Power

 

A Sermon for Good Friday                 

April 7, 2023

The Rev. Robin Teasley

 

John 18:1 – 19:42

 

The cross is about power. We may think we know what that means. Power is control. Power is status and prestige. Those with power win. Those with power make all the decisions. Those with power write the history. In the Passion narrative we just heard, it appears clear who has the power. It seems everyone has more power than Jesus. Judas, the chief priests and Pharisees, soldiers, Annas, Caiaphas, and Pilate, who actually claimed to have power to release and power to crucify Jesus. The crowd yelling “crucify him!” and even Barabbas, the prisoner released instead of Jesus, all had power.

 

There was also power in lanterns, torches, weapons, emperors, nations, kingdoms, and laws. All things mentioned or used by the people to attempt to control Jesus.



Christ Before Pilate, Mihaly, Munkacsy 


Good Friday is a day most of us would rather avoid, on so many levels. It’s easier to just ignore it and wait for Sunday. But to take the time to sit with Jesus at the foot of the cross, to truly examine what it means for Jesus to be crucified is good work for the soul. And in doing this work of sitting with Jesus, we begin to recognize that true power is in service, in forgiveness, in sacrifice, and above all, in love.

 

The crucified Jesus makes known to us how wrong both religious and political authorities can be, and how very wrong we can be about where true power is to be found. The crowd chose to free Barabbas, a common thief, and to crucify Jesus instead. That’s only one example of how much we can misperceive, misjudge, and be mistaken about power. It’s not God’s judgment but ours that destroys the world. Jesus came to save us from our own destruction, from the pain we cause one another whenever we exercise power we think we have. Power that does not belong to us.



Crucifixion, Andrea Mantegna

 

To witness the pain and suffering Jesus endured is to see the pain and suffering we are responsible for in the world. Jesus hung on the cross in total solidarity with the pain of the world.  Because you see, God is found wherever we find pain and suffering. This means that God is on both sides of every war, in sympathy with both the pain of the perpetrator and the pain of the victim. God is on both sides of a divorce, both sides of a church split, both sides of Congress. I wonder if we even like that, or can accept that?  But at the foot of the cross there are no sides for us to take, only the realization that we are powerless and empty without Christ. 

 

When it seems that God is not present, we might ask ourselves who has truly left, and who remains sitting at the foot of the cross. We might ponder what life would be like without Christ, and worship today is without Eucharist to help us consider this. 



 The Arrest of Christ, Giotto

 

It’s also worth spending some time thinking about how we use power in our lives. Perhaps we can remember the love Jesus showed to his disciples as he served them and fed them, commanding them to love one another. In that love is true power, because that is where we see, and when we realize, that Christ is with us always in all of life’s pain and suffering. That is when we understand the power of sacrifice.

 

According to theologian Frederick Buechner, “To sacrifice something is to make it holy by giving it away for love.”  Even if someone is trying to pry it out of your hands. Even if those standing around you laugh and shout that you have no choice. You do have a choice. You have the power to decide how you will let go. You can still open your hands at the last moment and give up what others thought they were taking from you. You can even make it holy by doing it for love.” [1]

 

We have been given the grace and the power to make a choice. Yes, we will suffer in life in all sorts of ways, but suffering does not have to become the meaning of our lives. Instead, it can be the doorway to love.

 


Christ Carrying the Cross, El Greco


Where is the power in your life?  Is it in the destructive hands of the world, or in the pierced hands of the one who loves you? In John’s gospel, Jesus carries the cross by himself. Jesus is carrying all of the power. Jesus has the power to create a family at the foot of the cross, and the power to fulfill the scriptures. Jesus has the power to let go of every single thing, so that he might gather us up in his great love. What will you choose to do with your power? A power that is not even yours, but God’s.




 Title Image: Ecce Homo, Antonio Cesari

 


[1]Taylor, Barbara Brown, Home By Another Way, p. 96.

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