Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

Good Friday

John 18:1-19: 1-42

Crucifixion, Freedom, and Forgiveness

“Father, forgive them; they know not what they do.” (Luke 22:14)

Today once again we commemorate the death of the freest man who ever lived. Jesus of Nazareth, whose challenge to the civil and religious leadership of his day was so extreme that extreme measures were used to silence him. On this fateful day two thousand years ago, it was his freedom that made all the difference.

As we heard today from John’s gospel, Palm Sunday from Luke’s, and as many of us have seen perhaps too graphically depicted in Mel Gibson’s new movie, The Passion of the Christ, the 24 hours prior to Jesus’ death had been horrible. He had eaten his last Passover meal with his disciples. He had wrestled with God in prayer in the Garden at Gethsemane; experienced betrayal by one of his closest friends. He was insulted, humiliated, and tortured. He was called a blasphemer, a sorcerer, a threat to the political order. The mob chose Barabbas, a murderer, for release over him. Peter denied him three times, and then fled in fear with most of the other disciples.

Jesus preached a message of love, yet there he was hanging in agony on a cross between two criminals. His fate was theirs, though he did nothing wrong. The soldiers poking at him, mocking him, called him “King of the Jews.”

It takes a totally free person to respond in the way he did. Jesus didn’t let Pilate, or the religious establishment, or his fickle disciples, or the cruel soldiers, or the mob, or the pain and injustice dictate how to respond. To the end, he never forgot who he was or why he was here.

Jesus came into the world to make all things new; to inaugurate and lead people into a spiritual kingdom, a kingdom they would help build. He came to set them free, as free as he was. And nothing was going to stop him from fulfilling his mission. .

His first words from the cross? “Father, forgive them….” This too is what Jesus came to do – to bring forgiveness and reconciliation to a fallen world. He came to break the chains of sin which keep people from making ethical choices. Sin had no power over him, nor would death. The pain and humiliation he suffered didn’t have their expected effect – they didn’t make him hateful or bitter. Quite the contrary, Jesus chose to surrender and respond with love. He was free to make that choice. And three days later, he won for all humanity the same freedom of choice.

“My God, why have you forsaken me?” This is the way we feel when we’ve been deeply hurt, when a family member or friend, for example, lets us down. Lonely. Isolated. We crawl metaphorically into a little ball to protect ourselves, thinking nobody could possibly know the pain we feel. This is the initial stage of the forgiving process. Feeling cut off. Feeling angry and hurt. When you feel like this about a relationship, you know there’s need for forgiveness.

“I thirst.” After a while, you start to miss the family member, the friend you’ve lost, and long for the way it was. Forgiveness is hard emotional work. You have to really want to make things right with the person who hurt you, even if it means admitting your own shortcomings.

“Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” Jesus looked at the people around him and saw them as something more than just the cause of his suffering. The soldiers were trapped in a job that forced them to act cruelly without pity. The disciples were confused and frightened. The mob was misguided. The Jewish leaders who opposed him feared the undermining of their authority. Pilate worried about losing control of a volatile situation. There was much more to the story of every single person taking part in the tragedy than met the eye.

Yet no one there saw the big picture, perhaps not even Jesus. Nobody fully understood that he was the Son of God. No one at the time could have possibly understood that since the dawn of creation Jesus was destined for this very moment. The people who hurt him were blinded by sin. And it can’t be emphasized too strongly that his suffering and death were caused by the sins of all humanity throughout the ages, not just the actions of the Romans and Jews

Mel Gibson’s controversial new movie has sparked fears of a resurgence of anti-Semitism. For centuries labeling all Jews as “Christ-killers” based on the passion narratives has resulted in horrific violence against millions of innocent people, which serves only to perpetuate the tragedy of the cross and to offend deeply the tenets of our faith. What Jesus did out of love for us must never again be distorted into an excuse for hating. Hating anyone in his name is the worst sort of “Into your hands I commit my spirit.” To forgive means that you give up the hate, let go of the anger. You pray for your tormentor and ask God to transform your own heart, to fill it with love.

“It is finished.” When you forgive someone, the matter is over. You never bring it up again as a weapon. You don’t need to because it doesn’t weight on your heart anymore.

“Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.” When you’re reconciled once again with God and with your brother or sister, it feels good, like a slice of heaven, because there’s a bit of heaven reflected in every forgiven relationship.

Forgiveness is always a gift. No one ever deserves it. It’s always a surprise – no one really expects it. When you do wrong, you expect to be punished. When you hurt someone, you expect that person will try to get even. But forgiveness doesn’t get caught up in a game of tit-for-tat. Forgiveness is a gift that can only come from a person who’s truly free.

“Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, and the crucifixion went on toward its inevitable end. The soldiers gambled for his robe. The mob continued to laugh and mock. Jesus’ words seemed so powerless at the time. The words seemed to float up into the air and make no difference at all. Without belief in the Risen One they could have dissolved into the mists of history.

Except that a centurion at the foot of the cross heard them and made a statement of faith: “Surely he was the Son of God.” And a handful of women heard them who three days later at a garden tomb received the surprise of their life. Other disciples heard them as well and, after Pentecost, together with hundreds, then thousands, energized by the Spirit, went forth to preach the gospel that changed the world…which explains why 2000 years later we, along with over a billion Christians worldwide, once again commemorate the death of the freest man who ever lived.