Good Friday
April 10, 2009
It Is Finished*
John 19:16-37
16Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.
So the soldiers took charge of Jesus. 17Carrying his own cross, he went out
to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). 18Here they
crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
19Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read:|sc JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. 20Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek. 21The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, "Do not write 'The King of the Jews,' but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews."
22Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
24"Let's not tear it," they said to one another.
"Let's decide by lot who will get it."
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled which said,
"They divided my garments among them
and cast lots for my clothing." So this is what the soldiers did.
25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife
of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple
whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here
is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From
that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
28Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." 29A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. 30When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
31Now it was the day of Preparation, and the next day was to be a special Sabbath. Because the Jews did not want the bodies left on the crosses during the Sabbath, they asked Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken down. 32The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first man who had been crucified with Jesus, and then those of the other. 33But when they came to Jesus and found that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. 35The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe. 36These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: "Not one of his bones will be broken," 37and, as another scripture says, "They will look on the one they have pierced."
DISILLUSIONMENT
What a tragic, historic day. Certainly it goes down in Biblical History as the worst of all days and yet it also must be recorded as the best of all days. That is why it is called “GOOD Friday.”
For Jesus’ followers and family at the time it made no sense at all. It was the denial of everything they’d longed for … the stupid and pointless snuffing out of the brightest light and best hope Israel ever had.
Watching Jesus get dragged off to a mockery of a trial, a brutal and degrading beating and then the worst torture and death imaginable would force all sorts of questions on his followers. If we don’t recognize that, then we have domesticated the cross, turned it into a safe symbol or private faith, and forgotten what it was really about. And then we wonder why we are left with nowhere to turn when things in our own lives, our own families, our own communities, our own civilization, seem to be utterly chaotic and totally random.
Good Friday was chaos come again: darkness, earthquake, violence and the death of the one who had given life to so many.
Nanette read what is called “The fourth Servant Song.” It is the end
of Isaiah 52 and the whole of Isaiah 53. It might be a good idea to read that
song through slowly again, asking God to help you listen to the notes that it’s
playing and the think through the harmonies you need to fill in.
> It is a song about horrible violence, leaving the victim unrecognizable
and scarcely human.
> It i’s a song about suffering so acute that people are ashamed and embarrassed
and look away.
> It is a song about massive injustice, oppression doing its worst and getting
away with it.
Is it any wonder the first Christians saw it as a song about Jesus?
BUT IT’S ALSO, OF COURSE, A SONG ABOUT ASTONISHING VINDICATION, ABOUT SUFFERING BEARING FRUIT, ABOUT THE SUFFERER SEEING FRUIT FROM ALL THE TRAVAIL OF HIS SOUL, AND ABOUT A NEW WORK OF GOD WHICH SPRINGS UP JUST WHEN ALL SEEMED LOST IN DARKNESS AND FUTILITY. AND IT IS ALL THIS BECAUSE IT IS A SONG ABOUT SUBSTITUTE. IT’S ABOUT THE KING WHO STANDS IN FOR HIS PEOPLE AND DOES FOR THEM WHAT THEY CAN’T DO FOR THEMSELVES.
Thank you; thank you!
Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. When I survey the wondrous cross, where the young prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride.”
GOOD FRIDAY: FINISHED.
“Finished.” “Accomplished.” “Completed.”.
Jesus’ last word, which sums it all up.
“Finished” was what you wrote on a bill when it had been settled: ‘Paid’ in full!
WHEN GOD THE CREATOR MADE HIS WONDERFUL WORLD, AT THE END OF THE SIXTH DAY HE FINISHED IT. He completed his work. Now, on the Friday, the sixth day of the week, Jesus has completed the work of redeeming the world. With his shameful, chaotic, horrible death he has gone to the very bottom, to the darkest and deepest place of ruin, and has planted there a sign that says “Rescued.”
It is the sign of love. The love of the creator for his ruined creation. The love of the savior for his ruined people. Yes, of course, it all has to be worked out. The victory has to be implemented. But it’s done; it’s completed; it’s finished.
DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?
Perhaps we can see ourselves in the figures of Mary and John, standing at the foot of the cross. Mary’s life was never going to be the same again; the son she adored, the one on whom she had rested all her hope and delight, was killed.
John’s life was never going to be the same again: the master he adored, who had made him his special companion, was gone. But through the cross Jesus provided a new identity, a new community in miniature … for both of them … in one another.
In our church, there are plenty of Mary’s and Johns, plenty of people for whom life isn’t going to be the same again.
Day 6 … Friday … Good Friday is the point at which God comes into our chaos, to be there with us in the middle of it and to bring us his new creation.
HOLY SATURDAY: SORROW
Friday passes. The chaos and turmoil still. But the pain remains. Holy Saturday brings sorrow. It is known in many circles are “Silent Saturday.”
Saturday is to commit ourselves to waiting; waiting without any sense of being able to see how it’s all going to turn out.
If there is anything else to come, any real hope, it will need a whole new creation. And with Good Friday there is still no sign of such a thing. And all we can do on Holy Saturday is therefore to say, “Yes, this is awful; this is beyond belief; it is chaos come again; but we will sit quietly and wait.”
Remember how, at the end of the creation account in Genesis, we are told that when God finished all his work on the sixth day he then rested on the seventh day? Now John has brought Jesus’ redeeming work to its completion, with that great word “it is finished” as Jesus dies.
HOLY SATURDAY IS THEREFORE THE SABBATH AFTER THE COMPLETION OF THE WORK OF REDEMPTION.
On the seventh day God rested in the darkness of the tomb
Having finished on the sixth day all his work of joy and doom.
Now the word had fallen silent, and the water had run dry
The bread had been broken, and the light had left the sky
The flock had lost its shepherd, and the seed was sadly sown
The courtiers had betrayed their king, and nailed him to his throne.
O Sabbath rest by Calvary, o calm of tomb below
Where the grave-clothes and the spices cradle him we did not know!
Rest you well, beloved Jesus: Caesar’s Lord and Israel’s king
In the brooding of the Spirit, in the darkness of the spring.
(By N.T. Wright)
SUNDAY: THE NEW CREATION
Friday … the work is finished.
Saturday … a Sabbath of waiting.
Sunday comes. A new day … a new week.
Sunday is not the end but the beginning. Often Easter seems like the end of the story.
Well, it isn’t. It’s just the beginning!
On Easter we celebrate the first day of God’s new creation. Because, you see, that’s what it’s all about. The gospels don’t really reach a conclusion. They point on to something more that’s still to come. But what is this “something more”?
What is Easter all about?
For Jesus’ first followers, the idea of “resurrection” had, up to that point, been quite simple. It was, they would have said, what would happen to everyone at the end.
Only gradually and particularly would the truth dawn. When they met Jesus, with his body fully alive, indeed, more alive than it had ever been, because it had been through death and out the other side-only gradually did they realize what happened. In his death, Jesus had taken all the sin and death and shame and sorrow of the world upon himself, by letting it do its worst to him he had destroyed its power, which means that now there is nothing to stop the new creation coming into being. Jesus’ resurrection body is the first bit of the new creation, the sign of the new world that is to come.
In terms of Good Friday as the sixth day, and Easter is the eighth day, the first day of the new week. This isn’t the end; it’s the beginning. And that is why Easter is the start of the church’s mission.
And that is why we need to leave behind, on the cross, all the bit and pieces of the old creation that have made us sad, that have depressed us and our communities, and start to pray for vision and wisdom to know where God can and will make new creation happen in our lives, in our hearts, in our homes and not least in our communities. That’s what “regeneration” is all about.’
We claim the victory of Jesus Christ over all that is evil, so that we can leave it behind on the cross and go forward to do new things in the power of his Spirit.
Because … IT IS FINISHED!
He who has ears to hear,
Let him hear.
This Sermon is provided by Dr. Kenneth Pell
Potsdam Church of the Nazarene
Potsdam, New York
www.potsdam-naz.org
*Please note: This sermon is not original with pastor Ken but is a compilation
of three sermons written and published by N.T. Wright in His book “Christians
at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus”.