Word to the Wise
Friday, April 2, 2010 - Good Friday - Celebration of the Lord's Passion
[Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; John 18:1 - 19:42]Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken as one smitten by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each following his own way; but the Lord laid upon him the guilt of us all.
When we gather to resume our pilgrimage this morning, we are informed that Jesus was arrested last night in the Garden of Gethsemani! Judas' plan was carried out. Jesus will be brought before a kind of Jewish court and then to Pilate. Isaiah gives us an eerie outline of the meaning of what we are about to experience, along with lines from another later guide called "Hebrews," whose author no one really knows. As we try to ponder the "before" and "after," our third guide, John, urges us on so that we can catch up to the fast moving events since the enemies of Jesus need to "get this done" before sundown! We are told that it will be like a "living Stations of the Cross," but this time, the characters are the original participants, and the events are not pictures on the wall of a church. Those of us who have seen the movie, "THE PASSION," gulp and say, "You mean......" John replies that the movie is graphic but this time we have to draw our own conclusions and not those of Mel Gibson! We will not be observers this time. We are going onto the stage of events. As we follow Jesus through the terrible events of this day, our guide, John the Evangelist, helps us to organize our impressions dramatically, but he cannot organize our feelings. Isaiah keeps reminding us that what we are seeing is being done for each of us! We are tempted to turn away, guilty and embarrassed, as if we have been caught scapegoating someone for our misconduct - which is a terrible truth. We are caught up in the violence of our lives, individually and collectively, as well as our current feelings at seeing the consequences of that violence falling upon Jesus! Will we ever be able to look at a crucifix in the same way again? Is this what is meant by redemptive suffering? How can this be love? No "streamlined" or "gory" re-creation on a wall will ever equal what we are seeing. Around us there are taunts and sobbing both. Someone gets close enough to read the sarcastic yet true inscription nailed to the cross with Jesus! But we are left to see the small group of figures standing nearby, while struggling with our own feelings, until another small group comes with a ladder and removes Jesus' body and takes it away. The mixture of horror, sorrow and emotional/physical exhaustion that comes from this day can tempt us to abandon the whole pilgrimage in a futile effort to remove ourselves from any responsibility or implication in the events we have witnessed. Yet, our guides persuade us that the pilgrimage is not over yet and it would be a big mistake to leave. Isaiah leaves us a copy of his prophecy and David a copy of his sad psalms, and we are all left to make the best of it that we can, each in his or her own way till we meet again tomorrow. AMEN
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