Good Friday Yrs ABC 2025
Easter Triduum • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 5 viewsThe Isaiah reading brackets the suffering of the servant with his exaltation, for the suffering is the means to exaltation. The Hebrews passage shows that suffering perfects the high priest for it gives him empathy. The Johannine gospel first shows Jesus’ total control to show that he is totally submitted to the will of the Father and then displays that those not able to follow his way of the cross fail while the beloved disciple and the women risk identifying with Jesus and thus experience his finishing fulfilling the will of the Father and so are privileged to experience Jesus’ exaltation/resurrection. Where are we in this picture?
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Transcript
Title
Title
The Way Down is the Way Up
Outline
Outline
What do we learn from Good Friday?
First, from Isaiah we learn that the way down is the way of exaltation, which forms the ends of the passage, for through total rejection the Servant both does the will of God and bears the sins of the people and thus releases them, bringing them up with him.
Second, from Hebrews we learn that suffering perfects the Son of God, making him the empathic high priest, for he lived in our suffering, and so the ideal dispenser of mercy.
Finally we learn in John that Jesus is totally in control of his passion, willing to do the will of the Father. “Shall I not drink the cup that the Father gave me?” The disciples (except the beloved disciple) fail for they are neither willing to follow Jesus into death nor to submit to the will of the Father. It is only a few women and the beloved disciple who take the risk of following Jesus to the cross and standing as close as allowed and so see Jesus complete the will of the Father, fulfilling prophetic word after prophetic word. They will see the burial and they will witness the resurrection.
How far down are you and I willing to go with Jesus? It is the measure of how far we will do the Father’s will and how much we will experience him in his present exaltation.
