A sermon for 3 April 2015 – Good Friday

Mark 14:32-36, 15:25-33, 15:34-37

Click here to read scriptures first: 

http://www.biblestudytools.com/nrsa/mark/passage/?q=mark+14:32-36

http://www.biblestudytools.com/nrsa/mark/passage/?q=mark+15:25-37

And so, as the afternoon world turns to night; in full, Christ surrenders. It had begun earlier in this Holy Week. Actually it had begun at his baptism, according to the gospel of Mark. And at the beginning of time according to the gospel of John when the pre-existent Word is ready to take on human flesh and blood in order that we might understand the Way of God from the start. . . . Even then, he surrendered. Gave way fully for the way of God to be – overflowing love between the One-in- Three God. The constant outpouring that is Love itself – that is God. . . . We hear of the struggle in the garden. It wasn’t that Jesus’ mind had to be changed; it was that his whole self had to come into full alignment with the agony he was about to experience. We hardly can imagine how it would be for God in flesh in Jesus to face the tearing of that constant bond between the Three-in-One. That one aspect of God would die on that horrible cross because the world, which God alone had created, would not accept the truth of a love that cannot die. . . . It had to be sheer torture to face that end, knowing it had to be; yet knowing he in full would experience, for once and for all, the hell we know when we are not aligned in full with our God. . . . “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani: My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” . . . In that moment – even then, Jesus surrendered himself to the agony of total separation. And somehow, they say, he did it, mysteriously, so that you and I never have to face that fate.

Glory to be to the God who surrenders for the life of all the world! Praise be to the Christ who is the pattern we all are to follow!

“He surrendered himself to death . . .” (Is. 53:12b). The Servant of the LORD. House of Caiaphas, Jerusalem. Photo taken by JMN, March 2014.

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