To listen to the sermon delivered by The Reverend William Nesbit, Jr. on Good Friday click here.

Saint Charles' Episcopal Church – Saint Charles, IL

Good Friday – Good Friday - Year A - RCL

Friday March 21, 2008 

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 – Psalm 22 – Hebrews 10:16-25 – John 18:1-19:42

The Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

“See, my servant shall prosper; he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.”

With these words from the book of the prophet Isaiah we hear of the ultimate end of Christ’s ministry on earth. It looks like a great end. The culmination of a powerful growing ministry.

In our Gospel tonight we hear it all come crashing down. The roof comes crashing in on the triumphant party of Palm Sunday. Sure, there have been warning signs all along that all isn’t as it seems. Jesus has been talking to his disciples a lot about the end. They just don’t hear it. Neither do we. It’s too hard to hear, so we don’t. Good Friday is the one day of the year that we must sit at the foot of the cross and look into the face of Christ, dying on the cross. It is no small wonder that there are few people here, snow or no snow. Even the disciples fled from this harsh reality.

In the Fourth Gospel, only the three Marys have the strength to be there. Standing among them is the disciple whom Jesus loved. He (or she) is one of the mysteries of the Fourth Gospel. The disciple is never named. It is unclear whether this disciple is one of the twelve that we know, or a thirteenth. Early scholarship made him out to be the author of the Gospel, and assumed it was John. More recent scholarship disputes that, leaving the question open.

So why am I talking about this on Good Friday? I believe the author of the Fourth Gospel left the beloved disciple un-named as a place for us to enter into the story. A place to stand and wonder...What would it have been like to stand nearby on that day so many years ago. To see the life ebb and flow away from the man you had been following for the last three years. A man you had come to love deeply. It is a profound thing to imagine; to wonder. As modern disciples, we too struggle with the things those early disciples struggled with, because we, like them, are human, and subject to all the weaknesses that they were. Thanks to a literary gift from its author, in the Fourth Gospel we have an actual place in the story, a special place, a beloved place. We can live into the full mystery of being a disciple, ancient or modern.

Since the beginning of the church, Jerusalem has been a place of pilgrimage for disciples, as believers new and old, have desired to walk in the places that Jesus walked, to sail the waters that Jesus sailed, to walk the Via Dolorosa, the path from Gabbatha, the judgement seat where Pilate sat, to Golgotha, the hill where Jesus died. These sites have become sacred to Christians. They have also become the objects of war, as different civilization, and nations have struggled for control of a land holy to three different faiths. Since 1841, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East has been an Anglican presence in the Holy Lands, forging friendships with the ancient churches and serving expatriate communities in the area. Those friendships have strengthened and enlivened the work and witness of the Episcopal Church ever since.

Since 1922, members of the Episcopal Church have given thanks for this wonderful relationship through their generous giving to the Good Friday Offering. This year I am asking us to take part in this offering. The money we give will go to operating hospitals, schools, orphanages, and many other programs, accomplished for the benefit of all people in the province, Christian, Jew, and Muslin alike.

On this night so many years ago, the disciple had hope drain from their hearts, as life drained from their rabbi on the cross. It would be three days before the seeds of hope planted by their master would blossom into new faith and new life. We are a small church. The problems of the Middle East are beyond us. But we have a big heart. We may not be able to solve the problems of the Middle East, but we can give hope until those who can, get their act together. We have come together as a parish in the last month to solve our own financial challenge. Now it is time to remember how truly blessed we are and reach out with hope to those less fortunate than we are.

Even from the cross, Christ, our brother, cared for those he loved. We can do no less.

Amen.

The wages of sin is death. The wages of love is life!