(Return to Directory)

April 10, 2009, Good Friday, All Souls' Episcopal Church

If he wasn’t a malefactor, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.”

      On Good Friday, when the Governor asked the religious officials what crime this man, this common laborer from the Northern Province of Galilee had committed, they replied, “If he wasn’t a malefactor, we wouldn’t have brought him to you.” The word malefactor literally means “evil doer.” They did not have sufficient evidence that he did anything that was evil, or committed any crime, but they claimed he was a dangerous threat, and since security comes first, he had to be detained and dealt with severely. The Governor, fearing that his political career was at stake, reluctantly consented to their demands. And so, our Lord Jesus Christ became a victim of torture. 

      The Polish Nobel Laureate in literature, Wislawa Szymborska, begins her poem entitled, Tortures, with these words:

      Nothing has changed.
     The body is susceptible to pain,
      It must eat and breathe air and sleep,
      It has thin skin and blood right underneath,
      An adequate stock of teeth and nails,
      Its bones are breakable; its joints are stretchable.
      In tortures, all this is taken into account.

       After our Lord was tortured, he was further mocked and ridiculed. The fact that these actions were commanded by authority figures, plus the right amount of peer encouragement, helped provide the Roman soldiers the requisite disinhibition required to further dehumanize Jesus. At least, that’s how it usually works in civilized societies. By the time he was tied to the heavy wooden cross, he was already exhausted. Even so, when the spikes were hammered through his flesh, his median nerve would have introduced him to a searing level of pain greater than what he had already suffered that day. Under these conditions, even a man as young as he was, and in peak physical condition, couldn’t last long before a combination of shock and asphyxiation killed him. But he was strong, and it took him a while to die. He had a strong heart. He had a good heart.

       When our Lord Jesus began his earthly ministry just three years earlier, he journeyed to the desert where he fasted and prayed forty days and nights, and where he was tempted by the devil. The first temptation was a simple one. “If you are the son of God, then turn these stones into bread and feed yourself.” When the American psychologist, Abraham Maslow, conceptualized the “hierarchy of needs,” he began with those basic physiological requirements necessary for human survival, food, water, and breathing being chief among them. Our Lord Jesus was being tested on this most basic of human levels. We are not told what else the devil said to Jesus in the desert. Perhaps he told him, “You know, if you don’t have your health, you don’t have anything.” “Would God have given you this power if he didn’t mean for you to use it?” And yet, Jesus did not give in to this most basic temptation. He would not put anything first before the need for God, and he knew that even the most basic needs we have are to be ordered and aligned by the word of God. Three years later outside the city wall of Jerusalem, our crucified savior’s body craves the most basic survival needs as this exhausted, dehydrated, man painfully struggles for every breath he takes. “I thirst,” he says. He thirsts with every fiber of his being, and he thirsts as well for our salvation. He thirsts to obey the will of God. He remains steadfast. He remains faithful. And so we are saved.

       As well as the most basic physical requirements, we human beings also have the need for safety and security. The second temptation in the wilderness three years before Good Friday involved testing God. The devil said, “God has promised to protect you. So, let’s put that to the test. Let’s do this. Let’s go to the pinnacle of the temple and prove this once and for all. What if your heavenly father turns out to be untrustworthy, or worse still, malicious? Wouldn’t it be better to find out now? What is the point of all this obedience if it doesn’t actually help you improve your life? If your heavenly father is all you say he is, then let’s have him show his hand and find out now. After all, it’s better to be safe than sorry.” And yet, is that the way we treat those we love and respect? Do we try and make them submit to our little tests? Do we make them subject to our approval in this way? It certainly is no way to treat God.

       As Jesus agonized upon the cross, he heard the voices of those who mocked him still. They made sure he heard them. Their hateful words were spoken so he could hear. “Let’s see whether God will save him now, if he will have him. He saved others? He can’t even save himself.” And yet, he remains steadfast. He remains faithful. And so we are saved.

       The third temptation in the wilderness three years earlier turned out to be the naked expression of what the other two temptations really amounted to in principle. The devil says, “I’ll give you the whole world if you will worship me.” Each temptation amounted to this – worshipping the creation over the creator. Just think about this. You give a precious gift to someone you love, and they respond by loving the gift more than they love you who gave it. This is what our idolatry amounts to. To give in to this temptation, and worship the creature before the creator, is idolatry. It means you assign to the created world only the value you place upon it. In the end, it means you worship yourself. The three temptations in the wilderness began with the most basic and immediate of human needs and concluded with an ultimate appeal to the ego. And yet, Jesus did not give in to this temptation. He told the devil that we are to worship God and God alone.

       On the cross, shortly before he died, our Lord Jesus prayed: “Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.” The whole of his human life had been a perfect and complete offering to his Heaven Father. As he was in life, so he was in his sacrificial death. “Father, into thy hands, I commend my spirit.” He remains steadfast. He remains faithful. And so we are saved.

(Return to Directory)