Unlikely Relationships

This past spring, I read the book An Unlikely Lent (Rachel Billups).  One of the chapters was about Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. The name of the chapter was "Unlikely Allies."

Billups starts the chapter by telling the story of Daryl Davis, a black man. He is a "R&B and blues musician and activist."  At the age of 10, he encountered racism for the first time (but not for the last time). An encounter with a member of the KKK when he was an adult, performing, started him on a path to create unlikely relationships.

He would befriend members of the KKK and have conversations with them. According to Billups, nearly 200 members of the Klan committed to Davis to give up their racism because of his work in creating relationships with them.  (Here is a TED talk that he gave called Klan we Talk?)

I think about those people around me who have vastly different political beliefs systems than me. Those who "spout off" about how stupid everyone else is.  Could I form a relationship with a person who believes that women should not be ordained? That LGBTQ+ people should be excluded from the church? With the person who is a white supremist? Or a person who seems to vocally hate what I would say is truth?  Where are your unlikely relationships? Could you work to create bridges?

Can love transform enemies into friends?

 

All the way to suffering...

 In An Unlikely Lent , Rachel Billups writes:

As Jesus hung on the cross, most of his followers had scattered. Gripped by fear they had fled to the shadows, unwilling to risk their lives for the man they once called Lord. But not the women. Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary the mother of Joseph and Joses, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Salome, stood at the foot of the cross, refusing to turn away. They had followed Jesus not just when it was easy...these women followed when it cost them everything. Their presence at the cross was an act of defiance against fear, a declaration that their love for Jesus was greater than their need for safety....they risked following him all the way to suffering, to sorrow, to the place where hope seemed lost.

I think about Jesus' male disciples who fled, I think about Peter who betrayed Jesus, I think about all of the times that I and others around me limit how far we will go. What are the limits of your discipleship? What stops you from following Jesus not only near the cross but to the cross? Fear? Selfishness? Desire for control? Laziness? Other commitments? What stops us from truly being the disciples that these women were?

Simon of Cyrene

 

Rachel Billups "An Unlikely Lent," the chapter about Simon of Cyrene serves as the inspiration for this post.

In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23:26:

As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus.

Imagine the moment for Simon. We don't know a lot about him, but he is from Cyrene. Cyrene was an ancient Greek colony in Libya, near present-day Shahhat.  The straight line distance between the two locations is about 700 miles, if you travel across the Mediterranean.  The costal land route would have been even longer.

Imagine if Simon was a pilgrim, who had traveled that long distance (not in a plane, not in a car) to Jerusalem as a pilgrim for Passover. Or maybe he was just visiting, a part of the crowd. He's "seized" from the crowd and made to carry the cross. It seems to me that he would have been terrified.  Were these Roman soldiers who grabbed him? He was far from his home, if Cyrene is where he lived permanently, and now he is forced into a procession to an execution.

I wonder what Simon did when he reached Golgatha. Was he just glad to be rid of the burden of the cross? Did he exit the scene in relief? Or did he recognize something in Jesus that compelled him to stay and witness the crucifixion?

Book Review: An Unlikely Lent

 Information about the book

An Unlikely Lent: Extraordinary People of the Easter Story by Rachel Billups. Published by Abingdon Press, Nashville, 2025. It is available from Amazon and Cokesbury, plus other retailers.

Summary

From Amazon: The crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus are at the heart of the story of Easter. But the resurrection was not witnessed in isolation; it unfolded before a crowd. What might the stories of those women and men teach us today? How will they help us step into the story of Easter? Here, we can see what has been overlooked, not just in the grand moments but in the in-between: the silence, the side characters, and the questions.

Impressions

I found this to be an excellent study for Lent. Each chapter is focused on a different person or group of people in the Easter story, including Mary of Bethany, the servant girl near Peter when Jesus was on trial, Barabbas, Simon of Cyrene, the women at the cross, and Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus. I thought each chapter provide fresh insights into the person being studied as well as personal illustrations from the author. I highly recommend this book.

Posts about book

Link to posts on blog at Billups Lent

In the Courtyard by the Fire

A few months ago - maybe last year sometime - I took a class from BeADisciple called Reading the New Testament with Fresh Eyes.  One of the Bible study methods we explore was an Ignatian Method.  At the time, I wrote a post about it here.

This morning, I spent some times reading from Rachel Billups' book, An Unlikely Lent. I'm on the second chapter; it focuses on the servant girl who accuses Peter of following Jesus. As I read that chapter, the Ignatian Method came to mind. There are a few questions in that method that I think can "take us into" the scripture. 

For this exploration, I'm reading Mark 14:66-72

Picture the scene....What is the setting? Who are the people in the scene? What can be seen, heard, or smelled in the scene?  It's helpful to read Mark 14's previous verses. Peter has followed Jesus to the courtyard of the high priest. While Jesus is on trial in front of the chief priests, elders, and scribes, Peter is in the courtyard, sitting near the fire with the guards. I imagine it is the time of day that is still night but poised on the edge of sunrise. The light would have been inadequate to make out details, but just beginning to hint at the day to come. The fire would have cast shadows around the courtyard.

Peter would be able to hear the guards talking and the conversations of anyone else who enters into the courtyard. Were they talking about what was going on? Was Jesus well known enough for their to be speculation among those gathered regarding what was happening? Could they hear the questioning? Jesus' answer of "I am"? Could they hear blows striking as they beat Jesus? What about when they condemned him to death?

The courtyard would have been full of the scent of the burning fire and of the men around it. I imagine they could have smelled the fear as Peter sat with them, sweating and afraid.  This man of action probably couldn't have set very still - his feet would have been shuffling and his hands would have been moving around each other and across his beard, clothes, and hair.

And when the servant approached him, and asked him if he were a follower of Jesus, would he have sprung guiltily to his feet? Or tried to maintain calmness by staying in his place by the fire? All those around him would have heard the question and his answer. Unless he had a "poker face" I think he would have looked startled and afraid.

As I write this, I am sitting in my living room, and I can hear a rooster outside. (The neighborhood rooster crows all the time - just annoying). They are not quiet birds, so that crow would have been loud and unmistakable. Peter would have remembered what Jesus told him about his betrayal. His fear would have been compounded now by the guilt that was just under the surface as he started to cry - maybe now leaving the fire to hide.