A Friday like no other

 ‘… But Jesus still made no reply, and Pilate was amazed’. (Mark 15:5)

Mark 15:33-41 (Good Friday in Holy Week)

Thank God it’s Friday is a familiar phrase. And Christians celebrate ‘Good Friday’ once a year. What is so good about Good Friday when we read that it consisted of torture, abuse, cruelty and a slow and excruciating death hanging on the cross? This Friday is good because it is the day we were destined for freedom once and for all. The world would never be the same again. Our world with all its pain, anxieties and hurts would be placed on Calvary – not to disappear from our lives but to be transformed into a new life that moves through and, ultimately, beyond this pain.

How is Friday so special? Some strands of thought emphasise the ‘substitution’ of Jesus – the innocent one for everyone else (that’s us) who ‘deserved to die’ because of sin. This emphasis can give rise to extremes of practice and theory including – in some cases real life crucifixion in repentance (but such extremes ignore that Jesus literally took the hit for us). Other views under the heading of substitution emphasise view it as the ultimate sacrifice for sin once and for all and all we have to do is surrender in the here and now to Jesus as Lord and Saviour. In practice, the story is not always so clean and clear cut.  Theology is used (and necessarily so) to make sense of the oral and written story of what happened to Jesus in his life, in his ministry, in his dying and in his rising again.

One approach or emphasis which does not necessarily contradict other emphases (note plural of emphasis) is that Jesus is our role model and example who loved so much and so madly that he was ready to die for us. And that’s what he did. But, why should someone die especially if that person is the Son of God. Surely a less a painful and less gruesome method could be chosen rather than having to placate or impress or shock. Well, that’s God’s prerogative!  Who are we …..? Mark, Matthew and Luke report the cry ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15:34).  In Mark, there is a directness and brutality to the whole scene. Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. There is no mention of ‘Father into your hands I commit my spirit (Luke 23:46). Neither is there any mention of Jesus bowing his head and giving up his spirit after saying ‘It is finished’ (John 19:30). Instead there is raw death as if on the beach of Omaha in 1944. Matthew is much closer to Mark and in the former we hear ‘Eli, Eli’ (Matthew 27:46) and some scripture scholars think that Matthew is reporting Jesus in the Hebrew language rather than in Aramaic. Mark, it is suggested, is drawing on Aramaic. It is not often that the original Hebrew or Aramaic attributed directly to Jesus is cited in the New Testament scriptures. We may speculate that direct references to the language actually spoke by Jesus and recorded by eye witnesses who were present has a special force, directness and authenticity.

Mel Gibson, in his film ‘Passion of the Christ’ combines all Gospel versions and adds his own detail and colour (presumably in Aramaic) in the dramatisation of Jesus’ final moments here.

The truth is that Good Friday – for all its goodness was no picnic. It was horrific in the extreme. But, the horror of it all did not deter from the fact that it was necessary in the grand scheme of salvation and from this excruciating experience goodness, freedom and salvation flowed.  The answer to the question ‘My God, my God why have you forsaken me?’ (Mark 15:34 and Psalm 21:2) found on the lips of Jesus. This was the effective of answer of Jesus to Pilate’s question – ‘Are you the King of the Jews’ (Mark 15:2). God became one of us, shared our lives, died as one of us for all of us so that we might rise to new life in him and the whole of creation along with us. This is the hymn of Good Friday. It is good after all and it has a purpose and a meaning.

Psalm 21 moves on from what might seem like despair to hope and final vindication:

2 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You are far from my plea and the cry of my distress.

3 O my God, I call by day and you give no reply; I call by night and I find no peace.
4 Yet you, O God, are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
5 In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you set them free.
….

23 I will tell of your name to my brethren and praise you where they are assembled.
….
25 For he has never despised nor scorned the poverty of the poor. From him he has not hidden his face, but he heard the poor man when he cried."