Good Friday Sermon

As with the Maundy Thursday sermon listed below, I must give credit to a resourceful book by Dr. Brant Pitre, Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the Secrets of the Last Supper. Published by Doubleday in 2011, I highly recommend purchasing, studying, highlighting, and making notes within its incredible pages.

Here is the sermon for Good Friday, April 18, 2014:

If you were with us last night, you know that I invited you to imagine yourself as one of Jesus' disciples. You were watching Jesus, in the middle of the night, being led away by soldiers at the direction of the Chief Priests. As you watched the scene unfold, you were coming to a slow realization that what happened at last night's Passover feast suggests that your friend, Jesus, is the new Passover Lamb.

After Jesus was taken away last night, you got together with the other disciples. Your adrenaline is pumping high as everyone speculates about what will happen. And the anger and hurt being spoken about Judas is distressing.

Word comes that Jesus will soon be tried in court. You and your friends rush there, but you're afraid suddenly for your own life. You ask the others if you should all hide.

"Won't they arrest us, too?" You ask.

On your way to the Praetorium, you see another one of those Passover Lambs on a cross-shaped skewer and suddenly you're filled with dread that you might be captured and executed.

But you push through your fear for the moment and discover that you're preoccupied with the fourth cup at last night's Passover, the cup that Jesus didn't bless and share, the cup you were certain Jesus asked God to let pass from him when he was praying in the garden.

You begin to think about how Jesus said last night that he wouldn't drink the fruit of the vine again until he's in his Father's Kingdom. You have a deep sense that all of these cups and all of this wine, including the wine that Jesus said was his blood, are all somehow connected.

Suddenly, Jesus is convicted. The crowd goes wild. You have hope when you hear Pilate present Barrabas and Jesus, and asks which should be released. The roar of the crowd to release Barrabas and crucify Jesus is deafening. Their hatred impossible to understand. The reality of Jesus' fate sinks in when you see the cross placed on his shoulders which are bleeding and sagging from the whips he's endured. You strain to see what's on his head and realize it's a crown of thorns digging into his flesh. You understand that they're mocking him as a king. All you want to do is yell and tell them that they have the wrong image, that he's not a king, but a lamb. But the noise makes it impossible to be heard and the vitriol of the crowd makes it impossible to reason with them.

Your mind returns to that fourth cup and the wine when you see the noble women of Jerusalem coming with their jars of wine for the convicted criminal named "Jesus." As a first-century Jew, you know that they are keeping the tradition of giving someone led to execution a goblet of wine containing a grain of frankincense in order to numb the senses. But Jesus never takes this wine from them as he stumbles towards Calvary.

Your anger, fear and adrenaline force you to shove and push through the crowd. Your dear friend, Jesus, screams a deep wail as he is nailed to the cross. He is hoisted up between two men you never even noticed until this moment. You see how weak your friend is as he struggles to breathe. Jesus pushes himself up with his legs, just enough to allow air into his lungs before weakness overtakes him and he slouches down beneath his arms. There is blood everywhere, especially on the cross that seems painted red - like the doorposts on Passover. His lack of oxygen is turning his face blue.

Though the sun was high in the sky, everything turns dark as night. It stays that way for three hours. Women scream. Children cry. Fear grips the crowd that is slowly dissipating as everyone hurries home from the horror before sundown.

You catch a glimpse of the woman you know to be Jesus' mom - Mary. She is clinging to Jesus' best friend in the group - John. Exhausted and under the strain of not being able to breathe, Jesus commends his mom and best friend to take care of each other. His mother, Mary, nods but cannot bear to look up at her son. She doesn't want to see him naked...or suffering...or die.

You watch Jesus closely for some last minute miracle, some sign that it will not end this way. You move closer because it seems that Jesus is trying to say something. Jesus says clearly, "I thirst."

With that, someone dips a sponge in the goblet of wine, puts it on a stick and puts it near Jesus' mouth. As he drinks the wine from the sponge, you realize that this is it - this is the fourth and final cup from last night's Passover - the cup that Jesus had skipped.

Just as it is making sense, you hear Jesus say, "It is finished." And with that, he dies. His body goes limp as he stops breathing, stops fighting for comfort. His lifeless body simply hangs there. A soldier lances his side and a gush of blood and water pour out. That blood and water makes you think yet again of the water and wine that Jesus mingled at dinner last night - the water and wine that he said was his blood of the new covenant.

Jesus, the new Passover lamb, is dead. Now what?

The sun is setting and the Sabbath will soon start. There is a scramble to get him off the cross and get him buried in a tomb before sundown. By the time he's laid in the tomb and you join the others on the walk back into Jerusalem, you are emotionally, physically, and spiritually exhausted.

Collapsing in the Upper Room on a large pillow, the flicker of candle light illuminates the cup on the table from last night's meal. Jesus' voice echoes in your mind until you fall asleep, "Do this in memory of me."

With the death of the new Passover lamb and the staining of wood with his blood, Passover has been completed. With that completion, a new Exodus towards a new Promised Land has begun. Slavery has come to an end. You are now free!