St John's Chapel

The Seven Last Words of Christ

Good Friday, March 21, 2008

INTRODUCTION

The ministers have entered the Sanctuary of the Lord in silence. Today is meant to be a quiet day. Nothing in the external and visible world is meant to shake the silence, the stillness. All is quiet in the Church, in all churches, as Christians are called to meditate, to pray and to be still. The Altar, a symbol of the Lord’s Body, has been stripped. Our Saviour hangs naked on a tree. The Altar linens and hangings which symbolize his robes of eternal glory, the robes which covered him before the world was made, are gone. Today he is robed only in blood. The candles which stand for the fiery crown of heaven’s king are gone; today he is crowned with sharp pricks of thorns. Jesus Christ is stripped that we might behold the naked truth of his mission, through the naked, bruised, beaten and dying body of his flesh. He was there hanging long ago on Calvary’s hill. He is here hanging today before our mind’s memory in this place. He was there and he is here because we could not and cannot bear him. We could not and cannot stand his presence. We have not and do not allow his mercy and love to enter into our worlds to touch our lives. “I it was denied thee, I crucified thee.”

With Adam and Eve, with Caiphas and Pilate, with Peter and the Apostles and with all who try to eliminate, ignore, betray or kill God’s presence in the world, with all those who try to banish God’s presence from the garden of the soul, we come here today. We have crucified him. We have tried to eliminate his fire from our hearts and from the hearts of others when through pride and hubris we refuse his better way. We have ignored him in our lives and in those of others when our needs, priorities and delights take precedence and we refuse his better way. We have betrayed him so often when we have been embarrassed to follow him or to encourage others to do so also, because the cost is too high. We have crucified him in ourselves and in others when we will not allow his energy, his love and his wisdom to live in and through us and in and through others. Crucify him.

But in this quiet we are here on what is called “Good Friday.” Amidst the recognition of our own complicity in the murderous hatred of God’s Word, his love and his truth, you and I are called today to know that on the day of Christ Jesus’ crucifixion “the Dayspring from on high” still visits us. The goodness of God will shine from the dying man on the cross into the dark hearts of men and have its way. In the stillness of this day let us look, let us listen. Let the busy world be hushed in our souls; let the fever of life remain outside of our intention, let our labours, cares, anxieties be relegated to another space and time.

Something begins to stir in our souls. We gather round the Crosses on the hill. The man whose cross is planted in the center has been cruelly mocked and derided, he has been stripped and beaten, he has been crowned with thorns and has been nailed to the tree. He is fully man, very man as we say. He is in utter physical agony, a pain which is shared by the thieves who hang by him, the one on his left and the other on his right. But we must be still. For there is another dimension to this man’s suffering. He suffers physically. But he continues to convey his union with God and his care for man. God the Father is in his heart and he will not let go of him. Inwardly and spiritually he is with his Father. And before him in the external and visible world are his executioners, his enemies and his family. He is held in tension between the two- between God and man, even as he suffers unspeakable pain. And it is this tension, this way that he must continue to walk. It is in this tension, on this road, that he must continue to lead the world. He is suffering and he is dying. But he is living, he is loving, and he is giving.

Today through the death and suffering of Jesus Christ we shall, if we be still and quiet, hear, see and experience God’s love and desire for all human beings. From the Throne of Death a dying King will create a new reality, a new family, a new community. From the Throne of Death a dying King will establish a realm that is moved and defined by God’s will, and that is a place to which we make our journey and pilgrimage- a journey and pilgrimage into a better and more lasting kingdom. Through our meditation on the Seven Last words of Christ, the dying King, our dying Lord will draw us deeper and deeper into the embrace of God our Father and into the hold of Heaven’s love.

But we must get there as I said with a quiet mind. So we come today to a place called Golgotha, the place of the skull, in order to look and to listen, and thus to meditate deeply upon the love of the dying Jesus. That love may confront us in very simple terms, in raw emotions, in impulses that might challenge those that regularly move us in this post-modern world. But let us see if we can experience them on some level. Truth, of course, for traditional Christians is found and experienced on many different levels. But we must start somewhere.

And what better place to start than where our Lord himself chose to start, in the neighborhood of humanity, our humanity, with that raw human nature that can see and hear, touch and smell. Let us open ourselves, in memory, to what is before us so that we can give birth to the faculty of faith. We find ourselves in the drama of the Passion of the Christ. What surrounds us? It is clear that some tumult have overtaken Jerusalem. We observe or see confusion and disruption; we see angry faces and sad faces. We observe that the authorities, the Roman Governor, the High Priest and the Jewish King are faced with threats to earthly peace, religious complacency and royal position. How can this be? Octavian- the first great Augustus Caesar has brought peace to the world, it is the fullness of time.

But here, in a rather insignificant outpost of his Empire there is seeming chaos. A man Jesus has been hauled before the religious and secular authorities to face charges of blasphemy on the one hand and of insurrection and public disturbance on the other. We hear that the Roman Governor finds no fault with Jesus; we hear that Caiphas the high priest and the Sanhedrin want him dead, and that Herod the Jewish King has not time for him because he would not play court-jester. We are pressed on every side by angry crowds, by Roman soldiers who try to keep the peace, and by threats of bodily harm on every side due to confusion.

Our senses are aroused and we know that something strange has come to pass. We are no doubt curious. Of course, as Christians looking back, we want to know more. We want to identify with the drama that is unfolding before our eyes. We want to participate in this reality so that its meaning might touch us in a deeper way. We want not only to follow and observe the events, but we wish to experience the emotions and choices that will characterize so many different kinds of people, most of whom will turn on this day, from saints to sinners, from the enemies to the friends of God. We want to understand Peter the betrayer who will become the Rock of the Church. We want to understand the suffering and pain of the Blessed Virgin Mary. We wish to understand those who stood by the cross and those who did not. In sum, we wish to know these people in order to better know ourselves, who we are, what we would have done, have done and will do. Finally we wish to know how this Crucifixion, this dying of our Saviour, is not a mere event of history, but the cornerstone and crossroads of our spiritual journey and pilgrimage. That if we would follow Christ, each and every day we must come to this Cross, to die and to come alive, to be forgiven, to forgive and to journey deeper and deeper into the Kingdom of God.

Come then. Let us go to the Cross. The Dying King calls us to his throne. Let us look, listen and ponder. Let us ask Him to take us into his death, into his giving heart and into the Goodness of this Friday.

THE FIRST WORD:

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

The “Seven Last Words of Christ” begin and end in heaven. We believe that Christ Jesus came down from Heaven, “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” and that Jesus returned to Heaven on the day of the Ascension. But even here and now, at Golgotha, on Calvary, on Good Friday, as the person of the Son of God hangs dying on a tree, he begins and ends in his Father’s presence and imparts his Father’s truth and desire. What fills Jesus, defines him throughout his agony, is his beautiful obedience to his Father. He receives his Father’s desire and will for all man and continues to pass it on and out to the world. Jesus is dying. But He is living and giving. Through the unimaginable pain and suffering he serves his human family.

We are trying to be still and to be quiet. Our usual habits of business and commerce, talk and chatter which are one with movement and change in the city of man have been left behind. We are on a spiritual road, being moved and moving even in our stillness. We are outside the city walls. Now we are aliens, so to speak, aliens and outsiders to the usual movements of earthly life. Today we begin our journey into the City of God. There is not much room for God in this world. There is nowhere for the Son of Man to lay his head. Will the Son of Man find faith when he returns, we ask? God in the midst of the City of Man is troublesome, challenging, and irritating. Jesus in his own day was viewed by many as a nuisance. Jesus today is also disturbing to many. His crèche at Christmas time is offensive. His road must remain unmentionable in our schools. His religion, of all others, must not be allowed in the world that he made and came to save. The City of Man, long ago, killed him. We kill him today also, by refusing to allow his birth and life in our cities and towns. But we are outside of the city now. Let us follow him.

Something about him arrests our attention. So we join his followers, his Mother and female friends, and stand by his Cross to look upon Him. We look. We certainly did not expect to hear anything from him. He is in utter agony. He is dying. We plan only to look. But he speaks. “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” What is this that he says? How incredible. During his life he always passed on what he had received from his Father. “He that is of God heareth God’s words.” “I seek not mine own glory.” “Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the Word of God and keep it.” Jesus spent his every living moment passing on to men what he had received from his Father. We remember that he passed on the power of healing. Sometimes he healed men of their physical handicaps, like making the blind men to see. Sometimes he healed men of spiritual demons, like Legion who lived alone, lonely and in seeming despair. He also passed on the wisdom of his Father to those who would listen. “Blessed are the meek…blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see the kingdom of God.” He receives and he passes on. And so today. Jesus is dying but still passes on his Father’s way- here his Father’s love and mercy to those who have killed him. God the Father is perfect charity or love. Jesus continues to be a vessel of that love. Jesus does not look at himself, his hurt, his unfair execution, his present sufferings. He does not complain or condemn. He looks into his Father’s heart, which is with Him, and finds a universal love that must be passed on.

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” It seems an insane statement. But all men are sinners, consumed by their own lusts and the pride of life. Most men begin and end with themselves, and may never have encountered God’s love, his wisdom and his power. Jesus begins and ends in Heaven. He begins and ends with his Father’s desire. God the Father desires that all men should be saved. A sinner today may be a saint tomorrow. A murderer today can repent and be saved. As long as there is time in life, there is time in life for forgiveness. God’s mercy is extended. Midway between Jesus going down and coming up, his death and his resurrection, there is time to offer the forgiveness of his Father to all men. He may be going down, but in the midst of it he goes down not as a vessel of judgment, resentment and hatred, but as the vessel that he is, a Tabernacle of God’s love for the world, God near us and for us.

Now to be sure the evil effects that are visited upon Jesus are in no way unreal or unfelt. He is dying truly. He is in utter pain. But evil, in the end, has no power over God’s love and his mercy. Nothing can put out the merciful forgiveness of God the Father. And Jesus came down from Heaven to deliver this message and this reality. This is Good Friday. On this Good Friday God’s goodness is extended from the Cross of suffering and death. Not even suffering and death excuse anyone from forgiveness and mercy, the very hope that one’s own enemies might turn from their wickedness and live. Forgiveness is universal, for all, if all will receive it.

“Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” This is hard, I know. Jesus forgives those who have mocked and derided him. Jesus forgives those who pound a crown of thorns into his head. Jesus forgives those who are nailing him to a tree. He did so then, and he does it even now. A sick old mother is cruelly mistreated by her son who cannot deal with illness, any illness, but especially hers. Jesus offers forgiveness to the son and prays that he will learn of his sin and repent. Jesus forgives those who murder out of hatred, resentment or even confusion. He prays that they will learn of their sins and repent. Jesus forgives those who abuse others. He prays that they will learn of their sins and repent. Jesus offers forgiveness from the Father always, even in the pain and suffering that endure while witnessing the inhumanity of men to men.

Hopefully today we are struck by the ease with which God forgives men. Peter betrayed his best friend Jesus. Jesus forgave him and called him into the new life of spreading the Gospel to the nations. Paul persecuted early Christians and stood by as they were being beaten and stoned. He even approved of it. Jesus forgave him and called him to be an Apostle to the nations. In this we should see the immense forgiveness of God. He forgives us all of our trespasses when we come to know and claim them. And so we should forgive those who trespass against us. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And even more, “Father forgive them…for today they know not what they do, but tomorrow they will know, repent and all of the angels in heaven will rejoice. Father forgive them, because my prayer is that they will come to know me and you who sent me. My prayer and hope, your prayer and hope is that they will come to us. Oh how we want them, even though now they do not know what they do.” This is what Jesus is giving out through the pain and suffering. “Come unto me, come unto me,” he says, “life begins in heaven, let it end in heaven also.”

THE SECOND WORD

“This Day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

We ended our last meditation with God the Father’s hope for mankind expressed through the dying Jesus. Life begins and ends in heaven. God desires that in the midst of this Good Friday that people will look, hear and experience God’s true love for his creation and see themselves in light of Jesus’ Cross. We ended with the words, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Through Jesus we have a desire that those who do not yet know about their sin and their pride, that those who do not yet know about their need for forgiveness, will come to the truth and be saved. The mass of men, Christ tells his Father, is ignorant. “Many of them were following orders when they mocked and derided me, when they whipped and stripped me, when they nailed me to this tree. They did not know and may not know even now who I am.”

But now we come into another reality. We pass from ignorance to knowledge. While the throngs of people who cried “Crucify Him,” and while the soldiers who did the dirty work of bringing it to pass were ignorant and did not know what they were doing, now we pass over to one man who comes to know Jesus and himself in light of Jesus. Two thieves hang aside Jesus on the hill of Calvary. We read in St. Luke’s Gospel, “And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us.” Now we hear a familiar cry. The Pharisees and priests of the Temple claimed that if Jesus was the Christ he should come down from the Cross and prove his power and his might. And now one of the criminals who hanged next to Jesus demands the same thing. If you are Christ save us now, and perform a miracle. Show the world your power, and while you are at it save us with yourself.

How familiar is this kind of approach to God. So often you and I want the Lord to come to us, to heal us immediately of our infirmities, to put human life and human sufferings before the meaning of true life and its meaning for all men. But God means to show all men that he is with them at every point in human life. He desires to show us that he bears our sorrows, our burdens, knows our infirmities and has taken on our predicament. God comes to us in the flesh, to identify with us. Christ, in his suffering and dying, takes into himself that pain and death that everyone has known and experienced. In pain and death man can still know and experience God. In pain and death God is still near to us and with us. If Christ were to have saved himself and then the two criminals, he would have ceased his mission to take on our burden, to know our sadness, pain and even death. He would not have fully experienced our human condition. He might have remained truly God. But he would not have been truly man. And in that case the point of meeting, the meeting of God and man, of Heaven and earth would never have occurred.

So the good thief has the right response. He shoots back, “Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this man hath done nothing amiss.” The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. In the silence of his pain the good thief’s eyes are opened to the presence of God in the just man hanging beside him. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do,” has become, “I know what I have done. I am justly punished. I know who I am, for I am a criminal. I know who this man is, for he is just and holy and has done nothing wrong. I repent.” He prays, “Lord, remember me when though comest into thy kingdom. Lord take me with you. I do not deserve it, but you have extended forgiveness. You have hoped for repentance. And I repent and believe, and wish to go with you to be where you dwell.”

Jesus responds, “Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.” The hope of Jesus and his Father has been fulfilled in the turning of one man. This man was in great pain and agony also. He was suffering and dying, and in that state he came to know Jesus and to desire forgiveness and a place in his kingdom. Jesus is suffering and dying and is extending the mercy and forgiveness of God to humanity. This man is suffering and dying, comes to know his sin and its punishment, repents, and is promised a place in his kingdom. One gives, the other receives.

In the confession of the good thief the first fruits of repentance and faith are born from the scene of death. At this place of the skull a new soul has been born, born again, born anew and born from above. Here in dying comes the promise of new life. Jesus gives to this good man the promise of new life that comes about even here and now. Christ comes to his death. In his death the good thief sees his own death. In Christ’s death he sees the power for the hope of new life.

Jesus continues his mission. He has asked for the forgiveness of the ignorant. He has hoped that the ignorant would come to know him. In coming to know him he hoped that they would repent and follow him. Jesus and the thief are both pinned to the trees and dying. But nevertheless they are moving and living. One desires new life and the other offers it. We have passed from forgiving the ignorant to forgiving the penitent. Jesus desire and his Father’s desire have moved forward in the life of this dying thief. Jesus and his Father share their life and reality continually, even as Jesus suffers and dies. The suffering and death are not moments that close up the mercies of heaven. In fact, in suffering and death, the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, mercy continues to flow. A thief is forgiven and he will move along with Jesus in the journey to the kingdom. This thief, a stranger, is counted as one who will journey with Jesus to Paradise. His eyes have been opened, and so should ours.

THE THIRD WORD

"Woman behold they son…Son behold thy mother.”

A complete stranger to Jesus and his ways has opened his eyes to the reality that is unfolding before him. He has heard that Jesus offers the forgiveness of sins to the ignorant. He remembers that he too was ignorant. He was ignorant of the good and the true, the right and the noble. He had wasted his life in sin and crime. And now he knows it. He sees it and himself. He repents him of his sins and turns to Jesus for that merciful promise that will enable him to journey even now at the point of his own death into the kingdom. He may have heard of Jesus when he was living a life of crime, but he ignored it. Now he cannot ignore it. He is in the midst of true love, true life and true meaning. He wants it. It is given to him. He never had had any time for the truth in his own life. In his fleeting moments he knows his sin and desires to journey on with Jesus to his kingdom.

Unlike the dying thief, the good thief, there were those who knew Jesus. First there was his Mother. Life begins and ends in heaven. Jesus came down from heaven. Her entire life had involved confusion and uncertainty from the very beginning. The conception and birth of her son had confused her. She was chosen to bring him into the world. And throughout her whole life she “pondered in her heart” the meaning of her son’s mission and purpose. Like all good mother’s she followed her son’s journeys, she listened to his teaching, she observed the things that had come to pass. At times she was worried and anxious. “Did you not know that your father and I sought thee sorrowing?” At that point she had thought that they had lost him. He said, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business.” She did not understand. At another point she tried to prompt him to provide wine for guests at a wedding. “They have not wine.” His time had not yet come. She did not understand that the true wine that he would give to mankind would be the nectar of heaven, the blood of his love and charity. And she was promised that “a sword would pierce through her own soul also.” Mary has followed her son, though not always understanding what his life would mean. She is at the Cross with him. She is his mother and she steadfastly remains with him until the end. She finds this seeming tragedy hard to bear, but she remains as close to him as he does to his heavenly Father. She is part of that family that is about to be made new.

And with her is St. John, “the Apostle whom the Lord loved.” There is always a sense, if one reads his Gospel, that John has a spiritual grasp of Jesus life that was deeper and truer than the other Apostles. He is the only Apostle as the Cross with Mary and the other women. He has known Jesus as a spiritual brother, a strength and one who would continue to manifest God’s way even in his suffering and death. John is at the Cross with Mary. Both are trying to bear up under the extreme stress of this seeming tragedy. The Mother does not leave her Son’s side. The friend does not leaves his Master’s side. Both stand at the Cross looking, listening and following Jesus.

Mary and John have known Jesus Christ in a very special way. They were not the ignorant who needed forgiveness. They were not the newly initiate, the new converts to his presence like the good thief. Mary and John were part of his inner circle. They had been with him throughout his adult ministry. He had taught them many things. They had witnessed his miracles. They had hearkened to his teachings. They were not fully aware of what his life meant then or would mean in the future. But they have been with him. They had known him as family and through community. But now Jesus will create a new family and a new community.

“Woman behold thy son.” Mary was the mother of Jesus Christ. As such she is the mother of salvation and the mother of our new humanity. Now she will become the mother of other sons and daughters, the spiritual sons and daughters of God the Father, whom Jesus will make when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost. Mary was the literal Jewish mother of Jesus Christ. She is to become the spiritual mother of a new family and a new nation. She is being made barren in one way, so to speak, that she may become fruitful in another. John is not her biological son. He will become her spiritual son. She will be the spiritual mother of many nations, nations full of men and women who shall become the sons and daughters of God, the brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. But she is not merely promised a spiritual future. Jesus continues to love and to care in a human way also. Jesus loves his earthly mother, and she is to be cared for by John. He will be a spiritual son, a God-son if you will, and he will care for her as any son would his mother. He will be her care-giver and child who will ensure that she is not alone and left in sadness. Jesus continues to impart God’s care and love to his mother. She receives a new son. She will be John’s mother.

A new family has been created. This is the beginning of another kind of new birth. We had the new birth of the good thief. Now we have the new birth of the earthly family. The earthly family becomes a spiritual family. The bonds of love that bind this new family together are God’s desire that his church should provide a spiritual home and nourishment for all who seek his Kingdom. Mary is a symbol of Mother Church. John is a symbol of Mother Church’s offspring or children. This new family is bound together by the forgiveness of sins, repentance and the good will and benevolence that marks the ties of everyone who will enter into this new reality. Jesus says, “behold I make all things new.” Here a new family model is made. Jesus moves closer to his death. His pain increases. It might be the like the pains of childbirth or worse. He is giving birth to a new spiritual family.

His mother and his friend are in true pain and sadness. They are losing their beloved. He has promised his friend that he would not leave him or any others without comfort, counsel and consolation. John will remind Mary of this. John and Mary will receive Jesus in a new way. He will be with them again.

THE FIFTH WORD

“I thirst”

God is approaching his dying Son. The Son is in agony and utter pain and the Father now responds to his Son’s cry. God never abandons those who cry out to him in the moment of utter need and urgency. God is faithful to hear the cries of his children. And all the more so now. God comes near to Jesus Christ. He approaches him as any caring parent approaches their suffering child. The response is immediate. He comes bearing the healing nourishment that only he can give. He comes to satisfy the thirst of his Son.

The Son sees his Father approaching. The spiritual reality of God’s nearness is now known and experienced. The Son thirsts. He thirsts now not for earthly drink, for the waters of the earth. He thirsts for the righteousness of God. “Like as the hart desireth the water brooks, so longeth my soul after thee O God. My soul is athirst for God, yea even for the living God.” Christ Jesus desires nothing less than that spiritual drink that can nourish and sustain him. The things of the earth have passed away. Christ has taken the earth and molded it into a new reality that must depend upon God and his kingdom alone. The forgiven sons and daughters of the earth, the reconciled criminal and the new family that he has taken with him must now thirst for that drink that will establish them as the new citizens of a new kingdom. They must go with Christ into his Father’s kingdom, and he is taking them with him. They with him must thirst for righteousness and true holiness. They must eat and drink from the Father’s hand. And the Father is near and offers that sustenance that alone makes all things new.

Christ continues to give. He is now leading his people into the direction of the approaching God. He is carrying his new friends, his mother and John, you and me into the kingdom of God. We cannot make this journey without God’s Grace and righteousness. Christ came down from heaven to fetch us home. He continues his mission. He, like us, is weak. He needs the drink of Almighty goodness and so do we. We are being taken into the presence of God by a suffering and dying Saviour. He is still giving and now he gives by taking us with him deeper and deeper into the presence of his Father, carried in his heart.

Let us feel the love of Jesus at this point. He is dying and yet still living enough, living still to carry us on his emaciated, wounded and scarred shoulders into the kingdom of God. Let us sense this real love that Jesus has for us as his thirst for God becomes our thirst for God. Let us know this love that is given to us in this moment of true thirst. Let us know this love as what we must desire, the love for God and his aid, his nearness and his care. We are passing from death to life. No longer do we crucify this love for us. Now we share in it. Now we desire to embrace this love of Jesus as he and we long to dwell in the courts of God the most High and Mighty. Now we thirst with Jesus for the God who is not far away but is near to us.

“I thirst.” Christ has offered the forgiveness of his Father to the ignorant. Christ has offered a place in his kingdom to the newly converted. Christ has established a new community for those whose faith enables them to love one another as they journey onward. There is faith and now there is hope. With knowledge of his deep love for us as we pass from death to life now with him we thirst for God and his power alone. Nothing else seems to matter in these moments but the fact that on the shoulders of the wounded healer we are being offered the cup of salvation which alone can quench our thirst, our true thirst, our thirst for God’s nearness and love. Our thirsty souls are carried within the heart of Jesus and we shall be filled.

Jesus still gives. He thirsts and he asks us to accompany him in his thirst for God. He is still suffering, he remains in utter agony. And it is at this time, and at times like it in our own lives that we too thirst for that power which alone can help us and heal us. But Christ is also thirsting for us. He thirsts for our salvation. He is, to be sure, thirsting for God’s love and power in this horrific moment, but he keeps us in his heart. In his heart is the deepest desire that we too will thirst for God. That as we suffer in our own lives and as we suffer with and for others, we must thirst for God always. This is Christ’s desire for us, even as he is dying. He is still loving us and giving to us his deepest longing for our salvation. And we cannot be saved until and unless we too thirst with him for God. He carries us with him as God approaches him with the cup of salvation. In his heart we are most intimately found. In his heart is a love that wishes that no one should be left behind. In his heart is a desire that all of us might dwell with him in the kingdom of his Father. Will we sense his love for us today? Will we know that he holds us in a place that can never be violated? Will we see that his thirst for God is his thirst for us? Will we know that his love of God and his love of his neighbor are one love that longs for an eternity that all can enjoy?

For Christ the whole world thirsts. For the world Christ thirsts. He thirsts for the lonely, the depressed, the sick and the dying. He thirsts for the addict, for the hateful and for the murderous. He thirsts for a change of heart in every human being, that every man, woman and child might thirst for God and thirst for the peace of his reality. “And I, when I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me.” “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and ye shall find rest for your souls.”

THE SIXTH WORD

"It is finished”

Our journey on this Good Friday involves coming to the knowledge of Christ and to the knowledge of ourselves. In Christ we find God’s deepest desire for us. In Christ we find not only the thirst of one man for his Maker, but the thirst of God’s Son for the salvation of all human beings. Our eyes are opened to Christ’s love for us even as he is suffering and dying. He never forgets us. We are permanently fixed in the heart of Christ Jesus. He is about to die and he remembers us. His thirst for God is his thirst for man. Both desires are part of one seamless love that can never be torn apart. There are no longer two worlds and two loves. There is one world. The world of God which becomes the world for man. God and man are united in the heart of Jesus Christ. That one love, which man has tried to tear apart, finds its meeting place in the heart and soul of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is our salvation. His entire earthly visitation revealed to man the longing of God for reconciliation with his people. We must come to know ourselves in him. This is a coming to self-knowledge. In one sense we realize today that not only is the mission of Christ finished and accomplished. But we realize that we ourselves are finished. What is finished? We are finished. The truth is naked before our very eyes. What is finished? Our pride is finished. Our sin is finished. The end of sin is death. Our sin has brought about the death of Christ. But even in this death, the death of Christ, man’s self-willed alienation from God is revealed as what has no power and no future. In the death of Christ what is finished is the illusion that we have any power, that we have any meaning outside of the presence and nearness of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even death. Not even our killing of Christ. Nothing can separate us from God at all. For God is near to us. He quenches our thirst. He overcomes our rejection of him, our hatred of him, our killing of him. We have left sin behind us today. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” “This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” “Woman behold thy son, son behold thy mother.” “My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?” “I thirst.” We have been carried through death, from death and are about to enter into life. Our sin is finished. Death is about to be conquered. It is finished.

Our minds up until today have, perhaps, been too taken up with ourselves. We have pursued our own destinies and we have sought to assert our own respective rights and desires. We think that we have power of various kinds. We are clever and efficient, hard working, charming and influential. We have herded others into our service in order to sustain the vision of our own glory and success. We have power in weaknesses. Look at our power today. What is it? It is the power to separate ourselves from God. It is the power to crucify love and to try to eliminate it from our world. But love bears our sin. Love takes on our rejection of it only to turn the tables forever. Love in Christ will still long and desire for our salvation. Love forgives us. Love calls us into death, its own death, in order that we may find life. Love never ceases to offer itself to God and to us. Love never dies. The love that lives in the heart of Jesus Christ has finished its mission. The accomplishment of this love is that, if we travel with it, we can be carried into the salvation of our God. The accomplishment of this love in the heart of Jesus is nothing less than the real possibility that we can and will be reconciled to God even forever.

It is finished and accomplished only if we see that we are being carried by the heart of Christ into the presence of God’s nearness. It is finished only when we see that God’s desire for us can overcome all of our pride, our selfishness, our vanity and our pretences to power. It is finished only when we see that God’s love can and will unite us with himself. Today let us know that God’s desire and will are finished and accomplished. Let us find ourselves in the heart of a loving Christ who brings us into the presence of our Father. Let us know that today you and I are finished with ourselves and determined to allow Christ to carry us forward.

Hear the words of Father Andrew, as he desires to be carried and moved by Christ alone.

O dearest Lord, thy sacred brow,
With thorns was pierced for me:
O pour thy blessing on my head,
That I may think for thee.
O dearest Lord, thy sacred hands,
With nails were pierced for me:
O send thy blessing on my hands,
That they may work for thee.
O dearest Lord thy sacred feet
With nails were pierced for me:
O send thy blessing on my feet,
That they may follow thee.
O dearest Lord, thy sacred heart,
With spear was pierced for me:
O shed thy blessing on my heart,
That I may live for thee.

Sermons: Good Friday