There are occasions when things just stop. A relationship breaks up, a diagnosis you weren’t expecting, you don’t get the job you were hoping for, an accident that comes out of nowhere. We find ourselves facing a different world. But the world isn’t really different. The world carries on. What has changed is inside us, not outside. It may seem like the world stops, but only for us.
On that Friday the world stopped for the disciples. They knew things weren’t going well. Jesus had even tried to warn them. They had run away at the critical moment. But I suspect they never really believed he was going to die. Somehow there was a way forward. He was special. He couldn’t end up on a cross like a common criminal.
But he did.
In the Gospel of John that we hear today (John 18:1—19:42) there are no great signs – earthquakes, or darkness, or mysterious phenomena in the Temple. There is a simple “It is finished.” The world had stopped. And in this case, in this one singular event, the world did change. The new covenant of Jesus’ death created a new relationship between God and his people, all people.
If we are to be part of that new world then we also have to die. We have to stop and go with him, to let go of everything. Let the world stop. Don’t fight it. Only when we die with him can we be reborn.