(Preached on Good Friday, April 02, 2010, at Ecumenical Good Friday Worship held at Cutler Ridge United Methodist Church.)
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Having said this, he breathed his last.
After all this, what more is there to say?
After all the protestations of love and devotion, only to be betrayed, deserted, and denied; after all the false accusations, the false testimony, and the false show of justice; after all the torture – the beatings, the whippings, the mockery, the crown of thorns, the public stripping to exhibit his nakedness, the long forced march carrying the heavy crossbeam, the nails piercing his flesh (it appears the only thing they didn’t do was waterboard him); after the hours of excruciating agony and pain hanging on that cross, hours of public derision, ridicule and scorn; after words of forgiveness, pardon, love, loneliness, human need and victory; after all this, what more is there to say?
Only this, it all comes down to this: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Amazing, isn’t it? After all Jesus endured, his final word is a word of trust. That is the way he lived his life. In the face of everything, Jesus went on loving and trusting and surrendering, more and more deeply, with more and more abandon. Even as the storms of suffering that buffeted him became more and more atrocious.
The spectators at Jesus’ execution taunted him, saying, “He trusts in God; let God deliver him …” While Jesus profoundly believed in Isaiah’s words, “the Lord God helps me,” at the most painful hour of his life, it seemed that the God he trusted so completely and intimately that he dared to call him “Father” had completely abandoned him. So in the end it came down to a final choice for Jesus: in the face of all that he had believed and taught being contradicted so violently and completely, what would he do? Would he turn to despair? Or would he continue to trust?
But friends, this day (God’s Friday) is not, finally, about Jesus. Jesus made his choice and lived it to the end and beyond. We already know that and know what he chose: complete and utter trust. Even though the world and all his experience at the moment tried to tell him his hope was false and he was a fool, he held onto that hope. He finally, ultimately, chose to trust the promise that, whatever happens, God will stay with us at all times, in all places. God is the God of life. And on Sunday three days from now Jesus’ trust will be vindicated!
But ultimately, this day is about us. This day is about our choice. This day is about remembering what we promised to do when we were baptized, or confirmed our baptismal vows, or joined the church. Let me put it simply: are we going to take everything we promised about living as people of truth, nail it to a cross, and leave it to die so that we can continue to live by illusions, worshiping idols? Or are we going to nail our illusions to the cross, so that we can walk forward into the bright light of God’s reign of shalom? Which will it be?
There is no way to sugarcoat the choice. There is no way to pretend that maybe we can compromise: hate some people, but not others; be generous with 1 percent of the wealth in our hands, but hoard the other 99 percent; not oppress our friends, but oppress people in some other part of the world; let most people live, while killing the few people who frighten us; eat organic food, but dump toxic waste in the backyards of people who have no political clout.
After all, if we are going to trust God with our lives, that means trusting God with all of our lives. Not just our Sunday life. Not just our life on Good Friday and Easter and Christmas. Not just our life when the going gets rough and we need God. Not just our foxhole life. Not just our final-days-before-we-die-get-right-with-God life. No, if we are going to follow Jesus, who trusted his entire life to God, all the way to the cross and through it to the final moment of death, then that is going to affect how we live each day, each hour, each moment of our lives.
This is not easy. I will not stand here and tell you that every choice in the world is a clear-cut option between good and evil. I will not even stand here and tell you that there is only one correct choice in any given situation. But I will tell you that when we commit to discipleship, to following Jesus, we commit to sacrifice. We commit to sacrificing mindlessness to wrestling with hard, awkward, demanding choices. We commit to sacrificing ease of living for faithfulness of living. We come to sacrificing self-righteousness for justice. We commit to sacrificing the security of the world – money, insurance, guns & armies, conformity, popularity, friends & family – good as these things may be, for the security of a God, who does not promise things will always be easy but who does promise to always be with us and who is everlasting love.
Today is not about the sacrifice Jesus made, but about the one we vow to make. It isn’t about remembering that he was faithful and trusting, but about whether we will be. Today is not about 2000 years ago; it is about now, this very second, and the second after this, and tomorrow and the day after. It is about being alive to the pain of the nails and alive to the joy of love. And it is about never letting the nails be the last word so that we give in to despair. Rather it is about living today and all our days as God desires for us, as Jesus did, in complete and utter trust, continuously saying with Jesus: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”