Isaiah 52.13-53.12; John 18.1-19.42
O Lord Christ, Lamb of God, Lord of Lords,
call us who are called to be saints, along the way of thy Cross;
draw us, who would draw nearer our King, to the foot of thy Cross;
cleanse us, who are not worthy to approach, with the pardon of thy Cross;
instruct us, the unmindful and short-sighted, in the school of thy Cross;
arm us, in the quest for holiness, by the might of thy Cross;
bring us, in the fellowship of thy sufferings, to the victory of thy Cross:
and seal us in the kingdom of thy glory among the servants of thy Cross,
O crucified Lord; who with the Father and the Holy Ghost
livest and reignest one God, almighty, eternal, world without end. Amen.
“What is the great importance of Jesus’ suffering and death?” That question from the catechism in the Book of Common Prayer is worth reflecting on, and praying over, at any time; it is especially important tonight. “What is the great importance of Jesus’ suffering and death?” The answer, “By his obedience, even to suffering and death, Jesus made the offering which we could not make; in him we are freed from the power of sin and reconciled to God.”
What the catechism says in summary, the writers of the New Testament say biblically as they convey the meaning and purpose of Jesus’ death. “Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God,” says the letter of 1st Peter. Or in 1st John, “The blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” When Jesus died, something happened. We are now different people because of it, and the world is seen from a different point of view. “Jesus Christ…is the perfect offering for our sins, and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole world.”
The assurance and trust that the world is different in Jesus has led to the custom in the church on Good Friday to pray for the world with intention and purpose, as we will do tonight. And Jesus’ offering for the sins of the world is for the world as it is and not as we wish it would be. In Galatians St Paul says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ…gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age.” Paul recognizes that there are problems in the world; there are dark forces, “principalities and powers,” to use his phrase; there are things set against God, forces that hurt and destroy human flourishing. This is what the church means when it talks about the power of Sin at work in the world and in our lives.
And it all must be dealt with. On the cross it is. On cross, Colossians says, Christ “disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them… triumphing over them by the cross.” Now this triumph doesn’t all happen at once. Jesus tells parables about sowing seeds that will ultimately bring in a great harvest; but in the meantime, patience is needed with endurance, courage and hope. But even as the principalities and powers still bluster, their day is over. At the cross, the worst of earth and the best of heaven meet in an act of God’s love.
And the cross is an act of love. I know that sometimes the cross is portrayed as the place where an angry and petulant Deity unleashes punishment on an unsuspecting Son and is then somehow satisfied by that act. But that is not the picture the New Testament gives. God’s work in Jesus on the cross is marked through and through by self-giving love. “In this is love,” says John in the New Testament, “not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” When Jesus himself speaks of his death on the cross, he says, “No one takes my life from me. I lay it down of my own accord.” And later, “There is no greater love than this, that someone should lay down his life for his friends.” He gives his life in love.
On the cross, for the people and world God loves, Jesus draws the full force of the principalities and powers, the full force of all that hurts and destroys, the full force of sin around us and within us, of all that things that would separate us God. And he does this in love. We are brought home to God by the God who loved the world so much as to send the Son. And because of the cross, we are different people. In God we are forgiven, freed, reconciled. Or to use the word that the New Testament letter of 1st Peter uses: healed. “Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…By his wounds you have been healed.”
Peter, in his letter, reflects long and hard on the extraordinary events of Jesus’ life and ministry. And with the hard reality of the crucifixion in heart and mind, Peter searches the Old Testament for words that show us Jesus. In tonight’s reading from the prophet Isaiah, Peter sees Jesus. “Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases; yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” By his wounds we are healed.
Peter is the only New Testament writer to quote Isaiah this way when speaking of Jesus on the cross. By his wounds, we are healed. The crucifixion of the Messiah was the most unjust and wicked act that the world had ever seen; here is the one person who deserved nothing but praise and gratitude. And he was rejected. Yet on behalf of the people he loves, Jesus stands in for them, and for all creation, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. He takes the full force of human suffering and evil into his own life for the healing of our bodies, souls, and spirits; for the healing of everything within us and around us that that destroys human flourishing; for the healing and the life of the world. “Christ himself bore our sins in his body on the tree…By his wounds you have been healed.”
Through Jesus’ suffering and death, the Creator of the universe has acted in love to remove every obstacle between us and God so that we would find forgiveness, hope, courage, healing, and everlasting joy in God. Tonight, at the very end of Jesus’ earthly ministry we can borrow words John the Baptist said at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. We can point to the cross and say, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While the world was estranged from God, Christ died for the world God loves. The hands that are nailed to the tree of the cross are the hands that hold all things reconciled. At the cross, the worst of earth and the best of heaven meet in a great act of God’s love.
What the writers of the New Testament say biblically, the catechism of the church says in summary. “What is the great importance of Jesus’ suffering and death? By his obedience, even to suffering and death, Jesus made the offering which we could not make; in him we are freed from the power of sin and reconciled to God.” That is why we call this Friday good. +
Write a comment: