Good Friday Homily

The Rev. Jeremy Sullivan
Good Friday Homily
22 April 2011


Sing:  Behold, behold, the wood of the cross on which is hung our salvation.
          O come, let us adore.

Good Friday is the day when you can do nothing.  Bewailing and lamenting your manifold sins does not in itself make up for them.  Scourging your soul in a frenzy of spring cleaning only sterilizes it; it does not give it life.  On Good Friday, finally, we are all, mourners and mockers alike, reduced to the same impotence.  Someone else is doing the terrible work that gives life to the world.  –Virginia Stem Owens

On this great and holy Friday…this Good Friday, we have again in heart and mind made our way to Golgatha’s hill…to Calvary, to look again upon the one who was pierced, to gaze on his passion, to consider the depth of love and grace that has won for us our salvation.  We come to Calvary again, looking back and looking beyond to contemplate the great and holy mystery that is the cross.

It is not about the cross, it is about the one on it.  Crosses were as abundant then as they are now.  For every pendant and earring set we sell there were real ones in first century Rome.  The Romans were masters of the science of torture and execution.  Good Friday to us is the day of the cross…in Rome there were many Fridays, Tuesdays, Saturdays probably, that were cross days.  And while what was going on with Jesus during this particular Passover celebration provided some measure of excitement in town, what was going on that day probably was not as centrally focused as it is in our hearts.  Here’s another criminal…it’s time for another execution…and they take you outside of town to do it…

The Discovery channel and other networks will turn their attention to part of this great story throughout this week and they will do all they can to help us become normalized and desensitized to the power of this story, reducing it to a man who dies for his cause.

The worship of this week commemorates the very heart of our faith…a faith that is the heart of life…and yet even the yearly celebration of the Paschal mystery too becomes sidelined, marginalized… even members of the body of Christ have something better to do than to be present with the gathering during these holy days…  and that is my lament, my friends, for this is not just another Friday, and not just another cross.  But as well, even most of Jesus’ closest friends deserted him in his dark hour.

But since we always preach to the choir today…

God’s anointed servant suffers and his suffering brings redemption to the world.  The hour IS now, and nations are already being gathered as the Son is lifted up, opening wide his loving arms to embrace all of the creation that was spoken into being through him.  As I contemplate the cross I cannot help but find meaning even in his posture…they mean to position him for suffocation, but at his dying moment he is fixed in place with arms wide open, the mission that has driven him to make this excruciating journey…he literally gives his final breaths to embrace all of creation in forgiveness, reconciliation, and undying love.

…this is what God does for us.

And yes, there’s ambivalence in our hearts about this week.  If we aren’t careful, we’ll fill the silence and solemnity of these days with our mourning that we caused such a tragedy, but that’s not why we are quiet these days…we are quiet because we find ourselves speechless at the cross, love so profound, passion so deep, perfect obedience, sinlesness, total surrender, these things leave us in awe….amazing love, how can it be?

If we are honest, I believe Virginia is right…mourners and mockers alike, we are reduced to impotence in the face of the cross…and that is uncomfortable.  We don’t like weakness and vulnerability…and it’s all too much to handle when redemptive suffering stares us in the face for the sake of offering us grace.

Grace is difficult to receive because we don’t get to do anything...we just receive it…. And it’s hard to stare at grace in the face with utter helplessness….knowing that there is nothing we can do to get ourselves out of our mess.  That is its own vulnerability, and perceived weakness, and we don’t like to be weak.

And yet, standing at the center of our place of worship is always a cross… because we know we need God to do for us what we cant do…and gratefully, long before we ever knew we needed redemption it was accomplished, done....Christ had accomplished it.

And so we are those crazy folks in the world who are always lifting up the cross… and in lifting up the cross we are lifting up weakness as the power of God for salvation for all who believe.  We are lifting the symbol that tells the world. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”  We don’t shy away from weakness and vulnerability, no, we embrace it, lift it up, and let God, who gave life and redeems our lives to transform the offering of weakness into His strength by grace.

In the face of war, violence, disaster, famine, earthquake, hunger, malnutrition, abuse, scorn, sex slavery,  oppression, and suffering of all sorts, the church lifts up the cross and proclaims the grace of God’s power manifest through what seems to be ultimate weakness… and not just because Sunday’s coming, but because at the end of it all, we fall into the arms of one who can be trusted with all things… and about 3:00 on that Friday afternoon, that is what Jesus did, he gave himself over to the Father in total surrender, an act of robust trust that the Father’s will was being carried out for the sake of the world.

Today is not about trying to find your place in this story.  We all have denied him, we’ve all deserted him, we all have failed him, and even in those moments where we start to get it, we don’t get it all the way, and we stop our anointing him at the feet instead of going all the way to the head and crowning him for who he really is.
But we could….receive the gift…and say ‘thank you.’

Sing:  Behold, behold, the wood of the cross on which is hung our salvation.
         O come, let us adore.