Good Friday C_RCL April 2, 2010

St. Benedict’s, Los Osos CA

The Rev. Brian H. O. A. McHugh +

We sing the praise of him who died,
of him who died upon the cross…..

Inscribed upon the cross we see
in shining letters, God is love …..

The balm of life, the cure of woe,
the measure and the pledge of love,
the sinner's refuge here below,
the angel's theme in heaven above.

Words from the Holy Week hymn We sing the praise of him who died.

We do not gather here tonight to celebrate suffering.

To acknowledge it, in Jesus’ life and ours, Yes. To be one with Jesus in the agony of crucifixion, Yes. To be deeply aware of how we and indeed all human beings inflict suffering and sorrow upon each other, Yes. But to “celebrate” suffering, No.

Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ is the modern-day culmination of a theology gone awry, probably since the Middle Ages. The prominence of blood, of Jesus’ body twisted in agony, darkness and weeping so evident in the art of the last several hundred years, culminating in the sacrilege of the unrelieved masochistic horror of Gibson’s film which portrays nothing but horror and pain and nothing of the Gospel message, has perverted the focus and the meaning of what we still dare to call “Good” Friday. They are designed to connect us personally and emotionally with Jesus. They are misdirected. What we need is connection to Obedience and Love.

Good Friday is centered in these two things: in Obedience, and in Love. Christ Crucified is the sign that the two are one. Jesus was not hung upon the Cross essentially by evil or hate or politics, but by His choice to be obedient to the essential nature of His God: that of Unconditional Love and Compassion. The choice for Love has engendered evil and hate and political revenge onto many before and since Jesus. It will continue to do so in a World of human beings who are free to choose self-giving generous Love, or selfish self-interest. And, Jesus’ choice will continue to shape the core of those of us who follow His path.

Phillips Brooks, bishop of Massachusetts in the late 18th century and famous for having written the text for the Christmas hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem has written:

The essence of that by which Jesus overcame the world was not suffering, but obedience.
Yes, men may puzzle themselves and their hearers over the question where the power of
the life of Jesus and the death of Jesus lay; but the soul of the Christian always knows that
it lay in the obedience of Christ. He was determined at every sacrifice to do His Father's will.
Let us remember that; and the power of Christ's sacrifice may enter into us, and some little
share of the redemption of the world may come through us, as the great work came through Him.

The story of Jesus last days are full of hurt and suffering, yes. But it is also full of love. The love of His disciples – perhaps even the misguided Judas who desperately wanted Him to claim His messiahship. The compassion of the woman who wiped his face (a non-Biblical legend) as He staggered under the weight of the crossbeam. The love of his mother and of John and the other women as they stood at the foot of the cross. The love of Mary Magdalene, buying burial ointments and following to see where He would be buried. And of course, Jesus’ love: for His mother watching Him die; for His disciples, especially John; for God’s people, “sheep without a shepherd”; for Jerusalem, rejecting God’s love; for His tormentors, forgiving them for their ignorance; for the thieves crucified with Him; and of course for the God of Infinite Compassion Who was the very heart of His being.

Jesus’ resurrection is the Christian proclamation of a great Mystery of Life: that Love is greater than even Death. It is that Mystery which we, in our baptism into Christ, seek to live out every day of our life. Jesus summed up all Christian action in His “new commandment”:

“Love one another as I have loved you”. “

He emphasized servant-Love by washing His disciples’ feet and telling them:

“As I have done for you, so you are to do for one another.”

The essence of that by which Jesus overcame the world was not suffering, but obedience. …
May we remember that; and the power of Christ's sacrifice may enter into us, and some little
share of the redemption of the world may come through us, as the great work came through Him.

It will – as long as we are faithful in Love. It is the Way of the Cross.