Good Friday

Psalm: Psalm 22
Old Testament: Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Gospel: John 18:1-19:42
Epistle: Hebrews 10:16-25

(if you don’t know the seven last words of Christ check them out here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_last_words)

I challenged us last Sunday to ponder the humility of Jesus portrayed in the Gospels in his last week.  This week has provided some opportunities for me to do just that.  Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, which actually refers to the washing of the disciples’ feet at the Passover meal.  This one act summarizes Paul’s teaching from Phil. 2. (Yes, I recognize that Paul was pointing to the crucifixion, we will get there.) Only John records Jesus washing his disciples' feet, which is interesting because he has the highest Christology of any of the Gospels.  John is the one who started his Gospel by declaring Jesus as the Eternal Word and Son of God and now he has become like a lowly servant.

On the night Jesus would be betrayed and handed over the priests and crowd, He takes off his clothes and does the most menial servant’s job.  He even goes so far as to say that if the disciples don’t let him wash their feet, then they would have no part with him.  Jesus not only models servanthood and humility, but he commands his disciples, us, to do the same. (John 13:13-16) Matthew records this same message in the teaching of the last week of Jesus.  Jesus says, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” (23:12)

And yet, Jesus’ teachings during his last week point to the cross.  They point to a life of utter obedience to the Father as we read last week in Phil. 2.  Jesus is tortured and killed on the cross for the redemption of creation.  I just got back from a Tenebrae (Latin for shadows/darkness) Good Friday service at Church.  We pondered Jesus’ seven last words from the Cross.  Even on the cross, Jesus is concerned with the thief dying next to him, John, and his mother.  Two of the seven words are focused on others, four are prayers, and only one focuses on Jesus’ needs.  He cries out that he is thirsty. (This shows that he is in fact human and suffering as well as fulfilling prophecy.)

Even in death, Jesus focuses on being obedient to the Father.  Two of Jesus words come from Psalms 22, which is are reading for today.  When we hear Jesus say these words from the cross, it can seem like Jesus has been abandoned, as if the Father has turned his back on his Son.  Yet, Jesus quoting the first words of the Psalm is meant to point us to the Psalm itself.  These first words are a lament, yet they are a cry to the very God said to have forsaken the Psalmist.  The Psalmist, and by extension Jesus, go on to pray for deliverance from the Lord and place their trust in God.  It is not abandonment, it is recognizing that evil is happening and the Lord is our only hope.

Jesus finally cries out his last two words.  Jesus has “finished” the work he has been sent to do.  And finally, he commends his Spirit into the fate and hands of the Father.  He is at the end of his means and can now only rely on the Father.

We like Jesus on this day, live in a world of evil.  We live in a “Good Friday” world, where the Son of God, the means of our salvation, is slain.  We, like Jesus, ought to cry out the words of Psalm 22 and recognize that our only hope is in the Lord.  We do no wrong when we repeat those words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Let our pray today and every day “Come, Lord Jesus Come.”