Good Friday Homily

This picture was taken after the Good Friday liturgy in my parish. After the veneration of the Cross, we laid the Cross on the Altar where it rested during the Communion rite. Photo: CP

Homily for Good Friday 2009

Golgotha was a bald, rocky hill
situated a few hundred yards outside the walls of Jerusalem.
It was neither large nor beautiful – simply utilitarian:
the site of executions.

The Cross was larger than most we see in churches,
large enough to accept Jesus’ body
and the weight of sin he would bear
on that Friday we call Good, nearly 2000 years ago…

Jesus’ back and shoulders were smaller than the cross
and yet broad enough, strong enough
to bear the burden of all the sins of all time.

No human mind or heart can possibly imagine
the weight of our sins that Jesus carried for us.

Could any other wooden frame stand and not disintegrate
under so holy and heavy a burden?

Most people have never go to Jerusalem,
but consider how much suffering human history has laid
at the foot of the Cross
on that bald, rocky hill, outside the holy city.

Tonight we remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross,
and in remembering we come to a deeper awareness
of the weight our own sins heaped on the shoulders of Jesus
and of the unflinching, unconditional depth and strength
of his love for us --
such that no burden was too great for him to carry --
all that we might find and see in him the love of God who made us.

Last night we remembered the intimacy of Jesus’ love for us:
his taking our dirty feet in his holy hands and washing them,
serving us and inviting us to serve one another in the same way.

We remembered the intimacy of Jesus whose love for us
invites us to feast on his body and blood in the Eucharist,
inviting us to consume him, and in doing so,
he becomes one with us,
consuming us, assuming us into his body,
inviting us to break and pour out ourselves
for the sake of our neighbor.

Last night we remembered the lamb
slain for the Israelites in Egypt
that the lamb’s blood might mark them out
to be delivered from death.

Last night we remembered that Jesus is the Lamb of God
and that in the blood of his covenant,
the angel of death passes over us,
saving us for life forever with God.

This night we remember
how Jesus, the Lamb, was slain on the wood of the cross
so that his blood, shed for us,
might mark not our doorposts but our souls,
that we might be washed in the blood of the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world,
who takes away our sins,
who takes away my sins and yours --
that we might know the love God for us.

This night, then, is not a time to pity Jesus
but rather a time for us to glory in the Cross
of him who spared nothing
in giving himself for our sakes.

In a few moments,
we will come forward to venerate the Cross of Jesus.

It will be a time to praise God for the mercy shown us in Jesus’ love…

- a time to lay down our burdens at the foot of the cross of him
who has already carried them for us…

- a time to remember that Jesus asks us
to shoulder the burdens of those who suffer today…

- a time to remember that we have been marked
with the blood of the Lamb of God…

All this we do in memory of Christ Jesus,
our Passover and our lasting peace.

-ConcordPastor