Isaiah 52:13-53:12, Psalm 22, Hebrews 10:16-25, John 18:1-19:43

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

 

When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley . On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it. Now Judas, who betrayed him, knew the place, because Jesus had often met there with his disciples. So Judas came to the grove, guiding a detachment of soldiers and some officials from the chief priests and Pharisees. They were carrying torches, lanterns and weapons.

Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, "Who is it you want?"  "Jesus of Nazareth," they replied.  "I am he," Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, "I am he," they drew back and fell to the ground. Again he asked them, "Who is it you want?"  And they said, "Jesus of Nazareth".

"I told you that I am he," Jesus answered. "If you are looking for me, then let these men go." This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: "I have not lost one of those you gave me. Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant's name was Malchus.)  Jesus commanded Peter "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?"

Then the detachment of soldiers with its commander and the Jewish officials arrested Jesus. They bound him and brought him first to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, the high priest that year. Caiaphas was the one who had advised the Jews that it would be good if one man died for the people. Simon Peter and another disciple were following Jesus. Because this disciple was known to the high priest, he went with Jesus into the high priest's courtyard, but Peter had to wait outside at the door. The other disciple, who was known to the high priest, came back, spoke to the girl on duty there and brought Peter in.

"You are not one of his disciples, are you?" the girl at the door asked Peter. He replied, "I am not." It was cold, and the servants and officials stood around a fire they had made to keep warm. Peter also was standing with them, warming himself.

Meanwhile, the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. "I have spoken openly to the world," Jesus replied. "I always taught in synagogues or at the temple, where all the Jews come together. I said nothing in secret. Why question me? Ask those who heard me. Surely they know what I said."

When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face. "Is this the way you answer the high priest?" he demanded.  "If I said something wrong," Jesus replied, "testify as to what is wrong. But if I spoke the truth, why did you strike me?" Then Annas sent him, still bound, to Caiaphas the high priest.

As Simon Peter stood warming himself, he was asked, "You are not one of his disciples, are you?"  He denied it, saying, "I am not." One of the high priest's servants, a relative of the man whose ear Peter had cut off, challenged him, "Didn't I see you with him in the olive grove?" Again Peter denied it, and at that moment a rooster began to crow.

Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover. So Pilate came out to them and asked, "What charges are you bringing against this man?"

"If he were not a criminal," they replied, "we would not have handed him over to you."

 Pilate said, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law."

"But we have no right to execute anyone," the Jews objected. This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled. Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, "Are you the king of the Jews?"  "Is that your own idea," Jesus asked, "or did others talk to you about me?" "Am I a Jew?" Pilate replied. "It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?"

Jesus said, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place. "You are a king, then!" said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."

"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release 'the king of the Jews'?" They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!" Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion. Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe and went up to him again and again, saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" And they struck him in the face. Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, "Look, I am bringing him out to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him." When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, "Here is the man!"

As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, "Crucify! Crucify!"
But Pilate answered, "You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him." The Jews insisted, "We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God." When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid, and he went back inside the palace. "Where do you come from?" he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. "Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don't you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin."

 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, "If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king opposes Caesar." When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge's seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha). It was the day of preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour.

“Here is your king," Pilate said to the Jews. But they shouted, "Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!"  "Shall I crucify your king?" Pilate asked. "We have no king but Caesar," the chief priests answered.  Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified. So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called

Golgotha

). Here they crucified him- and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.

Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF

NAZARETH

, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."  Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."

When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. "Let's not tear it," they said to one another. "Let's decide by lot who will get it." This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said, “They divided my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing. So this is what the soldiers did.

 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken’, and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

Pray with me that God’s compassionate love may be present in my words and in our lives. Amen.                (Please be seated.)

Good Friday as much as Christmas or Easter defines who we are as Christians. The recorded events of The Good Friday that we read today give us a view of the actual nature of God and our relationship with God. God’s compassion and mercy are contrasted against the bleak stories of humanity’s inhumanity. The recorded events of Good Friday are the culmination of centuries of promise to bring blessings, peace, and life; and highlight God’s faithfulness to those willing to rely on God’s spirit to all creation. God’s unfathomable love is illuminated in this willingness to allow Jesus to experience human life and death.

In the events recorded for today Jesus, (not necessarily pre-destined to succeed in the unselfish acts of “atoning for our failings”) is seen as fully human. It is not through his identity as “God’s Son” that we receive redemption. I believe that it is through the story of doubts, even to the point of asking that the burden be lifted; it is through Jesus’ human perseverance in the face of punishment, humiliation, and even death that he succeeded.

It is through the recorded events of Good Friday that we can, to this day, see the connection to God to humanity through the Spirit. We can feel God’s presence; we can experience God’s presence, even though we can never fully understand.

 Today draws attention to our human failures as well as the human failures of those present in

Jerusalem

in that Friday 2000 some years ago. The focus is not on a particular part of the human family. On that day, Jesus faced the religious righteous – these were the leaders entrusted to lead the people toward a more godly life. They admitted that they were forbidden to execute any one. “We can’t kill him but we want him dead.” His spiritual connection challenged their self interests and their response proved that left to our devices humans will choose self expediency.

Jesus faced the politically powerful. Herod – established as the Hebrew ruler – although a puppet of the Romans, showed his weaknesses also played at religious ethics; “We can not kill him.” at the same time was taking actions that would assure the ultimate punishment for Jesus by sending him on to Pilate.

Pilate was the head of an occupying government, powerful in his connection to

Rome

but also isolated and dependent on the leaders of a restless population. Pilate challenged Jesus to define himself as a ruler. Any answer would have provoked a challenge and automatically branded him as a rebel. Jesus responded only in silence, his silence led to the ultimate actions of Pilate – “I wash my hands of this, do with him as you will (an abdication of responsibility).

Jesus faced the fickleness of his own audience. The crowds that only a week ago were cheering him as a savior, on this day are jeering Jesus as a fraud. Even his most intimate followers were abandoning him, and we hear of Peter denying his relationship with Jesus three times before the morning rooster crowed.

Today, though, defines not only our human failures and inability to succeed on our own but also defines our highest potential when we rely on our spiritual strength and connection to God. On Good Friday, Jesus showed himself to be fully human as he was never shown at any other day. Our potential is reflected back to us as Jesus is shown to be in physical pain, to be overwhelmed with grief, to be required to stand silently in humiliation, and finally to be killed – all with compassion and dignity. Jesus won by his compassion against the religious righteous, the politically powerful and the wavering crowds by forgiveness. We, as Christians, are shown this picture as an example of our human potential. We, as Christians, have this picture of God in our world – in a physical place and in a measurable time. This glimpse of human potential makes a stark contrast of God’s absence in the time after Jesus’ death.

Good Friday is not a day to be reasoned or understood but to be felt. The “passion” of Jesus is our “passion” as humans. Through Jesus’ passion we are shown our connection, we are shown the way to reach God through this immense compassion and love, made physically evident on Good Friday. It was not just a concept of emotion but an actual event. Theologians, religious doubters, and even the non-religious have, and still do, dispute many events of Jesus life and resurrection. Even the most hardened heart finds it difficult to doubt that Jesus represents a real human who was subjected to real agonies and pain. The Good Friday story is correlated in many ways to other recorded, historical events.

A story is told by Reverend Thea Joy Brown, in which a group of parochial high school students were walking on their way to go to confession. As they walked toward the church they were discussing the Sacrament of Penance, and one among them had very strong views. He considered the notion of confessing one’s sins to be, at best, irrelevant – and at worst, extortion. On this particular day he decided to “do something about it” in a way that only a teenager could. He told his friends that he had concocted a laundry list of sins that was too outrageous to believe and that this was what he would confess when he got to the church. When they went inside, each young person had a private audience with the priest, went forward to the Altar to pray their penances, and waited for the others outside. The one with the faked list went last, and his conference was no longer than the others. But somehow, it seemed like it was taking forever for him to leave the church. His friends grew tired of waiting and went back into the church to see what was the matter. They found their friend on his knees in front of the Altar, looking up at the Crucifix and bawling his eyes out. The priest, you see, had given him a most peculiar penance. He had told the young man, “For your penance, I want you to go to the altar and look up at the Crucifix. And for your prayer, these are the words that I want you to say: ‘Yes, Lord, I see you hanging up there. I know the misery that you suffered. And what it means to me is… absolutely NOTHING.’ Now go in peace, your sins are forgiven.”

What made that young man burst into tears is the real hope of Good Friday in today’s world. Although his head may have been hard, his heart was still soft enough for God to touch. This ability to hurt was the hope for the young man’s future. This ability to hurt, and to “feel the pains of others” is also the great hope for our future.

It is through the deep emotions of today that Jesus triumphed. We do not need to understand intellectually the events of Good Friday but today we still need to be able to “feel” Good Friday.

Please take a few moments with me to prayerfully connect with those suffering in our world today:

This suffering continues today

In any situation where people experience injustice

In the violence that continues in the Middle East,

Afghanistan

, and

Iraq

In the extreme poverty in places like

Haiti

or nations in Sub-Sahara Africa

In the millions of people in the world who go to bed hungry every night

In the lives of those affected by hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters

In the experience of those denied human rights or are unjustly imprisoned

In the lives of all who experience racism sexism and other forms of discrimination

In the “suffering” of planet earth as it feels the effect of human abuse of the environment

In the lives of forced migrants (refugees, migrant workers, the undocumented)

In the experience of indigenous peoples in our nation and around the world

In the experience of anyone who has lost family members in acts of war and violence

In the experience of the people of the Darfur region of the

Sudan

In the millions who have died in ongoing war and unrest throughout the world

In the suffering experienced by individuals and families in abusive relationships

In the experience of those who are sick and cannot afford medical care

In children who are denied an adequate education

And in the frustration of those who cannot find work as a just wage.

Amen

The events of Good Friday though do not call us to experience these emotions as overpowering and unchangeable. The ability to feel, though, calls us into a deep awareness of all the struggles of life, historically and today. This Good Friday experience, calls us to work for an end to injustice and suffering. This Good Friday experience, calls us into solidarity with God. We are called into this solidarity through Jesus – because he also experienced the suffering and sorrows that are still in the world today. We can triumph over the deep sorrowful emotions because we have a pattern. We can triumph over these deep sorrowful emotions just as Jesus did – with forgiveness and compassion.