“Do you know what I have done to you?” Jesus’ question echoes through the room where the disciples have gathered, their freshly washed feet cool and tingling. Jesus’ question reverberates down through the centuries to us as well. Do we know what he has done to us? Do we understand it, really?

            We know something about arithmetic. Two plus two equals four, and the square root of 64 is eight. These things have been drilled into us. We practiced those answers in countless math problems, through all those years of school. “Quiz me,” we might ask. We’ll have ready answers. Thirty-two divided by eight equals four. Ten times any number is that number, with an extra zero on the end. We know that.

            But do we know what Jesus has done? As Holy Week unfolds, do we understand it?

            We learned a long time ago that the world is round. Never mind that people thought, for centuries, that it was flat. Wiser ones than we discerned the truth, and our ancestors — and we — believed and trusted that truth long before we saw the pictures from space. When we finally saw this mysterious blue orb that is our home, our faith was right. Of course the earth is a sphere. That we understand!

            But: “What do you know about me?” Jesus asks. “Do you understand what I have done to you?” These are worthy questions for Holy Week. We know what is coming on Good Friday, and we already anticipate a long darkness that makes us think Easter may never come. What do we understand of this?

Inscrutable God

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