This sermon was preached in a parish church on Good Friday 2016
based on the Passion Narrative in John’s Gospel
Did Jesus have to die?
Well yes, if he was fully human then of course, we all die. But did it have to be on the Cross?
Would any other death have sufficed?
Why one so graphic and violent, and dare I say primitive?
Was the crucifixion intended from the beginning?
I struggle with the notion that God sent Jesus with the only intention that He would be crucified and bleed and suffer and die.
I find the idea that God wanted Jesus to die even harder to stomach.
It conjures up images of a blood thirsty, hate fuelled God, who sits up in Heaven demanding sacrifices to calm the wrath that hangs so precariously above our heads…….
It’s not an image that sits lightly in the mind of a more liberal Western society.
What I do find easy to believe though was the inevitability of Christ’s death.
Such is the human condition that when we were faced with the ultimate manifestation of unadulterated Love we rejected It, mocked It and nailed It to a tree for a slow and agonizing death.
The perfect representation of Love needed the perfect representation of hatred.
And that is why we needed the Crucifixion to happen.
Not to satisfy God’s judgment, or to fulfil a deal with the devil but because it was the only way that we could be saved from ourselves and the suffering we so easily inflict upon others.
By willingly taking up the Cross Jesus disarmed the powers of hatred and transformed humanity as we know it.
Jesus’ crucifixion has freed us all from the consequences of Sin and Death and suffering.
Though if that is the case why then are people still being crucified today?
Be it the refugee drowning in the Mediterranean Sea,
the single mother on benefits going with out food,
the young gay person being attacked on a night out
or the commuter on a packed out underground train,
people are still being crucified by the actions of their fellow human beings.
What sets Jesus’ crucifixion apart from the suffering of others is that His death has eternal consequences.
Through His righteous suffering as the God-Man, innocent victim and ultimate exemplar Christ’s crucifixion is an eternal and timeless event.
It may have happened at 3pm on a particular day in history in a particular part in the world, but its consequences reach eternally throughout time both forwards and backwards.
It’s not just a one off event, it is an eternal event.
The event where God reveals Godself perfectly, through outstretched bleeding arms for the very people that nailed them in place.
Through the suffering of the Cross God is able to show the eternal nature of Forgiveness and Divine Love that covers all, both sufferers and perpetrators of suffering, for all time.
Not only was Jesus’ Crucifixion an eternal and Earth changing event, it achieved the polar opposite of what those who crucified Jesus were trying to do.
Jesus’ crucifixion is the fulfilment of His earthly ministry. It is His crowning achievement. This is the moment when Jesus is lifted up…………… not only literally but figuratively as well.
All the way through John’s Gospel we are told about how Jesus will eventually be raised up and draw all people to Himself, that He will be enthroned and glorified.
This is Jesus’ glorification; His throne is the Cross.
People are drawn to Him after He is raised up on the hill of Calvary.
It is the inverting of all earthly and evil power. Whilst the rulers of this world, and the powers of darkness seize their thrones, Jesus is nailed to His.
Jesus does not take the power and the glory, it is thrust upon Him with cruel nails, a vicious crown and a mocking sign.
And that is why Jesus’ enthronement is superior to the enthronement of those who rule in darkness.
Jesus’ enthronement is permanent whilst those who have seized power will have it taken from them.
Those who laughed on Holy Saturday will weep on Easter Sunday and those who sit on their thrones now will be cast down from them at the End.
The Resurrection is God’s eternal NO to the power of Darkness and Sin and Death.
It is Finished.
Not finished as an action or single event can be finished. The Greek word used here, Tetelestai, is in the perfect tense, meaning that it continues to be finished….. it never stops being finished.
It can never be undone. It is eternal. God’s work is done. Forever. It does not need to be repeated, gone over or added to.
The Cross stands firm as a reminder through all time that Evil does not have the last word.
No matter how dark it gets, when all hope is gone, THAT is when our God is most at work. The night is darkest just before the dawn…. how much darker can the dawn be then on that day at Calvary.
I think there is an argument to be made that our world today is far darker than the world Jesus knew.
Living under the shadow of war and violence, economic uncertainty, increasing segregation between groups in society and depleting resources. It is more then reasonable to look out the window and see a greater darkness then ever before. And with this darkness it is easy to forget what happened on the Cross, or cast the death at Calvary aside wondering if it had any effect at all.
But we have to hold on……… We know that God acts.
It’s easy to look at our situation and like Jesus cry “My God my God why have you forsaken me?”
But it is at that point of helplessness that we should know that God HAS NOT forsaken us. God was there on the Cross when Jesus died and God is here with us now. God is there when atrocities are committed. God is there when people die in misery alone. God is there when we get bad news. God is there when money runs out.
At the very point when the darkness overwhelms us we should know that the light of God is still there, perhaps only in a flicker, but it is still there and it will brighten even the thickest darkness.
With that said, just imagine; how much greater will the Light appear when it finally breaks through this darkness…….
With Jesus’ triumphant Crucifixion those who are daily crucified have their suffering bathed in light……
Christ’s crucifixion illuminates, glorifies and validates the deaths of those who continue to suffer today. Jesus suffers along side them, and through His suffering they are glorified in theirs.
As the Man of Sorrows, Christ today is dying in the gutter from an overdose, in the hospital bed with terminal illness, cowering in fear in the bomb shelter, on the busy commuter train at rush hour….
Through His suffering the Divine Christ experiences the human suffering of all of us. The suffering of millions is validated by the suffering of Jesus upon the Cross.
Because of that validation the human-sufferer shares in the glorification of the God-Christ.
Jesus’ suffering allows humanity to rise above our suffering. It allows us to hope in the life ever after, the release from all suffering and the wiping away of every tear.
Though we mustn’t be too quick to rush and search for the empty tomb at the expense of ignoring the Cross.
To rush past the suffering to get to the Resurrection does an injustice to the Cross, and de-humanises Jesus.
If we fail to acknowledge the importance of the Cross, we also run the danger of dehumanising those who suffer today. To turn a blind eye to suffering as we look for resurrection not only invalidates the experiences of sufferers but also takes away the joy of the resurrection that was bought for us at so high a cost.
We have to wait in the dark of Friday so that we may celebrate the light of Sunday all the more.
Remaining at the foot of the Cross just that little bit longer helps us more fully appreciate our experience as humans. Despite Jesus’ Resurrection happening two thousand years ago, the rest of Creation still waits in eager longing.
The end times have started, but not begun.
The World lives in a perpetual Holy Saturday, the period between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection. We live in a world still dominated by Darkness and Death, but under the knowledge that this is not the end, there is a new dawn just over the horizon.
We live after the event but before the fulfilment.
The Cross was Evil’s ultimate tool of violence, hatred and death, but through His suffering Jesus has made it the tool that means that Evil did not,
can not
nor ever will have the last word.
Evil does not have the last word.
On the Cross God shared in our experiences, and continues to share in our suffering today.
As humanity watched Jesus pour out His last breath upon the Cross, God poured out God’s Grace upon the earth for all Humanity.
Through His suffering Christ ensured that no one else need suffer alone again.
We adore you O Christ and we bless You, because by your Holy Cross, You have redeemed the world.
Natalie Waste
Kink Theology 