GOOD Friday

There is an irony about how on Good Friday

            we read the longest Gospel lesson:

                        the entirety of John, chapters 18 and 19.

But we don’t have the time or opportunity 

to go into an in-depth Bible study 

on all the segments of these 2 chapters.

I think that this portion of the Gospel is not one we ordinarily dwell on

            because it is hard to be in such a space as the Crucifixion,

                        that is so full of suffering and heartache. 

But if we could see in John’s Gospel

            how Jesus is the One who is empowered, who is acting,

            we might change our minds, 

and we might find ourselves willing to dwell more and more 

on this portion of the Gospel,

            reading it with love and devotion,

                                    with joy and wonder and thanksgiving

                                    for its powerful message

                                                to encourage us 

                                                            and fulfill our hopes

                                    and give us deep gladness of heart.

In John’s Passion Account Jesus is the only one who is in control.

Everyone else exhibits that they have no control over what is going on, 

that there is great failure on their part 

to achieve what they want to do.

As we know from the other Passion accounts,

the disciples have no apparent control over their drowsiness;

                        they fail to stay awake.

And then they all run away, fleeing for their lives.

            Despite whatever his motivation and intentions were

Judas is doomed to become known as the betrayer.

The band that comes to arrest Jesus at Gethsemane

            are knocked to the ground by the force of the word 

spoken by Jesus, his simple statement: “I AM.”

Only when Jesus purposely gives them a second chance 

            can they lay hands on him and take him away.

Peter, in spite of his earlier protestations,

            fails in his ability to keep from denying his Lord.

The high priests and Sanhedrin 

can’t make a credible case against Jesus.

And they have to revert to political pressure 

to get Pilate to cooperate.

Pilate tries to set Jesus free, but fails.

And Mary, his mother, must stand by 

helplessly watching with the other women as he dies.

Everyone else is ineffective.

This is all a picture about us, 

our failure, 

our helplessness, 

our misguided attempts to take matters into our own hands, 

and how the results are not what we anticipated or wanted,

our lack of control in a situation we weren’t prepared for.

In some ways this all mirrors what we are living with at the moment.

None of us is able to do what it takes save our own selves, 

            let alone the world.

But it is Jesus who acts, who is in control, 

who accomplishes all that needed to be done, 

right down to the last detail described in the ancient texts 

about the Servant, the Lamb of God.

It is he who chooses when his last moment is, when he dies.

He completes all, 

and breathes out his breath 

and gives up his spirit.

Usually in each sermon there is an exhortation

            - that which we are urged to do in response to the Word of God.

But on Good Friday, today, I give none.

Today we sit and do nothing, no action.

We can’t.

It is impossible.

Nor need we do anything…

…despite our question carried down through 2,000 years of history:

            “What may we do that we may work the works of God?”

                        the question asked of Jesus in the 6^th chapter of John.

The answer he gave them is the same today:  believe, trust, surrender.

            Surrender to Jesus; trust into him.

Today it is Jesus alone who acts, who by dying accomplishes all.

It would be a denial of faith, of our basic trust in Jesus, 

to seek to add our own action to what he has done for us.

Even the faith we do have in him is a gift that he has given to us,

            breathing his breath/his Spirit into the disciples

                                                                                    and into us,

            breathing out his last breath

                                                to release that breath in us for life.

How interesting - the disciples,

            though they all ran away that night of the betrayal,

later they all stayed the course.

Tradition has it that each of them, except John,

            died a martyr's death, and often in horrible torture.

John suffered exile and imprisonment on a desolate island,

            a prolonged torture.

What made the difference for them,

            that turned them from deserters to martyrs?

After Christ's death and resurrection,

            they got it.

They got the message Jesus had been telling them all along.

One death does it all.

One death buys life for all.

One death brings healing and sanity and hope and new life,

            and everything worth giving up your own life for.

I pray that each of us will be able to really get it

            about this death, about this day.

It can be life changing

            if you let it.