The Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, verse 43 to chapter 15, verse 47
This day presents the lion's-share of the 'passion' of Jesus. It is a day of suffering, persecution, rejection, betrayal, loneliness and death. Pretty much all of the human experiences we most fear and dread, and spend the most energy and money making sure never happens to us, happened to Jesus on this day. Including public speaking...
Mark presents the sequence of events, from past midnight to evening, in rapid fire, so that the immensity of Jesus' passion will come at us relentlessly and thoroughly. The crucifixion is the dramatic climax of Mark's gospel. He moves quickly from Jesus' arrest/Judas' final betrayal to the mock trial before the Jewish leaders to Peter's threefold denial to Pilate and the rejection of Jesus by the crowds to the beating and mockery suffered from the Roman guards to the crucifixion and death. Each scene plunges Jesus into deepening darkness. Walking through the story reminds me of watching a horror movie - the music grows menacing, the threat more vivid, what lies behind the next corner looms closer...and it won't be good.
The Good Friday service at the church presented the story with haunting music, reading of this passion story, and turning off the lights in the sanctuary as candles are doused with each portion of the reading. Everytime I have gone to this "Service of Shadows" (Tenebrae in the Latin) on Good Friday the impact of the darkness on me has been dramatic. I come away feeling the immensity of Jesus' suffering, and realizing again it was all for me and the rest of humanity. When the last verses were read, with Jesus uttering a cry and breathing his last, and the stained glass window lights were the last to be turned off and the room was completely dark, and a soprano sang into the darkness "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" I felt like I couldn't breathe.
Good Friday is called good because through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, the penalty for all human sin and rebellion was completely satisfied, opening the door for me to be reconciled to God and to be transformed, receiving new life. The downside of this good news - I believe the single-most important event in all history - is that God willed the suffering and death required to make it happen. There was no easier way out. There was no escaping the hardship and loss. God's sovereign will knew no shortcuts, even when it involved his own son - when it involved Him fully.
It is easy to be on the right side of God's sovereign will. When we feel his blessing. When we are surrounded by bounty and are needs are being met. When we are healthy, enjoying companionship of others, enjoying our jobs and hobbies. When things go smooth and easily. Or at least mostly. It is easy to forget God's will altogether, thinking that such goodness is our inheritance, what we deserve, or what we have given ourselves through hard work and right living.
But then, it is a terrible thing to be on the wrong side of God's sovereign will.
As a pastor, how many times have I come alongside to comfort people in pain, confusion and loss. I feel their hurt, and I ask with them "how can this happen? This isn't fair!" "God, fix this! Surely such pain cannot be a part of your will!" As if God's sovereign will is limited by what is good for me or those I love and serve, by what I understand as fair and unfair through my own eyes and wisdom.
If this limitation of God's will is true, then Jesus' death is cruel and unconscionable. It is senseless, and should be rejected along with the God who made it happen. But now I am caught in a contradiction. To reject the fullness of God's will is to reject its result in my salvation through the cross. I cannot have it both ways.
The Apostle Paul said that to truly live is to participate fully in the sufferings of Christ. This isn't a call to whack ourselves with whips, or walk gleefully into hardship, thinking this will guarantee some great spiritual experience. To live is to experience the fulness of God, and the completeness/complexity of his sovereign will as Jesus did through his obedience unto death. This isn't about me. It's about Him and his will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Salvation comes to me in Christ not for me, but that he might receive glory as a loving and gracious God. Receiving the sacrifice of Christ removes the barriers to living as He did, in full faith and trust.
That's the life which overcomes, even in the greatest suffering.
I challenge you this Holy Week - try to confront the suffering of Christ. What difference can this truth possibly make on your life?
Gracious Lord, we no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive and has become the Lord of life, king of our hearts. Increase in our minds and hearts the riesn life we share with Christ, and help us to grow as your people toward the fulness of eternal life with you, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
