Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Psalm 22, Hebrews 10:16-25, John 18:1-19:42
Darkness
is closing in. Death is near. He senses it. He knows it is almost
over. The heat of the desert sun is sucking the moisture out of
everything that is exposed to the bright rays of light. The weight of
his body has put a tremendous amount of stress on his bones. As he
tries to hold himself up to catch a breath of air, unimaginable pain
runs through his body pulsing from his wounds, especially his feet as he
tries to hold up his body. Every breath is a challenge. He has lost a
fair amount of blood and sweat on his journey to Golgotha and while
hanging on the cross for many hours. His mouth is dry, lips chapped,
head hanging, little strength left. Finally he proclaims “it is
finished” and gave up his spirit.[1]
To
say that today is a difficult day for Christians would be an
understatement. Today we hear about the final hours of Jesus’ earthly
life. The final hours that were full of torture and sacrifice. Those
final hours that he endured for you and for me.
It
is very tempting for us to shy away from the difficulty of today,
especially while we listen to the scripture readings. We are tempted to
gloss over the suffering of Jesus, the absence of most of the disciples,
and the death of Jesus. We are tempted to ignore these facts and jump
to the amazingness of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter. We are tempted, but
we cannot give into that temptation. This is something that I struggle
with every year, so I am saying this as much to myself as I am to all of
you... today we must sit in this space which is visually bare and
scripturally painful before we can enjoy the days that are to come.
Throughout
John’s description of today’s events we hear many allusions to or
direct quotes from the Hebrew Scripture. Think back to the Isaiah
reading we heard and the Psalm 22 that we read together earlier in this
service... The Isaiah reading speaks of one who will be be honored
though is not special by appearance, one who will suffer for the sins of
others, one who will be killed though he is innocent. Many of the
phrases of Psalm 22 feel like descriptions of what happens to Jesus in
the gospel. This is no coincidence, this is because Jesus is the fulfillment of the Hebrew Scriptures, he is the Messiah.
At
the time John’s gospel was written, Christianity had become a distinct
group within the multi-religious context of the Roman Empire. Though
not legally recognized, Christianity was quickly growing in numbers and
had not yet solidified a canon of scriptures or unity of belief. In the
Hellenistic world in which Christianity was born, some believed that
Jesus had not really come in flesh and blood, much less died a gruesome
physical death on the cross. At that time it was believed that flesh
was of the evil realm, and could never be holy, which is why
philosophers of that time sought to transcend the earthly body and reach
towards the lofty aspirations of the spirit and knowledge. Only the
spirit was capable of the divine. In other words, they believed that
Jesus did not really die he only appeared to.
But that was not true.
Jesus did die on the cross and the theological undertones of the Gospel
of John seek to defend this even at the very beginning of the gospel
when John says that the “Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
Throughout
John’s gospel the dual nature of Christ, being both fully human and
fully divine, is always at the center of his message. Both of these
natures are important components of the saving narrative of the life and
death of Jesus Christ. By emphasizing one over the other or even the
total absence of either of the natures completely changes our
understanding of why and how the Word was incarnate through Jesus and
bore the sin of the world so that we might be saved.
So how do we sit in the sadness of this not-so-good Friday, while also seeing in it the good in it?
First,
we need to come to terms with our own involvement in the events that
took place on this day so many years ago. While none of us were actually
present on that first Good Friday, we can see ourselves in the people
who were involved. Some of us might have been like the disciples who
truly believed in Jesus, but abandoned him out of fear when he was
arrested. Others of us might have been like the crowds, who fall prey to
groupthink and become part of the mob asking for Jesus to be put to
death. Still others of us might have been like the Marys and John, who
stay close to Jesus even while he is on the cross, because their level
of care and devotion to Jesus does not allow them to leave his side.
Second,
we must remember that Jesus had free will, just as you and I do. There
were times when he could have strayed from his task and given it all up.
He could have avoided going to Jerusalem all together and avoided being
arrested and put on trial. In the garden of Gethsemane Jesus asks God
to take this cup from him, but also asks that God’s will be done not his
will. While Jesus experienced the human quality of doubt, he still
stuck to the task and walked the hard walk towards his death on the
cross. His determination to do what was necessary is an example that we
can take for ourselves. Our walk in faith will require us to make hard
choices, to follow a path that may lead us to be countercultural and
disagree with our friends, families, or the wider society. We must
have faith that by sticking to the task presented to us we will be
supported and filled with the strength and love of God that will sustain
us on our journey.
And
lastly, we need to remember why we call today good. We call today good
not because what happened to Jesus was good, but because what comes
after today is good. It is good because when Jesus said “It is finished”
it was not just an end, but also a beginning. The end of Jesus’ earthly
life is an affirmation that he has finished the work God gave him to
do, that he has loved his own until the end, and even in his very act of
dying, God is being glorified.
May we continue to look for the good as we wait in hope for the resurrection of Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment