​
























​Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Col. iii. 2)
 
         
Our journey through the Lenten Season to Good Friday will have been of no use if it has not been characterized by affection. Set your affections on things above, proclaims St. Paul this morning, and not on things of the earth, and if we have been conscientious, this is exactly what we have been doing. Affectionis passion, desire, yearning, and loving. And throughout the Holy Season of Lent, we have prayed that the Holy Spirit might purify the thoughts of our heartsso that we can follow Jesus up to Jerusalem and beyond. Our affections have been set…on the things above [and] not things of the earth, things which have come down to us in the passionate heart of Jesus Christ to lift us up higher. Out of the unquenchable ardor and fervor of His heart, Christ has desired that our affectionsmight meet His in the dialogue of pure death that generates new life. Easter is all about the pure affection of God in Jesus Christ for the transformation of the cosmos and the transfiguration of all men.  
         
In the course of our journey to Easter, we have learned that setting [our] affectionson things that are above and not on the things of the earth is no easy business. And yet the distraction or diversion comes not from God but from us. God’s affectionand desire for us has never ceased. From the Divine Depths, translated into the incessant, caring passion of Jesus, the uninterrupted longing of God for our salvation has persisted. The Word has gone out. God’s desire and affection have never dithered, demurred, nor departed from His Great Unseen Eternal Design. The Word of God came down from heaven to live in man’s heart. His Good Friday is but one moment in the unfolding drama of our redemption.

The common lot of men would have none of it. Their affections and desires were otherwise dominated. The mighty engine of Caesar’s Rome could not accommodate the strange passion of a loving God whose affection is set high above man’s speculative imagination. Even God’s chosen people, the Jews, could not imagine how such love and affection would relate to their Law and its rituals. The fear and the cowardice of those with the best of intentions were rendered equally powerless in the presence of God’s desire. Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. (St. Luke xxi. 26) Human affectionfor God is fickle, unreliable, inconstant, and finally treacherous. Man’s fallenness cannot bear the Divine irruption. 

And yet, God persists in the heart of Jesus with a greater love that seeks to draw the hearts of all, even His worst enemies. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. (St. Luke xxiii. 34) In this, Christ says, Come follow me. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. (St. Luke xxiii. 43) Again he is saying, Come follow me. Woman behold thy son…behold thy mother. (St. John xix. 26, 27) Come follow me. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. (St. Matthew xxvii. 46) Come follow me.I thirst. (St. John xix. 28) It is finished. (St. John xix. 30) Father into thy hands, I commend my spirit. (St. Luke xxviii. 46) Christ invites us to follow Him into His death. We begin to see His death as what alone can make us new. Our love grows and expands as sin is swallowed up into a death that is strangely alive. Christ dies, and Man dies. Christ is coming alive, and so is Man. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. xv. 22)  
        
In pure affection, God made all things, and in pure affection, God promises to remake all things. Christ brings primal Man into death. In the pure affectionof self-willed exile, man had desired God’s death. God had given man his desire. As you wish, or As you like it. And so God in Christ endures and suffers this choice. God is dead. Christ is interred in the sepulcher, and with Him, it would seem, man’s affection for the things that are above is buried. The affectionsthat moved the human imagination to believe that Christ might be Messiah after all seem to have been put down. 
         
Holy Saturday must seem to be an end for those whose hearts fail, for those whose affectionand desire for God seem to have died in the Crucified One. There is darkness. There is the death of a love that the world had never known. The affection for things above and beyond which He was, is gone. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. (Genesis i. 2) Darkness and death seem to have swallowed up the Love and extinguished theLight. Death holds hope hostage in the cruel constrictor-knot of confusion and fear. 

But as we move from the seventh to the first day, something strange begins to happen. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. (Genesis i. 3,4) In the beginning, God lovingly made the lightto inform, define, and enliven all of creation. In the same lightnow, incandescent beams of love will open the eyes of believers’ hearts to a new creation being illuminated by that true Light that lighteth every man that cometh into world. (St. John i. 9) Darkness flees, sin flees, death flees, and ignorance flees as the loving Light emerges from the Resurrected One. The pure affection and eternal desire of the Father of lightshave transformed the Son as flesh from death into new life. The old Man is dead and the new Man has come alive. 

At first only angels and nature sense the truth of the Light.The elements stir, the air is parted, the fire blazes, the earth shakes and removes all barriers to the rising Light that follows the passion and affection of its mover. The Father’s immortal, immutable, and immovable course of affection for man’s redemption are on course and thus willingly embraced in the heart of Jesus. Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. (Romans vi. 9, 10) The question and answer of the prophet Ezekiel are fulfilled. 

Son of man, can these bones live? …And there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, Son of Man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them…(Ezekiel xxxvii. 1-10)
 
Christ is the fulfillment of Ezekiel’s prophesy. Yes, these bones can and will live.  In Him the Light of God blends with rising lovein the transfigured flesh of Man. The pure affectionof Man for God brings light out of darkness and life out of death. God’s Word rises up, informing still, the now transfigured flesh of Jesus. Christ’s uninterrupted affection for God and Man is one Light whose love makes death into new life. Christ is Risen from the dead…Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us…as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Cor. xv. 20, 22; 1 Cor. v. 7) 
         
But there is more. And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me. (St. John xii. 32) At first, the affectionof both the Apostles and the women seems dead. But then something of the old passion begins to stir within them. On this first day of the week, Mary Magdalene is moved out of the tomb of her soul to the place of Jesus’ burial. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live. (Ezekiel. xxxvii. 12-14) She is moved by what is still alive of her affection and love for Jesus. She finds the stone rolled away. Her affection and passion for the Lighthasten towards what is yet an unknown hope. They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him. (St. John xx. 2) In the darkness she thinks that Christ’s enemies have stolen the body. John and Peter affectionately and passionately run after this new truth. As Eriugena says, John outruns Peter because contemplation completely cleansed penetrates the inner secrets of the divine workings more rapidly than action still to be purified. John represents contemplation and hope. Peter represents action and faith. But faith must enter the tomb of darkness first, and understandingfollows and comes after. (Hom. Gospel of St. John, 283, 285)         

God’s uninterrupted affection and desirefor all men’s salvation is at work in time and space. Stirring within the hearts of Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John are the faithand understandingin the Light that said, I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. (St. John xiv. 18, 19)Christ is risen. Soon the Apostles will see Him and begin to live in Him. Christ is risen. In the Resurrected Light that shines through His transfigured flesh, we must remember thatwe are dead and our life is hid with God in Christ. (Colossians iii. 2,3)In the Resurrected Light, let us reckon [ourselves] to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans vi. 11) In the Resurrected Light let us match Christ’s affectionwith our own –that affection and desire for becoming very members incorporate in His Risen spiritual and mystical Body, transparent, obedient to His Holy Spirit…apt and natural instruments of His will and way, (The Meaning of Man, Mouroux, p.89)reflecting His Lightand Love into the hearts of all others. And with the poet let us rejoice and sing:

Then comes He!
Whose mighty Light
Made His clothes be
Like Heav’n, all bright;
         The Fuller, whose pure blood did flow
         To make stained man more white than snow.
 
He alone
And none else can
Bring bone to bone,
And rebuild man,
         And by His all subduing might
         Make clay ascend more quick than light.
                           (Ascension Hymn: H. Vaughn)
 
  
 
 





 
 
 
 

​






Dr. Jake Haulk

 I thirst.Words spoken by Jesus as recorded in the gospel according to of St. John, chapter 19 verse 28.

The full 28thverse says, After this Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled saith, “I thirst.”  The reference to the fulfilled scripture is Psalms 69, verse 21, “and in my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.This is the shortest of the seven last words, being only two words, and in the Greek only one word. Nonetheless its significance is of no less importance than the other “last” words. 

For one thing, the reference to fulfilling the scripture reminds us that Jesus throughout his ministry and in his conversations with his disciples frequently alludes to, or cites directly Old Testament scripture. Thus, it is no surprise, indeed, we would have expected that on the cross we would hear Him repeating or adhering to those scriptures.

St. John in his gospel and in his first epistle goes to great lengths to refute the Gnostics and their doctrine of Docetism. In that doctrine Jesus was not flesh and blood but rather only a semblance of being truly human, that he only appeared to be flesh and blood but was actually a phantom.  Sadly, there were many who accepted this abominable doctrine. Fortunately, John wrote his gospel much later than the other gospels and had witnessed the rise of this terrible perversion and took it head on by stressing the humanity of Christ including the cry of I thirst.  Remember too, that John was the only disciple at the crucifixion and his memory of that event would have been seared forever in his brain.

As we think of Jesus at this awful horrifying moment he had been hanging on the cross for at least six hours according to St. Mark’s telling of the events, that is, from the third to the ninth hour. Presumably Mark was referring to Roman time which means the third hour was about 9:00 AM as we measure. And according to Mark and Matthew, there was darkness over the land from noon until mid -afternoon.

The point is that after six hours of suffering the unimaginable pain of being nailed to the cross, the stretching of muscles and having had nothing to drink all day, Christ’s body would have been aching for water. 

By this time on that Friday, Jesus had probably had no sleep since Wednesday night considering the events following the Last Supper on Thursday.  He had undergone such a great agony in the garden at Gethsemane that St. Luke writes, and being in agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was it as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
Obviously, something in Jesus was exceedingly agitated and in dread of what was coming. We can surely understand how the man Jesus would fear the pain and death that was coming and would rather not endure it. But as we learn from many great scholars and doctors of the church, that asking if  this cup could be passed from him was not just about fear of being scourged and mocked and even death. It was the Jesus who knew what would be asked of Him on Calvary’s cross before he died.  

As Pope Benedict so eloquently  says, Because he is the Son, he sees with total clarity the whole foul flood of evil, all the power of lies and pride, all the wiles of the cruelty of the evil that masks itself as life yet constantly, serves to destroy, debase, and crush life. Because he is the Son, he experiences deeply all the horror, filth and baseness he must drink from the ‘chalice’ prepared for him. All this he must take into himself so that it can be disarmed and defeated in him.

But knowing of the unfathomable burden and price that paying for the world’s evil would mean, Jesus knowing why He had come as the Word made flesh, overcame the natural desire to avoid the path ahead. And out of his immeasurable love for his Father and mankind, he accepted the horror of the Cross and in that acceptance becomes the glorification of God’s name. In this way God is manifested as he really is who in the depth of his self-giving love sets the power of good against all the powers of evil.

After the overwhelming agony of Gethsemane Jesus is betrayed and taken prisoner. From there He is taken to the Jewish high priest, to the Sanhedrin, Herod, and to Pilate who allows himself to be coerced and condemns Jesus and has Him scourged.   

Scourging was an extraordinarily brutal punishment typically given to prisoners of the Empire who were to be crucified.  Tied to a two foot high post and given as many as 40 lashes with a horribile flagellum,a Roman whip with knots that could break bones if used forcibly and would flay skin off even if used moderately. We cannot imagine the brain searing pain of being subjected to this pre- crucifixion punishment. 

After the previous 15 hours of agony, torture, humiliation, imprisonment, harsh treatment, deprivation and abandonment by his disciples, can there be any doubt that Jesus’s body would have been wracked with thirst?  The loss of blood, the reaction of the body to severe pain causing Him to sweat profusely and the fact that no liquid had been swallowed for many hours would have produced an overwhelming thirst.

So, a cry ofI thirstfrom a person in unbearable pain and a body screaming for water is not surprising. Indeed, this points to and reminds of the humanity of Jesus. He was flesh and blood and subject to all the suffering and temptations that befall all other humans. And yet He bore our sins in His body and took them to death with Him on the cross.

All Christ’s bodily sufferings may be said to be summed up in this one word, the only one in which they found utterance. The same lips that said, If any man thirst let him come unto Me, and drink, said this. Infinitely pathetic in itself, His cry becomes almost awful in its appeal to us when we remember who uttered it, and why He bore these pangs. The very Fountain of living waterknew the pang of thirst that every one that thirsteth might come to the waters, and might drink, not water only, but ‘wine and milk, without money or price.

Christ’s thirst for our love and our redemption calls us to offer Him our love in return and not the vinegarof refusing to accept him as our redeemer or failing to live faithfully according to His commandments and His example.   

We His unworthy servants are ever thirsty for His living waters and redeeming love. 
Thanks be to God.
 
 

​


​Dr. Jake Haulk

The Fourth of the Last Seven Words

From Mark 15:34, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. And from Matthew 27:46, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani.In both translations this cry from the Cross means My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? This verse has been one of the most difficult to explain. Why? In part, because it is the only time Jesus addresses the Almighty as God. In all other instances of Jesus praying or addressing God He says Father. There is one other instance in the Gospels wherein Jesus uses the words my Godand it is not in prayer. In John 20:11, He tells Mary Magdalene,go to my brethren and say unto them, I ascend to my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God.

Naturally, over the centuries theologians, the early Church Fathers, the great Christian thinkers have pondered this verse. 

For instance, St. Ambrose  writing in the fourth century says, The man cried out when about to expire by being severed from the Godhead; for since the Godhead is immune from death, assuredly death could not be there, except life departed, for the Godhead is life.And so according to Ambrose it seems that when Christ died, the Godhead was separated from His flesh. Further quoting Ambrose, It was in human voice that he cried: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" As human, therefore, he speaks on the cross, bearing with him our terrors. For amid dangers it is a very human response to think ourself abandoned.

In the view of many who hold to the penal substitution theory of atonement, Christ was made sin as a substitute for our sins and God would not look upon sin and turned away from His Son, evoking the forlorn cry. 
Others have pointed out that the cry My God, My God why hast thou forsaken meis the first line of the 22ndPsalm and would have been well known to Jews in the crowd. Jews would have realized that what they were witnessing was the fulfillment of many prophetic passages in the Psalms. Along with Isaiah 53, Psalm 22 is one the most powerfully prophetic chapters regarding the Messiah in the Old Testament.  St. John Chrysostom says, Why does he speak this way, crying out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabach-thani?" That they might see that to his last breath he honors God as his Father and is no adversary of God. He spoke with the voice of Scripture, uttering a cry from the psalm. Thus even to his last hour he is found bearing witness to the sacred text. 

By crying out the opening sentence of this Psalm, Christ would have forced the Jews, both those for and against Him, to remember the prophetic words David wrote a thousand years before. For example All they that see me laugh me to scorn, they shoot out the lip saying, He trusted on the Lord that He would deliver him, let Him deliver him, seeing that he delightest in him.The very words were being spat at Jesus by the mockers. And then, They part my garments among them, and acts lots upon my vesture.And this perhaps most telling, the wicked have inclosed me; they have pierced my hands and my feet.

Surely, one cannot help but believe that Jesus would choose this verse to make plain that his loving and his suffering had been foretold by King David.  
While this explanation has much to recommend it, it still seems incomplete. The difficulty in understanding this verse arises because of our problems in understanding how Jesus could be both fully man and fully God. The Church has accepted this to be the correct understanding since the Council of Chalcedon in the mid5thcentury. The Council decided once and for all to ratify and adopt the arguments of a letter from the Archbishop of Rome (now called Pope Leo I) that forcefully denounced the heresy that Jesus had only a Divine will and that human will was extinguished. 

Leo was undoubtedly drawing heavily on Holy Scripture from Paul and John. 
Paul in Philipians2:6-7 says, Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal to God: but made himself of no reputation and took him the form of a servant and was made man. And John’s gospel he opens chapter one with In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and in verse 14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and behold we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.

What is needed for salvation is the re-creation of human nature, and this re-creation can only occur if the Word dies in the flesh. All must indeed die—such is the divinely ordained curse of mortality.  Athanasius writes, And thus it happened, that both things occurred together in a paradoxical manner: the death of all was completed in the lordly body, and also death and corruption were destroyed by the Word in it. For there was need of death, and death on behalf of all had to take place, so that what was required by all might occur. Therefore, the Word, since he was not able to die—for he was immortal—took to himself a body able to die, that he might offer it as his own on behalf of all and as himself suffering for all, through coming into it ‘he might destroy him who has the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage.

We believers in the Lord Jesus Christ seem to prefer to think of Him during His ministry as primarily performing miracles, healing the sick and infirm, changing water into wine, walking on water, raising the dead or delivering wonderful discourses and parables. But the Gospels also contain many examples that point to his humanity. He fasted and was hungry. He grew tired and He slept. He was flogged and he bled. With the mourners at Lazarus’s tomb, He wept. He wearied. And in the Garden of Gethsemane, he is reported to have sweated drops as of  blood as He came face to face with the hours of horrible suffering and the terrible soul wrenching burden of taking on himself the sins of the world in his death. And yet He remained without sin even knowing what lay in store. He remained committed to the task He was destined by God to fulfill, even taking on the sins of the world. 

Thus, while Christ as the eternally begotten Son could not suffer physical pain or die, He would have been sensitive to the pain and suffering of His human flesh and soul. He was one Person with two natures. By the miracle of resurrection Christ was reunited with His old body that had been transformed into a new incorruptible body. A body that we as believers are promised on the day of judgment if we have believed on Him and kept His teachings and commandments.  

The great minds of the Church have struggled with what this cry of Jesus means and what caused Him to cry out.  It is possible a complete understanding must wait until we like Paul are face to face with our Maker and no longer see through a glass darkly. But we can know that when Jesus cried out to God in despondency He used the words of a psalm that opens in despair but moves in a few verses to these stirring words. Be not far from me for trouble is near for there is none to help. And thenO Lord, O my strength, haste thee to help me.

In quoting this psalm in His horrendous torment, Jesus proved that He was fully human but knew at the same time that God would see Him through whatever he must endure.  
Thanks be to God.
 

​
​ Dr. Jake Haulk

Woman behold thy son


John 19:25-27
Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wifeof Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.

In thinking about these words Jesus spoke to his mother and to John it is important to bear in mind that John was the only disciple to witness the crucifixion. Thus, his account has the additional weight of having seen and heard by his own ears what transpired.  It is also important to remember that John would have read the other gospels long before, knew them well, and would not have felt it necessary to repeat the last words written in Mark, Matthew (which are virtually identical) and the three in Luke. John also includes the powerful account of the soldier who pierced the side of Jesus after he died and came forth and issue of blood and water. Nor were Jesus’s legs broken to hasten his death since he had died already. But John remarks on these events saying these things were done that scripture might be fulfilled. There can be little doubt of John’s report of blood and water pouring out of Christ was a vivid, if painful reminder of Jesus’s blood being shed for our sins and the water clearly is reference to the living waters that flow from Christ to those who believe in and love him.  

Further, John refers to himself in writing and he that saw it bare record and his record is true: and he knoweth thathe saith is true, that ye might believe. 

Many writers of commentary on this passage believe the sister of Jesus’s mother who was standing near the cross was Salome, John’s mother. In that case John would be nephew of Mary, Jesus’s mother.  

MacLaren in his commentary writes, If so, entrusting Mary to John’s care would be the more natural. Tender care, joined with consciousness that henceforth the relation of son and mother was to be supplanted, not merely by Death’s separating fingers, but by faith’s uniting bond, breathed through the word, so loving yet so removing, ‘Woman, behold thy son!’ Dying trust in the humble friend, which would go far to make the friend worthy of it, breathed in the charge, to which no form of address corresponding to ‘Woman’ is prefixed. Jesus had nothing else to give as a parting gift, but He gave these two to each other, and enriched both. He showed His own loving heart, and implied His faithful discharge of all filial duties hitherto. 

St. Augustine writes, This was without doubt the hour of which Jesus, was about to turn water into wine at Cana said to his mother, “Woman, what have I to do with you? Mine hour is not yet come.”  This hour of his death on the cross He had foretold and when at the point of death would acknowledge her with reference to being born as a mortal man. In Cana when about to engage in divine acts, He did not acknowledge her as mother of His divinity but of His human infirmity; but now, when in the midst of human sufferings, He commended with human affection the mother by whom He had become man. 

This is therefore a passage of a moral character. Jesus as the supreme teacher in this verse reminds us of what we must do.  And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home. Undoubtedly, John knowing how much Jesus loved him, risked being present at the cross. As William Barclay explains it was very dangerous to be an associate of a man the Roman governors believed was so dangerous that he deserved the cross and the attendant scourging. In being there John showed tremendous courage, far more than the other disciples.

Thus it was, and perhaps even ordained, that John and Mary would be at the cross and Jesus would bring them together as mother and son to care for one another, to share their grief and learn from each other, to strengthen John’s resolve and understanding of what Jesus came to do. And in the end greatly enrich believers’ grasp of God as a loving God through John’s portrayal of Christ in his gospel.  

In much the same vein, Augustine commenting on this joining together of mother and son by Jesus says, I believe in this way Christ commends even more highly the divine excellence of this very gospel, which was thereafter to be preached through his instrumentality. John received her, therefore, not unto his own lands, for he had none of his own; but to his own dutiful services, which, by a special dispensation, was entrusted to him.

As we so often see in these gospel accounts there are deeper, richer and inspiring meanings that can be revealed through careful study of the text as learned Christian commentators have done with this verse. 

Thanks be to God 

​






​
Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.

O dearest Lord, thy sacred brow,
With thorns was pierced for me:
O pour thy blessing on my head,
That I may think for thee.
O dearest Lord, thy sacred hands,
With nails were pierced for me:
O send thy blessing on my hands,
That they may work for thee.
O dearest Lord thy sacred feet
With nails were pierced for me:
O send thy blessing on my feet,
That they may follow thee.
O dearest Lord, thy sacred heart,
With spear was pierced for me:
O shed thy blessing on my heart,
That I may live for thee.
         
These words are taken from Father Andrew, a good and holy priest of the Church of England, who spent his life in East London, with the poorest of the poor, living out the reality of our final words for today. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. (St. Luke xxiii. 36) Father Andrew was fashioned from that old Anglo-Catholic model that for many years brought Jesus Christ’s sacrificial presence to so many people in need. The old Anglo-Catholics were working priests. They labored and toiled for the poor, the mentally ill, society’s aliens and outcasts. They were priests of the Crucified Oneand so were consumed with the more visible and tangible forms of human suffering. They saw clearly that life in this world is more often than not an ongoing battle between suffering and resurrection, death and new life. They were honest priests who gave themselves back to God for other men and so had a real sense of the words Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. 
         
If we are true to God and ourselves, life is an ongoing struggle and battle to place our spirits into the hands of the living God. The struggle, suffering, spiritual death, and attempts at new life are woven together into the fabric of human existence.  That Christ suffered and died once for the sins of the whole world, does not mean that suffering and death cease to define human life. Suffering and death will be with us always. What Christ does, if indeed we are faithful to our Baptismal vows and take the reception of His Body and Blood seriously, is to change the nature of suffering and death so that they become for us necessary moments of sanctification and redemption. On a very level, if we suffer physically, we should offer it up to God in thanksgiving and gratitude and not hoard it selfishly with resentment and bitterness. If we have been another Cross to bear, we should likewise praise God for being members of Christ’s Body in which all forms of suffering and death lead to transformation and new life. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. 

So we do well to remind ourselves that this is Good Friday. The Crucifixion of the Son of God is indeed, we must insist, beautiful. Why? Because suffering has been taken on by Love, taken into Love, and will be transformed and redeemed by Love, if only we begin to let it all happen within us. Father into thy hands I commend my spirit. Nothing need escape the Love of God. The love of God has been revealed to man as the forgiveness of sins in the Person of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. We are invited into the uninterrupted expression of this forgiveness. The love of God has been revealed to man as the Word’s victory over sin, death, and Satan. We are invited into its permanent rule and governance in our lives. Apart from the Cross, the love of God can never be experienced truly. If we would become the sons of God, we must go to the Cross of Christ to suffer and to die. To love is to suffer, old Bishop Morse used to say. And what he meant was that to love one must enter the Crucifixion. The Crucifixion of Christ is our crucifixion.

Jesus remains pinned to the cross, but our souls have been awakened to new life. We know what we have done. We know that we have crucified Him over and over again in a vain attempt to protect and defend our own poor and impotent imitations of His love. But He loves us still. To embrace His love, we must welcome Him into our hearts. Once He enters, shall we allow Him to die in us? Shall we let him say, within us, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit –no longer an external cry made in past history, but an inward desire made in the present from the ground of our hearts? I shall live in you and you shall live in my, but not before I die in you as you die me. His death in us will become our death to sin, death, Satan, and ourselves. His new life in us cannot be formed and created until we allow His death to be present, active, and effectual. Only then, through Him, can we die not into death, but die into life, dying into the hands of our Father. (Lord I Believe, Cowley, p.60.) 

On this Good Friday, let us close with some words from Cardinal Von Balthasar that nicely illustrate, Father into thy hands I commend my spirit.

At the very periphery of this thanksgiving to God, it is legitimate to ask that, if God permits it, we may help the Lord to bear a tiny particle of the suffering of the Cross, of his inner anxiety and darkness, if it will contribute to reconciling the world with God. Jesus himself says that it is possible to help him bear it when he challenges us to take up our cross daily. Paul says the same in affirming that he suffers that portion of the Cross that Christ has reserved for him and for other Christians. When life is hard and apparently hopeless, we can be confident that this darkness of ours can be taken up into the great darkness of redemption through which the light of Easter dawns. And when what is required of us seems too burdensome, when the pains become unbearable and the fate we are asked to accept seems simply meaningless—then we have come very close to the man nailed on the Cross at the Place of the Skull, for he has already undergone this on our behalf and, moreover, in unimaginable intensity. When surrounded by apparent meaninglessness, therefore, we cannot ask to be given a calming sense of meaning; all we can do is wait and endure, quite still, like the Crucified, not seeing anything, facing the dark abyss of death. Beyond this abyss there waits for us something that, at present, we cannot see (nor can we even manage to regard it as true), namely, a further abyss of light in which all the world’s pain is treasured and cherished in the ever-open heart of God. Then we shall be allowed, like the Apostle Thomas, to put our hand into this gaping wound; feeling it, we shall realize in a very bodily way that God’s love transcends all human senses, and with the disciple we shall pray: “My Lord and my God.”

​Amen.

©wjsmartin 

 





​It is finished. (St.John xix. 30)
 
Our journey on this Good Friday involves coming to the knowledge of Christ and to the knowledge of ourselves. Our eyes are beginning to be opened to the light that creates new life.  In Christ we find God’s deepest desire for us. In Christ we find not only the thirst of one man for his Maker, but the thirst of God’s Son for the salvation of all human beings. Our eyes are opened to Christ’s love for us even as he is suffering and dying. He never forgets us. We are permanently fixed in the heart of Christ Jesus. Jesus is the light that loves and makes new life. Love has many dimensions. It is passion; He is the Passion of God made flesh. He is God’s Passion for our salvation. And yet also He will become our new Passion for God rediscovered, and our Passion for others’ salvation. He is Sympathy made flesh, God’s sympathy for our condition and predicament. He will become our new Sympathy, through Him, for so many others. He is the Forgiveness of Sins made flesh, God’s forgiveness of our sins, and will become a new and liberating power of Forgiveness in our own lives. He is Yearning made flesh, God’s yearning for our friendship and company. He will become our yearning for Him and then for others discovery of His Love.  He is about to die and he remembers us. His thirst for God is his thirst for man. 

Jesus is the Love of God and the Love of Man in a simultaneous unity of un-selfed in-othering. Let us just pause for a moment here and think about this. He is Love as in-othering; He lives in and for the other, first God and then every other man. He is Love as un-selfed. He has emptied Himself of Himself, that He might welcome in the Father to meet new sons and daughters within his nature, in his name, as members of his new Body that He is forming. He is the Love of God and the Love of Man coming together. As for Himself, He doesn’t much care. The point, His point, the labor and work of His life is to bring others together- His Father and all human beings. His role is to arrange the meeting, to enable the encounter. True enough, it is only through Himself, but the point is that it can only be through Himself precisely because He has lost himself. He would stand only to get in the way. Who He is, is by definition the Word made flesh- the Father’s Word as man and in human flesh. He provides the space and He is the meeting room. Is He essential? Absolutely. But should He become self-consciously significant, the work and labor collapses. The self-less self of the Saviour is the spiritual reality that allows God’s love to save man’s life once again. Within Jesus Christ, God’s desire and man’s desire can meet again forming one seamless whole that can never be torn apart. There are no longer two worlds and two loves. There is one world about to be recreated, to be seen and experienced once again in God and for God. God and man are united in the heart of Jesus Christ. That one love, which man has tried to tear apart, finds its meeting place in the heart and soul of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is our salvation. His entire earthly visitation revealed to man the longing of God for reconciliation with his people. We must come to know ourselves in him. This is a coming to self-knowledge. 

Today we come to know that the mission of Christ finished and accomplished. But we realize also that we ourselves are finished. What is finished? We are finished. The truth is naked before our very eyes. What is finished? Our pride is finished. Our sin is finished. The end of sin is death. Our sin has brought about the death of Christ. But even in this death, the death of Christ, man’s self-willed alienation from God is revealed as what has no power and no future. Life in isolation and alienation from God is illusorily satisfying, temporarily pleasing, and wholly incomplete. Life in isolation from God is death. In the death of Christ what is finished is the illusion that we have any power, that we have any meaning outside of the presence and nearness of God. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Not even death. Not even our killing of Christ. Nothing can separate us from God at all. For God is near to us. He quenches our thirst. He overcomes our rejection of him, our hatred of him, our killing of him. We have left sin behind us today. Father forgive them for they know not what they do. This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. Woman behold thy son, son behold thy mother. My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? I thirst.We have been carried through death, from death and are about to enter into life. Our sin is finished. Death is about to be conquered. It is finished.

It is finished. What this means is that Christ Jesus has gone where we could not go. Christ Jesus has endured what we could never endure. He has taken on and felt the curse of His own judgment, the punishment of his own law, the justice of His own measurement. He is, in a word, consistent with Himself. He does not subject His own creatures to anything that he Himself cannot endure. Do not do unto others anything that you would not have them do unto you (St. Luke vi. 31), He meant. And He lived it. This does not make it any the less painful, horrifying and sad. But at the end of the day, it shows us that he is the center of all reality- the light thatbeareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.(1 Cor xiii.7), in order to make new life. 

Let us end with the words of the 18thcentury country gentleman mystic, Mr. William Law, who had been called to King’s Cliffe to minister to a certain Mrs. Hutchinson and her sister Miss Hester Gibbon. The curious trio lived on for twenty one years studying God’s Word and ministering the Lord Jesus to all they met. Mr. Law wrote these words about the crucifixion:
Our Lord’s agony was his entrance into the last eternal terrors of the lost soul, into the real horrors of that dreadful death which man unredeemed must have died into when he left this world. We are therefore not to consider our Lord’s death upon the Cross as only the death of that mortal body which was nailed to it, but we are to look upon Him with wounded hearts, as fixed and fastened in the state of that twofold death, which was due to our fallen nature, out of which he could not come, till he could say, It is finished. 
 
Amen.

This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. (St. Luke xxiii. 43)
      
The Cross offends most men. It is a stumbling block. Most men want gods of magic and mystery. They want magic to overcome their slothful refusal to be honest and noble, to work hard and diligently, and to search for the virtue that perfects their characters. Rather than engaging their souls in the pilgrimage of Grace to God’s Kingdom, most men are too busy to seek out and find God’s love in Jesus. Most men in Jesus’ day missed the Crucifixion. They were otherwise occupied, too busy, and utterly oblivious to what was going on outside Jerusalem’s city gates. Like the men of today they were too busy with their lower and lesser selves. Were you to tell them that this is what they were doing, they would take immediate offence. That you might love them enough to try to help them onto a higher spiritual plane wouldn’t register. This is a hate crime. For the brute beast, love means full acceptance of anything he is pre-programed to do. To desire change for the better that reaches out for the best is completely offensive to a world where truth is relative. What is truth? is alive and well. His resentment of you is really the hatred and then murder of Jesus. Violence is the language of the desperately irrational and unthoughtful man. Whether they were present at the Crucifixion or not, most approve of Jesus’ execution. He challenges us to dream about embracing the standards and ways of God. He is the standard and way of God. He is he way back to God. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. (St. Luke xxiii. 24)
         
But from the Cross, Jesus does not condemn his executioners. He longs for their conversion still. Today they kill Jesus. Tomorrow they may repent and believe. For a long as a man lives, Jesus tells us that we must hope for his conversion and turnaround. The executioners, harlots, publicans, mentally deranged, mammon-worshipers, and idolaters in every age have been kept outside of the churches. Why is this so? The Christians are not full of the merciful love and hope of the dying Jesus. They forget that Christ’s Broken Body must pour out his loving Blood! We all do it. We must stop this. We must become one with Jesus in His death. In becoming one with Him, we must be filled with that mercy that desires all men, regardless of their accidental qualities. We must allow our hearts to be touched by those who are sinners today but might be saints tomorrow. If our Jesus is alive in us, they will begin to perceive His love.
         
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. (St. Luke xxiii 42) From His Cross Jesus brings into His Kingdom slowly but surely. The Cross is foolishness to the world.But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. (1 Cor. i. 23) To move out of ignorance and into the clear perception of God’s goodness in Jesus Christ, we must go to the Cross. We must see with the good thief that we are justly punished for our offences. We must see that Jesus has done no wrong. We must then see that in suffering and dying innocently and without guile, malice, bitterness, or revenge, Jesus Christ is the mercy that overcomes and conquers imperfect justice in our world. Jesus Christ is the desire of God for all men. He desires and welcomes the conversion of all sinners. The good thief is the first convert to Jesus’ way. The good thief sees into the nature of Jesus. The good thief does not doubt, hesitate, waiver, or halt. He believes, hopes, and loves. Both Jesus and the good thief are bound and pinned to their crosses in utter agony. But above the pain and transcending the agony Jesus has made a new friend and son for God. 
         
The Cross is a stumbling block and foolishness to most men. Those who are called to follow Jesus to His Kingdom must be prepared for a radically new kind of relationship with God and their fellow men. Those nearest and dearest to Jesus must let go of the limited rational order of things in the world for the purposes of finding God’s love. Jesus had given His family members and His friends a taste of His way long before the crucifixion. Even they did not understand Him. The mercy and love of God in the heart of Jesus see into the heart of a repentant thief. The mercy and love of God in the heart of Jesus forgive the thief and welcome Him onto the journey into new life. New life begins on the Cross with the death of Jesus. New life begins on the Cross as the repentant thief, who knows his sin and confesses, is forgiven and dies to it. He knows Jesus. He knows Him as Lord. He accepts Him as Lord. He believes and follows Jesus to the Kingdom.
         
The good thief provides a model and pattern for our belief. Do we know Jesus? In His presence will we begin to confess our sins to Him? Will we long for the forgiveness that His death brings into the world? Will we travel with Him to the Kingdom? 
 On the cross, the nails fastened his hands and feet, and nothing of him remained free from punishment, but his heart and tongue. God inspired him to offer the whole to Him, of that which he found free in himself, to believe with his heart to righteousness, and to confess with his lips to salvation. In the hearts of the faithful there are, as the Apostle testifies, three chief virtues, faith, hope, and charity, all of which the thief, filled with sudden grace, both received and preserved on the cross.” S. Greg. (xviii. Moral. chap. 13)

Amen

©wjsmartin
 
 
         
 
      

 




​


​THE FIRST WORD:
Father forgive them for they know not what they do. (St. Luke xxiii. 34)

Here we are at Golgotha, on Calvary, on Good Friday, as the Person of the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, dies, hanging on a tree. Jesus Christ, the God-Man, has never left His Father’s side, and will not begin to do so now. We are in his presence, but because we are confused, bewildered, uncertain over why he must die, He seems more distant than ever. He wentabout doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. (Acts x. 38)He is unjustly accused, and yet he did say to us that the Son of Man must suffer a great deal and be rejected by His own people. His body writhes and flails in response to the unmerited torture and pain, and nevertheless He cleaves to His Father. His Father has a bit more business for Jesus to do before He dies in the body.

He always spoke from the Father’s inspiration while living, and He will continue while dying. Through the unimaginable pain and suffering, especially that of His soul and spirit, veiled and hidden from man’s experience, He continues to give Himself back to the Father. To be sure, there is much darkness here. But there is more. There is light. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (St. John i. 4)He prays for others. This is light and life. Praying for others means hoping for their salvation and deliverance not matter what they had done to you or how your character relates to them. This is why He came into the world. He taught us all how to pray, and told us that if we do not forgive others their trespasses against us, neither will our Heavenly Father forgive us our trespasses against Him. (St. Matthew vi. 15) Love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and tothe evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. (St. Luke vi. 35-38)And so even now, Jesus asks for the forgiveness of His enemies. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. (St. Luke xxiii. 34) 

The forgiveness of sins is the reason for Christ’s coming in the first place. In fact, as it turns out, He is the Forgiveness of Sins. In His full complete, perfect sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction, we find the forgiveness of sins. He seems alien to us but perhaps this Jesus is making us into aliens and outsiders to the natural movements of earthly death in order to give us spiritual life. I am the light of the world: He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. (St. John viii. 12)

But how is He taking us into His light and life? He asks forgiveness for those who know not what they do. He seems to be begging pardon and mercy for those who, in ignorance, desired that He should die. He is petitioning forgiveness for the Pharisees, the Romans, and for Peter our friend who has denied Him three times. Clearly He is doing that. But He is doing more. We begin to ask ourselves if perhaps He is not praying for us too. We are confused and ignorant. Actually, come to think of it, we do tend to live in lots of darkness and ignorance. We think that we are bright. A little bit of knowledge tends to move us to arrogance and hubris. A little bit of knowledge tends to make us into parodies of ourselves. How silly we look. What we are doing here on this dreadful day? We do not even know why it is called Good Friday? We certainly do not expect to learn anything thing from suffering and death. It seems pretty silly to have come in the first place if we are too dense to know that we must face Jesus’ death if we hope to be saved! We promised ourselves that we try to endure Christ’s crucifixion. But we can’t. Why? We are usually cowardly dolts so full of our own limited and undeveloped notions of God’s love in Jesus Christ.
Jesus prays, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.What is this that He says? How incredible. During His life He claimed to be passing on what He had received from the Father. He that is of God heareth God’s words, (St. John viii. 47)And, I seek not mine own glory. (St.John viii. 50)He must be doing the same now. 

Father forgive them for they know not what they do.Our minds jump back to contemplate what sinful and ignorant men can do to the Lord of Life. Those Romans and Jews are simply beastly. The torture and affliction are inexcusable. We say, Thank God we don’t live in that world.But we do live in that world. Sin of any kind kills God’s Word and Will in the hearts of others and ourselves. The heart that does not forgive its enemies is ignorant of God. Jesus is God’s forgiveness of sins made flesh. If He is the forgiveness of sins for His enemies, then aren’t we His enemies when we refuse to embrace Him in relation to all others? Fulton Sheen tells us that,it is not wisdom or knowledge but ignorance that saves us. (Seven Last Words: St. Paul’s Press, 7) Perhaps Jesus is praying for us since whenever we sin, clearly we reveal that we do not know God the Father –we know not what we do.If we knew the Father, we wouldn’t sin. If we knew the Father we wouldn’t kill the forgiveness of sins, Jesus Christ, in our hearts. If we knew the Father we would realize that Jesus is speaking to us: Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

Amen. 
 
©wjsmartin

​In silence we come to the Cross of the Son of God on this Good Friday. We do so by way of remembering. We cannot literally be there, since it is all history. So in memory we come to the Crucifixion of Christ. Some people say that they don’t know how anyone could desire and carry out such a horrific act of torture. Such people have no real consciousness of their own sin or of who and what they have been and still are. For before us we behold the external and visible manifestation of what sin does. Sin in its various forms is nothing other than what abandons, betrays, denies, tortures, and kills God’s Word in human nature. God’s Word is His Articulated Desire, Plan, Purpose, Intention, Wisdom, and Truth for His creation. Thatwe cannot see that we kill God’s Word in our hearts and those of others is wholly evident on Good Friday. For though sin be subtle, it still kills God’s Word in the flesh of others and in ourselves. 

It is said that sin is the absence of God, and that is true enough on one level. But it is more than that. It is really the will or desireto make God absent. It is the obstinate refusal to hear, obey, cultivate, and grow God’s Word in human life. Sometimes it is committed quietly in the ivory towerof arrogant stoical indifference. Sometimes it is committed in fear, as when a man can only envy the presence and success of goodness in the world. Sometimes it is committed rashly, impetuously, feverishly, out of impatience, outrage, and exasperation in violent anger. Sometimes it is committed slothfully to ensure earthly comfort, peace, and normalcy, simply because zeal requires sacrifice, sacrifice effort, and effort patience. Or it might be committed by making false gods out of greed’s ideal, gluttony’s comfort, and lust’s fleeting passion. In whatever way it is expressed, it all adds up to one thing: despair. And despair is the failure to hope. The failure of hope is the refusal to believe that a person, situation, predicament, or condition can be changed. Despair is the refusal to admit that the Good might conquer evil, Love might banish hate, Beauty might vanquish ugliness, and Truth might overcome ignorance. Despair then leads men to eliminate God’s Word from human life. Thus we find Jesus hanging upon the Tree of Calvary on this Good Friday. 
         
But is this all that we find? No sooner had they arrested, mocked, derided, stripped, whipped, crowned with thorns, and nailed this man to the tree, than He was back to doing what He had always done, what He had come to do. Archbishop Fulton Sheen reminds us that, Seneca, [the great Roman Stoic Philosopher], wrote that those who were crucified cursed the day of their birth, the executioners, their mothers [for having brought them into this miserable world], and even spat on them that gazed upon them. Cicero recorded that at times it was necessary to cut out the tongues of those who were crucified to stop their terrible blasphemies. (Life of Christ, p. 372) Seneca ended up committing suicide, and Cicero was murdered, both because of alleged crimes against Caesar. Neither could have imagined that out of the death of a good man or out of a noble death something could emerge the likes of which we witness in Jesus. But with Jesus, we shall find something else at work today. Jesus is God’s Word. In Jesus, we find God’s Desire, Plan, Purpose, Intention, Wisdom, and Truth still at work. In Jesus, we shall find the  power of good over evil, light over darkness, and righteousness over sin. In Jesus, we shall discover the room for those who do not know what they are doing but might wake up and discover that Jesus truly was the Son of God and thus begin the journey to Heaven. In Jesus, we shall discover room for those who knew what they were doing but repented and believed. In Jesus, we shall learn of those whose faith was tried and tested by what their intellect’s could not fathom but whose hearts would be strengthened again by a deeper faith that would be surprised by joy. In Jesus, we shall find room for all. The key to entry into the wave of the salvation he wins will be repentance and forgiveness. Let us meditate this day on these virtues. 

©wjsmartin

​
 
I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see you to it. 
(St. Matthew 27. 24) 
 
We in the Christian church are called to silence and contemplation during Holy Week. In silence, we contemplatethe Passion and Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. Holy Week has been set aside from the time of the early Church to ponder our Lord’s suffering in silence. If we approach this time with a diligent and determined concentration, we will, no doubt, find that it will move us to ponder the nature of our lives in relation to God. Should we persevere in faith with our eyes on Jesus Christ, God’s great unseen eternal design will begin to make sense to our fallen natures. If we persist in following Jesus throughout His Passion, we shall come to the Cross -the place of enduring love and new life. 

And yet the task that we set before ourselves today seems so daunting. No sooner have I said that we must be still and silent than we are overwhelmed and swept up in the tumultuous commotion and confusion that surrounds the trial of Jesus Christ. Pontius Pilate, the Prefect or Roman Governor of Judaea, is trying to superimpose order and discipline on chaos, anarchy, and confusion. What he thought was small-town problem of only local significance seems to press down upon him as a very weighty matter indeed. He knows that he must tread gently with the Jewish religious authority. The Temple at Jerusalem is both the center of worship and banking. The Temple served as a place to collect tithes for the religious hierarchy and also to exchange monies into Roman currency to pay taxes to Caesar. So, Pilate must tread softly with the Jews. That Jesus had objected to the commercial uses of the Temple precincts made him dangerous to Rome. The Pax Romana –the Roman Peace, was secured only with the cooperation of the ruling Jewish religious elite. But being also a good Roman, Pilate is moved by gravitas and stabilitas. Roman Law stands transcendently higher than all threats to it. He is more than a little bit irritated that the rag-tag Jewish Temple guards have harassed, rustled, and bound one Jesus of Nazareth in clear defiance of Roman law and the civic peace. The Jewish temple priests and chief elders have roused and excited the plebs, or the mob of unemployed and disgruntled men who had hailed Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem –Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord…., pinning their hopes on Him as the great liberator and freedom fighter who would break the yoke of Roman oppression. Pilate is not amused. He knows what the Jewish hierarchs are up to. 
So, in strict conformity with Roman Law, Pilate will question the so-called disturber of the Jewish -and Roman, peace. He questions Jesus who has been brought before him. Art thou the king of the Jews? (St. Matthew xxvii. 11) Jesus answers, Thou sayest, or So you say. The Jews accuse him of many things and Jesus remains silent. Pilate is astounded. Hearest not how many things they witness against thee? (Ibid, 13) Jesus’ silence confounds and unsettles Pilate so that the governor marveled greatly. (Ibid, 13, 14)But Pilate has another reason to tread cautiously. Rome has an agreement with the Jewish authorities. To placate them, it was the custom, yearly on the Feast of the Passover, to pardon and liberate one prisoner. There was a notorious criminal in custody that year, one Barabbas,whose name means, ironically enough,son of the Father. Pilate knew that out of envy and malice they had delivered Jesus to him, and wondered if the chief priests would really want the release of Barabbas since radical insurrectionists of his stripe threatened the Jewish establishment as much as the peace of Caesar’s Empire. Perhaps he could throw the problem back at the Jews for their solving. So he asks the Jews, Whom will ye that I release unto you? Barabbas, or Jesus which is called Christ? (Ibid, 17) Having asked the question, he sits down on the judgment seat. No sooner has he done this, than matters become more complicated by a message that he receives from his wife, Claudia Procula.Do not meddle with this innocent man; I dreamed today that I suffered much on his account. (R. Knox, Ibid, 19) Romano Guardini tells us that, Pilate is skeptical but sensitive –possibly also superstitious. He feels the mystery, fears supernatural power, and would like to free [Jesus]. (The Lord, p. 392)But the chief priests and elders are bent on Jesus’ destruction. So, they have stirred the mob to demand Barabas’ release and Jesus’ death. Pilate needs a crime to convict, and so asks, Why, what evil hath [this Jesus] done? (St. Matthew 27. The crowd offers no crime and thus no evidence.Crucify him, they cry vehemently. Pilate fears the intensity of their malevolence. Then he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see you to it. (St. Matthew 27. 24) TheRoman Peace must be maintained. Let Jews take the blame: His blood be on us, an on our children. (St. Matthew 27. 25)

Now, I have said that we must be still and silent this coming week in order to be touched and moved by the Word of God in the heart of Jesus. What should touch and move us most is Jesus’ relative silencethrough His trial, suffering, and death. Pilate’s soldiers and the bitter, vengeful, and envious Jews were determined to silence this Jesus of Nazareth forever. Extreme torture is always useful in such an endeavor. But most men don’t go down without a fight. Jesus’ silence speaks volumes about His mission and work. His silence invites us to ponder the nature of Great Unseen Eternal Design still alive and well at work in His heart. Romano Guardini says It is frightening to witness this hate-torn world suddenly united for one brief hour, against Jesus. And what does he do? Every trial is, in reality, a struggle –but not this one. Jesus refuses to fight. He proves nothing. He denies nothing. He attacks nothing. Instead, he stands by and lets events run their course –more, at the proper moment he says precisely what is necessary for his conviction. His words and attitude have nothing to do with the logic or demands of a defense. The source lies elsewhere. The accused makes no attempt to hinder what is to come; but his silence is neither that of weakness nor of desperation. It is divine reality; full, holy consciousness of the approaching hour; perfect readiness. His silence brings into being what is to be. (Ibid, 395)  And with St. Paul, we remember that though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (Phil. 2. 6-8) Jesus Christ silently but conscientiously and willingly submits to the Great Unseen Eternal Design. God and His Word through the Spirit must effect a work that the world cannot comprehend yet. Jesus has no need to defend Himself against sinful man and his lies. Jesus must be left alone with His Father in order to embrace the work that must be done so that man can be saved. So, to the end, He does not count his Divine Nature a thing to pressed and forced upon an unwilling people. He intends to prove nothing other than that He has come from the Father to do the Father’s will. His Divine Nature is a thing to be discovered when human souls finally realize that Jesus’ silence reveals the Word of the Father hard at work in the suffering heart of the Savior. 

This week, the relatively silent Word of God will be hard at work in the suffering and dying Jesus. Jesus refuses to allow any of what He must endure to be anything other than the Father’s will. He knows that the Father’s will triumphs over any and all obstacles to the operation of His goodness. Jesus knows too that this labor of working God’s will out and into the hearts of men is done best silently. Jesus’ silence will allow sin to make one last great assault on God’s goodness in Jesus’ heart. Jesus’ silence will triumph over it. Jesus will suffer silently because the death that it leads into must be endured and transformed by God’s goodness. Christ knows truly that God’s goodness will conquer all. Christ’s silence says: 

You have stripped, bound, whipped, and tortured me. You have nailed my hands and feet to the tree. You continue to tempt, taunt, and provoke me. Still, you think that you can sever me from God? Do you think that I will reject my Father because I must suffer? Do you think that because I hang and suffer on this tree the Father cannot make good out of it? I made this body that I inhabit, and I made yours too. Do you think that something as small as suffering and death will put an end to that Great Unseen Eternal Design of my Father? I tell you, that even in the midst of this my earthly end, God is making all things new. In my suffering and death, I will bring sin to death. In my suffering and death, I will bring righteousness to life. On this day I have accepted your judgment of God’s Word in my flesh and in yours. See now how God’s Word is in my flesh. See now how I begin to make all things new.
 
Dear friends, this day let us begin to follow the Word of God made fleshinto His suffering and death. In stillness and wonder let us see how this Word of God in Jesus Christ speaks to us in silence. As we look on the Crucified One,R. H. Thomas reminds us that,

It’s not that he can’t speak;
who created languages
but God? Nor that he won’t;
to say that is to imply
malice. It is just that
he doesn’t, or does so at times
when we are not listening, in
ways we have yet to recognize
as speech                 R. H. Thomas
 
There is a speech to be heard in God’s Word made flesh, now dying silently on the tree. If we behold and listen to His few words, His relative silence will show us the way into death, a new kind of death, a death that is good and beautiful, and a death that is offered to us as the Way into new life. If we behold and listen, the silence shall burst forth as the sweet song of Christ’s desire and His pure Passion, the song of suffering love that wins our salvation. 

Amen.

©wjsmartin