Good Friday Reflections on Mark’s Gospel
Reading: Mark 11:1-11
Reflection: “In lowly pomp ride on to die”
When we spoke of this incredible entry into Jerusalem Palm Sunday, we spoke of it as a glimpse of something we knew was going to be greater. But today we see the detour through which that glory and greatness must pass. There are so many words that come to us as we think about the fickleness of those who shouted hosanna on that day. Of those who would turn their backs. Of those who would turn their voices from voices of praise to voices of scorn. He entered the city in triumph and we will see that it will appear he will depart the city in defeat and disgrace. But we know that there is something beyond this day, that there is something beyond this triumph of Palm Sunday. As we prepare ourselves to walk with Jesus to the cross, let us prepare ourselves and ride with him in triumph and in majesty.
Reading: Mark 14: 26-31
Reflection: “They departed to the Mount”
There are a lot of brave words that are spoken before a time of crisis. After they departed from their supper, the Last Supper they would have with Jesus, there was something he was trying to explain to them. Trying to show them the pain and the suffering that was going to come. Trying to explain to them the sacrifice that he was about to make. Trying to explain to them the darkness of the days that were about to come. And they did not hear him. They did not understand. For weeks as they traveled to Jerusalem, he kept telling them that I must go to be sacrificed, I must go to die and then be raised after three days. But they would not hear him. What they heard him say was that he would be taken by Roman authorities, taken by temple authorities, and they all thought to themselves, We will stand up to those people. We will stand up to them with our swords, and with our fists, and we will make sure Jesus is not taken. They did not heed, they did not understand, what was about to come. They did not understand the darkness. They did not understand the sacrifice. They did not understand the pain. And we hear each time them saying, no, we will not run away. No, we will not deny you. And they had Jesus with them. They walked with him for three years, and still they denied him. Still, they deserted him. And it strikes us who do not have the man with us, as we think to ourselves, “Are our words brave words? Are our words words of courage? Will we be deserters? Will we scatter like the flock? Will we deny the Lord that is to come?”
Reading: Mark 14: 32-42
Reflection: “He came and found them sleeping”
There is a sense that Jesus, as the Lord of all the world, should have been powerful enough, should have been strong enough, should have had the mental courage to live through this painful night. The other gospels tell us stories of how in his prayers, how he was so filled with anguish that the sweat on his brow was turned to blood. That he was so filled with pain and anguish and suffering about what was about to happen that he could not bring himself to face it. And if he had trusted in his own judgment, if he had trusted in what his human senses were telling him, he would have ran away, as so many of us run away from the spiritual problems that face us. From the pain, from the grief, from the anguish that faces us, we run away. Maybe not physically, but emotionally and mentally there are people who shut down. Those who leave these things on a shelf somewhere, never to be found. But Jesus in his anguish did not bear it alone. He went up to that garden in Gethsemane, and he prayed. He prayed probably the hardest prayer he ever prayed in his life. He prayed that the cup which had been given to him might pass, that the job he was given to do might be taken from him, that the role he was to play in the world be given to another. And you can tell he probably believed those words as he said them. For who among us would walk willingly into such a sacrifice, into such a cross. Jesus did not walk blindly. He said Remove this cup from me, if it is possible, BUT not my will but yours be done. That is the powerful part in this prayer. For whatever Jesus wanted for himself, he knew that God’s purpose was foremost in his life and in his mind. He knew that with God behind him, he could overcome the pain, the doubt, the anguish and all the other human faults and sins that would hold him back, as they hold us back. They keep each one of us from fulfilling the full potential that God has in store. Will we be asleep like the disciples? Asleep at the important moments in the life of our Lord, and of our church?
Reading: Mark 14:43-50
Reflection: “They deserted and fled”
The promises of earlier that night drifted far from them. As Jesus stood and watched one whom he had trusted, one whom he had chosen, come with a gang of seeming vigilantes, with clubs and with swords, coming to arrest this troublemaker. And they did it under cover of darkness, as Jesus said, “I was with you in the temple each day. You come here under cover of darkness. You come here to hide behind the veil of the night. As all of those who desire to remove Jesus from our lives, they do it under cover of something else.
And all of the disciples who were with him, they all deserted and fled and took off into the darkness, into the night that surrounded them, so that they would not be found. So that they could not be seen, so that they would not be recognized, so that they would remain hidden. Because they did not want to associate themselves with this man, with this one who had been arrested and taken away. They knew what they had said, they knew what Jesus had promised to them, but still when the crisis came, their words were simply words. Those who had said they would not desert him, those who said they would not deny him, took off and ventured into the darkness. Wondering if they would see one another, wondering what would become of Jesus, and wondering what would become of themselves. Asking so many questions, of themselves, of their souls, and of their hearts.
Reading: Mark 15: 6-22
Reflection: “Crucify Him”
The cries of the crowd, many of the same people who had seen Jesus come into the city in triumph now stood by and watched as crowds shouted for his death. There is a lot of silence in these passages. Silence from Jesus, who faces his captors. Silence from the disciples who have run away, who have deserted him and fled. But there is no silence from those who want to destroy, from those who want to see their own petty concerns, their own earthly and worldly problems solved in the easiest way possible. And that is to blame them all on somebody else. “Crucify HIM!” they said. Him and his ideas. Him and his vision for a world in which we follow the perfection of God. Him who said there should be no divorce. Him who said we lust with our eyes. Him who said love your neighbour. Him who said love your enemies. Crucify him who claims to be the king of the Jews. And he who was the king of the world, he had a borrowed colt, he had a crown of thorns, and he had a group of people that thwarted him, that spit upon him, and struck him and flogged him. And that is the kingdom to which we belong. For our ruler is one who took our flaws, who took our beatings, who took all that we were in sin and unrighteousness; took it all upon himself on that day with the mocks and jeers of the soldiers. And they took him outside the city and took him to a hill, a small hill, a hill that would be the most important place in the history of our world, the hill upon which our church was born, the hill upon which our redemption was secured.
Reading: Mark 15: 23-32
Reflection: “He cannot save himself”
It is told in a very few words. The actual story of Jesus being taken and nailed to the cross is told in a very simple way. “And they crucified him.” That was all that they needed to write to show the people in that time how incredibly vicious this death was, of this innocent man, of this man who was truly obedient and sinless. And to hear the sound of the crowds as they gathered around the cross and witnessed this vicious event, to hear their cries saying, “He saved others.” They recognized the facts of his healings, his exorcisms, of what he had done for so many people from his time in Galilee to his journey to Jerusalem. “He saved others, but he cannot save himself.” And that is probably the one fact of the cross. The chief priests and the scribes meant it as a term of derision, they meant it as a way of mocking and jeering what Jesus had done. But when we hear those words, we know the truth of them. “HE SAVED OTHERS...” Even as he hangs upon that cross, even as the breath escapes slowly from his body, we still know he is saving others in that place. When the priests said, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself,” Christ knew in going to the cross that he could not save himself. He knew he would have to be obedient. He knew he would have to venture to this horrible place because he trusted not in his own power to save himself, but because he trusted in the God who was his Father. He trusted in the God who had told him that he would be saved, that he would be lifted, that he would be raised. The temple destroyed will be built again in three days. And as Jesus spoke those words to his disciples, and as he believed them, and as he heard the words from the chief priests, “He saved others, but he cannot save himself,” Jesus knew the truth of that statement. He could not save himself. Just as we cannot save ourselves. We may be able to help others, to guide them. We may even be able to guide ourselves, but ultimately we cannot save ourselves. And we must show the same trust that Jesus did in his journey to the cross. With each step that he took, a step taken in trust, in faith. And if that is our faith, then each step we take brings us closer to the salvation which Jesus offered on that day.
Reading: Mark 15:33-47
Reflection: “ Truly this man was God’s son!”
Now is the time for mourning and for grief. They had seen him breathe his last. They had seen him taken down, bruised and nailed with his scars and the marks of the pain and sacrifice, they had seen him wrapped in a cloth. They had seen him taken to a tomb carved from the rock. And it was their time to grieve. Their time to be mournful, to be filled with sadness. Their sadness, they thought, would last forever. For although they had heard the words he preached to them so many times, that he would die and be raised on the third day, how could they believe it? How could they believe something they had never seen? Something they could never imagine? And as we wait with them in their state of mourning, in their grief, we know today that the weeping is not forever. We know today that the mourning is not forever. We know today that the grief is not a grief that goes into eternity. We know that there is something greater waiting just a few days from us. And we know that to get there we have to go through this day. This day when the darkness came at noon. This day when the curtain of the temple was torn. This day in which all we have is anguish and fear. But as our closing hymn says, O Come and Mourn with Me Awhile. Not forever. Not an eternity. We are not called upon to put on the black clothes of mourning for the rest of our lives. Our tears will be turned into rejoicing. Our mourning will be turned into laughing. Our sorrow will be turned into joy on the day that our death becomes life, our sin becomes righteousness, our weakness becomes strength. And all the failings of the disciples on this day are forgotten. And all the failings of the believers in this place are forgotten. On that morning when the tomb breaks open. But for now we mourn and we wait.
