Good FridayDo we dare enter in where Christ, who opened the way by his Passion, has gone before us, entering into his glory through suffering? Shall we not follow him along this glorious way?
Good FridayOn Good Friday, our Lord Jesus Christ was put to death. From this side of the veil, we see an execution and a conspiracy: a nationalist rabble-rouser rounded up after storming the capital, preaching regime change (“the Kingdom of God is at hand!”); arrested by a private security agency on trumped-up charges, “tried” and summarily convicted by a kangaroo court under the cover of night, and hastily delivered over to be crucified for treason and sedition. Of course, Christians have always interpreted the Passion of Christ rather differently: it was the self-sacrifice of the Son of God for the sins of the world, the sacerdotal act of a royal, divine high priest for the redemption of his heavenly Kingdom. Believers turn through the pages of scripture back to the Old Testament, and see Jesus’ sacrifice foreshadowed in the slaughter of the Passover Lamb, and especially, the bulls and goats of the Day of Atonement ritual. In the old days, the high priest would enter into the temple on the Day of Atonement, strip himself of his usual garments, and enter into the inner sanctum of the holy of holies, where the Divine Presence was. There he would offer the blood of bulls in place of his own; he would offer the blood of a goat bearing the name of YHWH; he would lay his hands on another goat, the “scapegoat” bearing the name of the fallen angel Azazel (1 En. 9:6), ritually transferring the sins of the people onto the head of the scapegoat; he would tie red yarn around its horns, and it would then be driven out into the wilderness. The high priest would at last emerge from the temple and proclaim salvation to the people who eagerly awaited him: “You shall be clean from all your sins before the LORD!” (Lev. 16:30). The author of the book of Hebrews said that all of this was a foreshadowing of Christ’s sacrificial high priesthood. St. Paul taught that the old ways were like a mirror, darkly reflecting the heavenly light of Christ (1 Cor. 13:12). The forms of the Old Testament being a mirror, they were a dimensional inversion of the heavenly patterns they revealed (Ex. 25:9, Acts 7:44, Heb. 8:5). Thus, while the Aaronic high priest would leave behind the world, so to speak, when he entered the temple, Christ left heaven when he entered the world and made it his temple (Jn. 1:14, 2:19); while Aaron shed his garments and offered the blood of bulls and goats in place of his own within the holy of holies, Jesus, who bore the name of YHWH (Lk. 1:32, Ph. 2:9), shed his flesh and offered his own blood in Hades; while Aaron tied red yarn around the horns of the scapegoat (horns are a symbol for crowns), Jesus’ head bled from the crown of thorns he was made to wear; while Aaron placed the sins of the people on the Azazel goat and drove it into the wilderness, Jesus drove those who refused to believe him into the outer darkness of his Kingdom (Mt. 21:43, 23:13f), and exorcised the heavenly principalities who ruled over them (Lk. 11:20, Col. 2:15). And so our Lord judged and sentenced the heavenly powers of darkness, as foreseen by the Psalmist: “God presides in the divine assembly; He renders judgment among the gods. ‘How long will you judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; uphold the rights of the afflicted and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; save them from the hand of the wicked. They do not know or understand; they wander in the darkness; all the foundations of the earth are shaken. I have said, You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fall.’ Arise, O God, judge the earth, for all the nations are Your inheritance.” (Ps. 82). This our Lord did, when he was handed over to the wicked heart of the land that put him to death (Mt. 14:20), and lifted Him up onto the Cross. Christ’s inversion of the Old Testament forms reveals something stunning: that heaven’s temple is on earth, and the holy of holies is in the grave, filled with his Divine Presence. His act of atonement wasn’t that of a common priest — he had the authority to forgive sins in himself, after all (Mt. 9:6), an authority which no Levite priest had — but it was to atone for the spiritual hosts of wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12) and to reconcile the enmity between the earth and the heavens who oppressed God’s people on earth. He saw to it that the great serpent, the devil, fell from heaven (Lk. 10:18), and he gave his disciples the authority to tread upon such serpents on the earth (Lk. 10:19). Christ’s triumph over these powers was by the Holy Spirit of Resurrection (Ro. 1:4), and it was all in order to deliver the heavenly gift and manna of his Holy Spirit to his people that he descended from heaven (Jn. 6:32f). This is everything. He who has the Spirit has the Lord, who is the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17) — “all things are yours” (1 Cor. 3:21), for all things are his: “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” (Ps. 42:2) — and not only things on earth but also, beyond the veil, all things in heaven (Col. 1:20). On Good Friday, we stand gazing without the torn veil, wondering at the glory which once lay hidden behind it — that glory which the Son had with the Father before the world began (Jn. 17:5). Do we dare enter in where Christ, who opened the way by his Passion, has gone before us, entering into his glory through suffering (Lk. 24:26)? Shall we not follow him along this glorious way which he has shown us, and so join him in his royal high priesthood of passion? Amen.
Christ Nailed to the Cross The Third Hour (c.1800 – c.1803) by William BlakeSong Meditation: “No Way Up But Down”
If my Lord was lifted up, then like him I will rise |
Hymns and Homilies, by Seán McMahon Seán McMahon |
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