John 18:1 - 19:42

"Good Friday" - Years A, B, C

The longest pericope of the year!

There are so many places to get distracted in this passage. Its beginning may be all we need. After Jesus said, “I’ve made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them” — we are in a garden.

 

Creation may not be admissible evidence in a court of law, but it touches our heart with an assurance of being of value. Creation shows love. Creativity continues to show love.

 

And we find betrayal in a Garden called Eden and a Garden called Gethsemane. Gardens are places of weeds and fruits. Gardens are not controllable and eventually we need to move on. From one Garden comes the death of Abel from another comes the death of Jesus and Cain morphs into Pilate.

 

This is not about violence and death. This is simply business-as-usual—love revealed and internalized.

 

Remember the liturgy of Ash Wednesday— this year we used: From Dust you have come; to Dust you shall return; what do you have to lose. During our Lent exploration of Christmas and Easter, this shifted to: You have come from Blessing; you shall go to Blessing; Bless now.

 

Be not surprised. What did Jesus have to lose? And you? What wouldn’t Jesus bless? And you?

 

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2013/03/holy-week-friday.html

 

 

 

Let's do a bit of retranslating of verse 36:

"My freedom," says Jesus, "doesn't consist of what you see around you. If it did my followers would act like the military of any nation. But I am not that kind of presence, not a world leader kind of presence."

Jesus' execution was no more or less brutal than that of anyone else who was executed by crucifixion. So violence and suffering are not the categories by which we need to look at this event in our faith.

Rather comes a question of how we live in the midst of violence and suffering. When we can make this shift we are set free to live out of a heart of generous abundance rather than one fearful of ongoing pain. This is not to discount suffering, but to allow it its rightful place in the order of life -- first freedom for living in G*D, then freedom to receive whatever consequence of such living brings, and finally the freedom to trust that all manner of things will be well.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/april2004.html

 

 

Mark and his ilk claim the women were looking on from a distance; John has them up close and personal. For the moment, following John, we hear about Mary and an unnamed person being joined together in a new relationship.

Who loves ya, baby? Jesus loves you. Jesus puts you in new relationships you never expected.

Today it is officially out that I have been reappointed to a charge I never expected - one that I had served before. Jesus' love of bringing unexpected folks together is most mysterious. What new relationship is Jesus' love for you and another bringing together?

In some way this wrapped the story John is telling. From Mary at Cana saying, "Do what he says," to the loved one, such as yourself, carrying on the story and telling it and telling it, story after story, book after book. In the doing is the telling and in the telling, the doing.

Who's your mother? Who does Jesus love (or who doesn't Jesus love? - seems to be the same response whichever way the question is asked). Who's our sister and brother? Here is a deeper meaning than simple suffering - the cross at work.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2004/april2004.html

 

"Love one another," we read yesterday. Easy to hear, hard to do.

So a last act from the cross cements this.

You.

And You.

You're related, live like it.

And now to get the United States of America and the rest of the world to hear that they are related, now live like it. Now to get all the other divisions to understand they are related to those they battle. We may yet get to live together and love one another.

If we pay attention to history and dreams of being in charge, the odds are against it. But that is not sufficient reason for us, from our side, to back off from this radical scene.

Matthew and Luke (in Acts) tell of Judas' death. John doesn't mention it.

Imagine the momentary shift if we consider that Judas is a disciple whom Jesus loved. Can you imagine Mary and Judas at home? Just how radical is this new family that is not based on blood? 

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html

 

 

"I find no case against him," says Pilate." I will not advocate for him, I will merely wash my hands, proclaiming my innocence, not his."

We don't need to look to G*D for the source of Jesus' suffering. He was intended to be justified. Here is a moment where suffering is passed person to person, not G*D to people.

We are hearing a lot about court cases today with all manner of advocates for their own perspective and seemingly no comprehension of the complexity of life. There is a lot of false innocence being advocated.

This scene of hand-washing may be much more devastating to us than Peter's denial or Jesus' death. It is so much like us.

http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2005/march2005.html

 

 

Persistence in the face of overwhelming sorrow (try reading the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson) can lead to provocation to love and good deeds, anyway.

Overwhelming sorrow can also deaden us to the point of non-responsiveness. It can call forth intermediary rituals to disperse such sorrow that eventually become a barrier to experiencing the sorrow at all. At this point we cling to our ritual rather than face again that which overwhelms us, every time. Far better to be obedient than to wrestle, as did Jacob of old, with unknown forces.

Suffering does come, as does everything in its time. But here the suffering may be more in the eye of the beholder than the actor. We do come to an empathetic and cathartic experience of suffering, but one that tends to keep us captive to it rather than release us into a new freedom to accept oursuffering and not run from it.

We do not seem to find a way through suffering (a better conversation between Buddha and Jesus would help many a Christian and their congregation). It becomes a totem for us and we carry it around our necks and tattooed on our bodies. A cross becomes an ending spot for us rather than a beginning, everything is seen through its lens.

Note: None of this applies to the kinds of suffering we cause and ignore to the least among us. That kind of suffering has nothing to do with redemption.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_04_01_archive.html

 

 

Well, were you there?

If the Preacher of Ecclesiastes got it right that "there is nothing new under the sun," we need to say "Yes" and "No" to the question. We are not there at Jesus' crucifixion but we are witness of other "crucifixions" today. Let's look for some connections between then and now through one of the eye-witnesses—a Roman Centurion.

Perhaps we will hear the song change from "were you there" to "we are here". 

Jesus' disciples stood at a distance, just watching, and that is our temptation, as well.

At bottom we are afraid to draw near Jesus' cross guarded by the status quo, a fear of being different, and a reluctance to lose any privilege or comfort we have.

Sometimes I think today's Church has lost track of following Jesus' ministries and has settled for just guarding empty crosses and being complicit in the on-going crucifixion of the least, and lost and lonely in our own families, community, state, nation, and world?

My hope is in remembering.

Remember Eden. A sad day wherein we too often focus on how bad Adam and Eve were, without remembering that G*D left Eden with them. They were never alone.

Remember Cain crucifying Abel. A sad day wherein we focus on how bad Cain was, without remembering G*D did not start capital punishment then and there.

Remember an unending series of lonely misdeeds and betrayals that continue to this day. These are ours and are not dependent upon blaming someone before us. 

We have been like the Centurion who didn't plot against Jesus, or try Jesus, or put in the nails, or raise the cross – who only stood there while an unjust act was carried out, while an unfairness was allowed to move forward.

What eventually shone through to the Roman Centurion was Jesus still commending his life into G*D's hands, into a promise of more life that couldn't yet be seen. That Centurion heard enough to do an about face and to forward march into a new way of living. Jesus' life calls us, too.

Even before Easter that Centurion was transformed. Even on Good Friday we have plenty to call us to risk our life for a common good.

Remember Christmas. A good day wherein we focus on Emmanuel, G*D with us, we are still never alone.

Remember the Magi. A good day when those identified as "Strange" and "Other" are blessed for letting their gifts loose in the world.

Remember Baptism. A good day when Belovedness is set free in the life of every lost person and is a background against every temptation.

Remember those who were ministered to by Jesus, and still need ministry in our day. They were set free to be G*D's Beloved, even without baptism and well before Easter. Remember a better way than guarding and watching; a Jesus way, a compassionate way, a way to a new heaven and a new earth through better living in community and for a common good.

All of these teachings and healings of Jesus continued to shine through on Crucifixion Day. All of Jesus' Living was a background that could not be denied. Even a battle-hardened Roman Centurion finally woke up. We are not told what happened next to the Centurion, just as we are not told what happened after so many people were touched by Jesus. But imagine for a moment that you could be freed from the inertia of just watching Death happen and, again, see Life before Death. Might you join Jesus in Living in solidarity with today's Innocents rather than defensively against them? Imagine!

I can't help but reflect that in June of this year a Wisconsin United Methodist pastor is going to be tried by her church for loving people forbidden by the church to be loved — gays and lesbians. Will that trial rise and fall on the current letter of the law, like Jesus with Pilate, or the gift of new life for people for whom Jesus also lived? If you haven't heard about this coming trial, it would be good to wonder why not.

This very day in the city and county of La Crosse and across the river in La Crescent, there are people being crucified on the basis of being different, and difference happens in so many different ways. But the big crucifiers are, on one side, impotent poverty of one kind or another and, on the other side, privileged entitlement of one justification or another.

If we have seen G*D with us and Jesus' Life as the backdrop behind his Death and heard the Centurion's change of perspective, then we may be able to hear a call from the Cross coming to us again today. It is found in the fourth verse of our next hymn, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

Were the whole realm of nature mine, 
     (which it isn't - false choice)
That were a present far too small; 
     (too small because it isn't yours to give)
Love so amazing, so divine, 
     (Love of G*D, Neighbor, Self, One Another, Enemies)
Demands my soul, my life, my all. 
     (join the Centurion - invest your soul, life, and all)

May this Good Friday 
not find you watching from a distance
not guarding people away from Jesus
not protecting an institution
but reconnected with an Expansive and Expanding Love 
that energizes your soul, your life, your all.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2011/04/john-181-1942.html

 

 

A long, long reading summarized:

Jesus gardened
Judas and soldiers bring broad-band herbicide
I AM me (are YOU you?)

Peter infected by homicide is tone-deaf to Jesus’ teaching
cuts off another’s ear
Again, “get behind me, Tempter”

Jesus bound for trial (jury-rigged)
seen as scapegoat by priests
denied by Peter

Jesus from frying pan to fire
redefines fire
truth beyond fact

Jesus bartered for
Barabbas released
Jesus beaten

a “non-suit” ruling given
but mob politics rules the day
negative campaigning comes to the fore

Jesus handed over to crucifixion
carried his own torture instrument
crucified naked

I AM your son
I AM your mother
enough

meat thermometer read “done”
cooled and put in the freezer
... to be continued

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2012/04/john-181-1942.html

 

 

Prelude to all the crucifixion business is a context often overlooked. “I will continue to reveal the love with which I have been loved is also in others.” (John 17:26)

Without this grounding the beginning and rest of this pericope loses focus. “When Jesus had finished speaking/praying . . . .” (John 18:1)

This pushes us again in a direction against ancient atonement theories. All that follows here is not about some sacrifice to set things right, but a continuing revelation that life is already right if we would attend to its blessing of automatic belovedness. We come pre-blessed.

Look again at the actions:

May we learn to reveal the love with which we have been loved is already present in others. This day reveals prevenient grace, not the cheap grace of my benefiting from the loss of another.

http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2014/04/john-181-1942-friday.html