The first words Jesus utters from the agony of the cross are these: “Father Forgive Them For they Do Not Know what they are doing.”
Jesus is right. When caught up in a mob mentality, when the rage of a crowd takes on scary proportions, we do not realize what we’re doing.
Good Friday is a perfect example of this:
You see here’s the thing about the crucifixion—-we can’t sit smugly by and think, “those bad Temple authorities, those awful Romans, those clueless disciples…not me I wouldn’t have done that.” But here’s the thing:
Of course you would have. Of course I would have. We would, we do.
All the time.
The French theologian Rene Girard made an entire career writing about how we scapegoat others as a way of making ourselves feel secure. There is a base human desire to take all our insecurities, fears, doubt and dump it on the “other.” The “other” is usually the one who doesn’t look like us, love like us, worship like us and/or vote like us. We do this not because what the “other” is doing is wrong, we do this because what the “other “ is doing is something we don’t understand, it’s unfamiliar and challenging. What we know, what has always been, what is familiar….when that is challenged, we get scared.
And when we get scared we look to off load that fear on another—a scapegoat.
So back to Jesus. He knew he was a scapegoat. He knew that the message he was preaching—you know love everybody even those, especially those you’re not that crazy about—-was threatening to the Empire, it was threatening to the Temple Authorities, it was threatening to those who had not yet opened themselves to Jesus’ teachings. It was even threatening to those who loved him. Jesus knew that his message challenged everything anyone had ever known. And he knew that eventually he would need to pay for this message…not because he failed, but because changing the way we think, act and feel takes generations and he was running out of time….however, he had one final act, one more shot at getting his message through our thick heads...the crucifixion.
By being on that cross Jesus took all the hatred and evil and fear of this world onto himself. He eliminated the need for scapegoats! But we, not unlike the disciples, aren’t so quick on the uptake!
So Jesus continues to offer himself on our behalf, each and every time we celebrate the Eucharist. . By engaging in Eucharist, by laying our burdens at the foot of the cross, we’re freed from all that weighs us down allowing us to be resist the desire to scapegoat and open ourselves to doing the work we’ve been given to do—-feed the hungry, clothe the naked, bring justice to all the world.
However, and this is what Jesus knows as he asks God to forgive us…we get sidetracked, we listen to the voices of this world, we let the fear of THIS WORLD hijack our faith and we fall back into doubt and fear and hate and scapegoating. We do not know why we do this, we often don’t even know that we are doing it, we don’t think we know how to not do it . And yet—each and every time we lay these burdens down upon this altar—we’re forgiven. Because God knows, as Jesus knew, that when we forget to focus on the lessons of Jesus, the love of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit…when we instead stay focused on this world and all the jealousy and fear and intolerance within it, we do not know what it is we are doing…And so God forgives us: Again and again and again.
But wouldn’t it be nice, wouldn’t we be doing our Lord a great favor if,
the next time we find ourselves listening to the voices of those around us, of the crowd, of the mob, of the people of this world, we were to come to our senses and finally—-finally—know what it is we’re doing and, once and for all, stop it?
May we take these words of our Lord on the cross and etch them upon our hearts remembering that life defeats death, light overcomes darkness and love? Love always and forevermore defeats hate. May the words of our Lord, his act of total self-giving upon that cross strengthen and embolden us to do what it is we need to do, to do what it is we must do: Love one another just as we have been loved. Amen.
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It is Finished. St David's West Seneca
Those of us gathered here this afternoon know that Easter always follows Good Friday, that joy returns after despair, that hope defeats fear and that out of death comes glorious, glorious life.
But on this most holy of afternoons, during these three hours of darkness, it isn’t Easter yet. Death hasn’t been defeated, Pain is very real and the Savior of our world; our Teacher, our Hope, our Lord and our God has been nailed to a cross and life—his beautiful precious human life---is slipping out of his body. He’s in agony, he’s scared, he’s weakening. It looks---it feels as if the empire has won and that the joy, hope and life of the babe born in the manger has been utterly, thoroughly and completely defeated. That the love and light of Jesus has been snuffed out and the hate and darkness of tyranny has won.
But….and thank God for this BUT….our faith, the Faith given to us through the prophets of old, the Faith taught to us by the prophets of the not so recent past, give us this absurd trust that death does not, and never will have the final word.
So when Jesus says “It is Finished,” it’s not a cry of defeat, it’s as scholars have said for generations, a proclamation of victory.
Jesus was proclaiming that his work as God taking on the flesh of this world, as the man Jesus, was finished.
And while that makes sense to me----haven’t you ever finished a long and painful task and although exhausted and maybe even in pain, you’re able to look at what you’ve accomplished and say, with satisfaction, “It is Finished!”-I have done all I can do ---I can’t help but “hear” these words of Jesus as being tinged with less triumph than scholars would lead us to believe.
Look around the scene---everyone but a handful of women and the beloved disciple have abandoned Him---Judas has betrayed, Peter denied and the others? They’ve slipped into the temple crowds, hiding as best they can, denying all that has been, securing their place back into the status quo…with all that going on how can Jesus feel victorious?
Yes, his earthly life is coming to an end: he’s taught all he could teach, he’s healed all he could heal, he’s frustrated the temple authorities to the very end--- but the work?
The challenges to tyranny, the commandment to love one another, to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, comfort the broken-hearted…. that work?
It’s so very far from finished.
Yes there is work yet to be done—the tyrannies of our own lives, the losses, the fears, the burdens, the worries, the grief, all must be dismantled.
The tyrannies of our world: intolerance, hate, hopelessness, must be challenged until they too are trampled beneath the glory of the kingdom of God come to reign here on earth.
This work is our work. This work has been left to us by Jesus and our job, our one and only job from this day forward is to tackle this work emboldened by the witness of Jesus of Nazareth. We must tackle this work with the steely eyed focus of Jesus who refused to be sucked into the world around him but instead, kept his sure and certain focus on the paradise which awaited him and awaits us all.
And so, on this Good Friday, we must admit that this work—this good and holy work— is not finished and will not be finished, will not be complete—the victory of God will not be won until:
the hungry are fed, the naked clothed, the lonely loved, the shunned welcomed, and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding is available to everyone, everywhere, always.
It isn’t easy work, it isn’t popular work, it often feels like impossible work. But as long as we call ourselves followers of Christ, as long as we proclaim Jesus as Lord, it is our work.
And there is so much of it to be done. But be not afraid, for as we will hear from Jesus as he prepares to ascend to his rightful place in heaven—he will be with us always. In everything, until the end of the age.
So my friends, let us get busy, may this work, this good and holy and necessary work be finished by us and through us, so that the dream of God, seemingly shattered upon that cross will, once and for all, be fulfilled.
Because then and only then will it truly be…finished. Amen.
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