The Hour Has Come: Good Friday

Early sense is that I’ll be looking at how John gives us a few details that resonate with the rest of the gospel in some way… 1st the sign in three languages - signalling that this was somehow for the whole (known) world. Which, of course takes us back to John 3 where it is God’s love for the whole world that results in Jesus’s coming. And so, the whole of Jesus’ ministry has been directed towards the world God loves And the cross is no departure from that. 2nd the conversation with the beloved disciple about his mother - Mary only shows up twice in John… at Cana and now. And that first event signalled that something totally new was about to take place. Here, too. The conversation also signals that reciprocity of discipleship - a new family formed. So, the cosmic and the particular. The big picture and the detail. And then I’ll invite us to consider whether we have limited the scope of who Good Friday is for…who and how much of the entire cosmos is included in “the world” that God loves. OR, whether we’ve decided that our own particular situations aren’t important enough… and to bask in the love of God which is big enough and particular enough to reach to the farthest edges of our cosmos and to each person.

From Jonathan Puddle:

What was the cross all about then?

Defeating death

Destroying sin

Restoring us

Shaming the powers

Revealing God

“On the Cross, God defeats death by blowing it up from the inside, thus rescuing us from the curse of death— which is the result of sin.(Death is not a punishment from God, it’s the result — the direct outcome — of our sin.)

On the Cross, God disarms/destroys sin by taking it away from us and into the grave with him, thus freeing us from the bondage/slavery to sin. We are no longer slaves to sin but can live in righteousness, thanks to the finished work of the Cross.

On the Cross, God’s blood is poured out to cleanse/redeem/restore us of the defiling effects of sin. We are restored to our true nature, able to boldly approach the throne of grace because of the blood of Christ that has made us whole once again.

On the Cross, God shames the principalities and powers, the empire, etc thus showing us that true power & authority are expressed in self-sacrificial love. This has political ramifications for us here and now.

On the Cross, Jesus reveals that God has always been this kind of God. Rescuing, restoring & perfecting the human being whom God has always loved has always been his aim. Everything that Israel thought they understood about the law, about sacrifices, etc. was all looking through a mirror dimly — at Christ.

Jesus was not punished as a result of God’s holy perfection being offended. Rather, God’s holy perfection required that God himself stand in on our behalf, receive the consequences of our actions and redeem us from bondage to a master we were outwitted into serving.

The offence, God forgives.

The defilement, God cleanses.

Why? Because that is what a loving Father does.”

Jonathan Puddle