Focus on the Cross

 

A Sermon preached on Good Friday 29 March 2024 at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Isaiah 52:13—53:12, Hebrews 10:16-25, John 18:1-19:37

During Lent we offer a weekly Stations of the Cross devotional service here at the church, and this year in addition, Stefan and Sarah have been offering an online version instead of Compline. Many churches make this devotion part of a three-hour service on Good Friday. The Stations or Way of the Cross developed as an imitation of the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem, the traditional processional route symbolizing the path Jesus walked to Mount Calvary. During our own pilgrimage to the Holy Land, some years ago, one of the most powerful experiences was walking that Way of the Cross in Jerusalem, even carrying a – very light – version of the cross for some of the way.

The traditional stations are made up of 14 pictures or sculptures beginning with    Jesus being condemned to death and ending with him being laid in the tomb. They cover those final steps in Jesus’ earthly life that we heard and read as part of today’s Passion Gospel reading. They’re not entirely biblical, only eight have a clear scriptural foundation. At each station we contemplate that scene, we hear a passage relating that scene to the wider context of the story of salvation, and say a prayer that we might learn and grow through our reflection. In our tradition, as we move from station to station, we sing the Trisagion: Holy God, Holy and Mighty, Holy Immortal One, Have mercy upon us.

Holy, mighty, immortal, God, yet dying on the cross? That is the great mystery of this day, Good Friday. The Stations focus on death and suffering, on Jesus’ suffering, his mother’s suffering, his friends’ suffering, as well as on guilt, our guilt, on sorrow, and shame.

Some people find this difficult and challenging, and so more recently some churches have added a 15th station, the Resurrection of Jesus, so we don’t forget the happy end. Others prefer new forms such as the Via Lucis ("Way of Light"), which starts with Jesus rising from the dead and ends with Pentecost. I don’t think that is necessary or even wise. The Stations are meant to focus on the atoning death of Jesus, and are not supposed to be a complete picture of his life, death, and resurrection. When we pray at the beginning of the service “that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts, whereby you have given us life and immortality,” the Cross is not the sole, but certainly a key component in that gift of life and immortality.

Unlike some Protestant denominations, Good Friday is not our highest holiday, the Feast of the Resurrection that we celebrate tomorrow night, and on Sunday morning is. But there can be no resurrection without the Cross. It’s not that we want to dwell in suffering, or even glorify it, but that the Cross and a devotion that focuses on it reminds ourselves that it is part of our reality. There always seems to be a Good Friday somewhere: on the battlefields of Ukraine, in Gaza, in that concert hall in Moscow.  

When we focus on the Cross, we focus on how Jesus willingly sacrificed himself and how he shared fully in humanity’s condition, including suffering. He was not just apparently human, but fully human, and suffered and died as one.

Our first reading today was from Isaiah and is one of four servant songs. On the cross, Jesus takes on the mantle of the suffering servant. Like that servant he was “wounded,” “despised,” “rejected,” “bruised,” “crushed,” and “oppressed.” All on our behalf and for our benefit, that “the righteous one … shall make many righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” (Isaiah 53:11)

And so, in turn, today, we venerate that holy Cross and that death that lead to life. There can be no resurrection without death, there is no transformation without sacrifice, and no new life without giving up the old one. As Paul writes to the Christians in Rome (6:5) “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” When we walk the Way of the Cross, when we venerate the Cross later in the service, we both share symbolically in that death and suffering, and we also declare our willingness to take up our cross and follow him. Let us pray:

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen