The Meaning of Holy Week: Good Friday
This portion of John’s Passion Narrative, John 19:1-37,
highlights two things: Jesus is in charge. Pilate feels he is losing his grip to
maintain order in Jerusalem during the busiest week of the year, Passover.
Pilate is desperate to bring the whole matter to a conclusion. He wants an
off-ramp to make it go away. All at once he offers Jesus an off-ramp, but does
so while threatening crucifixion.
Jesus is neither threatened, nor is he going to make a deal:
besides, he says, there is someone “guilty of a greater sin – the one who
turned me over to you.” Pilate pleads with the crowds. They cry out that he is
guilty of claiming to be a king. The religious leaders who are on Rome’s
payroll as the official liaison to the people claim the problem is calling
himself the Son of God. That “we” have law and by that law he must die. Pilate
becomes more afraid. Despite the fact that given the anti-monarchy history of
Hebrew scripture, there is no way Jesus would pretend to be a king. And there
is no such law against that anyway. Same with Son of God: no law against it.
The charges are all fabricated by those who know he is a threat to long
established norms that had no basis in Torah. In God’s commands.
Out of desperation, Pilate “hands him over” to be
crucified. Revealing that Pilate is just like Judas the betrayer who handed
Jesus over to the chief priests, who handed him over to Pilate.
These are the true criminals, and Pilate finally reveals his guilt as well. He
abdicates his power to be judge. While the real Judge turns out to be Jesus –
Jesus who does not even have to act as judge since everyone else’s own words
and actions are self-incriminating.
We who claim to follow The Way of Christ need to pay
attention to what happens next. For there is one more “handing over” to
come. Note, in John’s narrative, Jesus carries the cross to Golgotha on his
own. No assistance from Simon of Cyrene or anyone else. We might also note that
the crucifixion itself is described in just a few words: “There they
crucified him.” That’s it. No drama, as depicted in movies, books, and even
sermons. After Jesus receives a sponge full of wine on a branch of hyssop. He
says, “It is finished.” And then it happens. The most important moment
for all of us. He bows his head, and hands over his Spirit.
It is tradition to pause for a moment of silence. For we
need to take in those words, “he handed over his Spirit.” His breath.
The powerful winds of creation. God’s powerful life giving and life sustaining ruahch.
The spirit of Jesus. The Spirit of Christ is handed over to whom? To those of
us who strive to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. His Spirit is handed
over to inspire us to follow him; to do the things Jesus does; to love those
whom Jesus loved. What Good Friday means to ask of us all – do we accept that
Spirit of Christ? Do we accept his Spirit as our own? For those who do accept
his Spirit, Good Friday is really good!
There was a time when these stories we call The Passion was
all people had - and the theme of these stories from Palm Sunday, Maundy
Thursday, Good Friday and Easter is that the movement Jesus led was about the
importance to follow the Way of Jesus. Nothing really about belief or worship is
found in these foundational stories. Simply, we are to follow The Way of Jesus.
It is a difficult choice which always involves risk. Anything worthwhile
involves risk.
When he enters Jerusalem during the Passover Festival, Jesus
took the ultimate risk to challenge the falseness of the Empire. An Empire that
used violence and taxation to strip all the resources of the land of Israel. Caesar's
Rome put him to death as a warning to the rest of Israel: do not mess with the
Empire. Do not challenge the Empire. The roadways around Jerusalem were lined
with Roman crosses of those who had tried to dislodge the Empire. Those who had
tried to return the land to the very people who farmed, and fished, and
sustained abundant crops on the hard-scrabble land of Israel.
What nobody knew, not even the Empire, the cross could not
put an end to what the young man from Galilee had started. The cross was just
the beginning of the next chapter of The Greatest Story Ever Told. Because the
Reign of God, what some in those early days called the Kingdom of God, is here.
Jesus taught that we are never separated from God's presence. Even at times
when we feel stuck, or that the Kingdom of God is far off, it is always right
here. His Spirit which he hands over is always ours to accept. For when we do, where
we are, Christ is, and where Christ is, God is.
The openness, love, and acceptance of God's presence is in fact our true
nature. Even when we feel most confused, most alone, most hopeless, the
presence of God in Christ Jesus is always here, undiminished by the clouds that
may temporarily cover it. This is the wisdom and truth that resides within the
stories of Holy Week. This is why Good Friday is Good! And this is Easter.
Awareness of this is Resurrection.
On to Sunday morning and the rest of the story. Amen.
