This sermon was preached on the 29th of March 2024, Good Friday, in the Anglican Parish of Kalamunda-Lesmurdie

Text: John 18.1-19.42

Good Friday. How can this day possibly be called Good?

Today, the Son of God is tried, tried, and sentenced to death. Today, the Son of God is abandoned by his disciples, his friends, even by Peter, his rock. Today, the Son of God is rejected by his people.

Today, the Son of God is sentenced to a degrading death. A death reserved for rebels, for traitors, for those who challenged empire. A death as painful and degrading as human beings can make it.

Today nails were hammered through the hands of Jesus. Today nails were hammered through the feet of Jesus. Today Jesus hung from the cross, and died.

Three women watched, along with the beloved disciple. Mary, the Mother of God; Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Surely they wept. How can this day be called Good?

(Standing next to the a large cross.) This is the throne of God. This. This cross. This instrument of torture, this instrument of degrading death. This which represents the worst that we do to our fellow people.

This is the throne of God.

It is not the throne of a God who dominates. It is not the throne of a God who demands. It is not the throne of a God who overpowers.

It is the throne of God who loves. It is the throne of God who triumphs over sin and death, over human violence; the violence we direct to one another, and the violence we direct toward God.

It is the throne of God whose eternal nature is self-effacing, self-sacrificial love. God who will love us, love all of us, just as we are, to the end. Even if that means giving everything for us. Even if that means embracing and defeating death, so that we, God’s rebellious, errant children, might live.

On the Cross, Jesus of Nazareth reconciled humanity, reconciled all of us, with our Creator. All we have to do in return is to accept the hand of Jesus, give Jesus our allegiance, and live in faith.

Only God incarnate could have taken this cruel instrument, this mechanism of death, and turned it into a throne. Only God incarnate could have done this for us. For you, for me, for every person who ever has been, and ever will be.

Theologians, the great scholars of the Church, have never been able to come up with one definitive explanation for the Cross. And they never will, this side of eternity.

But this is a day that we can call Good.