Passing Through

Reflections on Luke 19:1-10

Jesus was entering Jericho and was passing through it.

Almost ten years ago now, Lisa lost her husband in a tragic kayaking accident.  She was left alone to raise their two young daughters.  It is one thing to be a single mother by choice, but this was not Lisa’s choice.  It is also one thing to be single by choice, but this again was not Lisa’s choice.  In one catastrophic moment Lisa lost her husband and her parenting partner.  She was, in an instant, both alone and playing the role of mother and father.  It was clear that life was not going to wait for her to grieve.  The work of grieving would have to been done in tandem with changing diapers, shuttling to and from play dates, packing school lunches and answering the question, “where’s daddy?”

Every day is hard in its own way when you are grieving the loss of your spouse, but Lisa found Valentine's Day to be particularly painful.  A day that celebrates love and companionship only pulls at the emptiness, which now each day must be negotiated.  Somehow that day would need to be redeemed.

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Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.  He had a divine appointment.  According to Luke’s gospel he knew what was waiting for him there.  He knew he was both following God’s lead and heading into a hornet’s nest.  He said as much to his disciples.

“See, we are going to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished.  For he will be handed over to the Gentiles and he will be mocked and insulted and spat upon.  After they have flogged him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise again.”  (Luke 18:31-33)      

It was a tall order and he was resolved to see it through.  He was on his way to Jerusalem when he passed through Jericho.  He didn’t have an appointment in Jericho.  There was nothing recorded in his calendar, no reason to stop.  He was just passing through on his way to somewhere else.   Still, a crowd gathered to get a look at the guy whose reputation preceded him.  The miracle-working storyteller was a hit wherever he went.  Even Zacchaeus, that dirty, rotten, rich, Roman sympathizing, crooked tax collector came out to get a look.  He even climbed a tree to get a better look (add short to his resume).  But Jesus didn’t have a story or a miracle for the crowd.  Jesus was just passing through.  He was just passing through on his way to somewhere else when he noticed Zacchaeus in that tree.

The rest, as they say, is history … or perhaps legend … or whatever.  It is the stuff of Sunday school songs.  Jesus, who came to bring good news to the poor, spots the one the rich guy in the crowd, sees something redeemable in him and invites himself to dinner.  Zacchaeus was changed, maybe even transformed by the encounter, for Luke tells us that salvation came to Zacchaeus’ house that day.

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For a widow on Valentine’s Day it would be easy to plow through the day, just passing through with blinders on, filling it with all the routines of just another day in order to survive the day and move on.  But you can’t redeem what you don’t acknowledge.

For seven years now, Lisa has made it her habit to embrace the day, to live fully in it.  Not in the arms of a new husband.  Lisa has not remarried.  Still, she has found in Valentine’s Day an opportunity to reach out to others who have lost a spouse and know the irreparable emptiness that that leaves behind.   

This year on Lisa’s list was a secretary at her daughter’s school.  Last fall, Lisa became aware that the woman had lost her husband.  She was one of four stops on Lisa’s Valentine list.  Lisa stopped at her house with flowers in hand only to find no one at home.  She debated about leaving the flowers on the front step and that would be that, but decided otherwise.  She was going to check with a neighbor to make sure she wasn’t away, but halfway up the neighbor’s driveway she changed her mind and decided to head home where she would give the woman a call.

At home with the phone book in hand, she discovered that she had visited the wrong house.  Without hesitation she jumped back in the car.  The woman was at home.  She thought Lisa was a florist making a delivery on behalf of her grown children.  Lisa explained that her own daughter was a student at the school and that she had become aware that the woman’s husband had passed away the previous year.  Lisa explained further that she too was a widow and knew firsthand how hard Valentine’s Day could be.  She invited Lisa in and burst into tears.  She shared with Lisa what Lisa already knew about how hard the day had been, filled with the ghosts of the past, memories, good memories that made her heart ache all the more with the loss.   She was wrapped in a prayer shawl that some friends had knit for her and had been praying just before the doorbell rang that God would give her some relief.      

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You can’t redeem what you don’t acknowledge.  Jesus was just passing through on his way to Jerusalem when he acknowledged that wee little guy in a tree.  And Lisa, rather than merely surviving another Valentine’s Day in order to get through it, acknowledge it, embraced it and found a way to redeem it, for herself and for a stranger.