Good Friday 2006 Sermon

Even though it's really out of season I'm posting a sermon that I preached this past Good Friday (time to clean up some jump drive files). I serve in a church that has a lots of folks who are just checking out Christianity as well as folks who have been on The Way for a long time and that influnced this sermon quite a bit.

Why?

Why? Why? It is a question that is especially fitting as we consider the execution of Jesus, and, it is also an important question for us to answer as it helps to define what we believe and how we live and interact with the world. Let me ask you again, Why? Why did Jesus die in this way? Was it necessary? And if so, necessary for what? Why did it occur in such a horrible, brutal, and humiliating fashion? There is so much to this event that it is overwhelming.
I invite you to take a few seconds, and, if you haven’t done so already, put yourself in the passion narrative, find the character that most embodies who you are. There is no wrong or right person to be. Perhaps you are a disciple, maybe even Judas. Perhaps you are a Roman citizen, maybe you are one of the women, who were some of Jesus’ most trusted disciples, and the only ones who walked with Jesus to very end, perhaps you are Pilate. Maybe you are a zealot, who are you in this story. Make no mistake, this story is your story too. You have inherited this most profound moment in history, so, take a moment, put yourself in the story.


Why? Can you imagine the importance this question must have for you as a follower of Jesus? Why was the one whom you had entrusted your life to, the one to whom you entrusted your soul, the one whom you loved above all others, the one, whom you thought had the capacity to save your people from years of domination and oppression, why, how, could it be that he was executed by the state? An innocent victim, nailed to a tree as a form of state sponsored terrorism as a warning to those who would dare oppose Rome. How could it be? You had so much hope and just as many dreams. Can you sense the pure desperation of the Jesus’ early followers? Can you share even a taste of what they experienced following Jesus’ execution? Can you feel the sensation of your world being pulled out from under you, from the grief that rips a hole in your soul in such a way that you never thought possible, from the shame, the humiliation of the foolishness of it all? Can you imagine it? No doubt, some of you have felt these things. You know what it is like to fully devote yourself to something that seems foolish.
So I ask you again, Why? I am so struck by the pure inevitability of Jesus’ death at the hands of the powers that be. After rereading the story numerous times, after watching several cinematic accounts of the events that led up to Jesus’ death, it all seems so unbelievably inevitable, so completely predictable. Here was a man, who’s passion for God’s justice and who’s passion for incarnating God’s reign on earth, who’s passion led to his certain violent death. Even as we look into our own Christian heritage, we often see the violent deaths of those who would participate in Jesus’ message and Jesus’ mission. From the second century martyrs to our own times and the martyrdom of Martin Luther King Jr., of Oscar Romero, of Tom Fox, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Team in Iraq. As we add this inevitability to the question of why, let us look at the major teachings of the church on this.

The church has traditionally taught three models of Christ’s death and the atonement. (Let us set aside, for a moment, all of the denotations of that word and put the word in it’s original English meaning: at-one-ment, to be restored to a right relationship with God.) The church has often taught these three models simultaneously. The first model, the one with which the majority of us are most intimately acquainted is that of subsitutionary atonement, also known as the satisfaction model. The model works like this:

I. Because humanity is totally depraved, and because God is a God of righteousness and love then God must be reconciled to humanity via a sacrifice that is acceptable to God. Since God is perfect and holy, the only sacrifice for humanities sin that would fit the bill is the sacrifice of God’s self on behalf of humanity. Thus, by Jesus’ sacrificial death our redemption and reconciliation with God is accomplished.
II. A great many people, especially in our community struggle with the full implications of this understanding of Jesus’ death. So do I, I don’t want to be responsible for the horrible execution of someone I love and whom I declare to be the Lord of my life.
III. Still, I agree with Wesley and with Calvin in that humanity is totally depraved. In preparing for this sermon I watched to cinematic accounts of Jesus’ life and death and during one of them Sarah brought Ellie through the room and I was just completely dumbstruck as to how anyone, after seeing a baby and realizing that we are all someone’s child, could do such terrible violence to anyone. The answer: the total depravity of humanity.
IV. However, just like Calvin and Wesley, I believe that we were created in the good image of God (Genesis 1:27) and, because of this, we are redeemable.
V. In this model the cross becomes the symbol of God reconciling Godself to us by the death of Jesus as a substitute sacrifice for humanities sin.
VI. This model is sort of weirdly comforting and true in many ways. Still, the idea that the only reason for Jesus’ death is to atone for my sins, and for your sins doesn’t seem complete and in many ways seems selfish and somewhat incongruent with the message that Christ preached during his life.
VII. It is important for us to note that this understanding of the death of Jesus has only in the last century become the prominent model used to understand the events of Good Friday. This model wasn’t fully codified until Anselm of Canterbury articulated it in the 12th century. Most likely, this model is not what the majority of the early church subscribed to. From most accounts it seems that the early church believed that Jesus’ death was the final sacrifice because it revealed that the temple sacrifices of the time were not truly of God’s will. This facet of the work of Israel’s prophets was finally completed in Jesus.

The second example the church teaches came about as a response to the substitutionary model. This second model is called the Moral Exemplar/Revealer model.
I. In essence, this model asks the question that, if God is really God, then why would God require satisfaction for sin which God could simply forgive us for? Instead of demanding a sacrifice for the sin of adultery that the women who was brought to Jesus, he simply commanded her to go and sin no more.
II. The cross, then, becomes the supreme example of Jesus’ incredible love for others. In this understanding, we see that because of Jesus’ extreme love that that love challenges our daily existence, and that Jesus shows us the correct path on which to walk in life.
III. Is this not fundamentally true, that Jesus’ execution on the cross was, in fact, the ultimate metaphor for God’s love?
IV. Certainly, as Christians, we claim to follow the way that Jesus set’s out before us and we seek to participate in the life that Christ led.
V. This model mostly sees the birth of Jesus as more important than the death of Christ.
VI. However, the moral exemplar model does not feel complete to me either. The execution of the Son of God, while certainly including these things is inherently a much more significant event than this model allows for.

The final model that the church has taught regarding the execution of Jesus is the Christus Victor model. It is this model that feels most complete to me. But it is informed by the other two, as they are by it. By understanding Jesus’ death and resurrection through the Christus Victor model we see that through his death and resurrection, Jesus’ has conquered evil, sin, and death. Though the powers that be did their very best to snuff the light of God from the world, they were unsuccessful. Though the powers employed their ultimate tool, execution, upon Jesus, they ultimately failed. Jesus, though brutally murdered, rises. For every nail they put into Jesus’ hand that nail proved to the world that the standard Domination systems that rule civilization are not the end. Every blow that Jesus took showed the world that God is the end, not our civilization. Death, though once victorious, is no more the final answer, no more is sin the last card to be played, no more does evil have the final word. Through Jesus’ death and resurrection, he invites us to participate in the reign of God that he instituted here on earth. We know the end of the story. We know that, in the end, God’s victory over the powers, over evil, over sin, is finally assured. God invites us to work with God to bring about the God’s dreams for creation. Knowing that God has vanquished death allows us to enter into God’s work with freedom, with abandon, and with joy. Our joy cannot be taken away because it was not given to us by the powers, by the world, our joy was given to us God, the one who defeated death! Because of Jesus’ triumph over death, we can be steadfast! We can work to change the powers that be and to transform them while transforming ourselves, so that we might live together as God would have it, and as God intended it, and as God dreams for it to be. We can work for justice without fear! We are reconciled to God and our sins are forgiven. Death has lost it’s sting. Thus, this model is both personal and social.
So I ask you the question again and for the last time tonight? Why? Why did it happen this way? Why was it inevitable that Jesus died? It was inevitable because the God-man died on the cross, Jesus’ death was real. It was real because God’s life was incarnational. If God was born as a human, than God must die as a human as well. But we know that death is not the final word. We know that God is always with us, as God has experienced the things that we do, he lived and he died, just as we live and just as we will surely die. As we contemplate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, let us not trivialize it. Let us not ignore it for what others have made of it. Let us think on it, let us ponder it, let us take comfort in it, let us see it in all its horror and strange beauty, that God would love us so much, that God would lay down God’s life for us.
Amen.

--Rev. Joseph Stobaugh, Good Friday, 2006 C.E.