Good Friday

The Rev. Julia W. Messer
4/22/2011
Good Friday-- Year A-RCLJohn 18:1-19:42

GOOD FRIDAY

            Condemned by the crowd, with sneers and taunts being thrown at him, Jesus picked up his cross, made his way through the crowd, and headed to Golgotha. Crowds had surrounded Jesus throughout his ministry.  At one time, those crowds had reached out to touch him so that they might be healed. Crowds had gathered because they wanted to hear his words. Crowds who, just a few days earlier, had shouted “Hosanna in the highest” were now shouting “Crucify him!” 

            How quickly the tide turned. It started just hours earlier, with betrayals from those closest to Jesus.  First it was Judas, one of the disciples, one of his own, who turned against him and abandoned Jesus to the anger and fear of those who sought to silence this man called Jesus of Nazareth. Then before the cock crowed to signal the dawn of the day that Jesus would be crucified on, another disciple, Peter, forsook Jesus and denied him three times.

            Jesus, condemned by those closest to him, seemed abandoned and alone, standing there in a crowd. When he looked closer he did see those who had not betrayed him, but they couldn’t step forward on his behalf because they were either powerless or too afraid of the powers “that be”.  Betrayed and in pain, Jesus lifted the heavy and cold wood of the cross onto his back and took his first steps to Calvary. 

            It was in these moments, that Jesus, God’s only son, showed the world what it meant to be human, and to be obedient to God, no matter what the cost. Bleeding and betrayed, Jesus walked through the crowds on the road to Golgotha but his human body had trouble sustaining the weight of the burden he had been asked to bear.           

There are times in our lives that the cross we bear is our own frailty. We too can be borne down by pains. When cancer or sickness attacks the body, or when the body starts to age and is unable to do what it used to do, we may have trouble sustaining the weight. Financially, even psychologically, the weight of our sorrows and the loss of control start to weigh down not only our bodies, but also our souls.  But as Christ taught us here on this road, that despite the weight of this cross, he kept going as best as he could.

It is here as Christians that we are shown what it means to have true reverence for what we have. For true reverence begins as a deep understanding of our human limitations; from this grows the capacity to be in awe of whatever we believe lies outside our control—God, truth, justice, nature, and even death. The capacity for awe, as it grows, brings with it the capacity for respecting fellow human beings, flaws and all. In this, we are offered a chance to see and to learn to accept the weakness in others, just as we must learn to accept them in ourselves. We too must continue on our path, just as Jesus did.

             Jesus continued on the way, surrounded by crowds who had turned against him, whose hatred was thrown in the face of the weakening Jesus, yet interspersed in the crowd, Jesus caught glimpses of those who loved him, yet were powerless to help him.  In times of deep darkness, to catch a glimpse of grace, or to see a loved one who has not abandoned us can be uplifting, but it can also be bitter sweet. They are moments of grace and joy because of the joy in knowing that we are not forsaken in times of despair. Yet they are also heart-wrenching when we realize that the road we are on or a loved one is on is causing such deep pain and mourning for loved ones.  To see it reflected back in their eyes can be hard to bear.  To know that we are the ones causing the pain to those who unconditionally love us is a cross to bear.

            We can’t deny the intensity of human pain. The intensity can be made to feel even worse when we are isolated from our friends and family.  When we are in our pain, we may not feel that God is not listening to us. But with every fiber of our being, we are God’s, and therefore we are NEVER abandoned; we are NEVER without his presence, even if we question it at times.  Jesus was not alone when he suffered and neither are we.  As we bear our crosses, God is always with us, yoked beside us every step of the way. Never abandoned, never alone, we are called to walk every day of our lives with Christ.  And when we die, we die with Christ and are raised into eternal life with him, through this costly grace.  

            Since the dawn of time, people have suffered. God’s people do suffer at the hands of evil, and even do cause evil themselves-- however intentional or not. We suffer pain, we suffer defeat. However we are called by Jesus, who suffered more than we can ever imagine, to learn true obedience to God. We learn to keep going, no matter what the outcome-- just as Jesus did, along his way through the winding paths that lead him to Golgotha.  He never turned back; he kept going so that he could do the will of God.          

We are called to find moments of grace in the suffering, knowing that we never suffer alone.  On some roads, the journey seems to end in moments of utter despair, where the darkest hours stretch on indefinitely, but yet still, we are never alone. God’s promises are like the stars in heaven that shine the brightest against the darkness of night, the brightest light is the Son of Man. And with all my heart and soul, I know that, that even “though my soul may sit in darkness, it will rise in perfect light, [because] I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.” (paraphrased quote from Sarah Williams) 

We each go through our own Good Friday, sometimes multiples of them. We each bear our own crosses in each of our darkest hours, yet we do not bear them alone.  God is with us.  Sometimes it takes being in that place for us to realize this and know it in our souls.

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Christian leader in Germany during the time that Hitler’s Third Reich was committing atrocities, was willing to stand out from the crowd and to follow Christ. He said, as he was being held captive in a concentration camp, “When Christ calls as man, he bids him—come and die.”

            When God called His Son, our Savior, he called Jesus to do what Jesus now calls us to do. That is, in full obedience to God, to pick up our crosses, and follow him.

~~~

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.