Good Friday Sermon

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be always acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

In the  Passion Gospel of John, when “the Jews” were mentioned, it was referring primarily to the Jewish temple authorities and leaders.  When the Jewish people saw what was happening to Jesus, some may have added their voices to the cry “crucify him”.  For these people who were desperately looking for a Messiah and had hoped that Jesus would fill that role, these actions taken against him would be terrifying.  They may have been fearful that if they didn’t add their voices to the evil cry, they may have been singled out and been subjected to this undeserved violence.  They were frightened people, not evil ones; that may have happened. But we recall from many Scripture passages how popular Jesus was with the people.  Each time he was to preach and teach people came from miles around; recall the feeding of the multitudes….over 5,000 souls; the crowd so dense to hear him that friends of a man unable to walk, climbed on the roof, chopped a hole in it and lowered him down through a hole so that Jesus could heal him;  of crowds so large that a woman who had been hemorrhaging for years had to squeeze in to touch His cloak and be healed; of the countless others healed and brought back to life; of his triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday with crowds hailing him and waving palm fronds in welcome.  Yes, Jesus was very popular with the people and gaining in popularity with each passing day.  However, fear can cause us to do things that we ordinarily would not think possible.  Remember, even Peter, a devoted disciple of Jesus failed him.  On the night of the Last Supper Peter stated that he would lay down his life for Jesus, but seeing the events unfolding on the Eve of Jesus’ crucifixion, he denied knowing Jesus three times.

I repeat, the term “the Jews” in the context of the Passion Gospel of John primarily referred to the Jewish temple authorities and leaders.  This group of individuals were firmly united with the Roman regime and they reviled and feared Jesus for His message to and popularity with the people.  If Jesus continued to live and preach his message, their authority was threatened.  The religious leaders made many laws that they claimed were to honor God but in reality were to give themselves more authority and control over people’s lives.  Jesus, understanding their hypocrisy, ignored their laws.  So, for their own security, he must go.  It was THEIR cry of “crucify Him” that resounded through the air that morning.

But words matter….two little words “the Jews”, seven letters in all, but oh, what power they had to unleash evil.

Historically, the interpretation of the term “the Jews” has caused violence, persecution, hatred and prejudice against the Jewish people.  By assuming that “the Jews” pertained to all the Jewish population, many people, Christians included, have placed blame on the Jewish people as the cause of the death of Jesus Christ and have taken horrific actions against them.  The prejudice, hatred, persecution and violence persists to this day.  It is long-past time to clarify and understand the intent of the language in the Passion Gospel of John and replace the hatred and violence with love and understanding.

Though Love is lost, Love finds us here; though Love is absent, Love remains; where Love is finished, Love begins; where Love is dead, Love lives and reigns. We’ll sing these words in a beautiful hymn after the sermon.   Of course, the word Love in the hymn refers to Christ.

This is a difficult day because we understand and deplore the selfish and underserved actions perpetrated on a good and innocent man.  Even if we didn’t know the man was Jesus, we would be outraged at the actions taken against him.  Much as we are outraged at the actions taken against many innocent people in today’s world.

We understand in our heads that Jesus’ death was pre-ordained, and without it we would not have the hope of salvation and eternal life, but our hearts still ache.  We ache for His incredible love and light that was stilled.  We ache for his suffering and it reminds us of the horrible suffering of so many in our world. We ache for the void that his followers felt.  But I suggest that what happened to our Lord all those years ago was a result of Love.

We each know what Love feels like.  And let me be clear, the actions taken on this day by the Jewish temple authorities and the Roman soldiers had nothing to do with Love; their actions were driven by fear, cruelty and power and were heinous and ugly.  But an overarching presence was Love.  I believe that is the message on which we need to focus today.   Be sad for what happened to our Lord; but understand that God’s love was ever present. A Love that is more than….a Love that is immense….a Love that is incomprehensible.  That is God’s great Love for his son and for us.

The Gospel of John contains one of the most well-known passages in Holy Scripture, John 3:16.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” These words are so remarkable that we cannot truly understand, because we process them through the lens of our human understanding. And we must acknowledge that the type of love indicated in the passage, the width, depth and breadth, is far removed from our human experience of Love.  Imagine yourself offering up your child to save others.  It’s incomprehensible, but that is exactly what God did….for each of us.

The Love that God had for Jesus, he Loves each of us with that same intensity.  It is shocking,  this unfathomable kind of Love.  We simply don’t have the ability to understand that type of intense Love.  When scripture tells us to love our neighbor and enemy, we’re challenged.  It seems impossible for us to love people who are difficult or want to harm or destroy us, but God does. That is what we are asked to do also. God loves all his creation equally; he makes no distinctions, sees no differences and has no favorites.  He simply Loves.  Romans reminds us that”neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord”.  Maybe we were not meant to understand that type of Love so that we would continually strive to Love more completely, more openly, more honestly, more globally.  Perhaps when we contemplate how God could Love someone that we find absolutely un-loveable, we try harder. Maybe we make headway or maybe we have to give it another go….we are still a work in progress.

It must sadden God when one of us commits an evil act, but it does not diminish His Love for us.  His is a Love that very literally passes all understanding. It is absolutely, unconditional Love.  When we think about all the events that led up to Good Friday, and the day itself we get a glimpse of just how much God Loves us. In the giving up of His precious son, He gave us the hope of salvation and eternal life.  What we do with this unbelievable gift of opportunity is up to us.

Jesus became fully human and carried God’s enormous Love to us in his New Covenant.  That New Covenant taught us to Love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength and to Love our neighbor as ourself.  That immense Love that God has for all his creation was brought to earth in Jesus so He could teach us how to Love in that way.  Jesus was obedient to the will of God; despite a moment of human weakness in the garden of Gethsemane on the eve of his death, he prayed “not mine, but your will be done”. Not my will, but yours Father; he then accepted that he would surrender his life for us all and was at peace.  Psalm 30 reminds us that weeping may spend the night, but joy comes with the morning.  Jesus’ story did not end with weeping and sadness in the darkness.  The dark night was excruciating, yes, but not endless.  On Easter morning joy, hope and Love returned with the light.  The darkness was no match for God’s fierce Love.

When we accept that God’s Love for us was what led Jesus to the cross, I think we can begin to appreciate that the word Love was central to the events of that day and continued through that first Easter day and into our present time.

Though Love is lost, Love finds us here; though Love is absent, Love remains; where Love is finished, Love begins; where Love is dead, Love lives and reigns.

I close with this prayer, “O crucified Lord, as we gaze upon the cross this day, may we not be too tempted to see it as a place of defeat, but as the place in human history where God’s Love and power triumphed.  May we add our voices to the confession of faith of the centurion, ‘Truly this man was God’s son’”.

Amen