Good Friday -- April 22, 2011
John 19:17 – 30
Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
There is something inside us that is ready for a part of us to die. Really. It is ready for a death. You could name this “something” the soul, that part of us that wants us to live the life we were created to live. The soul is that within you that is most alive, most intimately connected to God, most ready to live with creativity, freedom and generosity.
I believe our soul intuits that death is necessary for new life, that endings lead to new beginnings, that crosses come before empty tombs. So the soul waits patiently until we are ready to step into that life for which we were created. The soul is waiting for the death of that which holds us back from life.
But there is something else within us which fights death. The ego hates to die and resists dying with all of its energy.
Another image for the ego is the self. The self is not all villain here. It is so necessary for our day-to-day functioning in the world . . . it gets us up in the morning and moves us from this task to that task and helps us navigate our way from home to the grocery store. We could not exist in the world without it.
But the ego was never intended to be king or queen of your life and my life. In truth, though, my self and your self absolutely love to be the center of the universe. We even have all sorts of self-language that describes our penchant for ordering life around ourselves: Self-centered, self-absorbed, self-referenced, self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-assured . . . well, you get the point.
This is the part of us that can’t stand death. It will protect itself at all costs. It wants to “gain the whole world”, even if it means losing our very soul.
When Jesus said that we are to take up our cross daily, this is the part of us that has to die, that self-referenced and egocentric part of our inner world that is most concerned for its own survival and well-being. The cruel truth is that we will even demean or kill (literally or figuratively) someone else who we feel diminishes our own ego-centeredness. This is the human condition – human “sin”, if you will – that we prefer to put to death someone else who threatens our perceived well-being, rather than undergoing the death of our own self-centeredness.
Those who put Jesus to death felt it expedient to kill him, rather than deal with the consequences of who he was and the life he offered.
Yes, he died for us . . . in our place . . . a substitute . . . but his death is more than a doctrine whose reality I am invited to espouse so I can get spiritual goodies.
In his death he also carried our illusions and false realities and self-deceptions to the cross. He is took everything phony and illusory that we have relied upon and let it die along with him.
In order to truly live, something must die. Jesus did that. You and I are invited to the same dying ourselves.
Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). Here they crucified him, and with him two others—one on each side and Jesus in the middle.
Pilate had a notice prepared and fastened to the cross. It read: JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Many of the Jews read this sign, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city, and the sign was written in Aramaic, Latin and Greek.
The chief priests of the Jews protested to Pilate, “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’ but that this man claimed to be king of the Jews.”
Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.”
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
and cast lots for my garment.”
So this is what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
Later, knowing that everything had now been finished, and so that Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”
A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips. When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
There is something inside us that is ready for a part of us to die. Really. It is ready for a death. You could name this “something” the soul, that part of us that wants us to live the life we were created to live. The soul is that within you that is most alive, most intimately connected to God, most ready to live with creativity, freedom and generosity.
I believe our soul intuits that death is necessary for new life, that endings lead to new beginnings, that crosses come before empty tombs. So the soul waits patiently until we are ready to step into that life for which we were created. The soul is waiting for the death of that which holds us back from life.
But there is something else within us which fights death. The ego hates to die and resists dying with all of its energy.
Another image for the ego is the self. The self is not all villain here. It is so necessary for our day-to-day functioning in the world . . . it gets us up in the morning and moves us from this task to that task and helps us navigate our way from home to the grocery store. We could not exist in the world without it.
But the ego was never intended to be king or queen of your life and my life. In truth, though, my self and your self absolutely love to be the center of the universe. We even have all sorts of self-language that describes our penchant for ordering life around ourselves: Self-centered, self-absorbed, self-referenced, self-sufficient, self-reliant, self-assured . . . well, you get the point.
This is the part of us that can’t stand death. It will protect itself at all costs. It wants to “gain the whole world”, even if it means losing our very soul.
When Jesus said that we are to take up our cross daily, this is the part of us that has to die, that self-referenced and egocentric part of our inner world that is most concerned for its own survival and well-being. The cruel truth is that we will even demean or kill (literally or figuratively) someone else who we feel diminishes our own ego-centeredness. This is the human condition – human “sin”, if you will – that we prefer to put to death someone else who threatens our perceived well-being, rather than undergoing the death of our own self-centeredness.
Those who put Jesus to death felt it expedient to kill him, rather than deal with the consequences of who he was and the life he offered.
Yes, he died for us . . . in our place . . . a substitute . . . but his death is more than a doctrine whose reality I am invited to espouse so I can get spiritual goodies.
In his death he also carried our illusions and false realities and self-deceptions to the cross. He is took everything phony and illusory that we have relied upon and let it die along with him.
In order to truly live, something must die. Jesus did that. You and I are invited to the same dying ourselves.
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