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Preached - Good Friday...April 6, 2007
Reading: Luke 23:32-34
It was for our sin that Christ died—the healing power of forgiveness
In "The Christian Leader," Don Ratzlaff retells a story Vernon Grounds came across in Ernest Gordon's Miracle on the River Kwai. The Scottish soldiers, forced by their Japanese captors to labor on a jungle railroad, had degenerated to barbarous behavior, but one afternoon something happened. A shovel was missing. The officer in charge became enraged. He demanded that the missing shovel be produced, or else. When nobody in the squadron budged, the officer got his gun and threatened to kill them all on the spot . . . It was obvious the officer meant what he had said.
Then, finally, one man stepped forward. The officer put away his gun, picked up a shovel, and beat the man to death. When it was over, the survivors picked up the bloody corpse and carried it with them to the second tool check. This time, no shovel was missing. Indeed, there had been a miscount at the first check point. The word spread like wildfire through the whole camp. An innocent man had been willing to die to save the others! . . . The incident had a profound effect. . . The men began to treat each other like brothers. When the victorious Allies swept in, the survivors, human skeletons, lined up in front of their captors (and instead of attacking their captors) insisted: "No more hatred. No more killing. Now what we need is forgiveness." Sacrificial love has transforming power.
We are here today because we believe in the transformative power of forgiveness and sacrificial love. The story I just read to you portrays both these themes powerfully—the prisoner willing to sacrifice himself so that his fellow prisoners might live another day. Moved by this brother’s actions the remaining prisoners extend forgiveness when their captors became their captives. These were people who understood suffering—who lived each day in fear wondering whether they would ever see their loved ones again. Yet love reached them: and not only were they rescued from physical captivity, but they were freed from the spiritual bondage of revenge and violence.
We have arrived at Good Friday—the one day of the year set apart to remember the power of sacrificial love. Like the prisoners we are a part of a community that relies on one another—and this community extends back into Jesus day, made up of his original followers. We have been a part of the group following Jesus right up to his crucifixion. We were a part of the crowd that welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem, waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna!” We sat with Jesus at the table and witnessed his humility in washing the disciples’ feet. And we were there when Jesus was betrayed by one of his closest friends, taken and arrested by the Temple soldiers. We have seen the unjust trial—an angry mob with trumped up charges manages to convince the Romans that Jesus is worthy of death. Horrified we witness the extreme cruelty of the hate-filled, blood thirsty mob and soldiers who carry out the mob’s wishes with frightening efficiency.
We watch as his beard is ripped out, a crown of thorns is wrenched onto his head. We hear the gasps, we see the blood. We hear the sound of the whip as it whishes through the air and meets Christ’s flesh with unforgiving force. We see our beloved leader, friend—the humblest and most loving man we’d ever known—slowly tortured to death. He is raised up on the cross, nine inch nails (more like stakes!) forcing his body into an unnatural position that would eventually kill him.
We have seen all that Jesus goes through, yet we are the ones afraid. What if the mob turns against us too? What if they come after us and torture us?
We feel resentment towards Jesus’ so-called friends because of their cowardice and betrayal. They would not even associate with Jesus when he was in his greatest need. But we can also kind of relate—wouldn’t we be scared if we felt our lives were at risk? We wouldn’t feel good about it sure…but haven’t there been times in our lives where we’ve had to compromise a little bit of our integrity in order to avoid undesirable consquences?
Haven’t there been times when we’ve shrugged away from the truth a little bit because it was easier than facing reality?
Haven’t there been times where we’ve let our loved ones down, being unfaithful to them in one way or another?
We are here today to look hard at the cross and recognize the power of Christ’s words as he breathed his last. We might be tempted to think, as much of our culture does, in the human capacity for progress. Well, maybe not on a societal level, but surely we can think about how we’ve grown over the years. We’ve learned from mistakes, have access to new information, and stress awareness of pressing issues and the value of different points of view. But even my opening story reminds us of our capacity for extreme cruelty.
Yet the cross stands tall as a stark reminder of one incontrovertible truth: We, you and I, all of us, are sinners and deserving of death. The cross, the most cruel and humiliating form of execution ever invented stands as a manifestation of God’s judgment upon humanity. Crucifixions were carried out for the most heinous offenders, those who were guilty of violent and treacherous acts. They would hang naked, staked to crude wooden planks, all along major roadways so passers-by would be reminded of the danger of crossing the Romans. Usually they died for lack of oxygen given the angle at which they were forced to hang, but sometimes it was the wild animals that would eat them alive.
I give some of these details not because of a love of graphic violence, but because we must, we must allow the cross of Christ to reflect back to us the truth of the state of humanity.
The truth is that our sinful attitudes and behaviours are destroying the earth, and reeking havoc on our society.
Global warming caused by our pollution is melting the polar ice caps—causing our ocean levels to rise dramatically. The intensity of our summers, and the extreme power and greater frequency of our storms is directly related to our excess and greed. Father forgive us.
We have exchanged the dark shadow of the Cold War for living in constant fear of where the next terrorist attack will occur, or what will be the domino that falls in the Middle East that plunges us into another Great War. Father forgive us.
And even in our nice town of Sault Ste Marie, we find that 18,000 out of 80,000 people living in the Soo are living below the poverty line. 1000 people in our city accessed one of the shelters last year. 25,000 people utilized one of our soup kitchens in 2006 alone. In our province 1 in 6 children are living in poverty, going to school hungry without a lunch or breakfast to give them the strength they need to succeed. Father forgive us.
And in our own homes I do not need to quote the continually rising divorce rates, alcohol abuse, substance abuse, addictive behaviour, and many of the other relational and behavioural diseases that are crushing our families. We can only ask, Father forgive us.
We are sinners in need of a saviour.
“If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.”
In spite of all the pain we’ve caused Jesus, in spite of the fact that we were the reason he had to go to the cross, Jesus offers us words that would free us…Words that would comfort us…Words that would allow us access into his life and the mystery of God’s goodness and grace. Words that would allow us to admit our sin before one who loves so deeply, and forgives so lavishly...
“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
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