Friday
03/25/16 Good Friday - Homer Avenue UMC
Sermon Title: “Why today is good for humanity”
Old Testament
Lesson: Psalm 22
New Testament
Scripture: Hebrews 10:16-25
Gospel Lesson:
John 18:1-19:42
My friends, my brothers and sisters, welcome again to this
our Good Friday service. This week of Holy Week began with Jesus entering into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the shouts of “hosanna! hosanna!”. Jesus continued
to love, to heal, and to forgive. Last night, Jesus had the Last Supper, where
we were given the sacrament of Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, or the
Eucharist. We were also given last night, the gift of foot washing, and the
“Maundy,” or the new commandment to love each other, the way that Jesus Christ
has and still does love us.
This day though, is a very different day in this Holy Week.
Today in some cultures, and in some Christians Churches, this day is called
“Holy Friday,” or “Great Friday,” Black Friday,” “Easter Friday,” or as we
commonly call it “Good Friday”.
Many of us who are here this evening have heard the story
of Good Friday so many times. We know that it is the story of the brutal
torture and death of Jesus Christ. For some of us that have seen movies like
“The Passion of the Christ,” we have seen depictions of Jesus being beaten,
whipped, and scourged. We have seen depictions of Jesus being nailed to a cross
and suffering greatly. Given all of this, how can today be a “Good Friday”? How
can there be any joy on a day such as this? I used to think as child that this
day was a terrible day, but as I have continued getting older, I have become
convinced that “today is good for humanity”.
I remember one time that I was preparing to do funeral for
the loved one of a good Christian family. While there was some sadness and
mourning, there was also joy, relief, and excitement from the family. For that
family believed, as I did, that there loved one had passed beyond this earth,
and was now with God in heaven.
I
remember when I did the funeral service though, that someone came to the
funeral and asked me “pastor, this is funeral, shouldn’t people be more sad?”
This person that asked me this, I don’t think was a Christian. I then told the
man, “We have sadness, but we also have great joy and celebration for we
believe that this person is alive and well with God. This person is no longer
suffering and is with God forever”.
So often in our culture, death is a terrible and an awful
thing. Now what Jesus goes through today, for us, for our sin, is very real.
Jesus having prayed in agony all night long in the Garden of Gethsemane, and as
one gospel account says that Jesus was in so much agony the he sweated blood.
One of Jesus’s friends and disciples Judas Iscariot greets
Jesus with a kiss on the cheek, then sells him out. Jesus is arrested, mocked,
spat upon, ridiculed, stripped naked, and treated like dirt. Jesus is then
scourged with a cat-o-nine tails whip. A whip that has rocks, metal shards, and
other things in it that are there to tear and scourge the flesh. After being
beaten, whipped, having a crown of thorns placed on his head, and continuing to
mocked and ridiculed, the Roman governor Pontius Pilate sentences Jesus Christ
to death on a Roman Cross. Jesus has to carry this cross. He falls twice, and
Simon of Cyrene helps him carry it after his second fall. Jesus then gets to
“Golgotha,” “Calvary,” or the “Place of Skull,” as that place of crucifixion is
called. Scripture tells us that Jesus was hardly recognizable as a man when he
got there.
There Jesus was crucified, and as many have termed it,
“nailed to the tree”. Often when someone was crucified, it could take days for
them to die. People that were crucified would also often die from sun exposure,
dehydration, or from suffocation, as the person needed to hold their body up to
breath. Yet Jesus Christ was so beaten, so marred, so bloodied, that he died in
only 6-hours. During his time on the cross, he prayed for those harming him, he
regarded his mother, and he offered salvation to one of the two men being
crucified with him.
Jesus then breaths his last breath and dies. The veil in
the “holy of holies” in the Temple in Jerusalem, where the Ark of the Covenant housed
the then-commandments is torn. This indicates that everyone now has free access
to God. The sky is darkened, and spear if thrusted intro Christ’s side to
ensure that he has died. Then a Jewish convert named Joseph of Arimathea asks
Pontius Pilate for Jesus’s body to bury him in his own personal tomb. Jesus
needed to be taken off of the cross by sunset, as the Jewish Sabbath was
coming. Joseph of Arimathea then wraps him in linens, places him in the tombs,
and a large stone is place at the entrance.
This is essentially the story of Good Friday. Some of our
sister churches, like the Roman Catholic Church, practice on this day and all
of Lent, what is called “Stations of the Cross”. For those that have been into a
Roman Catholic, an Anglican, and or Orthodox, and many other churches, maybe
you have seen numbered scenes of this day’s events on the walls. As you look
around such churches, you will see fourteen scenes that comprises the torture
and death of Jesus Christ.
Up
at SUNY Upstate University Hospital where I have been interning, the Roman
Catholic clergy that are part of the Spiritual Care Department have “Stations
of the Cross” every day. I have sat in on parts of some of them, as Christ’s
torture and death, is told, and re-told.
Given all of this then, how can today, how can this death,
be anything but a “Bad Friday,” or a “Terrible Friday”? How can this sermon
possibly be called, “Why today is good for humanity”? Is it good that Jesus
Christ suffered and died? I would say in the human sense, it was awful that
Jesus Christ suffered and died. Every year, I try to re-watch “The Passion of
the Christ” movie, yet Melissa has only seen it once. She told me after
watching it once, that it is two emotionally hard for her to see Jesus suffer
and die like that.
Yet Jesus Christ taught us that this is why he came. Christ
came to love, heal, and forgive, but also to die for the sins of humanity. As
our bulletin covers for this evening say, this is “The Day Death Died”. Do we
have hurt for what Jesus went through on this day? Is it hard for us to bear?
Sure it is.
However, since Jesus Christ, God in the flesh came to earth
for this purpose, it is a good today, because today “it is finished”. Christ’s
death is a harsh and brutal death, but through it, we have been set free. Since
Jesus did what he did and went through what he went through, we now have
salvation offered to us. We now have access to God through the forgiving blood
of Jesus Christ. The way the Jews smeared lambs blood on their door posts in
Egypt, so that the angel of death would pass them over, on that first Passover,
Christ is the new Passover Lamb. Christ is the Pascal Lamb, and by the shedding
of his blood on this day, we can be forgiven of all our sins and all of our
transgressions. This is why the cross matters, this is why the Christian faith
points us to the cross, because through the cross of Jesus Christ, we have been
offered the forgiveness of sins. I like what my Roman Catholic brothers and
sisters said in their “Stations of the Cross” up at the hospital. They said, “We
adore you O Christ and we bless you. Because
by your holy cross you have redeemed the world”.
Another way to say it is that on this day, Christ died, so
that we may live. On this day, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh died, and upon
his last breath, sin, evil, suffering, and pain, had been conquered forever.
Human sin had been overcome, and it had been overcome by the blood of the lamb.
All we then have to do is ask Jesus Christ to forgive us of our sins, and we to
will be covered by the blood of the lamb. This way, when we die one day the
angel of death will pass us over, as the blood of the Lamb will make us
justified when we stand before God our Father. When we stand before God one day
we will know what the Apostle Paul said in Romans 5:8, which says, “But God proves his love for us in that while we still
were sinners Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8, NRSV). The Gospel of John says of
Jesus’ crucifixion in 15:13, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down
one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn. 15:13, NRSV).
Even though all but the beloved disciples abandoned Jesus
in this day, even though Peter denied him three times, even though Thomas will
doubt him, he died for them, and for us. There is nothing we can do to earn
what Jesus Christ does for us, but brothers and sisters, this is “Why today is
good for humanity”. Today is good because the “veil is torn,” on this day we
can be reconciled to God, and we can be forgiven of our sins.
I
want to tell you all a story that I have told before, but it so fitting I think
for this Good Friday service. This made up story is called, “Whoever Gets the
Son, Gets Everything,” by Woodrow Kroll. Here is how it goes:
“A wealthy man and his son loved to
collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from
Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great
works of art.”
“When
the Viet Nam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was
very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The
father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.”
“About
a month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock at the
door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his
hands. He said, "Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom
your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying
me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He
often talked about you, and your love for art.”
“The
young man held out his package." I know this isn't much. I'm
not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to
have this."
“The
father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young
man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of
his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes
welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the
picture.” "Oh, no sir, I could never repay
what your son did for me. It's a gift."
“The
father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home
he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the
other great works he had collected.”
“The
man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings.
Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and
having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat
the painting of the son.”
“The
auctioneer pounded his gavel." We will start the bidding with this picture
of the son. Who will bid for this picture?"
“There
was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted. "We want to see
the famous paintings. Skip this one." But the auctioneer persisted.
"Will someone bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100,
$200?" Another voice shouted angrily. "We didn't come to
see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh’s, the Rembrandts. Get on with
the real bids!" But still the auctioneer continued. "The
son! The son! Who'll take the son?"
“Finally,
a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime
gardener of the man and his son. "I'll give $10 for the painting."
Being a poor man, it was all he could afford. "We have $10, who
will bid $20?" "Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters." "$10
is the bid, won't someone bid $20?"
The
crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted
the more worthy investments for their collections. The auctioneer pounded the
gavel. "Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!" A man sitting on
the second row shouted. "Now let's get on with the collection!" The
auctioneer laid down his gavel. "I'm sorry, the auction is over." "What
about the paintings?"
"I
am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret
stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until
this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned. Whoever bought that
painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who
took the son gets everything!"
The
story then say, “God gave his son 2,000 years ago to die on a cruel cross. Much
like the auctioneer, His message today is, "The son, the son, who'll
take the son?" Because you see, whoever takes the Son gets
everything.”
In
John’s gospel it says in 3:16, “For God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may
not perish but may have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16, NRSV). My sisters and
brothers, this is “Why today is good for humanity”.
Yet this story isn’t finished. This day ends with a dead
Messiah, a dead savior, with the eleven remaining apostles scared and
disillusioned. This day ends with death, but brothers and sisters be of good
cheer, for he has overcome the world, and a resurrection is coming! For the
grave cannot hold the king.
Tonight
and tomorrow, death will have its way, but come Sunday, we will have victory in
and through our Lord Jesus Christ. The one on this day who gave up everything,
so that in him and through him we can life, and life eternal. All praise,
glory, and honor be to God the father, his son our savior, and the Holy Spirit.
Happy Good Friday. Amen.
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