I can still feel the metallic noise of the hammer striking the nails. I can still hear his cries and the pain. God, it is awful; Make it stop. I can’t believe this is the end, that it has come to this. I look at him now, I can see he is still breathing. Why doesn’t he do something, for God’s sake. He said…He promised…I thought he was different. I can’t bear to watch
In some expressions of the Christian faith there is an over emphasis on the horror of the events of Good Friday. In others, there is a polite skipping over what must have been a gruesome scene. But, this variation is not just down to what is considered suitable material for a Sunday audience. The ambivalence with which some hold the events of Good Friday has deep theological roots which begin in the early church. These early Christians struggled with a key question – how God could ( if God is all powerful, all knowing) suffer in the person of Jesus. Complicated mental and theological gymnastics sorted it out after a few hundred years, and they are encapsulated in the creeds of the church.
But, despite the well worked out statements of the faith, it continues rightly to be a scene which carries horror, one which is almost painful even to think about – that someone got up that morning and hammered nails through the flesh of the son of God, who came to reconcile us to God through love.
The cry of dereliction is the crux of the scene before he breathes his last: My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?
I hear genuine fear. I hear genuine pain of abandonment. What do you hear?
And it is important that we don’t skip over this to Easter Sunday. But rather recall it and take it with us into Sunday because then we can celebrate the resurrection all the deeper. The cry of abandonment, considered by some to be an embarrassment, actually can stay with us because we know that when our time comes, when we feel abandoned and lost, when the pain becomes too much to bear, we can cry out like Christ crucified knowing in faith that it connects us with Jesus’ own cry, and, vitally, the resurrection. This is the foundation we have to the true confidence we all seek in the faith of Jesus Christ. That when it matters, we will not be lost – and this gives us courage to face the world today.
A friend of mine died recently. As he died, he was listening to music including these words:
Be jubilant, my heart,
for now the pain departs
which has so long burdened you.
God has sent his Son most dear,
whom he so esteems and cherishes,
down to this world.
He leaves the throne of heaven
and will the entire world
from its chains of slavery
and its bondage deliver.
O marvellous deed!
God becomes a human,
and wishes to become on earth
still lowlier than we and still far more wretched.
The courage to believe these words at the moment of death, through suffering and loss, is founded in the courage that Good Friday gives us.
What is this courage about and how do we solidify it in our lives? It comes about when we deal with reality. When we have not papered over the reality of death and suffering with platitudes, when we have not tried to escape the world through distractions, materialism, and control. Because when we do this we set up a false reality, a prison almost, and in the end, it only punishes us. To ground your faith in the confidence of good Friday is to find a courage that is true freedom.
I have no words. It is over. Truly over. It’s getting dark when we run into the house and bolt the door, looking around at the messy scene of last night’s meal. Just a few hours ago we were riding high, on top of the world, felt good and powerful. What a letdown, I want so much to forget what we just witnessed. What a waste.
Prayer
Jesus of the Cross
Give me the confidence to look at you today, your body twisted in agony on the cross
Give me confidence to hear the cry of loss and abandonment
Give me the confidence to wake up and grow in awareness of this gift of life and the reality of death
Give me the confidence to believe in the power of the cross, the resurrection of the dead and the life eternal.
Bless me today, enlarge my faith, and deepen my courage
Help me find freedom from fear
I pray
Amen