Aaron Conner
Grace Episcopal Church-Bakersfield, Ca
Good Friday Sermon
March 29, 2013
Readings:
Collect: Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this
your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and
given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Lord, you
are in the midst of us and we are called by your name: Do not forsake us, O
Lord, our God. Amen.
Religion grows and survives primarily
on the commemoration or reinforcement of symbols. The philosopher and historian Eliade writes
that our human experience can be divided into two modes: the Profane, the
physical, mundane, and yet chaotic would in which we live in, and Sacred, the
reality of the Divine, set apart and out there somewhere in the ethereal. The symbols where the Sacred has been manifested
into the physical world for its creation to share and experience are called
“heirophanies”; Jesus is the hierophany of the Christian tradition. The events
in the life of Jesus have become the central points in the history of our faith
as we look to those who have shared in Jesus and how Jesus is continued to be
revealed to us. While Jesus is always made known to us in ways beyond Word and
Sacrament, the Christian calendar commemorates the Incarnation of the Word made
flesh, the Passion and crucifixion, and the Resurrection as the key revealers
of who Jesus is. On Good Friday, the
Church commemorates the Passion of our Lord from his arrest, trial, execution,
and burial.
John writes a Christology which affirms the
sacredness of Jesus’ divinity as the word made flesh, the Lamb of God, and
God’s begotten Son. There is no such thing as a coincidence in John’s narrative
of the Passion; symbols and heirophanies which have played a significant part
in the faith history of our Jewish ancestors are now used to reinforce Christ’s
divinity. The actors who played their
part in Act One have passed on, and now in the second act they have returned to
haunt, seeking to be vindicated by the only one who can provide for them, and
us, escape to the ultimate reality of God’s love.
After the Passover Supper, Jesus and
his disciples retreat one last time across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of
Olives, a place where Jesus frequently retreats for rest and prayer, and where
some of his miracles take place. In contrast to the Upper Room, where the
Passover took place which was purposefully kept secret, Jesus chose the
location of his arrest to be open. Judas, along with a group of priests and
Roman Soldiers, bring torches expecting to look high and low for their
perpetrator. They bring weapons expecting a fight. Yet arrest isn’t even
necessary, and Jesus offers himself to those who seek him. They approach him;
John takes the liberty to reiterate three times that Judas was with them. Jesus asks, “Who are you looking for?” They
reply, “Jesus of Nazareth”. Jesus responds, “I am he”. Now, whether Jesus has
revealed his glory in revealing his identity, or there was some visible sign
associated with that revelation which John fails to mention, or in their souls
the group who was seeking Jesus was actually on his side, they respond to the
revelation of his identity by bowing before him. Jesus asks again, “Who are you looking for?”
They respond, “Jesus of Nazareth”.
There are four chapters missing
between our Gospel reading last night on Maundy-Thursday and tonight. In these
chapters Jesus finishes up the Passover by encouraging his disciples in what is
about to come. These moments being the last final moments to himself, Jesus
makes pilgrimage across the Valley of Kidron to pray and recollect himself for
what is coming, and this is made more apparent in the Synoptic Gospels.
The Valley of Kidron (located between
Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives) has a baggage of symbols attached it, and I
think it’s safe to say the baggage outweighs the symbols from which it
proceeds. The valley itself is not so
much a valley as it is a deep ravine and it is in this “valley” where the filth
of the city has been washed out. Centuries
prior, Prophets called the people to repent of idolatry, and idols had been
smashed to dust and washed out into the ravine. King David, the fulfillment of
Jewish Covenant prior to Jesus, retreated across the Kidron to the Mount of
Olives when his son Absalom was seizing the throne. After King David was
reclaiming the throne, his closest advisor who betrayed him by aiding Absalom
committed suicide, the only other person in the Christian Bible besides Judas
to do so. It is here, where the blood of thousands of lambs which had been
sacrificed earlier that day, and for centuries past, has ended painting the
rocks and dust crimson, providing an eerie scene on the night of a full moon
and a reminder to Jesus of his own sacrifice to come and his own lack of
absolution in his innocence. The “valley
of the shadow of death” of Psalm 23 has competition with Kidron in the battle
of worst profane places. Here in this valley, the sin of the people and
atonement from the slaughter of the lambs are juxtaposed into a dry riverbed. It
is here that David wrote Psalm 3 and 41 in his emotional anguish and it is here
Jesus also perhaps prayed those Psalms written by his ancestor in asking God
for this coming fate to Passover him, just as the firstborns were passed over
on the Eve of the Exodus by the blood of lamb. Among other things, the Kidron was pretty much
the common sewer, the polar opposite of Kosher and profanity at its best. King
David fled across Kidron, fleeing for his life. King Jesus processes across the
Kidron to give his life up. And next to Kidron on the Mount of Olives was a
Garden It was in a Garden where the
human race had its fall, and we’ve been trying to get back to paradise ever
since. In this Garden, Jesus reveals to the soldiers and priests who were
arresting him as the I Am, just as God was revealed to Moses. And it is in this garden that Jesus, the New
Adam, will make the move to bring reconciliation between God and humanity, and
reconciliation to humanity with itself.
The poet might say that history
repeats itself in ways which we don’t intend it to. The Hindu in this situation
might say that Karma keeps us on the wheel of Samsara which turns over and over
and over again until we find our escape from this chaotic would which we have
been born into. What Jesus does is provide that escape for us with his opening
words in tonight’s Passion reading.
“Who are you looking?”
We are truly products of our
environment. We build, smash, and rebuild the idols which have kept us in
contempt with God and our neighbors. We attempt to find atonement in the wrongs
which we have done. We have those moments like David where we are trying to
save our lives, and those moments like Judas when we just feel like giving up, and
Jesus continues to ask, “Who are you looking for?” Other variations in the Gospels include, “Who
do you say I am?” or “What are you looking for?” Regardless of how it is asked,
the answer is the same.
In the messes of our own profaned gardens,
where things have become overgrown by weeds or the soil has lost it fertility,
and death is imminent in the things which we have planted, Jesus offers himself
freely to us, offering the mercy in the amendment of life, and grace in our
lives renewed. The funny thing about the Profane we live in is the fact that
without it we are unable to seek the Sacred revealed to us. We all have reasons
to seek Jesus; in fact, we are all seeking Jesus. Some have had the intentions
like Saints and Prophets before us to seek Jesus for the purification of our
minds and souls and to administer the justice and reconciliation and love of
God due to all people. Others, like those who sought to kill Jesus, have sought
Jesus for their own gain and twisting for the mistreatment of others. In our
moments of confusion, illness, and whatever our lives will throw at us, and in
the moments where we are most seeking God and doing the work God has given us,
in the areas of our lives which we have profaned to the point where they have
become sacred to our identities, Jesus is asking, “Who are you looking for?”
Sometimes the answer might be a reality check on our part, or sometimes is
might be the one word prayer we all need to pray. All we have to do is respond.
Amen.
1 comment:
Thanks for posting.
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