Almighty God,
whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered
not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in
the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Good Friday is, perhaps, one of the
most challenging days on which to preach. As that opening prayer suggests,
Jesus’ glory comes through his cross. St. Paul writes in the opening of his
letter to the Church in Corinth- “When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I
did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For
I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Later,
in Galatians, he will write “May I never boast of anything except the cross of
our Lord Jesus Christ.” And the enigma that we’re stuck with is- how do we
boast in the cross of Jesus? How is it that this horrific, bloody, humiliating
public execution is to be the bedrock of our hope and salvation?
You see, that’s what makes today so
difficult. Throughout the gospels, when Jesus speaks of his impending crucifixion,
he says that he will be “lifted up.” That word doesn’t simply mean to elevate
off the ground, but rather to exalt. This is the word that is used when kings
are enthroned. So this is a story about Jesus entering fully into his
Messiahship, and ironically living into the charge that was nailed above his
hanging body, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” But our only evidence of
his kingship in this narrative is his violent death at a garbage dump just
outside the city walls. It is a challenging argument to make.
At home, we have a wall that has several
crosses hanging on it. I’ve gotten them over the years in various ways and all
are quite different from each other; and yet, each of them is a valid depiction
of the cross. The same is true for different explanations and theories of what Good
Friday is all about. Ask people “what does the cross mean” or read about it in
a book and you’ll find several roads to take. And in all of these discussions,
we will do well to focus on what the cross does, not how it does it. Being
saved through the blood of Christ is one thing, but to explain how is beyond the
limits of our understanding.
Some
will say that Jesus became the final and perfect sacrifice of Passover. Others
will say that Jesus took the sins of the world upon him and put them away
forever. Jesus’ death as a moral example of staying true to the Kingdom of God
is another view taken by many. Still others will say that the cross repaired
the strained relationship between God and humanity. Each of these is a
completely valid way of understanding the cross, and none is any more or less
right than the others. The particular aspect of the cross that I’d like to
focus on today though is that the cross is the glorification of Jesus. Again,
how exactly it happens, I can’t explain, but let’s spend a few moments
considering the fact that through the cross, Jesus is exalted.
St.
Paul puts it best when he says “we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block
to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles… but God chose what is foolish in the world
to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.” It’s
a paradox. By the logic of this world, Jesus’ death shows that he was a false
prophet, but yet, here we are 2,000 years later.
Consider
our reading from Isaiah. Many commentaries suggested that this is the most
contentious passage in all of Scripture. A lot of the debate centers around the
question of “who is the Servant?” Some say that it a historical figure, such as
Moses or Jeremiah. Others claim that the Servant is a personification of Israel
that will live into its calling to be God’s holy people, while still others think
that this passage points to a Messianic figure. One point of clarification
though, this passage is certainly not about Jesus. We may very well be reminded
of Jesus when we hear this passage, we might see the Servant of Isaiah as a
model of the Messiah which Jesus would later personify, but Good Friday already
has a dark history of negativity towards the Jews and we don’t need to add to
it by co-opting their story to be a foreshadowing of ours.
But
however we choose to understand the character of the servant, the text makes
clear that “he shall startle many nations; kings shall shut their mouths
because of him.” Despite the fact that “he had no form or majesty that we
should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him” but
yet, “through him the will of the Lord
shall prosper. Out of his anguish he shall see light.” This should come as no
surprise. Throughout the story of faith, God has worked through the unexpected.
Abraham and Sarah were far too old to have children. Moses had a speech
impediment, and yet he was tasked to go before Pharaoh and boldly speak the words
“let my people go.” And, of course, there is Mary, a young, unmarried girl who
ended up being the bearer of God in the flesh. She proclaims in the Magnificat, “God has brought down the
powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.” It’s a theme we can find
over and over again throughout the Bible: God exalts those who have been
humiliated. So is it really a surprise that it’s happening again on Good Friday?
“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
In
the cross of Christ, we see the glory of God. In his suffering, we see the
fullest picture of God’s love for us and solidarity with us. The crown of thorns
becomes the crown of glory. Good Friday is a somber day, but it is not one
devoid of hope and joy. Just as at a funeral, we mourn the loss of the
departed, but we also give thanks for the glory of the Resurrection; so too on this
day we feel the pains of betrayal and injustice, but we also see the glory and
salvation of God manifest through the scandal of the cross.
So
what is our response to Jesus being exalted on the cross? If Jesus is glorified
then how do we witness to that glory? For one, we can pay serious attention to the
fact that cross reminds us that God’s glory is found in unlikely places. It
once was found on a cross where a Jewish peasant hung, and it can be found in
similarly unlikely places today. Some of you have likely heard about the new
sculpture at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church in Davidson called “Homeless Jesus.”
It is a bench, with a homeless man sleeping on it, and he is identified as
Jesus by the nail holes in his feet. One resident, upon seeing it, called the
police because she thought it was an actual homeless person. Turns out, it was
just Jesus. This work of art was first offered to cathedrals in Toronto and New
York, but they refused it. When Jesus said “Truly I tell you, just as you did
it to one of the least of these, you did it to me,” I think he meant it.
Good
Friday begs us to look for signs of Christ’s glory in the world around us. And
you’re going to find it in the most unlikely places. Perhaps we’ve been looking
in all the wrong places. The newspapers and downtown offices probably aren’t
the best place to find the glory of the crucified Christ. No; maybe we should be
looking in Section 8 housing developments, or in our neglected inner-city
schools, or in our broken criminal justice system. Now don’t get me wrong, you
can find Jesus in most places if you pay attention, the Church included. But I
think we need to spend more time looking for Jesus in the places that we’d be
surprised to find his glory.
As
the author of Hebrews writes, “let us consider how to provoke one another to
love and good deeds.” The word “provoke” has a sense of “stir up” as in
stirring up a hornets’ nest. This isn’t gentle encouragement; rather a slap in the
face. There was an article that appeared in Sojourners
magazine in 2012 that suggests that “people are leaving organized Christianity
because it has left behind the radical message of its founder.” Faith has become
more about propping up our own systems and comforts than seeking to get down
into the pit where Jesus is. The cross reminds us that if we’re comfortable,
then perhaps we’ve veered off the course of following Jesus.
Stanley
Hauerwas notes in a reflection on the last words of Jesus in John’s gospel (“it
is finished”) that “crucifixion is the
way that this king rules.” If we are to follow Jesus, then we will be following
a crucified messiah, a suffering servant. It is foolishness that the glory of
God is found in a man who was despised and rejected. But we are called to be
fools for Christ, forsaking the ways of the kings of this world in favor of the
Kingdom of God.
This
Good Friday, as we sorrow in the violent reality of the cross, may we also adore
it as a sign of glory. May we be provoked by the cross to encounter Jesus’
glory in low and unlikely places. And may God give us the strength and grace to
proclaim the foolishness of the cross as our eternal glory. Amen.
