April 14, 2006

Jane Knowles

Good Friday     John 18:1-19, 42

What can I say? The gospel reading has laid out simply and factually the account of the dreadful happenings leading up to Jesus' death. Usually the writer of the gospel of John punctuates everything with metaphors and hidden meanings but here in this passage we read the account seemingly as it happened, and all human life is there in all its frailty.

Peter, afraid, so he denies Jesus, Pilate afraid so he washes his hands of Jesus, the Jewish leaders afraid of losing their power so they kill Jesus. Fear, fear, fear; it seems that throughout it all fear is the emotion that rises to the surface.

Throughout history there has been so much evidence of that, and throughout history a key player l is the crowd; the fickleness of the crowd, one moment cheering and shouting hosannas and the next shouting crucify. What a strange thing it is that a crowd can be so easily manipulated; we only have to think of crowds today; football crowds in England, or student crowds in France last week. So often riots break out after a Mardi Gras or happy celebrations; and since time was individuals have used their power to manipulate the crowd; Hitler at the Nuremburg rallies, Mussolini, Saddam Hussein; power and fear, the two great evils, but in the midst of it all there stands Jesus; his hour had come; no fear is evident; he does not retaliate; he stands firm answering the questions appropriately; but there comes a moment when the reporting stops and the writer of John reveals one of the most loving and self giving moments of them all; Jesus looking down from the cross sees his mother, and the disciple whom he loves and he says “ Mother there is your son;” and to the disciple, “ there is your mother”. In his hour of distress and agony, he was able to reach out to those he loved dearly and individually, and enable them to love each other for his sake. Entirely self giving; he could do no more. Jesus the son of God, gave of himself completely and so he died.

So where does that leave us today? Today is not the day to think about Sunday, Easter Day. Today is the day to reflect, and to meditate on what happened all those years ago and to think about our part within the whole scenario. Where would you have been? Would you have been strong and impetuous and devoted like Peter, but then been found wanting at the important moment; would you use your power or influence to manipulate those around you; would you have been a bystander, watching it all but not wanting to get involved; would you have been one of the crowd blowing this way or that, or would you have been like Mary at the foot of the cross watching her son die, and we all know that to watch the beloved in pain is probably worse than the pain itself; would you have been like John, there to the last, close by; a true friend; Maybe you would have been a mixture of all these things; but behind it all there's only one thing that matters. Jesus died because he loved us.

This Good Friday, I pray that that's what will inspire all our actions and thoughts. No resurrection yet; just love.