St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
Good Friday (All Years)—April 15, 2022
John 18:1-19:42
“What Are You Doing for Lunch?” That’s the eye-catching question on our sign posted outside of the church inviting people into the church to pray the Stations of the Cross for 30 minutes.
Our church shares a busy parking lot with various types of businesses—a large majority of them specialize in the care for the outer appearance of their clients (hair, skin, nails). I like to think that St. Paul’s has been divinely positioned in this space to invite people to carve out time, in the midst of an ordinary day, to care for their souls—to deepen their existing faith, or to explore a relationship with Christ. Praying the stations of the cross on Fridays, at a time of the day when the world “out there” is agonizing about what’s for lunch, is a powerful devotion and witness.
For many outside the walls of this church, this Friday is business as “usual.” Yet, we have gathered here, to stand at the foot of the cross where a crucified Jesus hangs, painfully aware that there is nothing “usual” about Good Friday.
As Jesus was dying on the cross, an intimate gathering took shape consisting of four women, including the mother of Jesus, and his beloved disciple, John. They gazed upon him, having witnessed his suffering on the way to Calvary; the driving of the nails into his hands and feet; and his agony. They were helpless to save him. But, instead of running from the cross, they moved toward it—Five of them were there…and we are here.
From the cross, Jesus, saw his mother and John standing together and declared to Mary, “Woman, here is your son,” and subsequently to John, “Here is your mother.” I suspect that Jesus had a unique relationship with his mother—one that matured through shared life experiences from childhood to manhood. Jesus’ relationship with John was inherently very different from his relationship with his mother. Jesus and John shared experiences developed within the context of the teacher-disciple relationship during Jesus’ public ministry. On this day, a mother’s relationship with her son and a disciple’s relationship with his teacher collided at the foot of the cross. It was Jesus’ crucifixion that bound the two, unique experiences into one shared experience of loss and grief.
The mutual vulnerability between Jesus’ mother and John enabled them to find strength in each other. None of Jesus’ other disciples witnessed the cross event—they were in hiding in fear for their lives. But, Jesus’ mother and John were certainly there…and we are here.
The way of the cross is not for the faint of heart. The way of the cross is a journey of obedience to God’s will for our lives. Whether we struggle to carry our own cross, or wrestle with witnessing someone else’s struggle to carry their own cross, obedience to God’s will is hard and necessarily requires sacrifice.
When the Angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear the son of God, was she not fully obedient to God’s will when she, replied, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word,?”[1] Mary knew that she could be killed as a pregnant, unwed woman in Jewish society. Mary was asked to risk her life for the sake of Jesus, and she said yes.
When John faithfully followed Jesus, not just from town-to-town healing, feeding and teaching the crowds, but all the way to the foot of the cross, when all others abandoned him, was John not being fully obedient to God’s will? Was Jesus not fully obedient to God’s will when he willingly sacrificed himself to suffer a scandalous death on the cross to save humankind from sin and death?
Along his journey of obedience, Jesus’ life taught us that there will be loss and grief; bondage and liberation; exile and reconciliation; despair and hope. And, like Jesus, we can expect that those who are the closest to us, may not be found standing with us in the darkest places of our human suffering. Having lived as one of us, Jesus understood this, and embraced anyone who did the will of his Father in Heaven as his brother, his sister, and his mother. Like Jesus’ mother and John, we find strength in our spiritual family—the Church—through which Christ’s love for us, and for the world, manifests.
For many outside the walls of this church, today is a “business as usual” day. Yet, we are here standing at the foot of the cross with Jesus’ mother, the other women and John on a Friday night. Each of us present with our own very unique relationships with Jesus. Relationships which collide today in this visceral, shared experience of Jesus’ death on the cross. Our presence in worship this night is a powerful witness for the many “out there” for whom this most holy, extraordinary Friday is just an “ordinary” day. Let us embrace the extraordinary gift of this most unusual Friday and ponder, each day, the ways in which we walk the way of the cross in full obedience to God’s will.
Amen.
1 Luke 1:38
