Hello, and welcome to this Good Friday Reflection. As we end our Holy Week journey with the conclusion of the Passion Narrative. Of course, today we’ll be looking at the Crucifixion, but in particular, we’re going to be looking at Jesus: Jesus’s humanity and our humanity. 

I think there’s some really interesting ways that we’ll be able to talk about that as we go through this time together. Our scripture, kind of like yesterday, is a little bit longer, and I think that’s appropriate on this Good Friday. 

When I was a kid, I I thought about this as Black Friday. I got Black Friday and Good Friday confused, because to me, all the shopping that happened in November was good. And today was characterized by darkness or just the absence of light. And I kind of think that I was on to something when I was little. 

We of course call it Good Friday because we see that Jesus was willing to go to the cross for us, willing to die for us. And that is in fact, really, really, really good. The ultimate good perhaps, but it’s also black. It’s also dark. It’s also difficult. And so, let us embrace that pain that comes from contemplating Jesus sacrifice as we hear this final reading in our final walk through the Passion Narrative. 

Scripture: John 18:38b-40, 19:16b-37

18:38b After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him. 39 But you have a custom that I release someone for you at the Passover. Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 40 They shouted in reply, “Not this man but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a rebel.

19:16b So they took Jesus, 17 and carrying the cross by himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 20 Many of the Jews read this inscription because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21 Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’ ” 22 Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” 23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24 So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it but cast lots for it to see who will get it.” This was to fulfill what the scripture says,

“They divided my clothes among themselves,

    and for my clothing they cast lots.”

25 And that is what the soldiers did.

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

28 After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” 29 A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the wine, he said, “It is finished.” Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

I think of particular importance here is to note what Jesus does from the cross. In John, we see him do a couple of things. One is we see him speaking to the women who were gathered at the cross, making sure that John (that’s the disciple who he’s referencing), that John and Mary are connected together so that they can mutually take care of each other. 

And of course, one of the things that’s remarkable that’s in all four Gospels is that after having twelve men follow him around and having one of those men at the foot of the cross, the others have scattered at this point, and of course, Judas has either already committed suicide or soon will, it’s women who are gathered there. And, of course, it’s women, these same women, who find Jesus risen on Easter Sunday.

It’s always, to me, a remarkable thing about the text, and at times I have preached that we ought to model our discipleship along the lines of these women who believed even when it was the hardest to believe in Jesus. But today, I think it’s important to note, Jesus does this very human act of making sure his mother is cared for, and making sure that John is cared for. 

Then, he does something else that really reinforces his humanity here. Of course, we believe Jesus was equally human and divine. And I think one of the things that John really wants to make sure we are aware of is Jesus’s humanity on the cross, that he had something like thirst, something as simple as that. And so we see Jesus asking for that.  

In other gospel accounts, we also see that Jesus offers forgiveness. He cries out from the cross, forgive them Father, for they know not what they do. And he offers forgiveness to the repentant person hanging to one side of him. 

We see in all this that Jesus recognizes the humanity in others. We see how Jesus is responding from one human to another. But I want us to consider how remarkable that is. 

How remarkable it is that Jesus doesn’t villainize all of these people. It’d be easy, you would think, for Jesus to villainize, say, John. Even though John is there, the other 11 have, you know, gone to the wind, John is there, but Jesus might think, instead of focusing on John’s obedience and love, say, why didn’t you do more to keep more of them around? Why didn’t you take a leadership role? Why didn’t you make sure that they were present here?  He doesn’t lash out in any of the gospel accounts at Pilate, at the religious officials, at anyone who had a hand in making sure he arrived at this moment of crucifixion. He doesn’t act out of anger at all. 

I would think many of us, put in this moment where we have been unjustly accused and are now sentenced to death and are in the process of dying an excruciating and painful death, would respond with anger, lashing out at the people who put us in that position. Or maybe we would just be too despondent to lash out at anybody, but too despondent to make sure that our mother was cared for, that the disciple we loved was cared for; too despondent even maybe to ask for some liquid liquid when we’re thirsty. 

I think it’s really easy to villainize people who have wronged us. But here on the cross, we don’t see any of that at all. And I think that’s really a remarkable thing. It’s easy to say, well, it was Jesus. Of course he didn’t do that. Jesus was God, and that is true. But Jesus was also equally human and experienced the same impulses, the same emotions, that we do. And so it would be understandable if Jesus had wanted to lash out at those people. 

I’m sure that we can all think of times where someone has wronged us, where we’ve been unjustly accused of things. That was my experience when I was working at Mercer. I had a difficult relationship with another colleague. I guess that’s a theme because I talked about that on a Monday! But a different colleague than I talked about on Monday. I was really, really angry with her, really upset. I villainized her because I felt like she had wronged me so much.  But then, I chose to see the world through her eyes. I chose the path of empathy.  

You know, sometimes we think about empathy or sympathy and we use them synonymously, but they’re not synonyms. They’re related, but not synonyms. Sympathy is when you feel sorry for someone. Empathy is when you see the world through their eyes. Another way of saying that is empathy is when you walk a mile in someone else’s shoes. 

So I eventually chose the path of empathy. Saw the world through her eyes. And through that empathy, saw how I was really the problem. And I repented to God, apologized to her. And now we’ve got this, I guess now, 15 year relationship, where she has become a mentoring presence in my life. 

It’s easy to be angry and villainize others whom we think have wronged us. But what we see in Jesus is that he practiced empathy. In saying, forgive them Father for they know not what they do, he had to see the world through the eyes of his accusers and those who had caused him to be put up on that cross in the first place. He had to be willing to see the world through their eyes.

Imagine that. Imagine being able to do that with someone who has caused you that much unjust wrong. But that’s what Jesus does. He practices empathy. 

You know, there’s lots of atonement theories out there and I think they all have a ring of truth to them. In the United Methodist Church, we’ve never picked one atonement theory and said, this is the one. Some denominations do that. We have instead, like other denominations, have chosen to just embrace all of them and say that they’re all a way of thinking about the cross.  

But for me, it’s simpler than any of these theories of atonement as useful and helpful as they are. For me, what I see on the cross is that we humans got to know God in the flesh. We got to experience God in the flesh; God come to find out what life was like for us. And our experience of God in the flesh led us to kill God. That’s what I see on the cross. 

Of course, none of us, not me, none of you listening to this, are particularly responsible for Jesus’s death. We were not there, of course, but if we think of ourselves and our flawed humanity, the ways that we can act unjustly, the ways that we can come to wrong opinions that cause us to mistreat others, we can see how we could be just as capable of acting like the villains in this story. Perhaps one of the ways to think about that is, if Jesus came back today and we met him, will we recognize him? Or would he so disrupt our practice of religion, our practice of Christianity in his name, that we would find ourselves in a crowd like the one that yelled crucify him? 

That’s a tough question. That’s a really hard question, but I think on this Good Friday, it’s worth sitting with. And that’s what happens when we choose to empathize. When we act like Jesus, empathizing with his accusers, or in the example I just gave, finding ourselves in the crowd and imagining how we might ourselves have ended up there were we part of the passion story. We have to see the world through the eyes of others and embrace our shared humanity.  

So here’s our think, pray, do.  

Think

Who in your life has wronged you and needs forgiveness?  I’m sure we all have someone.  

Pray

Our pray is to ask God for the eyes to see that person who has wronged us the way that God does. So that we can practice empathy. So that we can see their world  and we can see how they see us through their eyes. And allow that practice of empathy to change us. 

Do

Then the do is this: once we have done that, and here’s a hard thing, if you can go to that person, seek reconciliation. That’s going to require admitting and owning any wrong that you may have done, any way that you now realize that you have led to this separation. 

It may not be possible. It may not be healthy and that’s up to you and those that you’re close with to help you understand. So if you can’t go and reconcile with that person, then take your practice of empathy and prayer to God. That’s another way of praying, but this is our do and pray and ask God to help you have a moment, bring you to a place where you can be reconciled and confess where you have been in error.  

I think empathy makes the world go around in a positive way. And a lack of empathy does a lot of harm. In Jesus, we see tremendous empathy there from the cross towards the people who put him there in the first place. What a powerful example for us. What a powerful example that Jesus sets on this Good Friday. 

Pray with Me

Let’s pray. God, we thank you for setting such a tremendous example from the cross. For being willing to go through your suffering that we may know you better and be in relationship with you. Give us eyes to see the world through the eyes of those that we are upset with or angry with or separated from. Help us. Give us courage to practice empathy. In your name we pray. Amen. 

I hope these reflections have been good for you. I have enjoyed putting them together. I’ve enjoyed that I have a way that I can still be with you during this Holy Week, even if I can’t be with you in person. 

So take care. I hope that tomorrow will be an empty day. That’s what Holy Saturday is all about. The emptiness of knowing that Jesus was gone from the world and not yet resurrected. And then I hope that Easter Sunday is a beautiful, wonderful time of worship and family togetherness. Take care.