Friday, April 3
Good Friday

Scripture: John 19: 16-24, 28-30
So he delivered him over to them to be crucified.

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them. Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” Many of the Jews read this inscription, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Aramaic, in Latin, and in Greek. So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.”

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture, which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

So the soldiers did these things.

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

THE CROSS AND THE RESURRECTION

In a handful of churches in the United Kingdom one can find an image unique to that part of the world: Christ crucified on an Easter lily. A more violent dichotomy of death and resurrection is hard to fathom. For here we have the suffering of the crucifixion, and the beautiful triumph of the resurrection, bound together in a simultaneously agonizing and ecstatic image. And in this jarring synthesis, we find a glimpse into the whole of the Christian life.

For what is the Christian life but the way of the cross? We are to carry our own cross (Matt. 16:24), simultaneously bearing the burdens of others (Gal. 6:2). This is a time of trials, tribulations and suffering, as we, along with the earth upon which we walk, groan in anticipation of the coming of our Lord (Rom. 8:19). As we are reminded by the Christians currently suffering in the Middle East, this is a time in which individuals, families, neighborhoods, peoples and nations suffer greatly. A time in which the power of sin appears to triumph, as it seemed to do so powerfully on Good Friday so many hundreds of years ago.

But we are not the people of the cross, and Christianity is not a religion of the grave. If Christ only died for our sins, if the cross is the last word of God’s work of salvation, Paul holds us in derision, for we are little more than vain fools (1 Cor. 15:17). Our salvation lies not in the death of Christ, but in his resurrection—for God became man that we might have life, and that abundantly (John 10:10). Though God’s justice, holiness and wrath surely needed to be satisfied, how much more so was this true of his grace, love and plan for creation? God became man, that through his death and resurrection, he might bring us to life everlasting in him, and it is the resurrection above all that we celebrate (Eph. 1:18-20).

Where then does this leave us? Are we already raised with Christ, fully triumphant over the power of sin? Do death, adultery, wrath, prejudice and the legion forms of sin have no more sway over us? Or are we dead with Christ, bearing our cross with him on the way to death, suffering under the dread burden of every token of evil: passive, suffering, and helpless?

The answer, our image reminds us, is neither. This is the time between the times. This is the time of the cross and the resurrection. Or more specifically, this is the time of the cross in the power of the resurrection. We are the people of God for whom Christ died and rose again. We are called and equipped by him and his Holy Spirit to contemplate and pattern our lives after the way of the cross, but doing so in the power of the risen Lord.

Is evil utterly vanquished? Has it departed from this earth once and for all? No, not yet. But on this Good Friday, we remember and take hope in the fact that the crucifixion—which calls to mind our own way of the cross—is the crucifixion of the Risen Lord, and our own way of the cross is no mere repetition of his suffering. Our following after him is a following after in the power of his resurrection—as we bear our own suffering and that of others, we are a people equipped to love, heal and restore, to interact with the forces of evil in wisdom and power. For our Lord, the crucified Lord, is the Risen Lord, and therefore with us in power.

PRAYER
Father, we hurt. We hurt, and our loved ones around us hurt. The world hurts. And we hurt deeply. Fill us with the power of your risen Son, through your Holy Spirit, that we might love deeply in the midst of suffering, heal in the midst of disease, and bring peace where there is conflict and war. Give us the grace and power to suffer for your name, taking up our cross, and bearing the burdens of others, as the people who love you and do your work, awaiting the return of your Son.
Amen.

Adam Johnson, Assistant Professor of Theology, Torrey Honors Institute