Good Friday March
29, 2013
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 Ps 22
Heb.10:1-25
John 18:1-19:37
The Passion Gospel of John is quite a different Passion Gospel. It is so triumphant that it would seem to
ignore or underplay the pain and devastation that the event of crucifixion
would be.
In the Passion Gospel of John, it is presented as though Jesus is
calling the shots step by step.
When the police of the chief priests arrive in the Garden of Gethsemane
to arrest Jesus, in John’s Gospel, Judas is not needed to identify Jesus with a
kiss. Jesus steps forward and says,”Who
are you looking for?” When they say, “Jesus
of Nazareth.” Jesus says, “I am he.” And when he does, the soldier all fall to the
ground. The phrase “I am” said by Jesus
in the Gospel of John is to identify him with the God who approached Moses in
the burning bush and called himself, “I am.”
In John’s Gospel, Jesus said, “I and the Father are One.” And so when Jesus said “I am he,” he has the
authority to knock the soldiers over like a bowling ball hitting pins. At the arrest, who is in control?
Peter drew his sword and cut off the ear of a soldier and Jesus told him
to put away his sword because he was going to drink the cup of death given to
him by his Father.
The Jews did not use crucifixion as a method of death punishment; their
preferred method according to the law was stoning. In John’s Gospel the writer is writing
towards a crucifixion goal. “As Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted
up.” Jesus also said in John’s Gospel, “If
I be lifted up, I will draw all people to myself.” The cross was the Roman method of the
spectacle to discourage any insurrection.
And in John’s Gospel, the Cross is like an advertising billboard
proclaiming the Kingship of Jesus. What
incredible irony that such literature should arise in the late first and early
2nd century when there were still powerful emperors on the Roman
throne.
Jesus said to Pilate, “You have no power over me unless it was given to
you. Those who delivered me to you have
a greater sin.” So here we have a late
writing and the Roman’s role in the crucifixion is being softened to be less
than the role of the Jews. This is
written well after the separation of the synagogue and the church and when the
majority of the followers of Christ are Gentile Roman citizens.
What are we to make of this presentation of the Passion by the Gospel of
John? The Gospel of John is evidence of
the strength of the Jesus Movement. One
does not look back at origins and interpret them in such triumphant way unless
the Movement shows signs of great vitality and strength.
There is something about completion that redeems and even brings about a
reinterpretation and a complete re-writing of the past.
Can you imagine the mountain climber struggling to get to the top and
having incredible doubts about being able to make it, but then from the top,
the struggle looks different?
Christianity is re-written from the top of the mountain of resurrection
and John’s Passion account is proof of the future redeeming the past almost to
the point of being unrecognizable as being true to the conditions of a Roman
crucifixion.
Good Friday is all about the method of rewriting our past lives from the
perspective of resurrection. This
re-writing is the work of faith when we are able to declare the past as
providence, even when it did not seem so at the time. Without trivializing pain and suffering in
the past, it is the work of hope to relativized suffering to make it serve a future. And the work of faith is to be involved in
anticipating a better future.
Today, I invite you to look back at a very bad Friday in your life, and
ask yourself if current outcomes have helped you to come to call your past,
Good. It could be that it may not ever
happen because there may be some wounds that time does not seem to heal. But are those wounds made beneficial to us as
we attempt to use them to minister to others going through something similar?
Let us offer up our bad Fridays to God today, in hopes that in time we
can by faith call them Good. Amen.
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