Good Friday of the Lord's Passion

We are a brutal species. Our record of murder and warfare stretches back thousands upon thousands of years. We can cry out "never again" all we want. We can march and protest day after day. We can strategize and legalize and proclaim all sorts of noble things. But we will still kill one another, over and over and over again. As long as we are human, we will kill one another. It is what we do.

And today, of all days, we are called to confront this truth. For the cross is not a moral aberration. No, it is who we are: abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, gangs, genocide, honor killings, terrorism, vigilantism, et cetera, et cetera. Is there any doubt that ours is a culture of death? Even if we never pull a trigger or plunge a dagger ourselves, we all enable it and we are all drowning in it.

Yes, hope lies just beyond the horizon. But we are not there yet, not today. Today, we are called to lie in the tomb; to sit with who we are and what we do; to recognize that hope is not the product of smart people or smart ideas; to see that while the culture of death might be our reality, we do not have to live there. Yes, hope is within reach, if we are brave enough to wait in the tomb for her arrival.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalms 31:2-25; Hebrews 4:14-5:9; John 18:1-19:42

Good Friday: The Passion of the Lord

"The LORD laid upon him the guilt of us all." For many of us, today is just one big guilt trip. The day of doom-and-gloom that we must endure before we can have Sunday's joy. But what if today is one of joy as well? My favorite gospel adaptation is the movie "Judas", which tells the story of Jesus from the title character's perspective. It ends with an untraditional sort of resurrection scene. Peter, Andrew, and James arrive at the tree where Judas is still hanging after having committed suicide. James grumpily questions why they are doing this, coming to minister to the one who betrayed their master. Peter's response is one of the best summaries of the gospel ever written, "Because Jesus would've wanted us to." So they cut down their friend and pray the Kaddish over his body. Radical love; that is what the cross gives us, and that is worthy of rejoicing, not guilt. God does not want to scold us today, they want us to stand up for our siblings, all of them. "So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help." Amen.

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-5:9; John 18:1-19:42

Good Friday of the Passion of the Lord

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-5:9; John 18:1-19:42

Why did Jesus die? Most Christians say that he died for our sins. This is true, but not in the way they mean it. They claim that he died as a blood sacrifice to atone for our sinful nature. This is the stuff of adolescent drama: I'm so awful that only a great sacrifice will get mom and dad to love me again. What crap! It is time to grow up and face reality. Jesus died as a natural byproduct of human insecurity. He came "to testify to the truth," we were terrified by what he had to say, so we killed him. We do this all the time. Many will say that this reality minimizes Jesus, makes him less than God's true son. They say this because they are terrified of the other possibility: that it elevates us to his level, that it reveals that we are his true brothers and sisters, and thus true children of our Parent. "This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends." Jesus died because he refused to be anything less than our friend. It is time to overcome our fear and be just as good of a friend to our siblings.