Good Friday 2022

All through history, way preceding any Christian history, is the practise of going up on a mountain top to meet with God. Even if we aren’t even vaguely religious people, we understand this. To seek solitude and perspective, we might withdraw and hike up a mountain. Any fellow mountain hiking lovers? What’s that, you’re planning a group hike? No, I do not want an invite, I’m really slow, and I will hike on my own thank you very much. You’ll wait for me? Ok, the truth is I go up the mountain to be by myself, and going with you would be counter productive to that.

The truth is, when I’m out in nature, by myself, exerting some energy by climbing, and then getting that breath at the top and taking in a view, that is when I feel a closeness with God. A breeze hits, and I’m reminded of when Jesus was talking to someone who came to try and grasp spiritual matter, just as the wind blows wherever it pleases, you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going, so it is with the Holy Spirit.

For millennia, people have been worshipping on mountain tops. The Hebrews have stories of Elijah on Mount Carmel, seeing God move, and then in fear for his life fleeing to Mt Horeb, where God shows up not in storm, not in an earthquake, but in a still small voice, to calm his fears and remind him why he was there. Moses went to the same mountain to receive the promises and mutual commitments for God to be completely committed to the people of Israel.

Abraham went to worship on a mountain in obedience to God, and found a ram caught in a thicket – that day, God provided the sacrifice. If you know that story, that could create some consternation in you. You might feel a little bit of tension. If you don’t know that story, imma bout to create some consternation in you.

You see, the God that Christians worship had called this man called Abraham out of his family worship of idols. Jewish history holds that his dad was an idol maker – made his living out of selling these gods of wood and stone for people to buy and to make sacrifices to and to bring offerings to and to worship, in the hope that things would go well for them. Is this enough? In that day, the ideal sacrifice was to give your first and best to the god or gods that you worshipped. That was to show them that you were serious. You hoped that that would please them and move them to bless you. Is this enough? So when God said to Abraham, hey Abraham – take your son, the son that you love, go to the land of Moriah, go and offer him to me as a sacrifice as a burnt offering on one of the mountains, which I will show you, in roughly 2000 BC, he was like, legit request. And Isaac carried the wood on his back, up to the top of the hill. When you read that account in Genesis the servants see the man and his son, with wood and fire for a sacrifice, and they don’t give any protests or questions. In fact, they only question asked is one by Isaac, the son, who is like…Dad, it’s good we have wood…it’s good we have fire…there’s some kind of animal right for this sacrifice? And Abraham says that God will provide a sheep. Abraham is potentially holding out hope here, that that is indeed what will happen, but he goes through right to the point of lifting the knife to his son – thousands of years later this is explained to Jewish Christians, who have grown up on the story, explaining the idea of faith to them, using Abraham as an example, saying that he so took God at His word, that Isaac was his promised son, and generations would come from him, that God would have raised him from the dead even if he had have gone through with it. Still the idea of a father holding up a knife to his son fills us with horror…not so then. Common practise then. And yet, God does stay his hand and says no! I see how much you trust me – but we aren’t going to do that practise anymore. Worshipping me, means we don’t sacrifice our children anymore. There’s a ram over there. And Abraham looks at Isaac and says, see, God will provide. And the account says, to this day, people still use that name as a proverb: on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.

But biblical history, and other history not from the bible records people continuing to go to high places to worship gods. And the practise of sacrificing children continued right through history. National Geographic accounted a Peruvian discovery of 140 children killed in a single event on a high place near the ocean. The abc reported in 2019 that practise run as a business in Uganda. These and other practises including self harm, were common places among worshipping at the high places. This idea of “is this enough?”. And it has even pervaded the Christians faith. Recently my husband and I were in Poland, and driving past Częstochowa (Chetstekova), our host told us of a time he went to visit the famous painting of the black Madonna there. This painting of Mary brings 40,000 pilgrims to pay homage,t hey walk or ride bikes, or ride horses, not drive and he said he found it disturbing as men, women and children crawled before the painting, wailing and beating their chests. Self-effort, striving, is this enough?

Sacrifice, appeasement of the gods, abhorrent practises, on the high places. And yet, in 2000 BC, God indicated, He foreshadowed a better way. A way to do away with the human effort to strive and pay for their errors, to strive and work and give for a better life. No more high places, where abhorrent things are done, sacrifices made to appease gods.

The first chapter of the gospel of John give us a summary of what took place to bring about this new way.

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognise him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn – not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God. So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of grace and truth. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.

…John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Jesus, there at the start, in fact, God, entered into our world. Pre-existing all things, all things created through Him, above and beyond all as the creator… Jesus enters into it. On Good Friday we remember what he did. He endured abhorrent practises. One such practice was that of being flogged. At that time, there were 3 levels of flogging: fustigatio,(that’s where we get our word fustigation, which means a punishment by beating, with a stick or a club, cudgeling) flagellatio, (which is where we get our word flagellation, meaning whipping) and verberatio, (and a word that comes from that is reverberation. I’ll tell you why).

When the Jewish authorities first brought Jesus before the Roman authorities, because they did not have the ability to give out capital punishment, (the death penalty), the Roman governor Pontius Pilate couldn’t find enough reason to sentence him to death, so he ordered the first type of corporal punishment: fustigation – a beating. Because part of the charge that was brought against Jesus was sedition; they claimed he was starting an uprising and claiming to be king. He did talk about bringing a new kind of kingdom, so it was a reasonable accusation. But Pilate, in saying “I find no reason to charge him”, knew that the claims of sedition were false, he understood that Jesus didn’t mean it in a political sense, He wasn’t going to challenge Caesar for his job, but bowing to the pressure of the Jewish leaders, Pilate had him beaten; in keeping with the seditious charge the soldiers form a crown of thorns, historians believe from the long spikes of the date palm, a mockery of the radiate crowns that god-kings were depicted as wearing. It was a mockery, but the long spikes, up to twelve inches – that’s a ruler, would have added to the blood and the pain. And they bashed him. So when Pilate brings him back out, he’s like, I think we’re done here – look at him. He’s no threat to the empire! My soldiers just gave him a solid touch up – we’re good.

The crowd, which only a week before, were crying out Hosanna! Hosanna! When Jesus rode into town, and waving those date palm branches, now cry out Crucify! Crucify! Two things to quickly note: from this same person, detailing Jesus’ 3 years of public life, right at the start says people began to put their trust in Jesus, but He did not trust himself to them, because he knew their hearts. Jesus knows that humanity is fickle. We can look at cancel culture. We are fickle right? Loyalty? What loyalty? How many times have you been betrayed? We’re fickle. But John also makes sure we know – yep, this is happening to Jesus, but remember he said, “I’m the one who lays down my life; I’m the one who will take it up again.” So having entered into it, displayed the authority that He had through signs, displayed His character through his embracing of the weak and vulnerable, displayed his humility by refusing to be made the people’s king, Jesus also constantly declared His purpose. He said that He had come to lay down His life, and that after 3 days He would take it up again. He makes 7 statements in the book of John. One was I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd that leads the sheep. I am the gate by which the sheep enter the sheepfold. I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. I am living water, those who drink of me will never thirst again. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the vine, you are the branches, abide in me. These statements were meant to outlast Him, and point to His claims that He wasn’t any other man dying on a Roman cross, but this was part of the plan.

So – crucify, crucify! And Pilate looks at this crowd, looks at this man, black and blue, blood pouring down his face, looks back at the crowd and says “you crucify him – I find no reason to have him killed!” And they say well, we have a law – he’s claimed to be the son of God, and that’s blasphemy, and he has to die. Pilate, at that, is freaked out, he’s just had the guy beaten, and now he finds out that he’s claiming to be the son of God? He tries to set him free, but the crowd turn on Pilate and say – you set him free, you are no friend of Caesar, you are seditious, so Pilate capitulates, and hands him over to be crucified. That is when the soldiers take him back for veberatio. the victim was stripped and tied to a post, and then beaten by several torturers (in the Roman provinces they were soldiers) until the soldiers were exhausted, or their commanding officer called them off. For victims who, like Jesus, were neither Roman citizens nor soldiers, the favoured instrument was a whip whose leather thongs were fitted with pieces of bone or lead or other metal. The beatings were so savage that the victims sometimes died. Eyewitness records report that such brutal scourgings could leave victims with their bones and entrails exposed. The purpose of this was to expediate death. It truly reverberated through the victim’s entire being.

He endured abhorrent practises. One such practice was that of being flogged. At that time, there

Having done this, they would have tied the cross beam to his back and made him walk to Mount Calvary. (which we know from the other gospels he was too weak to carry all the way, and the soldiers commandeered a man to carry it for him, which they had the ability to do). He, like Isaac, carried the wood on his back, up to the high place. High places, where abhorrent things have been done, sacrifices have been made to appease gods. Is this enough?

On that high place, Jesus was stretched out left to right, to strain his chest as much as possible without tearing him. Secured by rope to the beam, he was then nailed to it. Another beam was added, a little chock of wood was placed beneath his feet, and then his feet were place one on top of the other and a nail driven through them. The Romans had perfected this torturous death, a death by suffocation, because the chest cavity would collapse. It could take days to die. The chock of wood under the feet would offer temporary relief because you could push off it, the nail searing pain as you did, take a breath, and hang again.

Having been to the high place, endured abhorrent practises, Jesus looked down on the world and said, “I give myself as a sacrifice. IT IS FINISHED”. “IT IS ENOUGH”. God is satisfied. You don’t have to worry about appeasing Him, that is accomplished. Out of love for you – Charles Wesley – Amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God, should die for me. The justice of God required satisfaction, the love of God said yes, I’ll pay it. The sacrifices, the striving, the self-help, all that you have tried to make yourself acceptable to God is done – God has provided the sacrifice for all people, for all time. On the mountain of the Lord, it will be provided. On the mountain of the Lord it was provided.

Hand out communion – mechanics.

John started by saying that his own did not accept him. But as many as did accept him, and believed in Him, He gave them the right to be His children. This is a practise, the bread and the wine, or ribena, or sediment heavy juice, that Jesus set up. He said this bread represents my body broken for you. We are broken, and we can’t fix ourselves. You might think – yeah, nah, I’m together – can you not remember a time in your life where you’ve felt acutely aware of your brokenness? The point of that is not to drive us to self-help excavation, it’s to show us that we need to be fixed, not helped. We need to be rescued and restored; not given some declarations we can manifest. Jesus said, I know you are broken, but I will be broken, so that you can be made whole. And He said this blood is the new covenant, the new way. The system is broken; I’ll bring a new system. Your only work, your only striving now, is to stop asking is this enough? And believe that I’ve done what I said I’ve done. That this means as much as what I say it means. That while you were dead in your sins, I came and died, so that you might live. How do we do that? How do we access that new life?

How do we do that? A+B=C. To as many as Accepted Him, who Believed on His name, He made them His Children. You might believe in Jesus. But have you actually accepted Him, received Him? It’s A AND B, not A or B that we are then His children. So by believing today, you can ask Him into your life, right now, where you sit, Jesus, come into my life, I accept you as my Lord, rescue me, save me, restore me, make me new. I apply this to my life. I take part in what you’ve done by partaking in this.

I want to give you a moment to do that now while the band sings. And then to eat and drink as you are ready.