Hope In Despair Series

March 27, 2019 - Good Friday Service

Hope Lutheran Church

Pastor Mary Erickson

John 18:1-19:42

Hope in Despair

Brother Charles de Foucauld wrote what he entitled The Prayer of Abandonment. He imagined that it was Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. It seems appropriate to read on Good Friday. Please pray with me:

Father,

I abandon myself into your hands;

do with me what you will.

Whatever you may do, I thank you:

I am ready for all, I accept all.

Let only your will be done in me

and in all your creatures—

I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul:

I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,

for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,

to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,

and with boundless confidence,

for you are my Father.

Amen

“It’s finished.” That’s what you say when something is doomed. Like earlier this week, watching the flames consume Notre Dame in Paris. Seeing the entire heart of the church engulfed by flames, it was all over.

Good Friday is a day of despair. We hear the long text of doom. Jesus is betrayed by one of his own inner-circle. He’s beaten, taunted, and condemned. Then he’s led to a cross and executed by crucifixion.

A wave of despair engulfed the hearts of Jesus’ disciples and friends. It was all over. The ministry they’d shared with him: finished. His life: finished. It was all over! This innocent, good man. His life was unjustly taken. Their dear friend. And now his light was all but extinguished.

“It’s finished.” It perfectly summarizes the feelings of the disciples. But there’s another way to say that phrase, and it has a completely different connotation. It’s almost like these words would benefit from an emoji. For the disciples, it needs a blue-faced emoji with a sad mouth and tears running down both cheeks.

But when Jesus says these words from the cross, it’s not about despair. It’s about accomplishment. It’s what DaVinci would have said when he finished painting The Last Supper. He stepped back from the canvas and announced, “It’s finished!”

Jesus’ statement needs a different emoji. His emoji would look looked exhausted, but with a smile of victory.

“It’s finished!” Jesus’ cry from the cross isn’t about despair. His mission is accomplished! He has completed all he came to fulfill. He’s borne witness to God’s word. He brought healing to the sick. He came to give life in abundance. And in this, his final act, he does that in spades. In his dying, Jesus absorbs all of the world’s sin. He gathers it all in, and then he takes it all down with him. He submits to death. He succumbs to death, so that ultimately, he can overcome it.

His death shows us the full reach and power of God’s love. It’s a love that gathers in all things. It embraces the sin of the world, all the suffering, all the hatred, all the alienation. He gathers it all in and takes it with him to the grave.

“It’s finished.” To Jesus, his death is not despair. It’s victory. All he intended to do has been done. He’s overcome every enemy, every force opposed to God. The great love of God takes it all in and leaves healing in its place.

“It’s finished.” Broken and stripped, Jesus turns our despair into hope. Mission accomplished.