Beyond Death's Stop
Good Friday Sermon (John 19:1-42)
A while ago in a large city, in a different country, a very young woman stopped and sat on a bench across from a church. From that vantage point she could see clearly. Funeral cars were outside the church curb side. But everything and everyone else outside that church kept on running as if nothing was even happening. The young woman wondered to herself, shouldn't the reality of death stop us, if even for a moment?
There are times when death literally paralyzes us. I remember a farmer who accidentally drove over his 3 year old son with their tractor. My God, how his life and the life of his wife, family and friends changed in that death. Sometimes death literally stops us!
But at other times death and its many forms simply run over us like water upon a roof, spilling over our "sides" and then seemingly away. On the next day or in a week, we go on as if nothing has happened, as if it never "rained". But who can measure the long term effect of such denial of death?
Shouldn't death stop us? After all, what is death? Death isn't just the cessation of breathing, the lack of brain activity, the decomposition of one's body. Death is much more than any and all of that. Death's marks can include hatred, the paralysis of fear, the immobilization of apathy. When we walk right past people without even seeing them, doesn't death have a grasp on us? When as followers of Jesus we are so paralyzed by our fear so that we don't even speak to those whom we don't agree with, doesn't death have a grip on us? When millions and millions of human beings don't have enough: enough food, enough water, or severely limited access to education or health care while other millions of humans beings have so much that they require lypo suction or weight watchers or need a gym pass just to burn their excess calories, isn't death having its way with us? Finally, when the Church is so divided that she at times doesn't witness first and foremost to the power of the love of Christ, isn't death's grip tightening?
God is not a stranger to death. God sees the power of death. God subjects God's own self to death, not in a random way nor cursory manner-but specifically on behalf of all humanity, for all creation. We must know this! Daring to look by the grace of God, we can see God taking in and on death this afternoon. We worship at the foot of a cross, Jesus' cross.
When Jesus says, "It is finished", he isn't merely referring to his earthly life. He is speaking of his very reason for being, the purpose of his life. He comes among us to face death in all its forms. He comes to seek out and rescue all who are lost – including you and me. In taking on death Jesus comes to rescue all humanity and creation from ourselves: from our apathy, our fear, our violence, our obsession with death, our inability to be honest about any and all of this.
Watch Jesus move toward the cross. In John's Gospel He purposely moves toward the cross. Observing him we also see other people: the chief priests, the temple police, Peter, the Mary's, the disciples. As we watch them, it's like gazing in a mirror and seeing, OURSELVES. Aren't we sometimes terrified of losing our status, our "place" whatever that may be? Aren't we sometimes caught in the mind set of our time, occasionally doing that which is good and even wonderful, but then at other times falling far short. It's so easy to think that we must have this or that to somehow be "secure".
At times we are willing to stand/sit/weep, be silent with those who are struggling even though it is so difficult for us. But at other times we put off, delay, even attempt to deny in order to escape such pain, loss and grief.
God knows. Jesus knows our human condition. In love for us, Jesus hangs on the cross. Nearing death He says, "It is finished". At first glance we might think "it's all over". Certainly that's what the earliest disciples believed. But because of Jesus' action- in the midst of the horrendous power of death, there are new beginnings! On him have been laid the iniquity of us all.
And this dear people is the mystery of faith, the holy, total love of God in the face of any and all opposition, especially unbelief. Dare to see him, to know that in Jesus' obedience, in Jesus' suffering and death is our hope. His, "it is finished" is the truth of new life, love and forgiveness that encounters and wills to guide any and all through death who have eyes to see, ears to hear, that faces and lives through death for everyone and anyone, with eyes to see, ears to hear, hearts to be stirred.
To be sure death sometimes should stop us. But Christ's death is intended to lead us even through death to new possibilities. Amen.