Good Friday

The peh Factor

“Seeking balance in a polarized world”

Today is “Good Friday.”  Certainly this title comes from the benefit of 20/20 hindsight because in reality, the events of that day were not good.  As Jesus came near the end of his three years of active ministry, he became increasingly vocal against the powers that were holding God’s people in bondage (read Luke 11:37-12:7; Matt. 22:23-46 for example).  These powers resided in the religious leaders, the Pharisees, Sadducees and lawyers.   In addition to holding the interpretive power of the laws of the land, they also had established relationship with the occupying forces of the Romans to maintain a type of peace in the nation.  As a result of the power, influence and political relationships these leaders had become very wealthy.  They had learned how to play the political games under religious guise and do it for their benefit.

Enter Jesus.  Jesus came preaching The Kingdom of God not the religion of men.  Not only were his words confrontive of the religious leaders, his miracles were the exclamation point to his message.  As Jesus became increasingly isolated from the religious leadership he became increasingly popular with the people.  This polarization reached its peak after Jesus raised Lazarus from the read (John 11:1-44). 

So, what were the people in power supposed to do?  This passage from John 11:47-53 (NRSV) lays out their response.

47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council (also called the Sanhedrin), and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death.    

The rest, you might say, is history.  The events of this day (the blatantly obvious ones by the Romans and the more subtle ones of the religious leaders) were meant to remind the general population of the consequences when a person choses to work against the established order of those in power.  “Stay in your place.  Keep silent.  Obey us and you will be OK!!” 

The Kangaroo Court that put Jesus on trial has been repeated over the past 2000+ years.  Trumped up charges continue to have impact on people’s lives leading to false arrest and imprisonment.  Public lashings (40 minus one is the label the Romans gave to what Jesus received because 40 was the point when most people died) continue whether they are given physically or verbally.  Crucifixions continue as people are stripped bare of any decent covering and exposed to the rest of humanity leading to one of the many forms of death (physical, emotional, social, spiritual…).  Alexei Navalny comes to mind as one modern example of this process.  Time will tell if the present actions of our own government with Kilmar Ábrego García will be yet another.

On this day it seemed like power had won.  The crucifixion was as horrible as Mel Gibson portrayed it in The Passion of the Christ.  When the movie came out in 2004 I remember people talking about how Mr. Gibson had overdone it.  “Why did need to glorify the violence?”  “Why did he need to be so gruesome?”  Because it was accurate.  The ancient Romans knew how to be inhumane.  It was not a GOOD Friday.  It was horrible. 

Because of 20/20 hindsight we are now able to call this horrible day GOOD.  We are now able to see that these events fulfilled the ancient prophesy of Isaiah 53 where he wrote:

He was despised and rejected by others;

a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;

and as one from whom others hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him of no account.

4Surely he has borne our infirmities

and carried our diseases;

yet we accounted him stricken,

struck down by God, and afflicted.

5But he was wounded for our transgressions,

crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the punishment that made us whole,

and by his bruises we are healed.

6All we like sheep have gone astray;

we have all turned to our own way,

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

On this day, Jesus took the spiritual punishment we all deserve upon himself (all have sinned).  God “laid it on him.”  And why?  Because God loves us (John 3:16).  Since the foundations of the world God has set human beings apart for a special relationship.  This relationship is based on God’s love.  But our arrogance, our need for power and control, our desire to do things our way because we think we know what is best, led us then and leads us now away from that loving relationship.  That broken relationship needs to be reconciled, healed.  God refuses to allow it to become an ‘irreconcilable difference.’ Jesus’ death was God’s way of opening a path to reconciliation.  As the Apostle Paul says in Romans 5:

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person — though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 

9 Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

This horrible Friday opened the door to a renewed, loving, eternal reconciled relationship with Almighty God for anyone who would be humble enough to accept Christ’s death on the cross on our behalf.  When we do accept it, when we choose to enter this renewed relationship with the God who loves us through Jesus, we begin to see how something so horrible can become So GOOD.  As Jesus himself said,

"Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit."  John 12:24

May this Friday be a GOOD Friday for you. 

Paul

PS.  Sunday’s coming.