Good Friday: Short Reflections On the Seven Last Words of Christ

The First Word:  “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they’re doing.” (Luke 23:34)

 If they only knew.  If they only knew they wouldn't act that way.  If they only knew they would do things the way I want them to.  If they only knew how much they hurt me.  If they only knew they would praise me.  If they only knew they would promote me.  If they only knew.  Jesus clearly understood that people sometimes do untoward things, not necessarily because they are evil but because they are ignorant:  they don't have all the--in this case--faith facts.   

On this Good Friday, how can we look at those who have hurt us and say,  "they didn't know."  "Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing."  "They didn't understand my circumstances." The cross is the most perfect symbol of love and reconciliation.  Jesus wants us to be proactive about reconciliation, even in the midst of hurt.

The Second Word: “I assure you, today you will be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23:43)

Ours is an eschatological failth.  We understand, or we need to understand that our actions have eternal  consequences.  In the Kingdom, paradoxically "fully here, but not yet," eschatology technically means things concerning the end of human history and human existence. Clearly this was on the mind of "the good thief" as he pondered the end of his own existence.  

Just as we heard on Ash Wednesday "remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return," reflecting on the death of both Christ and the good thief calls us to examine our preparedness to move from this life into the next.  Early monks would, at times, greet each other with the words, "memento mori," remember you must die.  Are we prepared to die to self in this life so that we can live in the next?

The Third Word:“Dear woman, here is your son.” (John 19:26)

The presence of Mary at the cross adds both humanity and horror to the scene. We are reminded that Jesus was a real human being, a man who had once been a boy who had once been carried in the womb of his mother. Even as he was dying on the cross as the Savior of the world, Jesus was also a son, a role he didn’t neglect in his last moments.  

The third word might help us reflect on our familial relationships.  Who are we and how faithful and responsible are we in our own families; our immediate family?  The human family? Our church family?  Do we care for those who are vulnerable?

The Fourth Word: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Mark 15:34)

Here Jesus repeats the words of the psalmist (Ps. 22)

My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far away when I groan for help?
Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer.
Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. (vv. 1-2)

This side of heaven, we will never fully know what Jesus was experiencing in this moment, but we have all experienced, I expect, moments of barren places and experiences where we wonder where God is.  

Perhaps this would be a good opportunity to reflect back on those times and see how, in fact, God and grace were present, as an antidote to despair in future times so that we might always remember that God and grace are, indeed, ever present.  Easter vindicates this for Jesus and it should for us too.

The Fifth Word: “I am thirsty.”  (John 19:28)

No doubt that while on the cross, Jesus experienced extreme thirst.  Instead of water though, he was given vinegar, a substance that would only increase his thirst. So often when we thirst, we too seem to be given vinegar by others increasing our pain, or we ourselves turn to poor substitutes to quench our thirst.   It is then that we might reflect on what is it exactly that we thirst for.  “As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after You, O God.” Psalm 42:1.  What are we really  thirsting for this Good Friday, the real good which is God or the apparent good of cheap substitutes?

The Sixth Word: “It is finished!” (John 19:30)

When Jesus said “It is finished,” surely he was expressing relief that his suffering was over.  But not just that. “It is finished” meant, in part, “This is finally done!”   Voila!  Finito! There is nothing we can add to it!  How much we try to add though.  If we could only this or only that, then God would be pleased and grant us his favor.  No.  It is finished.  It is done.  God has "in Person" shown us his furious love, mercy, and compassion.  Everything else is midrash or commentary.

The Seventh Word: “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!”  (Luke 23:46)

Knowing that "it is finished" the God's work and love for us is completed in Christ Jesus, we can turn our will and our lives over to his care and direction.  This is an affirmative decision and action of the will.       

It is a decision that Christ chose before the beginning of creation and reaffirmed on the cross.  It is a decision that we may have made before, but do well to reaffirm today...and everyday. 

THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING AND EVIL

Related to the previous post, this excellent reflection by Fr. Ron Rolheiser

THE PROBLEM OF SUFFERING AND EVIL

Ronald Rolheiser

Perhaps the most difficult religious question of all time is why God does not act in the face of suffering.

Lazarus’ sisters Martha and Mary, send a message to Jesus telling him that "the man you love" is gravely ill. Curiously though Jesus does not immediately rush off to see Lazarus. Instead he stays where he is for two more days, until Lazarus is dead, and then sets off to see him. When he arrives near the house, Jesus is met by Martha who says to him: "If you had been here, my brother would not have died!" Basically her question is: "Where were you? Why didn't you come and heal him?"  Jesus does not answer her question but instead assures her that Lazarus will live in some deeper way.

When Mary arrives she repeats the identical words to Jesus that Martha had spoken: "If you had been here my brother would not have died!" However, coming out of Mary's mouth, these words mean something else, something deeper.  Mary is asking the universal, timeless question about suffering and God's seeming absence.  Her query ("Where were you when my brother died?") asks that question for everyone: Where is God when innocent people suffer?

Curiously, Jesus does not engage the question in theory. Instead he becomes distressed and asks: "Where have you put him?" And when they offer to show him, he begins to weep.  His answer to suffering: He enters into peoples' helplessness and pain. Afterwards, he raises Lazarus from the dead.

What we see here will occur in the same way between Jesus and his Father. The Father does not save Jesus from death on the cross. Instead the Father allows him to die on the cross and then raises him up afterwards.

The lesson in both these deaths and raisings might be put this way: The God we believe in doesn't necessarily intervene and rescue us from suffering and death (although we are invited to pray for that).  Instead he redeems our suffering afterwards.

Sometimes the only answer to the question of suffering and evil is the one Jesus gave to Mary and Martha - shared helplessness, shared distress, and shared tears, with no attempt to try to explain God's seeming absence.  Rather we trust that, because God is all-loving and all-powerful, in the end all will be well and our pain will someday be redeemed in God's embrace.

Palm Sunday 2014

Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

That is the collect for Palm Sunday morning prayer.  Breezing by it we miss important nuggets of paschal truth.  Read and reflected upon contemplatively can aid us in understanding some of the most important aspects of Holy Week.

First, we enter Holy Week, today, Palm Sunday, with an understanding and appreciation of the fact that God is "Almighty."  He is in control of the universe and nothing, no matter how tragic--including the crucifixion of his son--is beyond redemption.  Nothing, despite all appearances, is beyond his reach.  After death, physically or metaphorically, there is Easter.  Ressurection.  Knowing this, accepting our own suffering can become easier.

Secondly, because of this confidence we can approach difficulties with the same humility and acceptance that Jesus demonstrated.  "...giving us the example of his great humility."  It takes a good amount of egocentricity to immediately want to rid ourselves of all difficulty.  Who wants to suffer?  But suffering is not without purpose and if we enter into our suffering with humility seeking God's will rather than our own, then, we can "let go and let God."  That can be a tall order.  That is why we, after all, pray.  Humility is a gift of the Spirit and so we need to always ask for an increase of it.

Finally, we pray that God would help us that we may walk in the way of Jesus's suffering.  We're going to hear a lot about that suffering this week. And if we listen attentively--every step of the way to Easter--we will see and learn precisely how Christ approached suffering so that we might "be imitators of him."   Meditations on the stations of the cross this week might be helpful to imagine and reimagine our own responses to suffering.