Sermon by Deacon Mike Stutso on Good Friday, 4/7/2023, John 18:1-19,42
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. AMEN
Wow, that was a mouth full to read today, two chapters of John’s Gospel. Two weeks in a row we have two different accounts telling us the Passion of Christ in different but the same ways.
Last week in Palm Sunday, we had Matthew’s account and today we have John’s account. But my question is, why did we have to call today Good Friday? So, I started digging, the word “good” means “to be desired or approved of or having the qualities required for a particular role.” Well, we all know that the only people that approved or desired this day was the Pharisees, High Priest, and the Romans BUT Jesus did have the qualities required for his role in all of this as well as fulfilling prophecy.
Now the second part is hard to argue about. I did find a couple of explanations I find acceptable. I quote, “some sources suggest that the day is “Good” in that it is Holy, or that the phrase is a corruption of “God’s Friday.” OK, that makes some sense to me. The Huffington Post reported, “That terrible Friday has been called Good Friday because it led to the Resurrection of Jesus and his victory over death and sin and the celebration of Easter, the very pinnacle of Christian celebrations.” Now we are cooking with gas!
I also like these terms I found, Sacred Friday or Passion Friday (Russian). But Good Friday works for me because God and Jesus show us that God’s and Jesus’ love for us is unconditional to include Crucifixion on a cross for Jews, Gentiles, and Romans. Let alone it shows us commitment, dignity, humility, integrity, love, and every other word you can think of to explain Jesus’ goodness and the only person to ever walk the earth without sin.
This is someone we should model our lives or idolize and not sports or acting figures (false idols). Isn’t that why Jesus died for us, to forgive our sins and show us that he is the way and the light to eternal happiness with the Father? Well, what do you think has happened to humanity since then? Yes, there is a lot of good out there but overall I’d only give humanity about a C+ grade for our efforts to live as God asked of us. It makes me think of Noah or Sodom and Gomorrah; it makes me glad that God promised that never again would God destroy the earth until the judgement day.
Now on to our Gospel today, as last week’s account from Matthew, John’s account is its own sermon. It is a complete story which we rarely hear in the Gospel readings, also there are no real confusing Parables to explain. This makes my style of preaching a little more difficult.
See Exegesis is my thing because I’ve struggled just like the disciples did my whole life with understanding the Bible and those Parables. In Exegesis, you break down the readings and interpret the text. Now I’m not challenging anyone’s ability to understand the Bible, but I do know there are people just like me that can struggle understanding the Bible just like I did and still do at times. So, I try to explain things so we all can understand. But as I said there is not much meat on them bones with this Gospel to explain as I said or is there?
One thing I want everybody to understand it is perfectly normal to be sad on this day, just because we use the words Good Friday it doesn’t mean we need to be overjoyed on the terrible death our Master endured. I personally am sad at this time of year knowing what they put Jesus through. Plus, my family heritage is Italian and my grandfather (I’m not sure how many greats I would have to use) was a Roman Lancer and they go back to 700 BC, so I always pray at this time of year that he was not part of the troops that put my beloved Master to death.
John starts this Gospel with “when Jesus had spoken these words”, what words? Well in chapters 16 and 17, Jesus is talking and praying to the Father as well as his final teaching of his disciples. Jesus is trying to ensure the disciples will be ok and keep building the future of Christianity, because teaching time is over, his time has come to fulfill prophecy.
Now for a couple more questions I have in mind. It says they crossed the Kidron Valley which is east of Jerusalem to reach an unknown garden. Well lucky for us Matthew and Mark tell us that it is the Garden of Gethsemane, which is inside of the Mount of Olives and we know that Jesus knows the Mount of Olives because he has prayed there before.
We just heard on Palm Sunday in Matthew’s account that Jesus went there to pray and the three he took with him which is not mentioned in John. It seems that as soon as Jesus got there, so did Judas with his mob. John talks about a lot of people showing up to arrest Jesus to include a Roman Cohort which was in Jerusalem at the time to ensure security during Passover. Well, I found out a Cohort is approximately 450-600 Roman soldiers which is 1/10 of a legion.
Again, in John’s account Jesus did not appear afraid or ask “If it be your will, remove this cup from me”. Jesus knows this is his destiny to fulfill prophecy: that is why he was born, to die for our sins. Instead, he tells Peter “Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?” This clearly indicates that Jesus totally knew his fate and suffering. Is John’s Passion attempting to ease our pain we go through because of the death of our Master? It just might be.
Now, they take Jesus to Annas, the father-in-law to Caiaphas the High Priest, what is not told is Annas was a High Priest from 6-15 AD. This was supposed to be a lifetime appointment but Valerius Gratus deposed Annas in 15AD, just some interesting info and food for thought because there are many things we don’t see at times.
From this point onward when dealing with the Jewish and Roman leaders as well as most people, I can see that John’s words makes sense from the beginning of his Gospel, I quote from John 1:10-12 “He was in the world, and the world did not know him. He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”
When I read these words, the whole Passion becomes so real and painful for me. Again, at this point we know the story, not a lot of reason to break it down. Jesus goes before the High Priest and they know they want Jesus dead but have no laws within Tora to sentence Jesus to death, so they turn to Pilate. Now all of a sudden, the Romans are their buddies to get what they want. Why, because they did not want to give up their power and control over the Jews as well as very comfortable lives.
If you notice Pilate doesn’t want anything to do with this, he tries three times to say that this man has done nothing wrong. He does not want the blood of an innocent man on his hands, but he is being backed into a corner. Pilate could have a riot on his hands where he could lose control of Jerusalem and we all know that could be bad news for him when Caesar finds out, so he does exactly what God had intended sentencing Jesus to death.
Jesus shows he is not afraid and is in their faces giving without answering but he did make it clear he is the son of God and his Kingdom is not of this world. Here is another tidbit, only in John’s account does Jesus carry his own cross, in the other three Gospels Simon of Cyrene carries it. I won’t go over the actual Crucifixion because it is very painful and as I’ve said we know it. But we must realize that everything Jesus did was to fulfill scripture.
The cross in John’s Gospel is not a moment of humiliation but of his glory of Jesus and God. Even from the cross Jesus is in total control, he showed it when he talked to his mother and created the first Christian family. In vs 26 “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.
I will close on a lengthy quote from David Lose that sums everything up.
“The great irony of John’s passion is that in Jesus we see God’s strength, majesty, and might revealed amid the pain and humiliation of crucifixion. While there is tremendous value in the more “human” portrayal of Jesus in Mark or the more compassionate Jesus in Luke. John’s depiction of the Passion of our Lord reminds us that, ultimately, Jesus is Lord; through him God overcomes any and all obstacles, including death in order to redeem and restore us. When we feel most vulnerable, most broken, most hopeless, it may be that John’s picture of Jesus will remind us of the promise that just as Jesus not simply survived but also conquered through his suffering and death, so also will we prevail, brought to abundant life through the sacrifice and triumph of the Good Shepherd.”
And why, because Jesus loved us this much.
AMEN