St John 18:-19:42
Yes, you did see the numbers correctly, the reading for today is the entire Passion narrative, chapters 18 and 19 of St John’s Gospel. Why do we do this? Quite simply there is nowhere where you could naturally break up this reading – it flows from one awful situation to another. First the crossing of the Kidron Valley to the gardens for prayer at the foot of the Mount of Olives where Jesus is arrested to the trials, the beatings, crucifixion and the removal of the broken tortured body from the cross by some of his followers. It is not an easy read and that is why it is difficult for us to take it all in. That the Son of God should die runs contrary to all other God stories. The gods of the Greeks were fickle using humanity as playthings for their own enjoyment; the gods of the other Middle Eastern Cultures were needy in that offerings had to be made to appease them; the gods of the Americas demanded human sacrifice that they might look favourably on their peoples only Christianity has a God that offers Himself that we might have life and that is why it is incomprehensible to many. It does not chime with the other god stories from cultures around the world. Most of us would die to save our children, many would die for a cause, but few of us could count on our best friend giving up his or her life for us, never mind God. And that is what God did! Think about it just for a minute – don’t go any further, don’t even re-read the texts, just think about it.
This day is called Good Friday because on this day God, in Christ, took the sin, the cruelty, the hate of the world into himself (his body on a cross) and having swallowed it up in his sacrifice of Himself gave humanity a new beginning – a way of life that affirmed love was more powerful than hate, life greater than death. We can be threatened with our lives & the lives of those around us but on this day the man Jesus took the sting of death, with all its fears and terrors, and, as we now know, rose from that darkness, that horror, as the Saviour of the world. Death the ultimate weapon no longer holds us in its sway because we know there is life after death because in the Resurrection of Jesus we have been promised it. Today may be beautiful, with the sun shining, but it is the day darkness descended the earth, trying to destroy love, and we know, by the power of the Resurrection, it did not win.
Read the story again and tell me it is not more powerful, more emotional than anything you have ever read.
Yes, you did see the numbers correctly, the reading for today is the entire Passion narrative, chapters 18 and 19 of St John’s Gospel. Why do we do this? Quite simply there is nowhere where you could naturally break up this reading – it flows from one awful situation to another. First the crossing of the Kidron Valley to the gardens for prayer at the foot of the Mount of Olives where Jesus is arrested to the trials, the beatings, crucifixion and the removal of the broken tortured body from the cross by some of his followers. It is not an easy read and that is why it is difficult for us to take it all in. That the Son of God should die runs contrary to all other God stories. The gods of the Greeks were fickle using humanity as playthings for their own enjoyment; the gods of the other Middle Eastern Cultures were needy in that offerings had to be made to appease them; the gods of the Americas demanded human sacrifice that they might look favourably on their peoples only Christianity has a God that offers Himself that we might have life and that is why it is incomprehensible to many. It does not chime with the other god stories from cultures around the world. Most of us would die to save our children, many would die for a cause, but few of us could count on our best friend giving up his or her life for us, never mind God. And that is what God did! Think about it just for a minute – don’t go any further, don’t even re-read the texts, just think about it.
This day is called Good Friday because on this day God, in Christ, took the sin, the cruelty, the hate of the world into himself (his body on a cross) and having swallowed it up in his sacrifice of Himself gave humanity a new beginning – a way of life that affirmed love was more powerful than hate, life greater than death. We can be threatened with our lives & the lives of those around us but on this day the man Jesus took the sting of death, with all its fears and terrors, and, as we now know, rose from that darkness, that horror, as the Saviour of the world. Death the ultimate weapon no longer holds us in its sway because we know there is life after death because in the Resurrection of Jesus we have been promised it. Today may be beautiful, with the sun shining, but it is the day darkness descended the earth, trying to destroy love, and we know, by the power of the Resurrection, it did not win.
Read the story again and tell me it is not more powerful, more emotional than anything you have ever read.