Good Friday

A Final Word from the Cross --
Luke 23:44-49

We have come to the end, to the final moments of Jesus' life. Who would have thought that Jesus would have ended his life this way, nailed to a cross, bleeding, and struggling to breathe? Think of what might have been, what great things he might have accomplished if he had lived. Now death was just moments away, the pain would be over soon, but so would the dreams, the possibilities, the opportunities. As he suffered physically, Jesus heard the taunts of the crowd. Many who had welcomed him into the city just a few days before with shouts of hosanna, now tossed insults at him. Where once the people saw him as the harbinger of a new order, now they saw him only as a lonely and defeated loser, and no one wants to follow a loser.
That is one interpretation of the scene, but Luke offers a different viewpoint. He shows us that the church knew about a different ending. For him Jesus' pending death is described in cosmic terms of judgment and vindication. The darkness that settles in at noon and covers the land until three stands as a sign of God's judgment. Then the veil of the temple, which blocked access to the holy of holies, was torn in two. What does this mean? Is it possible that in tearing open the veil God opened a way for all people to enter his presence? Yes, these signs served as cosmic reminders that God would vindicate the message and ministry of Jesus, which included opening the way for all people to enjoy the presence of God.

With the coming of these cosmic signs came the end of Jesus' earthly life. Having endured all that he could and having given all of himself for humanity, Jesus called out one last time to God, crying out: "Father into your hands I commend my Spirit" and then he breathed his last. There is no cry of abandonment here as there is in Mark, for in Luke we see only a sense of peace and fulfillment. In Jesus' words and actions we see the trust he put in God. He knew that God would receive his spirit, that this was not the end.

Written as a prayer, theologian Karl Rahner offers these words of reflection on Jesus' final breaths:

You give everything to Him who gave everything to You. You put everything into
the hands of Your Father without guarantee and without reservations. That is
doing a great deal, and it is a hard and bitter thing to do. All alone You had
to bear the burden of Your life: all men, their meanness, Your mission, Your
cross, failure and death. But now the time for enduring is past. Now You can put
everything and Yourself into the hands of the Father. Everything. Those hands
are so gentle and so sure. They are like the hands of a Mother. They embrace
Your soul as one would lift a little bird carefully and lovingly into his hands.
1

How do we respond to such a scene? What do we say, having seen Jesus die in this manner? Alan Culpepper writes that the "death of Jesus is a `thin place'," a place where the "separation between heaven and earth was very thin." Here on Golgotha we find one of those thin places. It is not a place of great beauty, but we see the thinness between the two realms in the conversation Jesus has with the Father, for "those who hear his prayers are moved to confession and contrition."2

Luke lifts up three different witnesses to these events. First, a Roman Centurion proclaimed Jesus innocent and righteous, offering confirmation to the previous verdicts of Pilate and Herod. Still, though he was innocent that was not enough to save his life. For in our own sinful rebellion, we chose to put him on the cross.

The crowds left the scene in mourning, beating their breasts. Though Luke does not record their words, their actions declare their grief and contrition. Alan Culpepper reminds us that we must also go home "beating our breasts with those whose hopes seemed to die there." Therefore it is "only by witnessing the darkness of his death and the despair of the loss of hope [that] we [can] fully appreciate the joy of the resurrection." (9:463).
Finally, on the periphery of the crowd we find Jesus' friends and family, including the women from Galilee. They stand at a distance, perhaps afraid of arrest, but they also are there to give a witness to their devotion to the one on the cross.

Together these three voices confirm that this man was no ordinary criminal, not even an ordinary person. Though they may not fully understand all that has happened, they recognize that they have been touched by the hand of God. How do we respond to the cross, those of us who already know the story of the resurrection? Luke calls us to stay awhile and take in this sight so that we may full enjoy the blessings of Easter. Therefore, may we pray to Jesus in these words of Karl Rahner:
Have mercy on me, Receive me into your love. And when I come to the end of my
pilgrimage, when the day begins to decline and the shadows of death surround
me, speak Your last word at the end of my life also: "Father into Your hands
I commend his spirit." O good Jesus. (59)

This is a sermon originally preached at a community Good Friday service. An updated booklet can be found at my website. Go to www.lompocdisciples.org and click on my name -- from there go to My Sermons and you'll find the booklet. May this Good Friday draw you deep into the presence of our Lord.

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