Good Friday

On today's blog, two pieces of my morning Good Friday service.
Sarah and I sang a duet for Good Friday.

My sermon on Gethsemane and the Cross.

May the blessings of Good FRiday be yours.

Holy Week Devotion: Scourged

Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged him. (John 19:1 ESV)

The description of the cruelties which Jesus endured before going to his cross are quite brief. Jesus had predicted his flogging in in his predictions of his Passion and Resurrection (Mt 20:19; Mk 10:34; Lk 18:33). But in each gospel we are simply told the fact: Jesus is whipped, scourged, flogged. It has none of the details we read in Josephus, of flesh torn away, of organs exposed to sight. The gospel writers count on their audience's knowledge of Roman practice, punishment done in the public square for all to see.

This moment is another blow in the humiliation of Jesus as he goes to the cross. He has suffered greatly as this one long day has progressed. In Gethsemane, he was scourged in his spirit, agonizing before his Father about the cup that was to be his. God's cup of wrath against the sin of the world was Jesus' to drink, and he prayed, his face on the ground, for the cup to pass. His soul saw the moment on the cross when God would forsake him. And the anguish became real.

He was scourged by his disciples as they fled from his sight as he was arrested. They had promised to stand by...but failed. They lifted their swords...then dropped them and ran. The days of walking beside Jesus, the dream of ruling with him in his kingdom, the talk of joining him in his death, all drifted away as they scattered like rats from a sinking ship.

And now his body is racked with pain as the whips hit their mark The Romans are efficient. The Romans know what they are doing. Each strike has its purpose..."this troublemaker will not bother us any more and let this be a lesson to you out there."

Jesus has told each one of us, "Take up your cross and follow me." To follow him is to go where he goes, to go through these moments of anguish, of abandonment, of pain and suffering. This is not a glamorous happy-clappy faith. Faithful words will not always be heard with happiness. Faithful actions will not always be accepted. But we stand on the other side of the cross. We know the scourging did not work. We know the cross failed in its task. We know our Lord is not silenced, and he no longer cries out in pain, but in victory.

Holy Week Devotion: The Disciples

Reading: Mark 14:43-50
Reflection: “They deserted and fled”

The promises of earlier that night drifted far from them. As Jesus stood and watched one whom he had trusted, one whom he had chosen, come with a gang of seeming vigilantes, with clubs and with swords, coming to arrest this troublemaker. And they did it under cover of darkness, as Jesus said, “I was with you in the temple each day. You come here under cover of darkness. You come here to hide behind the veil of the night." As all of those who desire to remove Jesus from our lives, they do it under cover of something else.

And all of the disciples who were with him, they all deserted and fled and took off into the darkness, into the night that surrounded them, so that they would not be found. So that they could not be seen, so that they would not be recognized, so that they would remain hidden. Because they did not want to associate themselves with this man, with this one who had been arrested and taken away. They knew what they had said, they knew what Jesus had promised to them, but still when the crisis came, their words were simply words. Those who had said they would not desert him, those who said they would not deny him, took off and ventured into the darkness. Wondering if they would see one another, wondering what would become of Jesus, and wondering what would become of themselves. Asking so many questions, of themselves, of their souls, and of their hearts.

Holy Week Devotion: The Arrest

Darkness surrounds them. Their bodies are tired. The sound of people stirring, not one or two, but twenty, thirty. Unknown voices whisper in the darkness. A friendly face. A kiss of friendship. A kiss of betrayal. Swords clash. Blood is spilled. Confusion reigns. The Master cries out, "No more of this!", and is taken away.

This is the scene of the arrest of Jesus, as it is told in the Gospels (Matthew 26:47-56; Mark 14:43-52; Luke 22:47-53). The authorities have come to take control of a situation. Firebrands must be dealt with. The Roman Empire will have none of this. Jesus draws large crowds wherever he goes. Large crowds are always a ticking time bomb... Jesus' words talk about God's kingdom, God reign, what does that mean for those in charge now?

The authorities come to take control. But the story of the arrest is the story of Jesus who, even in this confusion, remains in control. It is Jesus who stops the violent reaction of his disciples. It is Jesus who acquiesces to the guard's demand. It is Jesus who shames the authorities by his word,“Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I sat in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me” (Matthew 26:55 ESV).

And it is Jesus who gives in to the fulfillment of Scripture. The Gospels tell us that Jesus' life, from its beginning in Bethlehem, was a fulfillment of Scripture. And here Jesus moves to the next step, saying "Let the Scriptures be fulfilled." He knows the Scriptures talk of the reign of God, of the new covenant. He knows that reign, that covenant are not in this earth. He knows that even now, God the Father is in control. And so the Son, in his Father's spirit, guides the action, and let's the Scriptures be fulfilled.

Holy Week Devotion: Gethsemane

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” (Matthew 26:36 ESV)

I have always been fascinated by the story of Jesus in Gethsemane. It is Jesus at his breaking point, realizing the immensity of the work ahead of him. It is Jesus at his most human, struggling as he asks for this cup of suffering to pass from him. It is Jesus at his most divine, as he places himself in the control of the father, saying "Not my will, but yours be done." It is the image of Jesus that strikes a chord: alone, agonized, praying for what cannot be.

But today I want to spend time with the disciples. The picture we have of the disciples in Holy Week is not a flattering one. They are filled with bravado. They plan to fulfill the mission Jesus has given them. They say the words they think Jesus wants to hear. But they will fall away. They will run and hide. They will deny any knowledge of this man, Jesus. They epitomize those words of our Lord, "The spirit indeed in willing but the flesh is weak." (Matt 26:41)

In Gethsemane so much of the walk of discipleship is shown. Peter, James and John are close. Close to Jesus. Drawn by him into the inner circle, "Remain here, and watch with me," Jesus says. It is a closeness we cannot imagine, a closeness that comes from years of walking with Jesus, seeing his miracles, hearing his teaching, laughing and crying together.

But as close as they are in that moment physically...as close as they have been walking the dusty byways of Galilee...they remain distant. As distant as we are. Unable to sit and wait. They were overcome by the night that surrounded them. They were not cognizant of the situation they were in. They had heard the words of Jesus, but had not listened to what they meant. And so they slept.

We are distant because there are so many distractions in our world. So much that takes our eyes off the prize of Christ's high calling. So many noisy gongs that divert our attention from the call to lift our cross and follow. So many moments that weary us to the point that we sleep through the instructions Jesus gave, "Remain here, and watch with me."

We can speak the disciples brave words. But in the moment will those words be enough. We can have the disciples willing spirits. But are those spirits enough? Ultimately we work in our weak flesh, weak flesh that wants to hide, weak flesh that doesn't want to cause waves, weak flesh that can crave any sort of attention. But the Lord, in his agony in Gethsemane, in his trial and cross, in his death and burial, shows what weak flesh, weak human flesh can do. We are cross people...weak human flesh made strong in the death of our Lord.

Holy Week Devotions

As Holy Week begins tomorrow I am going to embark on a series of devotions. Today I edit a piece of a sermon I wrote in 2003 for Palm Sunday entitled "Through Jerusalem to the cross." Palm Sunday is that moment when Jesus enters Jerusalem to the joyous cries of his disciples and those who followed him shouting Hosanna (Save us)!

"When we cry our hosannas here, when we cry out to God to save us in this place, we are calling on God to lift our hearts from the fog. To lift our minds from the sense that we only have ourselves to deal with, that we only have ourselves to care about, that we only have ourselves to depend on. And Jesus says to us to follow him on his path through Jerusalem to the cross. And we know from the life of Jesus that people will turn against us. The world will turn against us. The world does not want our message. They do not want to hear us. So they shuttle us off to this little hour on Sunday morning. We need to take this hour and make it more. To take this hour with us, as Jesus took his disciples with him on that march to the cross.

Because we also know there is another story beyond the cross. We know that the glory and triumph which we see on this one Sunday, this Palm Sunday, is but a small glimpse. It is a only a piece of the glory that comes next Sunday, Easter Sunday, when the tomb breaks open, and Jesus defeats the power of death. We know that this is but a glimpse of the great glory when Jesus Christ comes again. But like Jesus Christ we have to go through the cross to get there. We have to go through the taunts and jeers of the crowd; we have to go through the pain that Jesus Christ went through. We have to take up our crosses and follow him. And each one of cries our hosannas, for each one of us has something that holds us back. Each one of us has something that causes us to come to God and say lift this from me. Save me from this. As he rides on in majesty, we too ride on in the majesty God has given to us, the majesty of being chosen of God, the majesty of being children of the living God. Jesus Christ has lifted himself that we might know the power of unmistakable and irreplaceable love. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna. Hosanna. Hosanna!"

Read the full sermon, plus others, at sermoncentral.com