Isaiah 52:13-53;12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5;7-9; John 18:1-19:37
The Rev. Drew Brislin
In the name of the One Holy and Undivided Trinity. Amen
As we leave Lent, that season of preparation, we look towards a season of restoration and renewal. What God is doing in Jesus is a kind of ‘re-newing’ of his creation. He is not throwing out the old covenant but rather He is giving us a new covenant, a new way of being in relationship. One that we participate in through the spilling of his Son’s blood. We watch from noon till three o’clock this Good Friday as the world gets ever so dimmer until the light finally goes out and then we wait. We wait and we watch until it returns on the third day.
I am thankful that God chose to not to give up on us but saw us as an opportunity to take what was old and make it new, kind of like what they do in those home improvement shows on HGTV like Fixer Upper with Chip and Joanna Gaines or Hometown with Ben and Erin Napier. I enjoy these shows as I watch them both follow the same particular pattern of meeting with a couple or individual who is looking for a home. They then ask questions so that they might understand what it is that they are looking for in a home. They then look at different houses that have more often than not fallen into disrepair. Houses that need a little love so to say. They then invite the prospective homeowners into a period of dreaming as they try to show them what this old house could be with a little bit of work and with a little bit of love. I have come to learn as a homeowner that there is always something to be done to help improve a home. That our homes can always use a little bit of love. In this season of renewal God is taking on a project the likes of which the world has never seen. Jon Meachem writes in his book The Hope of Glory that “We are taught that Jesus had to die a ransom for many. Without his suffering, death, and resurrection, then there would be no salvation, no new heaven and new earth. No where in the New Testament does anyone argue that Jesus could accomplish the work of redemption by living out a natural life and dying gently in his sleep later into the first century. No, the story is the opposite: Jesus was to submit obediently to the will of his father, who had decreed that his Son would die a violent death so that all might one day be forgiven their sins and granted eternal life.”
As we listen to the Passion narrative on this Good Friday, it does not sound like there is much good about it. What God is doing though is renewing the relationship and establishing a new covenant with humanity. Good Friday invites all to join in God’s act and action of redemption that has been set in motion by the Passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus. What God is doing is not just for a select few but is a gift for everyone, the reluctant and the late bloomers as well as the saints. God is inviting us to imagine Heaven on earth and then begin the work. Good Friday is the day we begin to lay the foundation for all that is to come. The first step to renewing the old houses on those home renovations shows is to clear out all that is old and unnecessary so that there is a clean slate on which to build the new and wonderful. On Good Friday God, clears out our hearts and minds and begins the task of renewing and reestablishing his relationship with man. God knows that we too like those old houses need a little bit of love. God has humbled himself and taken on flesh in Jesus and will now establish that new relationship with man. A relationship grounded in love and grace that no one can break and that is forever life-giving. But for now, we watch, and we wait as our Lord cries out My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? We don’t know how all this works out, only that it does, and this is the foundation of our Christian hope.
Amen.