Holy Friday of Holy Week
The Un-nailing Vespers: Matthew 27:1-38
The Lamentations: Matthew 27:62-66
Oops!
In 1882, the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche wrote, “God is dead.” What Nietzsche meant was that “… the belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable.” Further, he believed that everything propped up by our Christian faith—culture, morality—was about to collapse.
As Christian believers, I think we have to agree with Nietzsche. He’s right, God is dead.
Last night we witnessed Jesus’s arrest, which led to a hasty and, perhaps, illegal trial. This morning, with the help of occupying military forces, our Lord was crucified. After several hours, he cried out, “My God, my God, why did you forsake me?” And, he gave up his spirit. God is dead.
Jesus hanging on the cross—naked, bruised, and ashamed—is the last public image of the one we call the Christ, the Anointed One. Now a convicted felon for crimes against the state, Jesus’s broken, pathetic, and bloody body is all that’s left of the one we trusted as our Savior, the Son of God.
How do we respond? What do we do?
One man, Joseph of Arimathea, leapt into action and asked Pilate, the Roman governor, for Jesus’s body, that he might bury it.
It sounds courageous, but is it?
Ugh!
If we look back, four Sundays ago, we heard Jesus say, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” What a strange saying for a teacher to say to his students. Why would a celebrated rabbi speak of picking up an instrument of death?
Three Sundays ago, Jesus told us, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” Rise again, what is he talking about?
Two Sundays ago, Jesus continued his strange words: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his soul as the price of liberation for many.”
Jesus seems to have been on a mission, one that ends with a clash between himself and the powers of this world. One that also ends, as he told us, with his rising from the dead. Maybe that body hanging on the cross isn’t the last we’ll see of him.
After considering what Jesus taught, it seems strange that Joseph decided to bury Jesus. Did he not believe that Jesus would rise from the dead? Did he not trust his Lord? After all, a man who plans to defeat death in three days doesn’t really need a tomb. Maybe Nietzsche was right: “… belief in the Christian God has become unbelievable” … at least for Jospeh.
Aha!
Nonetheless, despite our disbelief, despite Joseph’s apparent lack of trust, Jesus will rise from the dead.
The irony is that Jesus’s death will defeat Death—it’s death by death. When life—that is, the Son of God—enters into the realm of the dead, he shatters the gates of Hades and abolishes Death. By the lightning flash of Christ’s divinity, Death will be no more.
Today, on Great and Holy Friday, God is dead, but so is Death.
Whee!
What does this mean?
It means, Death is no longer devastating: It’s simply the threshold to life.
Death is no longer a separation: It’s the path that leads to union with God.
Death is no longer an end: It’s the beginning of a new Age.
Death is no longer a tyrant, for it has been defeated.
Everyone, from the first created person to the last person, whoever that will be, will live again.
Today God is dead, but in three days time God will rise in victory, and hope will blossom for all of us.
Yeah!
And, so, with this great victory, we left wondering: What are we to do?
While it may be easy for us to go home, go back to work, to go back to normal, the reality is, the world is now different because God chose to die.
So, what can we do? We can allow this triumph to transform our lives. But, how?
A few Sundays ago, a demon-possessed boy was brought to Jesus. We witnessed the father beg Jesus to help. Looking compassionately at the father, Jesus said to him, “… all things are possible for the one who has faith.”
When the father heard this, his response was, “I have faith; help my faithlessness!” Sometimes, this is our cry as well. But, I think it’s because we misunderstand what faith is.
Usually we think faith means that we know something is true, even if we don’t have all the facts. It usually gets wrapped up in “certainty,” being certain in this or that, which leads to fundamentalism.
However, I think faith means leaving room for uncertainty, embracing mystery, embracing the mystery of God dying on a cross and rising three days later.
Leaving room for uncertainty means there’s space for exploration. There’s room to grow, learn, and be creative.
When you view faith from this angel, it means you have the ability to be open to transformation by the power of Christ’s death and his destruction of Death.
Today, God is dead, so what are we to do? Cling to faith, and step into the mystery, and let it lead us to transformation … let it lead us to life.
Amen.