Lent: 4/10/09
April 10, 2009
Good Friday
Matthew 27:45-49
John 19:28-29
“Truly Human and Fully Divine”
From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o”clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” – Matthew 27:45-49 (NRSV)
After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), “I am thirsty.” A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. – John 19:28-29 (NRSV)
Today we encounter a truly and fully human Jesus hanging on a cross. His pain is real. His anguish is real. His loneness and frustrations are real! This is not an illusion as the Gnostics have claimed. There has been no separation between the divine and human natures of Jesus prior to this time. The Word of God that has taken on human flesh to dwell among us is now on the tree of Calvary.
Today we encounter a truly and fully divine Jesus hanging on the cross. The true cost of the incarnation is becoming apparent as the Eternal Living God begins to die. There is no separation or hierarchal subordination as some have suggested. The Lord God is forever One God in Three Persons and in this moment Father, Son, and Holy Spirit now writhe in agony in the garbage dump outside the walls of Jerusalem. Is there any doubt that the land should be covered with a darkness so black and heavy as to be felt? Never has there been such a bleak time in all of the history of creation. The Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of all that was, is, and ever shall be are full joined into a human life that is now so close to the end.
I can imagine Death hovering close by in these moments, licking those meaty bloody lips. The insatiable appetite of its stomach, the grave, is about to have the greatest of all feasts. Death is on the verge of final victory. The powers of Chaos are soon to claim superiority over the created order. Soon it will be finished forever. We can smell it. We can taste it. We can feel it. We can see it. We can hear it.
In the center of all this cosmic conflict we hear Jesus scream the opening words of Psalm 22, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Some of the bystanders misunderstand this word from the cross and think that he is calling out to the Prophet Elijah for deliverance. But who can save him now? There is to be no deliverance from this hour.
But even in this darkest moment there is a distant glimmer of hope. Jesus chooses the words of Psalm 22 intentionally. Even though the Psalm begins in heart wrenching lament, it ends with doxology. What begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ends with, “For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.” and “he has done it!”
These words from the cross are not words of surrender, abandonment, and despair! Could it be that in the face of death, Jesus sings a hymn of praise and thanksgiving with all his might! Maybe the story isn’t as over as it now seems. But we will have to wait and see. For now this moment of screaming in the darkness is all that we have as the truly human and fully divine Jesus breaths his last and dies on the cross.
This day let us meditate on the words from Psalm 22. Take the time to read them slowly. Allow them to fill your mind and heart and soul. Read them several times aloud and finally once more as our prayer for today…
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest.
Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our ancestors trusted; they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
But I am a worm, and not human; scorned by others, and despised by the people.
All who see me mock at me; they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
“Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver— let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
Yet it was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
On you I was cast from my birth, and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
Many bulls encircle me, strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
they open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion.
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
For dogs are all around me; a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
I can count all my bones. They stare and gloat over me;
they divide my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.
But you, O Lord, do not be far away! O my help, come quickly to my aid!
Deliver my soul from the sword, my life from the power of the dog!
Save me from the mouth of the lion! From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
You who fear the Lord, praise him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him; stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he did not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted; he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.
From you comes my praise in the great congregation; my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied; those who seek him shall praise the Lord. May your hearts live forever!
All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
For dominion belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations.
To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down; before him shall bow all who go down to the dust, and I shall live for him.
Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord,
and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it. Amen.
– Psalm 22 (NRSV)