Don’t pity me

Luke 9.60

Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.

Luke 9.22-24

The Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.

Matthew 26. 6-13

A woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table. When the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, “Why this waste? This ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor.” But Je­sus said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? She has per­formed a good service for me. By pouring this oint­ment on my body she has pre­pared me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

The Pieta saddens us. No mother should have to see her son tortured and killed, certainly for having done nothing wrong, certainly not this way: on a cross, as a criminal: a lingering, horrifying death.

The Catholics leave Christ suffering on the cross; the Protestants take him off and seat him at the right hand of the Father. Both images are necessary and right—for different reasons. Christ earned the cross: he has every right for us to remember that. Christ is risen: Absolutely. The cross is truly horrifying it is is the end.

Everyone of every stripe recognizes the Pieta as a symbol of Christianity. The Madonna and child, Christ on the cross, and the Pieta are possibly the three most recognizable images of our faith.

Memorializing the dead Christ in Mary’s arms is not right—for many reasons. First is because the image Jesus wanted us to remember was the woman preparing his body for burial by pouring ointment on him, the the thing he gave as a memorial was the Lord's Supper. Second is because she wasn’t there. The Scriptures say Joseph of Arimathea took down the body, wrapped it in a cloth, and laid it in a tomb. It seems reasonable that if Mary had been there Matthew and Mark would have said so. It’s a rather important point.

Third, Christ said “let the dead bury their own dead”. Did he mean this of everyone else but not himself? We can allow that Jesus was talking about people inventing reason after reason why they can’t obey and that this one instance is not covered by the general demand. True. But we are memorializing Mary with his dead body, which likely did not happen, and paying no attention to what actually did happen: he refused to go out to her, she did not follow, she did not come Sunday morning to prepare his body for death, and no one ran to tell her that Jesus was alive.

Trivialities? No. Posing Mary and Jesus in a way we prefer to remember and passing over the truth as unseemly is a serious issue. If we want to memorialize Christ—or anyone for that matter—we should do it in truth, not in fantasy.