Good Friday: The Plot Thickens

The readings for Good Friday are powerful.  First, the Hebrew Scripture reading of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah.  Originally being a metaphor for the whole Jewish people, the depicted servant was later quite appropriately applied by Christians to Jesus.  The lengthy gospel reading from John's late, reflective work, is a masterpiece of dramatic writing, emphasizing the grand elements of conspiracy, betrayal and abandonment, and all within the primary metaphors of dark and light.  Jesus is the Light, while his opponents are the darkness.  It is in that context that the Jewish role was overplayed, clearly reflecting the growing anti-Semitism in the Johannine community. The gospel antedates the divorce of church and synagogue.   John's passion account is a masterful combination of a little fact and a lot of fiction.  It must be read, not as history, but as a theological saga in which we validly discern two great themes.

The first theme is that Jesus perfectly conformed to the will of God and, therefore, was killed by forces of wealth and power, opportunism and imperialism.  In  short, Jesus died because of human sin. We fast on this day because we all participate in human sin.  Thus, as the hymn says, "I have denied him.  I crucified him."

The second theme is that Jesus' death on the cross is an act of reconciliation of man to God. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.  That is what the Church calls the Mystery of salvation. Over the last two millenia  more than a dozen theories of the atonement have been articulated.  They are human attempts to explain the Mystery in language of a particular era and culture, to help people understand and appropriate the message. For example, the "theory of shame" is customary amongst Japanese, for whom none of the Western theories make any sense.  That's perfectly OK.  In reality, there can be no perfect or final theory of the atonement; and it is sad that one of those theories, the penal substitutionary atonement theory, has been imposed by fundamentalist Christians as though it were the only, or even the best, way to read the cross and Easter.  In my opinion, it is the worst.  I believe it misreads God, Jesus and humanity.

All theories of the atonement would acknowledge that Jesus' death was the necessary consequence of leading a life perfectly aligned to the divine will, and that through radical trust in Jesus we come into new and right relationship with God, eternal life.   That is the news that makes this Friday good.

We stand tonight with our Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross. We see the love of God shining forth in the crucified Jesus.   Now the big questions form on our lips:  Is this all there is?  Will God allow the Dark Side to prevail?  Stay tuned.