GOOD FRIDAY 2008

We may not know, we cannot tell,

What pains He had to bear,

But we believe it was for us

He hung and suffered there.

So reads verse 2 of a hymn that we sang on Palm Sunday, just five days ago.  We hear the same truth otherwise expressed more bluntly – my sins and your sins nailed Jesus to the Cross.  All Christians know that in their hearts; but, I daresay, spend less and less time in these days actually contemplating it. 

Certainly there are other opportunities during the Church year for us to think about the profound pain, suffered on behalf of each one of us in His all-sufficient sacrifice.  On Fridays in Lent, we might gather collectively for the Stations of the Cross, with fourteen stops, beginning with Jesus being condemned and sentenced in Pilate’s court through to His being laid in the sepulchre.  Perhaps some of us pray the Rosary, which on Tuesdays and Fridays throughout the year, and in some traditions, daily from Ash Wednesday to Easter, have us pray the Sorrowful Mysteries.

Perhaps there are many here who look rather suspiciously on the Rosary as being one of those Mary things where people just mechanically pray “Hail Mary” 50 times with a bunch of Our Fathers and Glory be’s thrown in – and what’s the purpose of all of that?  I suppose that there are some whose approach is just that, maybe even believing that they have fulfilled some sort of duty in so praying.  But that is not the purpose at all.  The Mysteries all deal with some aspect of the life of Jesus, and while each of the 50 “Hail Mary” beads is being prayed, one should be pondering a particular aspect of that mystery as recorded for us or implied in Scripture.

Therefore, on this most solemn day in the Church year, perhaps we might use the five Sorrowful Mysteries, each with 10 points, as a means of contemplating our Lord’s Passion and Crucifixion more deeply than we might otherwise.  Those who are unfamiliar with the Rosary but do come to Stations will recognize the obvious overlaps that we might expect from two forms of prayer that are focussed on the Passion and Crucifixion.  All of us should recognize the points upon which we are about to think, based on our knowledge of Scripture.

Let us further remember that, temporally speaking, we are just hours from our Lord’s Crucifixion; He is fully aware of what is about to transpire.  If during that part of Lent up to Palm Sunday each of us has attempted to imagine ourselves with Jesus on that final journey to Jerusalem, let us now steel our emotions and spend the final few hours with him.  There have developed various tendencies in our society that have influenced what we say and how we say what we say, even in Church.  One of those tendencies is to avoid portraying, discussing or contemplating things, even if they are real, that are particularly gruesome.  One might think of brave university students across the country who have taken to driving vans around our major cities displaying photographs of dismembered babies – the actual product of abortions.  Clearly they have deemed that we have been browbeaten into silence long enough.  And here, on Good Friday, let us, following their example, gather up the emotional courage to lay bear the brutality that was stamped on our Lord.

The first Sorrowful Mystery is the Agony in the Garden, whence Jesus has gone with the eleven following the Last Supper in the Upper Room, Judas’ departure, and Jesus’ prediction that Peter will deny Him, all of this taking place on Thursday night – last night if you will.  If we were simply reading this episode from any of the Gospels, we should be finished rather quickly.  Therefore, let us remember that, in praying the Rosary, each of these points is pondered for as long as it takes to say, “Hail Mary, full of grace; the Lord is with thee.  Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death”, which helps us from rushing over the image in our minds of the actual events.  These points are taken from the People’s Rosary as published by the Church Union in England:

1.      Jesus retires to the Mount of Olives with the eleven and enters the Garden of Gethsemane.  As mentioned, Judas has already left Him and the other eleven and is on his way to the chief priests to fulfil his particular and tragic place in the salvation of the world;

2.      Jesus proceeds further into the garden with Peter, James and John; and His soul becomes very heavy.  What did that mean, “His soul becomes very heavy.”  In S. Augustine’s Prayer Book there are two different Holy Hour sets of prayers and devotions that one might pray while spending an hour at the Maundy Thursday vigil, as did several of us last evening.  In the first of those two we read, “Now, in the Garden, He Who is absolutely sinless, feels the weight of the sins He has taken upon Himself.  Sin closes in on Him, every sin ever committed by every man, woman and child; every sin which shall ever be committed to the end of time.  I try to think what that means: Every sin ... Ever committed ... By anyone ... From the beginning of the world until its end ... descending upon this one Person who must bear every single sin, great or small.” 

3.      He leaves them, saying, “Tarry ye here, and watch with me”.  In Luke’s account, Jesus tells them, “Pray that ye enter not into temptation”.  He very likely knew full well that they were going to fall asleep;

4.      Going on a little farther, He falls to the ground, saying, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me”.  We must never forget that God Incarnate is also the Son of Man, fully human, fully capable of experiencing physical and psychological pain as much as any of us;

5.      He returns and finds them sleeping;

6.      He departs again to pray, “Thy will be done,” and an angel comforts him;

7.      His sweat falls as blood upon the ground.  This is not a figure of speech, but an actual medical phenomenon called hematohidrosis (or hematidrosis), caused in rare circumstances by extreme stress.  Around the sweat glands, there are multiple blood vessels in a net-like form.  Under the pressure of great stress the vessels constrict.  Then as the anxiety passes the blood vessels dilate to the point of rupture.  The blood goes into the sweat glands.  As the sweat glands are producing much sweat, this pushes the blood to the surface - coming out as droplets of blood mixed with sweat.  Picking up on our meditation from S. Augustine’s Prayer Book, “As I hear Him cry out in horror, I realize that my own sins are part of this fearful burden.  Jesus is feeling the weight of the sins that I myself have committed.  I have a part in the sin which causes this dreadful agony of Jesus in the Garden.”

8.      He rises to find His disciples sleeping again, and departs to pray the third time;

9.      He arouses His disciples just as Judas arrives with soldiers.  Judas betrays Him with a kiss;

10.  His disciples forsake Him and flee.  Whatever we might think in retrospect of their cowardice, we must surely be honest enough to confess whether our own reaction would have been any different.

All of those points we know well enough, as they are fully recorded for us in the Bible; however, when we come to the second Sorrowful Mystery, the Bible is exceedingly concise, perhaps to spare us from the brutal ugliness.  The second being The Scourging, of which only Matthew, Mark and John state so very briefly, “and when he (Pilate) had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified”.  Luke simply states that Pilate delivered Jesus “to their will”.  Remembering that He suffered all of this for you and me, let us not rush past the scourging, but rather ponder it more fully as the Rosary would have us do.  If any here have seen The Passion of the Christ, you will recall the graphic detail of this gut wrenching mistreatment of our Lord and Saviour.  This is also the point at which our Passion Narrative from John began today:

1.      Pilate washes his hands, and delivers Jesus to be scourged;

2.      The soldiers lead Jesus to the pillar;

3.      They strip off His garments;

4.      They tie His hands and His feet to the pillar;

5.      The scourgers prepare the whips.  From a study of this practice by the Mayo clinic and from historical records we know that flogging was a legal preliminary to every Roman execution, and only women and Roman senators or soldiers (except in cases of desertion) were exempt.  The usual instrument was a short whip (flagellum) with several single or braided leather thongs of variable lengths, in which small iron balls or sharp pieces of sheep bones were tied at intervals.  Occasionally, staves also were used. 

6.      They lay on the stripes.  For scourging, the man was stripped of his clothing, and his hands were tied to an upright post.  The back, buttocks, and legs were flogged either by two soldiers (lictors) or by one who alternated positions.  The severity of the scourging depended on the disposition of the lictors and was intended to weaken the victim to a state just short of collapse or death.  After the scourging, the soldiers often taunted their victim.  As the Roman soldiers repeatedly struck the victim's back with full force, the iron balls would cause deep contusions, and the leather thongs and sheep bones would cut into the skin and subcutaneous tissues.  Then, as the flogging continued, the lacerations would tear into the underlying skeletal muscles and produce quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh.  Pain and blood loss generally set the stage for circulatory shock.  The extent of blood loss may well have determined how long the victim would survive on the cross.  At the Praetorium, Jesus was severely whipped.  Although the severity of the scourging is not discussed in the four gospel accounts, it is implied in one of the epistles [1Peter 2:24].  A detailed word study of the ancient Greek text for this verse indicates that the scourging of Jesus was particularly harsh.  Moreover, Isaiah’s prophecy tells us that His person was so marred that He no longer resembled an ordinary man.  It is not known whether the number of lashes was limited to 39 in accordance with Jewish law, as the Romans had no such limitations; and, as mentioned, the severity of the scourging was determined solely by the disposition of the lictors, only that they should stop this “little death” before the “big death” of crucifixion.  In reality, the victims often died from the scourging before they could be crucified;

7.      The Precious Blood is shed.  Doctors point out that the hematohidrosis that He suffered in the Garden will have left His skin particularly tender, so the flogging would have resulted in unimaginable pain and profuse blood shedding.

8.      Jesus is loosed from the pillar;

9.      He falls to the ground;

10.  He gathers His garments and is led away.

The third Sorrowful Mystery is again fully recorded for us in Scripture, but still bears review as it follows immediately on the heels of His scourging where he has been whipped almost to the limit of human endurance.  The Crowning with Thorns:

1.      Jesus is led by the soldiers to the great hall;

2.      The soldiers call their companions;

3.      He is stripped of His own clothes and arrayed in scarlet.  This would have reopened His wounds as the garments ripped away the dried blood following the scourging;

4.      They plait a crown of thorns;

5.      They press it on his head.  There is no universal agreement as to the type of thorny plant was used; but any gardener will testify that the puncture of the thorn of any plant that is thus endowed is exceedingly painful.  In this case, fresh and profuse bleeding would have ensued as the scalp is one of the most vascular areas of the body;

6.      The soldiers place a reed in His hand;

7.      They strike Him on the face and spit on Him;

8.      They pretend to worship Him, “Hail, King of the Jews!”;

9.      Pilate shows Him to the people, saying, “Behold, the Man” perhaps expecting that the ignominy thus far inflicted might have been enough to appease them; but, the people cry out, “Let Him be crucified”’

10.  Pilate gives Him back to the soldiers to be crucified.

As with the second Sorrowful Mystery, the fourth covers something that is similarly dealt with somewhat concisely in the Scriptural record.  The details, once again, are filled in so that we might better understand what must have taken place, and that we might more fully contemplate the full depth of His suffering on our behalf.  The fourth Mystery, Jesus Carries His Cross:

1.      Jesus takes the Cross and goes forth on the way of sorrows.  Following His scourging, He is very likely at the physical limit of His endurance;

2.      He is urged on by the soldiers and gazed at by the crowd;

3.      He falls the first time;

4.      His Mother meets Him.  Some might suggest this is pure speculation, but as Scripture records that Mary was present at the Crucifixion, but would not have been allowed in the Praetorium, this meeting must have occurred somewhere between the Roman hall and Calvary;

5.      The procession meets Simon of Cyrene, who is forced to help with the Cross.  One of our regular Lenten meditations during the Stations of the Cross says of Simon, “likely unwilling, certainly unknowing, this stranger is compelled to bear the Cross, a duty which should have been the glory of one of Jesus’ disciples”;

6.      A woman wipes his face with her veil.  Again some might object to this woman being indentified to posterity as Veronica; however, her name, when dissected becomes nera eikwn (true image), as an old legend has it that when the veil was returned to the woman, it had an image of Jesus’ face on it;

7.      Jesus falls again.  Recognizing that Simon was quite likely bearing most of the weight of the Cross, our Lord must have been very close to death at this time;

8.      Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, and, somehow dredging up the strength, says to them, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children”;

9.      He falls a third time;

10.  Jesus arrives at Calvary.

With the fifth and last Sorrowful Mystery, we come to the Crucifixion, that upon which we focus primarily here on Good Friday.  The Bible provides so much detail of this that there are more than 10 points that we might ponder.  Our points include only five of the seven last words, two of them in one meditation:

1.      Jesus refuses the wine and myrrh;

2.      Jesus is stretched on the Cross, and as His hands and feet are pierced, He prays, “Father , forgive them, for they know not what they do”;

3.      The Cross is raised between two convicted thieves;

4.      The chief priests come and mock Him, “He saved others; Himself He cannot save”;

5.      Jesus pardons the penitent thief.  This most symbolic act, of the Cross and forgiveness, is often glossed over; and while all Christians recognize that Jesus died on the Cross for our sins, an essential aspect of divine pardon seems to have grown altogether too fuzzy over the centuries.  Yes, He died for our sins; and yes, He will forgive us, just as He did the thief – that is guaranteed; BUT, that guaranteed forgiveness is entirely on His terms, not on ours.  What did the thief do before Jesus pardoned him?  Repentance, contrition, penitence – whichever you will.  If we do not acknowledge our sins and turn to Him in contrition as did the penitent thief, then we are not made at one with God by His sacrifice.  How many proceed through life, glib in their assurance that, because Jesus died for my sins, all is good, without ever giving a thought that we must own up to those sins if we are to receive His pardon? 

6.      He commits His Mother to St. John’s care.  Ever thoughtful of the needs of others, even at the point of death.  Jewish widows that had no immediate living relatives were usually relegated to indigent beggars;

7.      Darkness comes on, and Jesus cries, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”  While we must never minimize the human suffering, both physical and psychological, that our Lord endured, this quoting of the opening lines of Psalm 22 would not have gone unnoticed by the Jewish bystanders.  The Psalms were the hymns of the Jewish people, and also of the early Church for that matter, and most of the faithful would have them memorized.  Not only would they have recognized Psalm 22 as one that begins in apparent agony and defeat but that ends in triumph; but, also as one in which a number of prophecies were being fulfilled before their eyes: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn; they shoot out their lips, and shake their heads saying, ‘He trusted in God, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, if he will have him’.”  “They pierced my hands and my feet ... they stand staring and looking upon me.”  “They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.”

8.      “I thirst.”  He is given vinegar, and says, “It is finished”;

9.      He cries, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit”;

10.  Jesus bows His head, and dies.  The earth shakes, and the veil of the Temple is rent in two.

We may not know, we cannot tell,

What pains He had to bear,

But we believe it was for us

He hung and suffered there.

ANNUNCIATION     OTTAWA       2008    +CR