Isaiah 52:13 – 53:12 / Psalm 22:1 – 11 / Hebrews 10:1 – 25 / John 19:1 – 37
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene Tucker
on Friday, April 02, 2021.
“GOOD
FRIDAY: THE AT-ONE-MENT OF GOD WITH HUMANITY”
(Homily text: John 19:1 – 37)
Each year,
as Good Friday rolls around, we are led to contemplate the ugly details of our
Lord’s suffering and death. As Christian believers, the events of this day are
particularly meaningful to us, even though, in reality, the deaths of countless
victims on Roman crosses probably wasn’t an unusual occurrence at all, given
the brutality of the Roman occupation of the Holy Land and its suppression of
any form of opposition or revolt against that rule.
What is the
meaning, then, of Jesus’ suffering and death?
The short
answer is that Jesus’ death is an atoning death. It brings about atonement with
God. We would do well to unpack this word a little: It means that Jesus brings
about an “at-one-ment” with God. He reunites us with God.
Christians
down through the ages, as they’ve considered the meaning and the implications
of our Lord’s death, have come to a number of different conclusions as they
grapple with the aspects of the events of this day which make it different. In
truth, the Church has never articulated exactly, what is the meaning of this
day, and perhaps that’s because no one explanation could begin to address the
various ways of looking at it. Personally, I think that approach is a wise one.
Let’s
explore, then some of the ways that Christians have come to regard this day,
and then let’s ask ourselves, at the end of our journey, which one (or more) of
the explanations seem to mean the most to us as 21st century
believers.
We should
begin by using the words we find in Holy Scripture that describe the Lord’s
suffering and death. Those two words are “redeem” and “ransom”. To redeem
something is to “buy back” something. To ransom something (or someone) is to
free them from an obligation, or from some sort of control which is exercised
by someone (or something) else, or from some sort of lack of freedom.
Using this
language, we can understand that we human beings are enslaved to sin. We are so
stuck in our sinful condition that we can’t really even see our true spiritual
condition clearly. That would be St.
Augustine of Hippo’s view of the human condition. Into this state of affairs,
our Lord comes, He who is free of sin, He who pays the price to ransom us from
our sinful condition.
So that’s
one explanation of how Jesus’ death works to free us from our fallen state.
Another
possibility is related to this first one, and that has to do with our inability
to pay the price to free ourselves from the grip of the evil one. An easy
explanation illustrates the principle: A
person is charged a crime, and is brought before the judge. The judge
pronounces a sentence, which includes a fine. The person says they don’t have
any money with which to pay the fine. Whereupon the judge takes off his robe,
comes down alongside the accused person, and pays the fine that the accused was
unable to pay. (For extra credit, this theory of the atonement is known as the
“Satisfaction Theory”.)
In later
times, two additional theories arose.
St. Anselm
of Canterbury, who was an Archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th
century, likened Jesus’ death to the righting of a wrong done to God by sinful
human beings. It’s as if the Lord of the manor had been offended by the
subjects living under his rule. To right this wrong, someone had to intervene
and make amends for this injustice. It’s possible to see echoes of the feudal
system which was common at the time of Anselm’s life.
Yet another
theory came along at about the same time. Peter Abelard looked upon the Lord’s
suffering and death as the supreme expression of love. In this, to my way of
thinking at least, he is basing his view on the Lord’s own statement, when he
said, “Greater love no one has than to lay down their life for their friends.”
(John 15:13)
Which of
these ways of looking at the Lord’s passion and death speaks to us today? Which
of these are personally meaningful? I suspect that, because each of them is
valid, our response will tell us a good bit about our own relationship with
God, made possible by our Lord’s suffering and death.
AMEN.
