Good Friday

Good Friday

Someone asked me the other day if Jesus is Risen and we all know that is what happens, why we need to celebrate Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Why should we dwell on the sad part when we know there is a happy ending? This is a good question and one that I have asked myself in the past.

No one likes to dwell on the negative, not many people like to revisit the past hurts and the moments where we have experienced our greatest sorrows. And yet, every year we do exactly that during Lent and Easter. We revisit one of the most awful moments in human history where humans killed God’s Son.

We gather together on the anniversary of his betrayal and the anniversary of His death to remind ourselves of our culpability. We remind ourselves that Jesus wouldn’t have had to die if we were not sinners. But we are sinners. Every single person in this room has done something that would make God turn him or her away from the Heavenly Gates. We cannot get into heaven on our own merit. There is nothing we can say or do which will give us eternal life. We need that reminder.

Human beings are often prideful and arrogant. We forget we are here because God made the earth and heavens. We forget that the car we drive and the house we own is made possible by God’s grace. We forget that we live because God breathed life into us. Everything we own, everything we think we possess by our own merits is God given. Jesus is the reminder we need to keep us humble. Jesus is the stark contrast of how we actually behave and how we should behave.

Jesus tells us if someone strikes us, not to hit him or her back, but to offer our other cheek as well to be struck. Jesus tells us that if someone wants our coat to also give them our shirt. Jesus tells us that when people spit on you and persecute you, say nothing and do nothing to hurt them. Jesus not only tells us these things, he shows them to us.

On Good Friday, Jesus is accused of awful things. People he has never even met come up and testify falsely against him. The people he grew up with turn away from him. His family is nowhere to be seen; those brothers and sisters who wanted to talk to him now have nothing to say to defend him. The disciples that have only a few short hours earlier sworn to die with him rather that desert him, have fled to escape the same punishment Jesus is receiving. Pontius Pilate knows that Jesus has done no wrong, but still he has him flogged and gives in to the crowd to crucify him. The guards beat him for fun, then play games to win his clothes. They mock him, spit upon him and beat him both emotionally and physically. And Jesus silently allows all of it to happen.

After he is betrayed, Jesus says in Matthew 26 when the disciples would fight their way to freedom, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” Jesus stays silent through all the torture and everything else because he knows this must happen. Jesus is faithful to God, who has sent him here to do something.

Jesus came to earth and died on that cross today so that we would not have to. Jesus died so that we would live. All those who believe in Jesus Christ will know eternal life. All those who accept the Holy Spirit into their hearts will be accepted into the relationship that Jesus has with His Father. That is why we worship on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. We worship a God that is never indifferent to our pain. We worship a God who cares enough to give everything for us. A God that willingly empties himself, a God that willingly humbles himself to take on human flesh and then willingly dies for all of us.

A mere human being cannot defeat death like Jesus did two thousand years ago. Jesus broke the bonds of death, the bond of sin that held captive our human souls. By breaking that bond of death and sin, Jesus allowed our hearts to be free to choose God. We can choose to be good, we can choose to love rather than hate. We are able to accept the Holy Spirit without guilt. That is what God wanted for all of us. That is why God sent Her Son to us.

So the real question is not why do we celebrate this awful time in human history, but how could we not want to remember what God has sacrificed for us? Jesus died for you. For every single thing you have ever done to hurt another person or yourself, Jesus paid the price for it. Jesus died for me and he died for the people sitting on the right and left of you. When we pass from this life to the next, we can do so with confidence that God will accept us because Jesus love us.

We must celebrate this day. The day that Jesus died. We must mourn on this day that what we have done has brought our Savior to the cross. But more than that, we must also join him on the cross and sacrifice our pride, our arrogance, our hate and jealousy and anger. We must put those on the cross and let them die. It is the only way that we can live. It is the only way to free ourselves from the sins of the past that hold us back from a life with Christ.

Today is about remembering to place our burdens at Jesus’ feet so that we are free to choose better things. We are here for a grander purpose than carrying around a load of guilt and sin. God created you for a reason and Jesus died for you for a reason. Do not let the past get in the way of your future. Go to the cross this day and let your sorrows be crucified so that on Easter day you too may Rise as our Lord Jesus has Risen. Let yourself be given a new purpose and be made a new creation.
Amen.