Friday, April 15, 2022

Good Friday

Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10: 16-25; John 18:1 – 19:42

The Rev. James M.L. Grace

In the Name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  AMEN.

Franciscan priest and author Richard Rohr says this of the crucifixion: “the cross we Jesus’ voluntary acceptance of undeserved suffering as an act of total solidarity with the pain of the world.  Jesus embraced suffering, not as a punishment, but because he wanted to understand our pain – the pain of the world.”    The cross represents Jesus’ full and complete solidarity with the brokenness of the world, the inevitability of death, and pain that you and I feel.  There is no pain Jesus has not felt, there is no sin that Christ has not forgiven, there is no death Christ has not touched. 

One year ago I presided at the graveside burial at a local cemetery for my older brother, Randall, who was four years older than me.  When I arrived at the cemetery I saw his casket, his name, the year of his birth, and the date of his death.  It has been, to date, the closest I have ever come to seeing my own death.  The reality of death was unavoidable to me.  The hole dug into the earth, the pile of dirt beside the whole, all of pointed to the inevitability of mortality.

Presiding over the burial of my older brother felt like someone took a shovel, thrust it into my chest, and started shoveling out my insides.  I hated it.  I recognized then that I was going through a necessary death myself.  A death that I wanted to avoid feeling at all costs.  

 Spiritual teachers and saints far more intelligent than I have taught us for centuries that if we really desire life, we must first die a necessary death.  It is only through these necessary deaths, that our souls grow deeper.  Saints like John of the Cross or Teresa of Avila called these necessary deaths the dark nights of the soul.  They are often seasons of doubt, confusion, pain, or depression, anguish, intense feelings of vulnerability.  They are extremely uncomfortable, and they are unavoidable. 

Sadly, our society lacks even the most basic spiritual skills to deal with the kind of pain Jesus faced at the cross and the kind of necessary dying we must do ourselves.   The best mechanism our culture has to offer for spiritual pain is distraction.  It’s Tik Tok, facebook, the endless news cycle. 

Are you upset, angry, confused?  Don’t like how you are feeling?  There are pills you can take, there is an unlimited stream of alcohol you can put into your body, there are plenty of smart phone apps that will help you meet someone for a meaningless sexual trist.  You can take a trip, you can buy a car, you can get a new job, get a new spouse, have a new kid – and none of it will cure the pain which exists in every human soul. 

Jesus’ way – the one way – the way, the truth, and the life – is this: reality must be felt at all costs.  That is the reason for so many empty pews on Good Friday – reality is painful and hard.  Few of us are courageous enough to face the stark reality – Christ’s reality – which is that there are parts within each of us that should die, so that we can more fully live.  AMEN.