Online Sermons
Good Friday: April 10, Ellen Bruckner
Welcome to our website. You are here: The Word --> Online SermonsIn Christ Jesus, we who were once far away, have been brought near through the blood of Christ. You are in the midst of us, O Lord, and we are called by your name. Amen.
Most of us know the progression of Jesus’ life from his baptism to his death on the cross – or we know what scripture and history tell us. This is a good thing. These stories need to be remembered and passed on. We need to recount the events each year, so that we, as followers of Jesus’ way of life, confirm our identity as Jesus’ disciples.
Every Friday before Easter, we gather to remember the events of that day some 2000 years ago. The Gospel accounts keep us mindful of the step by step drama played out in Jerusalem on this day when the religious leaders could no longer tolerate the questions raised by the young Jewish prophet from Nazareth.
But I think there is more for us than just remembering the events of this day. The passage from Hebrews helps take us deeper into the implications of the events of Good Friday.
The Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah, and others tell us of God’s desire to establish a relationship with all of God’s people. The writer of Hebrews, writing maybe 60 – 95 years following Christ, reminds us of this covenant from God.
Verses 16-18 restate the promise God makes to God’s people.
“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.
He also addsI will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.
Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.”Our relationship with our God is now dependent on our choice to be in that relationship. God offers us this promise, in fact has been offering the promise since way before Jesus’ lifetime; and now God shows us the reality of a life lived in total commitment to this covenant with God, in the events of Good Friday. You know, it’s kind of like when we tell our children not to touch the stove because it is hot – we set some “rules”, but most of the time our children need to experience the “hot” before they really believe the truth. God has been and continues to reach out to us, and through the life of Jesus actually shows us what it means to live in a committed relationship with God.
This is not about offering a sacrifice in order to appease our God. Good Friday shows us that a life lived in covenant with God may not be easy. Jesus, in his human life, chose to live in covenant with God. The Holy Spirit empowered that life – offered words and signs of encouragement and support. Jesus may not have known exactly what this way of life would entail, but he put all this trust and faith in God’s promise to be faithful to him even through death.
Jesus chose how to think, how to feel and how to act every moment of his human existence. He chose to forgive and love his tormentors. He chose to live the forgiveness he’d been shown. By choosing how to live he was never a victim, he was never a passive recipient of the actions of others. He chose to accept God’s promise and that choice gave him a freedom to live without fear no matter what the circumstances. Through the actions of Jesus recounted in the events of Good Friday and in the glorious outcome of Easter we see, experience the reality of a life lived in covenant with God. We now know more clearly what it means to be a disciple.
Hebrews goes on to give us the implications of living in the new covenant with God. We now have confidence to approach God. Jesus’ act of self-giving shows us a way of life that is available to all of us. We don’t have to be afraid of choosing this same path Jesus chose. We know the whole story, we know the outcome of this Good Friday experience, we know that no matter the pain we endure God does not forsake us. Just as Jesus, as human, made the choice to live his life following God’s will, we too, as humans, have that choice.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer understood this new way of life for God’s people and wrote in “The Cost of Discipleship”, “It is only because he (Jesus) became like us that we can become like him.” “It is only because we are identified with him – that we can become like him.”
With this confidence and desire to approach God and live in relationship with God, Hebrews gives us three qualities to use as guidelines as we seek to deepen our relationship. We are to approach God with a true heart. We are to enter this relationship with sincerity and integrity and also full of faith. We know that God will never leave us alone, and it is our desire to continually live as God asks us to live.
Second, we are to hold fast to the confession of our hope. Hope is the anchor of the soul. We recognize we may not know exactly where we are going and we know we may meet enemies along the way, but our confidence in God’s faithfulness gives us our hope and we are to hang on to that hope.
Thirdly, we must “consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds.” I know I have the provocation part down pat, however, I’m sure I’m not provoking others to any loving thoughts or deeds – quite the contrary on most occasions.
Obviously, “provoke” can have negative connotations – but it can also have positive uses. By including the phrase, “to love and good deeds”, provoke can mean to disturb the apathetic or the fearful person to activity. We are to produce love and good deeds and by insisting on this we often provide direction for a community or an individual who may be drifting, or inattentive to the surrounding world.
The cruel and torturous acts relived on Good Friday take us on a journey of reflection on our lives. This reflection, this remembering takes us the next step on our path of discipleship. We gladly seek to go where God leads us, confident in God’s faithfulness, forgiveness and promise to us.
We gladly seek to go where God leads because the fullness of a life lived in God is so much more complete – full of joy and peace – than we can imagine. Our assurance comes from our belief, as Christians, that Jesus’ life showed us the way.
On this Good Friday let us remember that this journey of life in this world continually offers us choices and we need never be afraid to go where God leads – Jesus opened that path for us and we now have the confidence to follow.
Let us pray:
Almighty and everlasting God, by your Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified; hear the prayers we offer for all your faithful people, that in the particular ministry to which you have called us, we may serve you in holiness and truth; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen