Come Holy Ghost, Spirit of the Almighty Everliving God. Move upon me. Move through me. Surround and enfold me. Transform and inform and reform my heart and soul; my mind and spirit. Quicken me according to thy Word. Quicken me according as thou art wont. Quicken me according to thy loving mercy and they merciful love. AMEN
ALMIGHTY AND EVERLIVING GOD, Grant that we never again turn away from your light into the darkness of this night, and help us to transform our faith into fruitful deeds of Truth done in Peace and Love. We ask this in the name of Your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. AMEN
“And now we wait.” We have all heard those words spoken at the start of Good Friday sermons.
Each year we ponder afresh the vexing paradox of calling the day of the death of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ “GOOD”. For it certainly was not good for Jesus’ followers. Confining ourselves to the twelve men, we know of only one at the Crucifixion — John. Peter denied thrice, wept, and departed. Luke has all of his acquaintances standing afar off. Mark and Matthew have the women only afar off — no mention of the men. Only John has the very intimate exchange at the foot of the Cross between His mother and John.
Of the others — silence — until the third day and the following Sunday when Thomas finally made it back from wherever he had gone. Then the fishing expedition and breakfast by the Sea of Galilee with seven of them — Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others — and that is just to confine ourselves to John’s account.
We know what happened on the third day. We know what is the Good in Good Friday. Before there can be new life, there must be death. Jesus said this: Except a grain of wheat die, it can not become wheat and bear multiplied seeds — or fruit, if you will.
But we have the answer sheet. The disciples — the twelve, the men, the women, the mostly unnamed followers of Jesus — did not have that advantage. How did they — men, women, named, unnamed — respond to what, on all evidence, was the death of just another failed Messiah; or to someone not of a Jewish background, just another troublemaker disturbing the Pax Romana in a far corner of the empire.
One — Judas, the remorseful Judas — hanged himself. Some of them left town. At least two of those were going to be astonished when they finally stopped for supper. Some went to ground, hiding out in various safe houses where they, too, would be astonished. But, as I said, we have the answer sheet.
“And it was night”: When Jesus sent Judas away from the Last Supper on his mission of betrayal, John says, “And it was night.” Night. Dark. Absence of Light so complete as to be reminiscent of the Chaos postulated to have been before Creation — if anything except God can have existed before Creation. Without getting into that: Night, Dark, falling away from the Light of God until not a glimmer of the Divine Radiance can be seen. Jesus’ human nature experienced that on the Cross — “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani.” Judas — indeed, all human beings — choosing, using their Free Will, one of the attributes that is most readily seen to be the part of our own being made in the Image of God, to remove themselves deliberately from the Light of God.
But Jesus had earlier remarked [John 3:19-21] that Light had come into the world, but that humans had loved Darkness rather than Light because their deeds were evil. Humans were not doing deeds of Truth worked in God, worked in the Image of God, works that would be made manifest in the Light of God.
So His followers found themselves in a Despair. A Despair so total that no Hope remains — indeed, the very idea of Hope is extinguished.
Jesus follows up the sending away of Judas with the starburst of doxological euphoria announcing the forthcoming Glory of God [John 13:31-32], the Glory of Jesus, the Glory of Jesus in God, the Glory of both together in each other and each other in both.
But all that was forgotten in the vacuum of the immediate post-Crucifixion.
But wait. Who are these two man taking down Jesus’ body? Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin, but one who had not agreed with their decision. And Nicodemus, a prominent Pharisee, who had earlier spoken to Jesus [John 3] and who had even spoken up to the chief priests to at least afford Jesus a fair hearing [John 7]. They are performing one of the duties enjoined on each Jew — to do a proper, decent, and timely burial of the dead.
Critics might say “too little, too late”. But I say this was a glimmer of Light given off by a Deed of Truth, Peace, and Love. These men had not imperiled their political and social standing before; certainly there was no obvious need to do so now.
Or wasn’t there? Was this another example of God using unlikely agents to advance His purposes? Was this action — complete with linen wrapping, one hundred pounds of spices, and a brand new tomb — no small expenditure then, or now — the preview act of the New Creation to be starting officially about thirty-six hours later? Was their act the physical expression of the doxological euphoria of John 13? Was this a hint of the ever-expanding Kingdom of God here, now, on earth soon to be revealed in a few short hours; where Deeds of Truth are done in Peace and Love, shedding light onto the various images and likenesses of God we encounter in one another?
I think the answer is Yes — but, as I have said — we have the answer sheet.
It is very hard to create Hope where no Hope is. Indeed, only God can do so.
So, the death of Christ on the Cross was not the end of Hope, the confirmation of a world of Despair, as many of the disciples may have thought, however briefly.
Jesus going willingly, despite Gethsemane, to his death was the paramount Deed of Truth done in Peace, however violent, and Love — and Hope, however apparently cloaked in Darkness.
And the Light starbursting out of that Act of Truth, radiating from the Cross, continues to illumine the images and likenesses of God found in us as we live and work in the New Creation.
Yes — our sins are forgiven.
Yes — Death has been put to death.
Yes — we live now in the sure and certain Hope of the Resurrection.
This is not a recipe for licentious, riotous, destructive, exploitive living. We tried that once. Some are still trying it. It does not work.
Ultimate Freedom in the New Creation enjoins ultimate Responsibility for the stewardship of that Creation — stewardship of the emerging Kingdom of God here on earth — now — by Acts of Truth done in Peace and Love.
We never again want to experience a Night, a Darkness as it was perceived by those present on that day about two thousand years ago. We never again want to have to depend on two very unlikely actors to initiate Deeds of Truth.
So, no, we do not wait. Not, “Now we wait,” as I said at the beginning. Now we act — harvesting and distributing the fruits of our Faith, eschewing the Darkness of that Last Supper Night; not walking away from the Light of Christ into Chaos, but rather living as if we had already died — doing True Deeds as did Joseph and Nicodemus — walking into the blinding Light of Glory, Peace, Love, and Hope that so improbably comes out of this day and night of Good Friday.
AMEN
Joe S. Kersey 2 April 2010 Good Friday
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