Maundy Thursday: Laughter and Tears

A few years ago, the Age columnist, Marty Flanagan, wrote about a visit to South Africa … back in the days when we could fly! He and a friend had a chance meeting in a café with Bishop Desmond Tutu. In his article, Flanagan describes the encounter they had with this modern saint: https://bit.ly/2XxqKxg

We were sitting in a cafe when Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu came in. I said [to my friend] "There's a question I've always wanted to ask him." [My friend] said, "What's that?" I told him.

Notwithstanding all the horror he has looked in the eye over the years, Tutu has kept his amazing laugh. He's like an exotic old bright-eyed bird with an outrageous cackle. I told [my friend] I wanted to ask Tutu, "Does God laugh?" [He] said, "Go and ask him". So I did.

I stopped Tutu by the door of the café as he was leaving. He look around tiredly but, when I asked my question, he grabbed my forearm with both hands and I saw what lay on the flip side to his merriment. "God laughs," he said. "And God cries!"

This really is the story of Maundy Thursday; laughter and tears. Perhaps it is our story too in these challenging times.

It is Passover; a holiday for Jews everywhere; a joyful annual gathering in the Holy City. There may have been two and a half million people in Jerusalem that week; a huge crowd. Jews would gather from all over the Mediterranean Basin for this Passover Feast, much as Muslims flock to Mecca in our age.

That particular week there had been a huge march; thousands joined what we now call the Palm Sunday procession, expectant that this super-star new prophet Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah.

The atmosphere in the Upper Room would have been festive. “How good was that march, Jesus?” “A donkey and a colt. That certainly got the message across.” “We showed those Pharisees and Sadducees who knows their Torah.” “Remember all those people laying down their cloaks and palm branches: Hosanna to the Son of David. That’s you Jesus!”

I am sure that Jesus had a sense of humour. These were incredible times. God was at work in a powerful way. But beneath the laughter and excitement, Jesus knew that his hour had come. Not his hour to take up a political position, or lead a revolution, but his hour to depart from this world. It was becoming increasingly evident that this was the call on his life; like Isaiah’s suffering servant. His was to be the way of self-sacrifice, not worldly success. God was crying that night, in the midst of all the laughter of the festival.

 During the Passover meal, amongst the jollity and feasting, John the Evangelist tells us that Jesus had a moment of profound clarity: “knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God” he did a powerful thing. He “got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.”

The atmosphere in the room changed. The disciples fell silent. Then good old Simon Peter, the Rock, the fallible fool and great leader of the early church tries to crack joke.

“Come on Jesus! There’s no way you are going to wash my feet. Well, go on then, but don’t stop there; what about my hands and my head too?”

But Jesus just keeps going: “Do you know what I have done for you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and rightly so – I am. So, if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you should also do as I have done to you.”

Desmond Tutu is a great man, a spiritual giant! He knows how to laugh. He is filled with joy; the joy of God’s Spirit. But he also knows how to serve, and how to weep with those who are in pain. He helped lead a nation out of hatred and revenge, into forgiveness and reconciliation. It’s hard enough to do that for one or two of our friends, or family, or work mates, or congregation members. Tutu did it for an entire nation. There were many tears shed, on earth and in heaven, over those years I am sure.

May we find even just a dash of that same Spirit as we seek to proclaim the gospel in these times of pandemic. May we laugh heartily with God and with those around us, embracing precious times of intimacy, joy and celebration.

And may we also be brave enough to shed tears, God’s tears, at the anxiety, illness, and chaos of the present time.

The Lord be with you.