On This Gallows

Bread and Wine Reading: "On This Gallows", Dorothee Soelle

Scripture Reading: Mark 15: 37-39 Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’
Dorothee Soelle begins by asking the question, “how can hope be expressed in the face of senseless suffering?” It is, of course, the ultimate paradox. Hope…good; Suffering…bad—How can something good come from something bad? Soelle goes on to tell a story from Elie Wiesel’s book Night:
We do have a hard time dealing with the death of one so innocent. And yet, our faith tells us that the boy was not alone. God was there, walking the young boy through the valley, never leaving his side, and even taking the suffering and pain unto Godself.

The SS hung two Jewish men and a boy before the assembled inhabitants of
the camp. The men died quickly but the death struggle of the boy lasted half an
hour. “Where is God? Where is [God]?” a man behind me asked. As the boy, after a
long time, was still in agony on the rope, I heard the man crying again, “Where
is God now?” and I heard a voice within me answer, “Here [God] is—hanging here
on this gallows…”

God is not “up in heaven” waiting for us to come there. God is not a deity who is removed from whatever happens in our lives. The Cross tells us that God is here, walking with us and even sharing in the suffering that life (or our brothers and sisters) sometimes inflicts upon us. But if we ourselves are claiming to be followers of the cross, we share that walk with God. We share that walk with each of our brothers and sisters who are suffering or in pain.

Soelle claims that “a person’s resurrection is no personal privilege for [himself or herself] alone—even if he is called Jesus of Nazareth. It contains within itself hope for all, for everything.” God does not leave the side of the one who is suffering, the one who is hanging on the gallows. But we are called to be the ones to remove the suffering victim from their pain and torture. We are the ones called to speak out, to stand up, and to end the suffering of others. Soelle reminds us that “it is no less significant for us than it is for the boy that God is the one hanging on this gallows. God had no other hands than ours, which are able to act on behalf of other children.”

There is indeed pain and suffering in this world. In the Cross, God showed us that no one has to endure it alone. But in the Cross, God also showed us that we are so connected to each other that the suffering and pain of one of our brothers or sisters is not to be separate and apart from our own lives. As children of God, as images of God, we ourselves also bear the burden of suffering and find ourselves, the very likeness of God, hanging there. And, with that, the resurrection of one of us raises the world to new heights as part of God’s ongoing act of Creation and that, my friends, is indeed the hope of the world.

Discussion Questions:
1.) What does it mean for you to think that God was the one hanging on the gallows, that God was the one hanging on the Cross?
2.) What does the idea of one’s resurrection not being merely a personal thing, but a part of Creation, mean for you?
3.) What meaning does this bring to the notion of the Cross for you?So go forth, aware of your brother and sister, and when one suffers, remove them from the Cross in the name of God!

Grace and Peace,

Shelli