Good Friday — 30 March 2018
Trinity
– 12:15 pm
Isaiah
52:13-53:12 | Psalm 22
| Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9 | John
18:1-19:42
When Jesus had received the
wine, he said, "It is finished." Then he bowed his head and gave up
his spirit.
“It is
finished.”
St. John’s
Gospel is hard. I don’t mean that it is too hard, that you should give up trying
to read or understand it – very much the contrary! But be aware that the evangelist, for all the
relative simplicity of his common Greek, is a very sophisticated literary
writer. His words often have multiple
meanings. And the answer to the
question, does he mean “A” or “B’? is likely to be “Yes.”
“It is
finished.” On the surface, what we may
initially hear is: “It’s all over. It’s done.
That’s it.” And that’s one of the
meanings of the Greek word in the text.
But the phrase also means “It is completed.” “It is done” as in “this project is now
done.” “It is accomplished.” The underlying word also means “purpose,” as
in “the purpose is fulfilled.” Jesus is
saying, “I have fulfilled the purpose for which I came, and now I can let go.”
(I might
note that the same Greek word is used by St. Matthew in the Sermon on the
Mount, where Jesus says, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect.” [Matt. 5:58] That has given a
lot of Christians palpitations, because we think that’s demand for a moral
perfection in terms of keeping all the rules without fail, and I’m only human,
give me a break! That’s not the
point. “Be complete.” “Be whole.”
“Be mature.” “Fulfill God’s
purpose for you.” “Live in the image of
the God who created you.”)
John’s
Gospel goes on: “Then he bowed his head
and gave up his spirit.” I suppose the
first thing that comes to our minds may be a picture of Jesus dropping his head
and “giving up the ghost,” as the King James Version says. “Breathed his last,” the synoptic gospels
say, translating a word that can mean “expired.” Okay.
But I think John means more than that.
The Greek says “He inclined his head.”
(In fact, the Greek word, through Latin, is where our word “incline”
comes from.) Jesus doesn’t just drop his head, he points his head. One inclines to, points to something or
someone. Who was there, in the Fourth
Gospel? His mother, and the other women,
and the Beloved Disciple. The last of
his faithful community, and the beginnings of his church. “He inclined his head and gave up…” Stop there.
The word means more than just “give up.”
It means “give over” or “hand on.”
It can mean “entrust.” The root
word is one we often translate as “tradition.”
Okay. “He inclined his head and gave up – or handed
on – his spirit.” Except that’s not
exactly what the text says. It says, “He
handed on the spirit.” What spirit?
His own spirit, his soul, his breath?
Surrendered back to God the Father?
Yes, perhaps. Or The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, handed over
to the Church, gathered at the foot of his Cross? As he will three days later, to his disciples
in hiding: “As the Father has sent me,
so I send you…Receive the Holy Spirit.” [John 20:21-22]
The author
of the Fourth Gospel wants us to understand that Jesus was not a tragic victim
who was foolish enough to let himself get caught by the Jerusalem Establishment
and the Roman Empire? It is quite clear
in John’s Gospel that Jesus is the protagonist in his own Passion. This is God’s drama, God’s mission, for the
reconciliation, the healing, the completion, the perfection, the finishing
of the human world. Jesus’ earthly
mission, the first act, is complete, it is finished, almost. In the second act that mission has been
handed over to us, in the power of the Spirit, to continue.
