Meditation for Good Friday
March 21, 2008
The Very Rev'd Michael J. Pitts
Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal
We come together on Good Friday to meditate on the death of Jesus and on its significance for the world and for ourselves.
Let's begin by considering that the statement of our creed "He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried" is as certainly historically factual as anything in the past can be. So let us think about that history. Crucifixion was a punishment which, under the rule of Roman Empire, was reserved for slaves and rebels. It was, we might say in today's language, an act of state terrorism, inflicted not merely to liquidate an undesirable person, but to strike terror into the heart of any who may have been tempted to take the same path in revolting against the power of the state. It was a punishment designed to cast permanent shame on the person and on his or her movement. So effective was this in the case of Jesus, that as Hans Küng points out, [1] it was well into the fifth century before Jesus was ever depicted on the cross, and into the medieval period before such depiction became widespread.
But if the image did not appear in art, it was a central symbol in Christian writing, from Paul, the earliest known Christian writer onwards. In the canonical writings we do not see any one explanation or interpretation of what had happened, even less any one fixed doctrine. We find rather a struggle to understand what it meant, particularly in the light of the universal conviction of the writers that the Jesus who had died was alive in deeply convincing, yet mysterious way. It is worth noting here that the canonical writings were not the only version of the Christian faith. They were one stream of many different regional Christianities, about which we have learned more in the last century than we have ever known since the fourth century. In some of these other versions, Jesus was a teacher of wisdom, and neither death nor resurrection plays an important part. What matters, in this stream of tradition, is his teaching. In other streams Jesus was an emanation of God, and neither the person nor the death was real, only apparent. These other versions either died out or were suppressed, and the understanding expressed in the canonical writings became the norm for Christian faith.
In the canonical scriptures too there is a wide range of interpretation, as the first thinkers of the church tried to interpret the significance of what had happened. But none doubted that the crucifixion was real. The problem was how to see it in the light of the conviction that Jesus was God's Messiah, the anointed one, the one sent as the icon of true humanity and true community. The first writers naturally looked to their own sacred writings, the books of the Hebrew Scriptures. They saw Jesus in the light of the suffering servant of whom Deutero-Isaiah speaks. They saw his death in the light of the animal sacrifices of the Temple ritual. It is to be noted that these different sacrifices were not only to atone for sins, but to regulate many of the aspect of the relationship between humanity and God. After the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE and the cession of animal sacrifices, the death of Jesus was more and more seen as a replacement of that ritual. As the Christian faith moved from its first Jewish phase into the Hellenistic phase, later writers saw the death of Jesus as part of his total experience of being human.
So if, from a Biblical perspective, we ask why Jesus was crucified, the answer that he died to take away my sin is only one of many explanations. In particular the doctrine that Jesus suffering and death was his being punished by a wrathful God to replace the punishment due to me is a very late and I would say pathological doctrine. The multiplexity of the Biblical interpretation forms a source from which we can draw an understanding which is more helpful and more healthful for today.
I would begin my own personal interpretation with the theme I mentioned a moment ago, that the death of Jesus is about his assuming our full humanity. But I interpret that not just in an individual sense, but in a social and political sense. As I look around the world today, I see suffering everywhere. I see the death and misery inflicted on thousands in acts of war, oppression and civil strife. I see hunger, thirst, lack of medical attention, forced separation from family and community. I see increasingly horrible results of our reckless over-exploitation of our environment. I see brokenness, mental illness and homelessness right on our very doorstep, in this, one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I see discrimination and demonization on grounds of race, color, language, gender and religion. I do not have to look far to see Jesus on the Cross, not two thousand years ago, not on extravagant church artefacts or pieces of personal jewellery but in the real and suffering lives of men, women and children today.
But then, because I see Jesus as not only dying on the cross, but also, in a mysterious way, as alive, I see in all this suffering an individual social and political vocation. The life of Jesus is to be shared. I am called to live my life so that others may live. I am called to work socially and politically for peace, justice and humanity in our world. I am called to be an agent of change in the church, in local community and in the world.
This then is where I begin my understanding of Good Friday.
1. P36 Christianity Essence, History and Future Hans Küng 1994/2006
