Jesus was betrayed by Judas and taken forcefully to the authorities.

Jesus was betrayed by Peter, who denied knowing him.

They took Jesus to Annas.

They took Jesus to Pilate.

The crowds had gathered, and according to John, the 19^th Chapter:

¹⁵ They 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." ¹⁶ Then he handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; ¹⁷ and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. ¹⁸ There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. ¹⁹ Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." ²⁰ Many 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. ²¹ Then 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.'" ²² Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written." ²³ When 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. ²⁴ So 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." ²⁵ And 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. ²⁶ When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." ²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home. ²⁸ After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfill the scripture), "I am thirsty." ²⁹ A 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. ³⁰ When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. ³¹ Since 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. ³² Then the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and of the other who had been crucified with him. ³³ But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. ³⁴ Instead, 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.) ³⁶ These things occurred so that the scripture might be fulfilled, "None of his bones shall be broken." ³⁷ And again another passage of scripture says, "They will look on the one whom they have pierced." ³⁸ After 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. ³⁹ Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. ⁴⁰ They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. ⁴¹ Now 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. ⁴² And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
Text: Passion paraphrase

Theme: Just barely holding on

Date: April 6, 2007; Good Friday

Assembly: Zion Lutheran

Jesus was betrayed by one in his inner circle

The crowds were not pressing in to touch him

The crowds were not sitting near to hear him

The crowds were shouting to “Crucify him!”

He received a flogging, he carried his cross, he trudged to “The Place of the Skull”

He was given a drink, it was mixed with bile, his clothes were divided and torn, he was derided by a criminal

Jesus was just barely holding on

They took and they took and they took

Listen to what John’s gospel says:

18:13: “they took him to Annas”;

18:28: “they took Jesus . . . to Pilate’s headquarters”;

19:16b-17: “they took Jesus, and carrying his cross by himself . . . ”;

19:40, And finally, “they took, the body of Jesus” [cf. 19:38]).

And he was forsaken

Jesus took upon himself

so much with human suffering

and we had given him so much suffering to take on

…and Jesus had taken it upon himself

…to the extent that the Father could not recognize this Son.

It was a Friday, and the Father looked toward Jesus

and saw all the violations of the covenant

that Jesus had taken on himself

—and the Father was brokenhearted

That Jesus who had known no sin

Had become the face of our sin.

The Father was brokenhearted because of the Son

The Son was forsaken of the Father

The Father had to let him go

Today is a day we reminisce, in particular, on the crucifixion

(address the cross)

What pain is in your wooden beams.

What scorn is hurled against your grain.

What agony hangs from your arms.

—the crucifixion brings immediately to mind

—Jesus—the 2^nd person of the trinity

—but is there a way in which the other persons of the Trinity

were impacted just as deeply by the crucifixion?

Jesus was just barely holding on

But the truth that we mourn today

Is that his grip had failed

Jesus had died

Jesus was no longer the one holding on

Where do we go?

What do we say?

To whom do we look?

The Father!

But the Father was mourning the tragic and untimely death of the Son.

The Holy Spirit!

Ahhh, the Holy Spirit,

The Holy Spirit, like any faithful and loyal child

Watching intently

Knew

That when he can’t hold on, you hold on for him

And so, feeling

On the one hand, the deadly sorrow of the Father

And on the other hand, the heavy weight of the inert Son

The Spirit for 3 days was just barely holding on.

We also know of other stories where we are just barely holding on…

Ages ago,

He was raised in privilege—the Hebrew son of an Egyptian princess.

He was the supervisor of multitudes,

but when he saw the forced labor of his people

And saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsfolk.

He looked this way and that,

and seeing no one

he killed the Egyptian

he now feared for his life, for the Pharaoh sought to kill him

and he fled to the wilderness to make a different life

and Moses was just barely holding on.

These days,

Depression crept into her life in its nasty subtlety

—it snatched bits of enjoyment to devour for its own

—and before she could name it,

the desire to name it had nearly gone

—she was just barely holding on.

She thought about how nice it would be to say with Jesus, “It is finished”

and she thought about her responsibility to her family

—about her love for her family

In days of old,

The woman he loved had betrayed him

She knew his secrets, she cut his hair, she stripped him of his power and she walked away

And Samson was just barely holding on.

Tonight,

He had three parties to get to

—and people at the door would not want to leave their party

—he made them laugh

—they had fun when he was around.

He had friends and he had stories and he had fun

…and he felt empty.

Vanity of vanities—this life.

What was any of it really worth?

And he was just barely holding on.

John 19:26-27

From antiquity we hear:

“When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her,

he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son."

²⁷ Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother."”

And they held each other up as they watched Jesus die

And they were just barely holding on.

The Spirit

(our model of how to just hold on)

Did the faithful work

The white knuckle, clenching work

Of holding on when all seems lost

The work of extending hope in two directions

To the grieving

And to the inert

The work of hoping

That they might recognize one another

That a new covenant might begin.

Why can the Spirit intercede for us with sighs too deep for words to express?

but that the Spirit spent three days just barely hanging on

—and in that agony

experienced our agony that Christ had taken on.

So, the Spirit knows what we would rather hide.

The Spirit knows what we hope no one else sees.

It is all of these things

The things that never really remain hidden

The things that someone else always sees

With which we leave Jesus today.

We leave Jesus having taken all your sin

We leave Jesus dead,

Life torn from his grip

And the Holy Spirit just barely holding on.