Good Friday 2012

The Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Barnabas Anglican Church
Good Friday, 2012
Good Friday 2012
Today is Good Friday. Today is the great and “awe-ful” (full of awe) day of the Lord, in which Jesus Christ made payment, once, for all our sins, trespasses, and negligences against God the Father. In the most unexplainable, and inexplicable act of overwhelming generosity, God Himself pays the debt for sins “due and payable” against God Himself. The act itself is so colossal, so incredible, and as the old plainsong hymn named it, is the “conflict stupendous”. If we have any spark of faith in us, and any liveliness in the Spirit, we should fall to our knees in utter adoration and worship.

This is the Day of Atonement, which, if one takes the word apart, literally means “at-one-ment.” In a mighty, yet humble act of supreme obedience, Jesus offered Himself for us, with all our nastiness, filthiness, pettiness and sheer ungodliness. He who knew no sin took all sin unto Himself for our sakes. What this really means is that Christ, while he hung in unspeakable physical agony on the Cross, also suffered unspeakably in His soul and spirit as well. Imagine the sinless Christ taking unto himself the nasty impulses and thoughts of a pedophile, or a sodomite, or a murderer or a torturer. Imagine the sinless, pure Jesus feeling every stinking, putrefying, dirty, nasty bit of sin being heaped on him as He hung helplessly, yet purposefully on the Cross of shame and death. It was the most heroic act ever done, or that ever will be done in the history of the world. As one hymn from the 1940 hymnal puts it, “what stands between our sins and their reward is the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord.” And so it is. Only Jesus and His obedience, resulting in our “at-one-ment” with God the Father, shield us from the natural and ultimate consequence of our sins: eternal separation from God.

As an aside, on a business trip several years ago, I was having a discussion with a co-worker. She was an older lady, very intelligent and very articulate. The discussion turned philosophical. We started talking about life and death and this person voiced the opinion that when one dies, one just ceases to exist. She believed there was no heaven, no hell, just sweet, blissful nothingness, a complete void.

Beloved, for the sake of those pagans, willful and unwillful, knowing and unknowing, I wish that it were so. I wish for their sakes, those folks who know not God would just slide off into eternal silence and anonymity. But sadly, in “ain't” true. Jesus Himself tells us that there will be a vast separation, where the Judge (Christ Himself) will sort between the sheep (followers of Christ) and the goats (pagans or non-followers of Christ.) Those who know not Christ will be cast into “outer darkness”, where there will “weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Now, to me, “outer darkness” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” doesn’t sound like fading away into nothingness. In fact, those who know not Christ will have an active afterlife, just as we will who are blessed through Christ. There will, however, be a BIG difference between the two.

This is why Good Friday must be seen as perhaps the holiest day of the year. As a boy, I wondered, “Why is it “good” if they killed Jesus today?” As an adult, I understand. It’s all for us. Good Friday is “good” for us…

Thus, the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has it exactly right. In today’s Epistle, he says, “for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” That is, the old system of sacrifices was incomplete. It couldn't do away with sins completely, because every year (even every day), new sacrifices must be offered., Concerning Jesus, however, quoting Hebrews, “But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God.”

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say, “For by one offering, he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.” Thus, as we’ve discussed, there was one sacrifice for all people, for all time. Imagine the Reformer’s revulsion to the medieval Romish idea of “making Christ”, the repeated re-sacrifice of Christ each time Mass was offered, as well as bleeding hosts and other extra-natural phenomena. In light of this passage from Hebrews, it just doesn’t make sense, does it?

Also, in light of what we know about Good Friday and the truly stupendous, universal consequences of what Christ did, two questions arise. The first is “why?” The other is, “how?”

First, why was it necessary? We who are mature Christians already know the answer. Our sins put Jesus on that cross. Our sins so offended the Father that only one Payment would suffice, that of the Son of God Himself. But, the deeper question is why was man created to have the capacity to sin? Why did God create a being with the tendency towards evil? Couldn’t an omniscient, omnipotent God create a perfect Universe, without sin and without evil? The answer, of course, is “yes.” The Almighty can do anything He wants, at any time. But, the point for us is that He didn’t. He created a Universe with filled with good, yes, but He also allowed, for some divine and mysterious purpose, evil to corrupt a portion of His Creation. However, the point must be made that good and evil are never in equal proportion. Good always outweighs evil by an infinite degree. On a cosmic scale, Good wins.

My own guess at this mystery parallels what the Church teaches us, that God gave us both intellect and free will so that we could choose Him out of love, not by coercion or even by preprogramming. After all, God could have set us up that way. But He didn’t. He wants, to quote St. Peter, a “peculiar people”, a “royal priesthood” of those who set Him above all other things. Now, none of us possesses that perfect love, yet. Some day, however, we will. In heaven, we will grow in grace and God’s love and service. Since Gods’ love is infinite, so will be our progress, our growth, and our eternal sanctification in Him.

This brings us to the final question: HOW. How could God do this? How could God witness His Son’s titanic sufferings? How could He permit this to happen to His beloved, only and eternal Son? How may of us would be willing to give our son up for the sins of mankind? For example, would I be willing to give up Justin or Alex? I know I wouldn’t, I couldn’t. I’m not capable of that kind of love. Only God is.
Thus, we who are most blessed in the Lord and we who are singularly called must also be humble. We who are ordained to salvation because of the mercy of God and His Infinite Wisdom must accept this blessing with humility and grace. It is not we who did it, but One who did it for us. Jesus “at-one”’d (atoned) for our sins and made us right with God on this special day.

It did not come without a price. Beloved, consider the dreadful agony Christ endured for us this day. We all know about the methodical Romans and their horrible invention, the crucifixion death. We all know that this was designed to be the worst, most painful, most agonizing death possible, as one was forced to push down on feet pierced with spikes, with legs knotted with continuous muscle cramps, to gain one shallow breath after another. This agony was combined with weakness due to blood loss and thirst. If one became too exhausted to push up anymore, asphyxiation took over. By any standard, it was barbaric and sadistic.

Also consider the acute spiritual agony Christ suffered for us as well. We all know as he hung on the Cross, he acquired all the sinfulness of the world into His most perfect and sinless being. He absorbed and He felt all the nasty, heavy, disgusting sinfulness of mankind. Since God the Father can’t witness sin because of his acute Holiness, He (Jesus) who had been with the Father for all eternity, never separated for an instant, was now cut off, isolated, alone, awash in a sea of pain, sin and desolation. If it were possible for Christ to suffer any more beyond his physical agony, this was it.

Yet, here is where the “why” and the “how” come together. They come together to form a “nexus” of love: a love so compelling, so encompassing, and so complete that it will take us an eternity to understand it.
As one of my favorite hymns, Hyferdol, puts it, it is “love divine, all loves excelling.” This is the love that Jesus Christ has for us. This is that sacrifice that God demanded and permitted to show how much He loves us. This is the love that conquers all, even pain, death and hell. And, this is the love that underscores the “good” in Good Friday.

Thus, the mighty Victim paid for our sins. Thus we, who are so familiar with sin, became righteous in the sight of God. We were accounted as heirs of salvation and children of God’s Kingdom today. Thus, the spotless Lamb of God, he who knew no sin, became as sin for us.

It all happened in a garbage dump outside the gates of Roman-occupied Jerusalem over two thousand years ago.

It was the greatest battle ever fought.

Praise be to God!