April 18, 2025 (Good Friday)

Sermon title:  “The Crucifixion”

Scripture:  John 19:13-42

John 19:13-42

13When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge's bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha. 14Now it was the day of Preparation for the Passover; and it was about noon. He said to the Jews, "Here is your King!" 15They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!" Pilate asked them, "Shall I crucify your King?" The chief priests answered, "We have no king but the emperor." 16Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

So they took Jesus; 17and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." 20Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, "Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,' but, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.' " 22Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." 23When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top. 24So they said to one another, "Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it." This was to fulfill what the scripture says, "They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots." 25And that is what the soldiers did. Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." 27Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. 28After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty." 29A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. 30When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

Jesus’ Side Is Pierced

31Since it was the day of Preparation, the Jews did not want the bodies left on the cross during the sabbath, especially because that sabbath was a day of great solemnity. So they asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified men broken and the bodies removed. 32Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. 35(He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.) 36These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, "None of his bones shall be broken." 37And again another passage of scripture says, "They will look on the one whom they have pierced."

The Burial of Jesus

38After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. 39Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. 40They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. 41Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

          Today is Good Friday, but there really isn’t anything “good” about it. Yes, some of our theology tries to say that it’s good that Jesus died for our sins. And maybe that’s right. But that theological insight comes after the day itself, after everything that could go wrong DID go wrong. First of all, we have a corrupt and cowardly political leader. Pontius Pilate could have said NO to the idea of the state-sponsored murder (that’s what it was:  murder against an innocent man taken up by the state). But the voices in the crowd scared him when they suggested that if he let Jesus go, he was no friend of Caesar. What a wimp! By the way, scaredy-cat politicians have long existed, not only in our own day. What we have here is simply an early example of a person failing to put what is right ahead of his fear of being deposed or losing his job.

          I started out by saying there is nothing good about Good Friday. In fact, the world is so broken that you yourself could suffer simply for doing what is right. Look at Jesus:  he fed the hungry, healed the sick, comforted broken people, and guided people who were lost. So, what was his reward? Slow death by torture. And some of Jesus’s followers have found out that even doing God’s will can cause them pain, too.

          At least the Bible gives it to us straight. The world is broken, and there is a lot of pain in the world. And sometimes even when we do what is right, other people get hurt. Look at those who loved Jesus, including his mother Mary and others. They had to stand by helplessly as he was crucified. Jesus did what he thought was God’s will for him to do, and yet others suffered for what he thought was right for him to do. One minister says this:  “God could not escape suffering and dying as the result of being good to us. There truly is no one who escapes the thick darkness of suffering that too often blankets the whole world. Not even God escapes it.”

          What about resurrection? Isn’t that part of our faith, too? Yes, but not yet. It’s too soon to talk about new life when you’re in the middle of some dark night. It’s too soon to talk about resurrection when all we can say is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

          Will Mowchan, a Lutheran minister in Superior, Wisconsin, a pastor I have quoted before, says this:  “And so today, we will not look beyond the bad news of inescapable brokenness, thick darkness, and innocent suffering…Instead, today, we must accept that we add to the darkness. We will accept that doing the right thing sometimes ensures that we will suffer. Sometimes doing the right things causes innocent people to suffer. There is nothing good about Good Friday, except that it tells inescapable, dark truth about us and about our world. That truth should leave you totally unsatisfied and deeply discouraged. There is nothing you can do about it. Too bad. On Good Friday, the awful answer to you is the same as it was for Jesus:  drop dead and go to hell. You can visit the tomb on Sunday.”

Pastor Skip