Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, March 24, 2024
I’ve missed them. When the pandemic began wrapping its sinister self around the globe four years ago, our neighborhood sidewalks became a canvas for all sorts of colorful art and games. They brightened up those early anxious months as we tried our best to adjust to trying times.
Children tended to draw a variety of hopscotch games, and suggestions on how to navigate down the sidewalk creatively (“Run like a zombie” is one I remember). Adults focused on beautiful artwork and uplifting messages. (My favorite was the illustrated directive to “Stand here and think about someone you love.” I did. I thought of several someones.)
Eventually, as conditions improved, the sidewalk chalk was tucked away. But this past week, along with flowers, bushes, and fruit trees, the sidewalks started blooming again!
The sidewalk outside one home was bright with “Hello, Spring!” and “Welcome, Spring!” greetings, accompanied by sketches of bright birds, flowers, and sunshine – and also the more muted artwork you see in the photo above, bidding us to “Glow in the Dark!”
And yes, that makes me think of Jesus.
Easter is a week away, so we’ve been reading and mulling over the Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John gospel accounts of what Jesus experienced, from the Last Supper to the Cross.
To call it a dark time is a vast understatement. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus told Peter, James, and John, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” (Matthew 27:38 NIV)
After He agonized in prayer with His Father He struggled to His feet, His decision made, the chosen Cross before Him. One of His closest associates betrays Him, leading a detachment of soldiers and some chief priests and Pharisees to the olive grove where Jesus had often met with His disciples. John tells us, “They were carrying torches, lanterns, and weapons.” (John 18:3 NIV)
And then something happens that we often brush past, as we hurry on to His arrest and trials. Jesus asks them who they want, and they reply, “Jesus of Nazareth.”
“I am he,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am he,” they drew back and fell to the ground. (John 18:5-6)
Why? What made this armed mob retreat and fall to the ground before Jesus, the Man they had successfully hunted down in order to capture and crucify Him?
We’re not told that Jesus did anything to warrant such a reaction. I think His divinity suddenly shone in their faces. I think He was “glowing in the dark.”
Jesus asks them once more who they’re seeking, and apparently they scramble to their feet as they give the same answer.
We watch then as Jesus is deserted by his closest friends, tied up, arrested, taken away, interrogated by Annas the ex-high priest, and then interrogated by Annas and Caiaphas, the current high priest.
We watch Him as He endures a night trial before the Sanhedrin in partial session, then is taken to a guard room and beaten by the mob, and endures a day trial before the full Sanhedrin, survives beatings by the priests and the mob, is tried before Pilate the Roman governor, then hurried to a trial before Herod, the ruler of Galilee.
Then Herod, the mob, and the soldiers beat Jesus. And He goes to a second trial before Pilate. We see Him scourged with a whip before the crowds, mocked and beaten by the soldiers, scourged a second time, then led away to the cross to be crucified.
Through it all, I see Jesus “glowing in the dark.” When He remains silent and serene as officials badger Him to answer their questions, and even perform a miracle, I think He is glowing in the dark. When Peter denies He even knows Him, for the third time, and Jesus turns and “looks straight at Peter.” Who would blame Jesus if that look was one of disgust and condemnation? But I believe the look he gave Peter was full of love and forgiveness. I think He was glowing in the dark.
Even as He suffered the anguish of crucifixion, He thought of His mother and gave her into the care of His youngest disciple. He glowed with tender love and respect for her.
When one of the thieves crucified with Him pleaded to be remembered when He came into His kingdom, He assured him that He would. He glowed with forgiveness, no questions asked. The same mercy was even shown to those who crucified Him: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34 NIV)
I think of glowing as something that happens from within, and radiates out. Jesus was the true Light of the World, yet in Matthew 5:-17 He calls us the light of the world, and urges us to let our lights shine so that people will see the good we do – “and praise your Father in heaven.”
That reminds me of Psalm 115:1:
Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.
We’re living on a sin-saturated planet. The times are dark. A good time to get glowing. The only way we can get that kind of glowing going is to do what Jesus did; to earnestly, daily pray for God to strengthen us and shine through us.