent—not giving for the sake of self-deprivation, but giving to others in surrender to agape. It is the passion of Advent and of Christmas—not giving to impress, cajole, or out of obligation, but giving to friends, family, and strangers in surrender to having been seized by agape for their Faces (giving gifts: perfect Christmas liturgy). Agape fires Jesus’s ministry, leading him to speak love (agapeic, “love your enemies,” gracious) to power. This witness leads to the cross. In Jesus, agape triumphs over threat of crosses, over violence securing the pseudo-pax of the Pax Romana. It triumphs at Gethsemane, triumphs at Golgotha. Behold the passion that secures true peace, the “Peace of Christ,” the “where two or three are gathered” peace of koinonia, the glorious peace of iustia (justification/forgiveness). This passion is so perfectly and powerfully manifest in the ministry and life of Jesus, “even unto death on a cross,” that it originates the conviction that Jesus is Emmanuel, agape incarnate. It originates sure hope that agape is not only alpha but omega, that an unending war of all against all is not ultimate, that agape will be the final word for every creature. Behold, good news of great joy.

– Dr. William Greenway Professor of Philosophical Theology