True/real Friday – “Treuer Fritag”

Brothers and sisters, why are we here today? The New Testament scholar Raymond E. Brown wrote a two-volume commentary about this day – he called it “The death of the Messiah!” This is the reason why we are here today! We are here this morning because of the Messiah. We are here this morning because of what happened to the Messiah! We are here this morning so that we can place what has happened in the right perspective.

However, there are many stumbling blocks that cause us not to see this day for what it really is! Not the least of these stumbling blocks is the fact that our faith is a hindsight faith.

We look at this day with the knowledge we have about Easter Sunday morning!
We look at this day with the knowledge we have about the resurrection!

But does that do justice to what happened on this day? Does that do justice to the atrocious acts of deceit, cunning and selfishness that flourished on this day?

Brothers and sisters, dear friends, I wish to share with you that any view of Easter Friday that focus on this day, allowing the perspective of Easter Sunday to colour our interpretation, is an aberration, distorting what really happened. I wish to share with you that such a view of Easter Friday can never ever do justice to what really happened on that Friday in Jerusalem!

I wish to share with you that such a view of Easter Friday causes us to romanticise the cross instead of being filled with utter remorse because of it!

I wish to share with you that such a view cause us not to understand what Jesus meant in Matthew 16:24-25 when He said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. “

I wish to share with you that it is such a view that causes us to refer to this day as Good Friday! Brothers and sisters, dear friends, what is so called “good” about this Friday?

If you say: “This day is good because God died on a cross to save us!” you reveal the selfishness of your faith! And that places us in exactly the same category as the High Priest Caiaphas who argued, afraid that Jesus would lead an uprising against the Romans and that that would cause the Romans to retaliate by massacring a multitude of Judeans, that it is better for the Jews if Jesus died. Caiaphas’ selfishness is revealed in John 11.

Brothers and sisters let me refresh your memory. After the resurrection of Lazarus people went to the Jewish authorities and told them what happened. 47 The chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. They asked: “What are we accomplishing? Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49 Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, 52 and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. 53 So from that day on they plotted to take his life. (Jn 11:47-53)

Brothers and sisters, this is what happened of that terrible Passover Friday in Jerusalem. It was Only the Sanhedrin and their supporters could call this day “good” on the day! It was good because they thought they achieved their selfish goals on this day! If we call this day “Good Friday” are we any different?

The German theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, following in the footsteps of Martin Luther warns of the danger calling this day “Good Friday” because we focus prematurely on the victory that only knowledge of the Resurrection can bring! The Lutherans are right when they call this day “Trauer Fritag” – Sad Friday. For this was the experience of the disciples of Jesus: Because of the happenings on this day they were stunned to silence! Because of the happenings on this day they huddled together in totality emptied of all their hope! Because of the happenings on this day they were left behind in utter despair! Yes brothers and sisters, on this day almost 2000 years ago they didn’t have any understanding that there was going to be a Resurrection! They could not shout it out: “Today is Friday! But Sunday is coming!” No, to them this day was a day of mourning. It was a day of weeping from vacant eyes. It was a day of groping after Him with empty hands! They were covered with an infinite weariness unto death. In them you would not find even the slightest stirring of a living, hoping faith. How on earth can we call this day “Good Friday”? Sad Friday? – Yes! Mad Friday? – Yes! Bad Friday? Yes! Good Friday? – Never!

Brothers and sisters, you might wonder why I am so adamant about this. Let me share with you that if we call this day “Good Friday” we miss one of the most basic ingredients of the Easter message of the Crucifixion of the Messiah – our complicity, our involvement, yes, our support in it.

When we view the cross on Golgotha, when we remember the Crucified Christ, I think that somehow we must learn to see our complicity in His hanging on that cross. We cannot dismiss this cross and this crucifixion as merely an act by self-righteous Jews and brutal Romans. No, brothers and sisters, we must somehow understand the horrible fact that Satan sometimes uses religious people to accomplish his means. We, you and I, distort things and before long we call evil good and good evil. Every time we allow sin to seduce us with its distortions, we nail Jesus on the cross once again. Every time we call this day “Good Friday” even when we do it because of our hindsight resurrectionist theology we paint a distorted picture of the cruelty and the crime committed on Easter Friday almost 2000 years ago! No, today we need to see our complicity to this crucifixion.

Maybe I can express my thoughts on this better with a short story. There is an old episode of the TV series MASH, in which a rather cocky young pilot comes to the MASH unit because his plane has been shot down, but he is not seriously injured. He tells everyone in a rather boasting voice that flying really gives him a high. “If I could not fly this war would really be a drag”, he says. He brags that every time he flies a couple of missions they send him back to Japan for several weeks of R & R. The war to him was really quite a lark.

Then one day a Korean child is brought to the MASH unit and her arm has been horribly mangled in an air attack. The young pilot is taken back. Even though it was not his plane that did it, for the first time he must face his own complicity in the brutality of war. For the first time he sees things
not from the perspective of 3,000 metres, but in the eyes of a child.

There is a danger in romanticizing the cross. I love the old hymns about the cross just as much as anyone. But the cross is not meant to lull us, it is meant to jolt us. Easter Friday is not supposed to be a lark, a silly game, or a laugh. It is supposed to jolt us into understanding our complicity in His hanging on that cross! It is supposed to rid us of all romanticising of the crucifixion! It is supposed to let us become uncomfortable because of the constant echo of the words of the Messiah: “Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabbachtani! – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Do you hear that echo? How can you call this day “Good Friday” if you hear that echo? Only hindsight theology can cause us to call this day “good”. But on this day we cannot comply with hindsight theology. Every other day of the year we can, but not today!

Dear brother, dear sister, dear friend, today you and I are hearing the echo of the cry of the Crucified Christ - “Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabbachtani! – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Locked up in that cry lies your guilt and mine. This morning when we look at this painting and that cross, you and I should realise – it should have been me hanging there! When we hear the echo of this cry, we should recognise the tone of our voices! For it is you and I who were supposed to utter these words: “Eloi, Eloi, Lema Sabbachtani! – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

Only when we understand this day this way does it become the one and only “True Friday” of meaning! No other Friday can ever mean what this Friday almost 2000 years ago means!

Dear brother and sister, today you and I are being exposed to the real meaning of Jesus’ call: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

Today you and I are exposed to the meaning of Paul’s message in Romans 8:35-39 when he said:

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Here, on that cross, you see the inseparable love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! In that cry: “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?” you hear the echo of the inseparable love of God that in Christ Jesus is our Lord!

Dear friend, according to Scripture Jesus appealed 32 times that people should follow Him. On this day, in this act, you and I should hear the echo of that call as well … Are you willing … Are you willing to follow Him … Are you willing to follow Him all the way … Are you willing to follow Him all the way, even to the cross? Then I challenge you to take up your cross today. Walk out here today, carrying it in the footsteps of Jesus. Carry it daily and you will never ever have to utter the desolate cry of the Crucified: “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”… Amen.