13^th May 2011

Rev Dr Max Champion at St John's UCA Mt Waverley Good Friday 22 April 2011

Lessons -- Psalm 22:1-18; Hebrews 4:14-16; Matthew 27:27-54

Jesus cried out with a loud voice . . . 'My God, My God, why have
you forsaken me?' . . . And again he cried with a loud voice and
yielded up his spirit. (Matthew 27:46,50 RSV).

This is not the end we might have expected of Jesus' remarkable ministry.
A god-forsaken crucifixion, not a righteous triumph. Crucified as a hardened criminal or political rebel, mocked by soldiers and spectators, rejected by religious leaders, public officials and the mob, disowned by disciples, abused by his 'partners in crime' and abandoned by his 'Father', Jesus dies with a cry of anguish.

How are we to make sense of this unexpected and puzzling end? Why God's silence?

Jurgen Moltmann says that the cry of dereliction must be understood in the context of Jesus' communion with the Father whose will he had declared and embodied during his life. Thus, when Jesus (quoting Psalm 22:1) cries, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?' he is also saying, 'My God, my God, why have you forsaken yourself?' (The Crucified God, p151.) Is God's gracious will for humanity ultimately to be thwarted by evil and death?

On one level, we can understand Jesus' cry of dereliction. His brutal, painful death is the result of fierce opposition to his preaching and healing in God's name. No wonder he felt abandoned by friend and foe -- and God. But at another level, it is hard to understand why he felt abandoned by his 'Father'. Would not we expect a person who was so in touch with 'God' to calmly accept his fate? Would not we expect him to die serenely? And would not we expect him to die a hero's death -- like Socrates or Jewish or Muslim zealots -- supremely confident in the 'righteousness of his cause'?

What we cannot accept is his God-forsaken death! It offends our senses. It is not beautiful, morally uplifting, reasonable, humane or spirituality satisfying. It is ugly, morally repugnant, irrational, demeaning and irreligious! It is unworthy of a high ethical religion.

* Certainly, many 'religious' people are appalled by the god-forsaken cross. It offends their view of Jesus as a teacher of universal spiritual truths. Pharisees, crowds and disciples were all offended by the 'way of the cross'. Today, sincere, devout folk, 'new agers' and followers of eastern mysticism all recoil.

* Some humanists, too, have tried to soften its harshness. Goethe once said that 'an airy decorative cross is always a cheerful object; the loathsome wood of the martyrs, the most repugnant object under the sun, no man in his right mind should be concerned to excavate and erect.' The Rosicrucians (advocates of the 'rosy cross') insist on beautifying the 'old rugged cross' with flowers.

* Others refuse to 'humanise' or 'spiritualise' the cross because it is intrinsically 'hostile to life'. Friedrich Nietzsche once said that Christ glorified all that is weak, sick and submissive, including failure and suffering, instead of 'celebrating life' in all its sensuality and strength. He sneered at ideas of sin and redemption and, like some prominent church leaders today, considered that faith in Christ's love on the Cross as a 'most revolting', 'barbarous' and 'gruesome paganism (superstition)'. Bluntly he said: 'Have I been understood? Dionysus (god of senses) versus the Crucified -- ' (at the end of Ecce homo in The Gay Science).

Nietzsche's influence is still strong. The cross is widely regarded as inhuman - - a form of 'divine child abuse'.

Such views seriously misrepresent the Good Friday Gospel. Jesus'
crucifixion is an event of hope that brings life to our broken world.

(1) We must not try to soften the cross of Jesus! The 'unreligious cross'
(Jurgen Moltmann, p32ff) signifies the horror of human sin. This cross is not a pleasing piece of jewellery or an item of church furniture. It is a public event that marks the death of all attempts to justify ourselves and prove our own moral, spiritual or rational goodness in the eyes of God and our fellows. Our so-called 'goodness' is exposed by the goodness of the One who suffers innocently at the hands of the righteous and the godless alike.

(2) Yet in this cross there is hope for victims of oppression. Jesus' cry of abandonment is a sign that he identifies with all who experience being
god- forsaken. Victims of abuse often find hope and comfort in this event.
In Christ they know that the 'Son of God' shares their suffering. They also know that evil is judged, condemned and forgiven. In fact, far from justifying oppression, the Cross gives victims the courage to withstand and stand up against mistreatment, as well as to pray for mercy and conversion.

(3) In this cross there is hope for sinful human beings. Throughout the Gospel, Matthew declares that God's purpose in sending Jesus is to 'save his people from their sins'. It is central to his account of Jesus' birth and emphasised at the Last Supper. When the temple curtain is torn in two 'from top to bottom' it signifies that sin has been dealt with once and for all. Unlike Nietzsche, Matthew considers sin in its secular and spiritual forms to be so serious that God has acted on the Cross to restore us all to communion with him and each other.

This is expressed profoundly and subtly in two places: (a) Jesus is crucified between two abusive criminals. Like the Suffering Servant in Isaiah, he is 'numbered with the transgressors' (Isaiah 52:13). That is, he not only suffers with the victims of sin but places himself in the midst of those who do evil. There is no softening of the harshness of the cross, no retreat to a spiritual haven of serenity, no avoidance of the brutality, suffering and anguish that characterises the life of the world.
He dies a very public death in the midst of sinners as if he too were a sinful person! He does not die with a garland of flowers on his head, but a crown of thorns! (b) Jesus is crucified 'instead of' Barabbas. Matthew expands the story of Barabbas (27:15-23) to highlight the 'exchange' that takes place between him and Christ. 'Jesus Barabbas' (Son of Father) is a criminal. 'Jesus Christ' (Son of God) is innocent of any crime. Yet Pilate, swayed by the 'crowd' and against his (and his wife's) better judgement, frees 'Jesus Barabbas' and sentences 'Jesus Son of God' to crucifixion. By telling the story in this way, Matthew wants us to believe something we can scarcely contemplate and for which we lack suitable words and images from our daily experience. The innocent, righteous and merciful person - - 'Jesus Son of God' -- is convicted and dies 'as if he is a sinner', whereas the guilty, unrighteous man -- 'Jesus Son of the Father' -
- is released and lives 'as if he is innocent'.

Matthew therefore announces hope for all people! The sins of the religious (represented by Pharisees, crowds and disciples) and the sins of the irreligious (represented by Pilate, Barabbas and the two criminals) are forgiven by the One who 'takes our place' on the 'unreligious cross'.

Jesus' god-forsaken cry from the barbaric cross is a sign of God's love for humanity. In Christ God identifies with our brokenness, whether caused by our own cussedness or by others. In Christ God has acted to restore us to communion with him. This takes place through the unity that exists between Father and Son -- a unity that is hidden but not entirely lost sight of in the cry of dereliction. When Jesus 'yielded up his spirit' we see his faithfulness and his 'Father's' acceptance of his sacrificial life and death. This is not 'child abuse' but shared and suffering love of God for the broken world!

Matthew tells us that the most unexpected things happen when God's costly love is on display: * The Roman centurion and his platoon confess that the
god- forsaken man is the 'Son of God'. This is most unexpected. After all, many Roman soldiers had mocked Jesus and the Roman governor had sentenced Jesus to death. Yet these Romans, not Jewish disciples, are the first to acknowledge the truth. They are forerunners of many peoples who will rejoice in God's mercy embodied in the crucified 'Son of God'. * There are earthquakes, the opening of graves and the resurrection of saints who roam the city (vv51-53 -- more about this on Easter Sunday!).
Matthew wants us to see that in this crucified man is the fulfilment of ancient Jewish hope that the coming of Messiah would be accompanied by the resurrection of those who had undergone great suffering, rejection and persecution for their steadfast faith in God.

What a magnificent story of hope! In the midst of betrayal, denial and sacrifice, God's redemptive love for flawed human beings breaks through with unstoppable force. Whatever may be the historical accuracy of this report, Jesus crucifixion shakes our 'reasoned certainties' (Together in Song 649) and enables us to live by hope even in the midst of great turmoil.

What a pity then that so many people who are drawn to ANZAC services do not know the story of Christ's sacrificial love for all, not only for our nation, on the Cross! What a pity that people who have been abused, bullied, afflicted or ridden with guilt and have felt utterly forsaken by God have not heard the story of God's mercy, goodness and justice in the crucified Jesus.

Our prayer, therefore, must be that their eyes, and ours, will be opened to the awesome splendour of God's sacrificial love for all people.

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Rev Dr Max Champion is minister in the St John's Uniting Church, Mt Waverley, Victoria, Australia. Dr Champion is Chair of the Assembly of Confessing Congregations within the UCA.