Text: John 18:1-19:42

Theme: Glancing backward at the cross

Date: March 21; Good Friday

Assembly: Zion Lutheran Church

Well, I expected I’d be preaching about Good Friday

The black-shrouded day of Jesus brutal crucifixion and death

The day when everything spun out of control

Ending with the conclusion of a lifeless Lord

But then I looked specifically at John’s text before us,

and that’s simply not the account John gives us.

I am struck again and again as I read these chapters

That it is not of our overarching understanding of Good Friday that John tells

but rather a very specific, very different insight into this cross event

I can read it so many times, as though my eyes are seeing it again for the first time

Because when we read this part of John

we do not get to hear the same story of the passion narrative

that we hear in the other gospels

No, John turned that possibility on its head

The synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke show

Jesus’ agony and the humiliation on the cross

--which are very true and formative realities as we consider this day

Theirs is a perspective born form the actual time of the event

--written as if they don’t know that Easter is around the corner…

But John just has a different reality to assert as equally formative:

A perspective that glances backward at the cross

while always knowing that Easter has dawned

--assuming the resurrection is the reality

in which everything else is interpreted

So, John witnesses in the very midst of that Friday

to the glory of the cross

--the exaltation of the cross

What!? If you’re like me, I’m wanting to keep my mourning and sackcloth nearby

Even as I read again with incredulity the account that John presents to us

Please come and take a look at this with me

—I want you to see how astonishingly distinct a perspective John offers

—allowing us only to see Good Friday from the vantage point of Easter

In John there is markedly less of the turmoil that is in the Synoptic accounts

●Jesus doesn’t pray in Gethsemane for this cup to pass from him

Rather he rebukes Peter regarding the gift of the cup, saying:

"Put your sword back into its sheath.

Am I not to drink the cup that the Father has given me?"

●There are no jeering crowds

●There is no loud cry from the cross

Rather we witness Jesus’ composed gifting of his life as love

Or his love as life

●We are encountered with the humorous irony that

A detachment of soldiers comes

—but look who’s is in charge

—look who the main actor is:

It is Jesus who moves first

It is Jesus who asks the questions:

“”Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him,

came forward and asked them, "Whom are you looking for?"”

the soldiers come with their little torches

to arrest the “light of the world.”

And we already know

(from the beginning of John’s gospel

that “the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness did not overcome it” (John 1:5).

And our list of disturbing scenes not present in John continues:

●Darkness does not come across the land

●The temple curtain is not torn

●There is no earthquake

John has made a polemic for us that this is not a suffering Jesus.

Even in the moments on the cross, John shows us the image of God in control

-Jesus is making connections for relationship

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.

-Jesus is tying up some loose ends and fulfilling scripture

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.

-Jesus knows when the time has come and is in control

³⁰ When Jesus had received the wine, he said, "It is finished."

Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So Jesus is not shown as the suffering one

And I proclaim to you only that which John already has proclaimed:

that the cross is God’s plan,

that even in the events leading up to Golgatha,

Jesus is in control,

and the moment we think that Jesus in on trial

we find ourselves in that hot seat.

But still John’s is a distressing story:

It’s just not Jesus who is being distressed

Yet there are those who are being tried:

We see Annas try to interrogate him and Annas ends up being questioned

We see Pilate running like a puppet between Jesus and the crowds

We feel the gravity of Peter’s painful denials

And it’s becoming clear to us that it is us, not Jesus,

who are on trial.

So, as it turns out, it is a black-shrouded day—even in John’s estimation

It’s just that nothing spun out of control for Jesus

and it’s not black because of Jesus’ death—that was the plan

—that is to the glory of God (more about that on Sunday)

As it turns out we do have to keep our mourning and sackcloth nearby today,

for we have been on trial

And we’ve dared to shout our misgivings about the Christ

when we discovered ourselves in league with the authorities

Who scream “Crucify him”

And perhaps more closely still, we find ourselves in league

with the likes of Peter

who fervently declares his allegiance and constancy

and then finds that he has,

with increasing vigor and deceitfulness exhibited

embarrassment of the one he professes to love.

I say that Peter’s denial was, “with increasing vigor and deceitfulness exhibited”

Because the 1^st time someone asked him

—the question itself expected a negative answer: “It wasn’t you, was it?”

so it was easy for him to say “No.”

And the 2^nd time it’s the same: “It wasn’t you, was it?”

“No”

But by the 3^rd time, his lying is growing on itself

And he is confronted by the very guy who’s ear he cut off

earlier that evening

Malchus says: “It was you.”

And Peter looks a live witness in the face

and declares the lie he’s been getting good at: “No.”

Peter, like a teenager, whose parent is a chaperone at a high school dance,

hangs back,

distancing himself from association

with the potentially uncool parent.

Ah, Yes, we’ve heard the cock crow at our embarrassment

for looking like one of his

Do the work with me

-it’s these ways in which each of us do not live

the witness worthy of Christ’s life and love…

But even through all of our teenage distancing,

God’s ultimate act of love —the journey of this week

—continues on unfailing

I had expected to be black-shrouded today

on account of Christ’s bitter suffering

But I find that we’re black-shrouded

because we’ve been exposed on the witness stand

For our lack of love

It’s just startling how clear the exposure is as we sit opposed

to the one who has accomplished this day

all for the purpose of love

that same one who challenged us

to love one another as “I have loved you,”

and we know we have failed

and John sends us on our way to grieve today our own ineptitude.

Even when faced with the startling reality of God in Jesus

—we are not able to do our part

So Jesus does what we cannot

so that we

even on a day like this

left weeping in the judgment seat

might encounter the full extent of God’s love.