Sixth Word

The Sixth Word

“It is finished”

It is finished.    The accounts are satisfied. The debt is covered - Paid in full.

It is finished.    Your ransom has been negotiated. The deal is sealed. Payment made.

It is finished.   The cycle of retribution stops with me.

What is the debt? Why are we held for ransom? What’s the retribution for?

Sin.

Sin is separation, distance, estrangement. It’s emptiness, nothingness – a great blankness from which we can’t escape, like a black hole.

Jesus, who knew no sin, became sin for us. He became empty, became nothing, became separated, distant, estranged, heavy with the weight of the sins of the world. He became sin for us, like a black hole.

Here’s one description of how a black hole is formed.

“As a body is crushed into a smaller and smaller volume, the gravitational attraction increases…. Eventually a point is reached when even light, which travels at 186 thousand miles a second, is not traveling fast enough to escape. (Cambridge relativity site)

Jesus poured himself out into the world completely, to displace all of its emptiness. And making himself a void, he took in all our emptiness. The weight of it began to crush him, and still he took in more and more, like an imploding star, pulling into himself all the pain and sin of the whole world, drawing it all together like a massive source of gravity until he contained it all within himself and nothing could escape.

NASA describes black hole formation this way:

“The star eventually collapses to the point of zero volume and infinite density, creating what is known as a " singularity ".

It’s that single point; that single moment of death on the cross; that single person of Jesus Christ, who drew in all sin, pain and sorrow, taking all our emptiness into himself.

It is finished.

Fourth Word

When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which is “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

--------

 Where are there cries of misery around us in our world today? What do they say?

God, "Let the cry of those in misery and need come to you, that they may find your mercy present with them in their afflictions… and give us the strength to serve them…” (BCP - Good Friday Liturgy, Solemn Collects)

 “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” 

It’s Aramaic. Remember, Jesus didn’t speak English.

In a minute I’m going to act out a modern parallel of what Jesus experienced at the hands of the Roman soldiers. The Roman soldiers utilized the cross as an instrument of shameful death.

Here, on Good Friday, the cross is no beautiful ornament.
It’s a torture device. So, what I’ll show you is a modern image of torture, which may be disturbing to you. It’s disturbing to me.

But what are we talking about here? A man who has been beaten, physically and psychologically degraded and humiliated, and at the time he gives this cry of misery - is undergoing horrific torture, not only at the hands of his enemies, but with the approval and even the insistence of his own people. That’s disturbing.

We’re talking about how a society can justify a means to an end. The religious authorities who had Jesus killed considered it necessary – and people who were squeamish about it were just naïve. That’s disturbing.

Caiaphas told the council “You know nothing at all! You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” That’s disturbing.

Here in our nation today, people argue about the justification of torture in these same terms. If, by torturing and/or killing a bad person, we can protect good people, then it’s okay – it’s worth it – it’s necessary even. That’s disturbing.

Here’s the situation:

A volatile time, an unstable area, a strange culture, a fanatical religion...

An ineffective officer relegated to an undesirable post, with insufficient support and high demands...

Soldiers stationed in a post none of them want, surrounded by religious fanatics they can’t understand, told to keep order...

So what happens?

Where is your God?   Where is your God now?

Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison…?

------------------------------

References and related information

The Rev. George Pitcher (CoE) – blog entry "When we torture terror suspects, we torture Christ"

New Yorker article on Abu Ghraib abuses

Newsweek article– Abu Ghraib: many prisoners common criminals, not terrorists

Second Word

The Second Word

------

 “Save us!”

On Sunday, people were saying it with joy and excitement, like they maybe thought it was true. Because that’s what “Hosannah!” means – “Save us!”

On Friday, the tone is much different, both from the people, and the one thief.

Now, it’s bitter sarcasm; it’s despair that becomes mockery.

- amazing how hope can make you so fragile, teetering so precariously over love and hatred, joy and bitterness.

In a way, their hatred and bitter sarcasm shows the hope underneath, the hope that is cracking under the strain of waiting so long and feeling it will never be realized.

What keeps hope alive? What is the food of hope?

It’s memory.

We have hope that God will be merciful to us, because we remember that he has been merciful to us.

How do we remember? We tell the stories – over and over and over. We make monuments, and write books. We act the stories out, we put them into poems and songs and art and liturgy. Every week, we meet together and remind each other.

Like the Seder meal, we have hope God’s promises will be fulfilled, because we remember how they have been fulfilled. And that memory works both ways. We ask Jesus to remember us, and he asks us to remember him.

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Do this in remembrance of me.

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

I am with you now in your suffering. You will be with me in paradise.

Remember this.

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”