Good Friday B
April 2, 2021
Grace, Waseca, MN
Mark 14.32-15.32
I want you to imagine for a few moments that you were there at the crucifixion of Jesus. It’s not hard for us to remember vividly the crucifixion, whether we want to or not: Jesus being nailed to the cross, hanging in agony. Yet, sometimes we forget the abuse he experiences before and after that horrific event. Jesus is brought before the high council in the sham of a trial, the religious leaders looking for any excuse to get rid of him. Jesus gives them one, stating simply that he indeed is the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One. The religious leaders tear their cloaks, hearing what sounds like blasphemy, and deciding that Jesus needs to die. But before they ship him off, Jesus absorbs the first of several physical assaults as they spit on him, blindfold him, and hit him.
Yet, in an attempt to keep their hands clean, they send him to the governor, Pontius Pilate. Pilate conducts his own interrogation, asking a different question than the religious leaders: “Are you the King of the Jews?” It will be the first of five times Jesus will be named as King of the Jews in just a very few verses. Even so, Pilate, to his credit, looks for an opportunity to release Jesus, knowing he is being played and that Jesus doesn’t deserve to die. But the crowds, stirred up by the religious leaders, shout over and over again, “Crucify him!” prevent him from doing so. Then Jesus receives his second beating as Pilate has him flogged before handing him over to be crucified.
The soldiers, sensing an opportunity for unbridled “fun,” wrap him in a purple cloak, twist some thorns into a crown and for a third time label Jesus as King of the Jews, while spitting and hitting him. Even as they crucify him they are not done mocking and abusing him. They place a placard around his neck identifying the charges against him: King of the Jews. Even then the mocking doesn’t end. The religious leaders just can’t resist one final mocking: “Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” If that wasn’t bad enough, those crucified alongside him taunted Jesus as well.
There is more to the story, but I want to pause and reflect on something. In the midst of this undeserved brutality sits the crown of thorns, not placed gently on him. As we listen to the story, not wanting to hear and turning our mind’s eyes away from the patent cruelty that is almost incomprehensible, we might wonder: what were they so afraid of that they did this horrific thing? Were they more afraid that Jesus was the promised King or that he wasn’t? We know that Jesus threatened the standing of the religious leaders, and that Pilate feared the unrest of the crowds. But what about the soldiers and the two criminals, what could they possibly have to fear?
I’ll leave that sit here because there’s a set of characters in the story, present throughout the abuse not yet named: you and me. In answer to the hymn, “Were you there?,” we acknowledge that yes indeed, “We were there,” and frankly we don’t do much better than those others. For the real human condition is that we, too, are afraid of Jesus and mock him, even if doing so unknowingly. The brutal facts of Good Friday are that we mock Jesus in what we do and don’t do. We mock him in what we say and don’t say. And we even mock him in what we continue to think. We mock Jesus whenever acts of injustice are perpetrated and we keep quiet or rationalize them away. Just the other day yet an Asian woman was attacked and beaten while two men did nothing, not even calling 911 from the safety of the building.
I think it’s a good thing that there is a day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, a time of reflection about this Friday we call Good. It is easy to move too quickly to the assurance of, “It’s okay, Jesus forgives” without considering the magnitude of what that forgiveness and reconciliation costs. We must sit in the stillness of Good Friday, waiting, hoping, wondering how God is doing God’s crucifying work within us. You were there at the cross, and you are here now, and that will become Good News, just not yet. Peace.
For the video of the sermon, please click here.
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