Yesterday we focused a little on the divinity of Christ. Today is unambiguously about his humanity. The story of how one man is tortured and killed. The pain and the suffering is all too relatable. But it is also all too common. How many people have died horrible deaths and continue to do so, in wars, and political violence, and for no good reason at all beyond someone with the means and the motive to kill.
Jesus death is in no way special as a death. What is special is who is dying. Yes, today we see him as fully human, a human being stripped to his core, both physically and mentally. We tremble at the pain because we can understand what it feels like, even if we’ve never had to experience that level of brutality.
At this moment in the Easter story we can identify completely with Jesus humanity. There is nothing hidden, no secret power which makes this treatment any more bearable for him than for anyone else. This is a man who dies, and is buried.
But that is not the end of the story. Jesus death is no different from that of countless other victims of violence – except for the fact that he is the son of God. He is the son of God who did not hold on to his equality with God, but allowed himself to be killed. And because of that he is special, his death is special, this death conquers death, this death gives us life. By his death we are reborn, we get to start over.