March Madness: The Other Version

It's called March Madness for a reason. The brackets are full of big name schools and some names that even after you hear the name you ask, "Where is that?" As the brackets shrink and the days toward the finals approach there are fewer and fewer names.

My strange mind thought of all this as I helped put together our church's "stations of the cross." The stations are composed of original art pieces made by members of our congregation. The walking prayer journey begins with a sculpture by none other than the resident artist of our house, Betsy. It depicts Jesus with his hands wrapped in prayer kneeling in the garden. He leans against a large rock and of course, since this is Betsy's doing, there is a garden around him with small tress and plants.

His eyes are closed and he is offering that now famous request that is heard through the years, "Can you take this cup away from me?" As you leave Jesus in the garden you walk toward a musical selection that can be listened to through ear phones of a piece from a requiem that our Chancel Choir did recently. Then there comes the stations where Pilate condemns Jesus, he picks up his cross, he falls, Simon of Cyrene helps him, he is nailed to that ugly tree, Mary holds the body of her dead boy, and he finally is placed in a borrowed tomb.

It's March Madness. As I walked through the stations I felt the "brackets" narrowing. Jesus is still in the "game" to the surprise of many who look on. In fact he makes it to the finals even though most of his "team" fouls out.

The odds makers are proven right after all as he is defeated. His hoped for "one shinning moment" is shrouded in darkness as a cloud appears over the scene of his loss. The crowds who were shouting earlier go back knowing that business as usual is around the corner and March Madness will soon take its place along side other left over newspapers that will be tossed. The brackets are no more.

Except in this "game" the loser ends up being the winner. It takes a few days for the dust to settle but the "madness" of it all ends up being a road to victory after all. Why does it take such madness to get to a final one shining moment for the guy whose image is frozen in a kneeling position at that first "station?"

It is because the one who created this teaming cosmos of ours decides to "play the game" with us knowing that our defeats matter. He does not just show up and declare victory. He comes, offers a game plan, and then takes the court with all the madness involved.

The difference here is that with the cut down nets still hanging around the neck of the team that thinks it holds the trophy there is a sunrise a few days later that ends up being a final victory. It seems that even though the brackets were completed by those who bend and abuse the rules to get to the finals there is one who offers a last comment that is perceived as "real madness" by a world bent on going its own way. Just as people start to go back to work after March Madness God whispers, "O death where is thy victory, O death where is thy sting."

It seems that Jesus is "not" frozen forever in that kneeling pose nor is he frozen by the power that always reaches the finals. So...when we get to the "finals" March Madness will have a different ending. So as I say at the conslusion of all the funerals I do, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ."

Blessed March Madness to you....
jody