Isaiah 52: 13–53: 12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10: 1–25; John
18: 1 – 19: 37
This is a homily by Fr.
Gene Tucker that was given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Friday,
April 14, 2017.
“STANDING AT
THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS”
Jesus
stands at the edge of the abyss, staring down into the depths of darkness, a
place where (it seems) that God’s light cannot shine. It is the place of the
Pit, that place where (it seems) no one praises God.
Soon,
Jesus will fall into that Pit, as He says, “Father, into your hands I commend
my spirit.”
Jesus’
self-emptying will be complete, once He falls into the darkness and descends to
the place of the dead. No one pushes Jesus into his fall, His tumbling is
freely chosen.
The
weight of the sins of the world close in on Him. He cannot escape the burden.
It is the accumulated weight of the misdeeds of all humankind that hem Him in
on every side. There is no escape. And so, He falls, taking those offenses with
Him into the abyss.
You
and I stand at the edge of the abyss, staring down into the depths of darkness,
a place where (it seems) that God’s light cannot shine. It is the place of the
Pit, that place where (it seems) no one praises God.
Like
Jesus, we find ourselves hemmed in by our sins. We cannot escape their reality,
or their weight. The offer us no way out. And so, we are forced to the place
where we, too, must empty ourselves, just as Jesus did. Surrender is our only
option.
As
we allow ourselves to admit our helplessness, and as we descend into the
darkness that our sins have created, it is then - and only then - that we find
God’s light and God’s hand reaching out to us, lifting us up from our
despondency and into the promise of new life.
This
truth stands in the lives of God’s saints:
Unless we admit that we cannot help ourselves out of our own sinfulness,
there can be no restoration to wholeness with God. Moreover, in the believer’s
life, this self-emptying, this critical self-analysis, must occur again and
again.
May
we find – like Jesus – that the way of the cross, that way of self-surrender
and helplessness, is none other that the way of life and peace.
AMEN.
