Pastoral Letter 58

Dear Members of St. Andrew’s Uniting Church, Friends and Adherents,

Grace and peace to you all.

In my last Sunday’s Pastoral letter, I said: “Though we will go back almost to normal life, we have decided to have this year’s Good Friday Service at home and hopefully that will be the last, and we will leave behind the most challenging year that we had.”

We would have preferred to gather in the church for this special service, but it was a unanimous decision to hold our Good Friday Service at home. But we are glad that we have resumed our face-to-face service since February and hope and pray that all our other activities and annual programs will be held in due course.

I hope to see you all on Easter morning, as we come to celebrate the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and share His table with Holy Communion.

Be well and pray for others.

Krikor

MESSAGE

GOOD FRIDAY
Mission Accomplished – But, Is It Really Finished?

John 19:16-42

What a day! Who in the world gave it the name “Good Friday”? No one there that day, including the Romans who did the deed, would ever have agreed to call it “Good Friday.” It was a terrible day by any standards. Even nature cried out against it. “When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon” (Mark 15:33). There was an earthquake. Rocks split and graves opened and “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50-52). Good Friday? Nobody there that day thought so! It was a day of human shame, when the very Son of God, who came in gentle love, was thrown back into the face of the Father who sent Him. That day represents humanity at its worst, but God at God’s best. Good Friday? There certainly did not appear to be anything good about it! Whatever good there may have been was not to be understood on that day—only later.

No one present that day would have ever dreamed the significance that day would hold for the entire world. No single day in the history of humankind has touched so many for so long. Its importance to Christians is equalled only by the resurrection three days later. In truth, one can hardly see how those two days can be separated. They are two events of one fabric. They are indivisible with a mutual relationship of meaning. Either day would be stripped of its meaning without the other.

It was just another day to many who were there. Pilate was anxious and hesitant because it was a political thing. He was superstitious about the matter, but he otherwise had no personal investment in the outcome. It certainly was not the first time he had uttered those fateful words to a condemned man: “You will go to the cross” and it probably was not the last.

It was just another day for the Roman soldiers who happened to draw the duty of whipping and then crucifying a prisoner. They had done it before. They were obviously bored with the tediousness of it all. They amused themselves by taunting Jesus, placing an old purple cloak on Him, and put a crown of thorns on his head. Only one of the execution squad sensed there was something special going on here. When the centurion who stood facing Him saw how He died, he said: “Truly this man was God’s Son!” But for all the other soldiers it was just “another day at the office.” They had been there before. They would be there again.

It was just another day for the curious bystanders who came to stare in some perverted amusement at the suffering and dying of the condemned. It was not their first time. It would not be their last.

It was important to the religious establishment that the problem of another “disturber of their peace” be silenced. To them Jesus was just another false messiah who was making trouble for them by getting the Romans upset. And he was disturbing their temple business of money changing and selling sacrificial animals. There had been others. He had to go. Really, it was just another day.

It was not just another day to the family and followers of Jesus. It was the most terrible day of their lives. Not only did they lose a dear and special friend, their faith and hope were lost also. It was just another horrible day, like other horrible days, except many times worse. It certainly was not a “Good” day! They were much too grieved and upset to remember that He had said to them earlier that it was “good” that he was leaving— to their advantage even. He promised that He would be more substantially with them in His absence than when He was there. They did not understand this when He said it, and if it crossed their troubled minds on that Friday, it was no comfort. It was three days before the significance of that Friday began to dawn on the followers and family of Jesus. It was not long before the Romans and the Jewish religious establishment began to sense there was more going on that Friday than “just another day.” None of those who were instrumental in putting Jesus on the cross had any idea of what they were really doing. Jesus was speaking a word of fact as well as a word of forgiveness when from the cross he prayed: “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” They did not know! Soon the whole world would know. Soon the message of Jesus would spread like wildfire across the world. Soon, the day that His enemies thought was just another day, and His followers thought the most awful day imaginable, would take on a significance that would justify the title of “Good Friday.” For two thousand years the significance of that day has continued to grow.

Thousands of books have been written about it. Movies have been made and television specials run to tell again the story of that day. Special services are held in churches and people who otherwise do not tend to be religious take off their hats and bow their heads and remember. Those of us who know how the story ends tend to forget that those who were there did not and could not have known. God is always doing things in our world and in our lives that we do not understand, the significance of which will dawn on us later. None of us are ever far from painful events, which we do not understand. There are things that happen that seem to us like the end of the world, but we later see how they blessed us and saved us in a manner we could not see at the time. Suffering in our lives has the potential of either crushing us or refining us. And, we do have some little choice when our world turns dark at midday as to its ultimate effect on us. The God who turned the most awful day in history into Good Friday is still at work in our world and in our lives.

“It is finished” the mission has been accomplished. Jesus had completed the task he had come to do. It was the end. But is it really finished? Was that the end? Full Stop?

When we compare the four gospels, we find a most illuminating thing. In Mathew, Mark and Luke we do not find the expression “It is finished”. But they tell us that Jesus died with a great shout upon His lips. John does not mention a great cry but does say that Jesus’ last words were “It is finished”. The great shout and the words “It is finished” are one and the same thing. These three words are one word in Greek – tetelestai – a shout of triumph. He did not say these words in a weary defeat, but rather He said it as a shout of joy because of His victory over death. He was broken on the cross, but He was victorious. It was not the end, but rather it was a new beginning, a new start.

After saying these words Jesus leaned back His head and gave up His Spirit. He finished the work He came to do. He went to the end of the road and completed the job He was commissioned to do.

His death also was the end for so many, including His disciples. When He was captured, charged and sentenced to be crucified it seemed that everything was finished. Surprisingly for His eleven disciples it was also the end. As we heard today in the script read, for Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, known as “the secret disciples ”, the feeling was the same. Jesus was dead. His work was finished and after doing all the preparation for His burial and putting His breathless body in the tomb, it was the conclusion or the end of His life drama.

When Jesus died and it was almost sunset, hence there was much to be done; His body had to be wrapped in linen clothes and sweet spices were to be put between the folds of linen. All these things were prepared before putting His body to the rest and having the stone rolled against the entrance of the tomb.

But we should see here the amazing contrast between the public disciples of our Lord and His secret disciples. At this time one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Judas, was exposed as a betrayer. All along he was pretending to be a follower of Jesus but stealing money from the treasury and really being no disciple at all.

When the secret disciples were lovingly preparing Jesus’ body for burial, Peter was weeping in shame for denying the Lord. The members of the Sanhedrin remembered what Jesus had said about rising again, that He would rise again in three days and appealed for the guard at the tomb (Mathew 27: 62). This motivated them to make their own visit to Pilate to request the tomb be sealed. Joseph and Nicodemus took the risk of bumping into the Jews and the other members of the Sanhedrin whom they feared.

There is no record of the public disciples taking any encouragement from what Jesus had told them, and they had all suddenly become the secret disciples. But Joseph went publicly to approach Pilate. His fellow secret disciple Nicodemus also acted courageously. Those who were afraid when Jesus was alive cast their fears aside after the cross.

The cross was the turning point of all history when our Lord laid down His life only to be raised on the third day according to the scriptures. As Jesus had accomplished His mission, those were the heroes that day.

And so today we find ourselves at the foot of the Cross.

John has told us throughout His Gospel that when Jesus completed His task and then was “lifted up,” God’s glory shined through Him in full strength. And to confirm this, Jesus gave one last cry and said: “It is completed.”

He has finished the work that the Father has given Him to do.

He has loved ‘to the very end’ His own who were in the world.

He has accomplished the full and final task.

The price for human sin and rebellion has been paid.

The first Adam has been redeemed by the death of the Second Adam.

It is finished.

Jesus’ work is now complete.

And it is upon this complete and finished work that we humans from that day to this can build our lives.

It was the world at its worst; it was heaven at its best.

It is finished.

Love’s work is done.

But that was not the end for us and for the world. Actually, it was the beginning. The New Creation has begun. Soon the church would be established with a new mission to be completed and finished on that day when He comes back, as He had promised.

So, the Good Friday is not the end. The Cross and the death of Jesus. It is a fresh start, anew beginning for His followers and the church.

Though His words still echo in our ears: “It is finished” and yes, His mission was fully accomplished, but for us it has started and requires our full commitment, dedication and willingness to go to the end and when the time comes, we too could say: “It is finished! I have done what it was required from me to do as His faithful servant.”

Today, as we walk the via dolorosa with Jesus and weep at the cross, we are kept from despair in the sure knowledge that there is a new beginning we do not see. When faith in the power and wisdom of God is the theme and mood of our lives, we can live with the pain of the moment, but get encouraged to walk our own “via dolorosa”s and intend to finish the way that lays before us.

Amen!