Good Friday

Canon Tim Schofield, Canon Emeritus of Chichester Cathedral

Some thirty years ago, on an evening just after Christmas, I received a phone call from a young famer’s wife in one of my rural parishes. She rang to say that their 3-month-old baby had died – a cot death. I went out to see them and as I entered their home it was like walking into a place where time had stopped. There was this silence, this mute unbelief that such a terrible thing had happened.  One minute they were changing nappies, feeding and talking to their beautiful child and the next, death had shattered the pattern of their lives forever. The look of anguish, the incomprehension of what was happening to them, is something we have also seen in the faces of those suffering in the Ukraine.

 And confronted by that sort of suffering what does it mean to talk about the victory of the cross? If I am honest, I had nothing to say to that farming family that would make any difference. I could only sit in silence and weep with them. But then they asked me to do something. They asked me to go to the hospital mortuary and baptise baby Philip. So, I went and when I made the sign of the cross on his forehead it came home to me anew how Jesus knows the worst. “My God, My God why have you forsaken me”. He shared the brokenness and anguish of humanity to the full in and through death. And that means that whilst our sufferings may be unspeakable Jesus is present to share what we cannot name.

And all this is matters when it comes to thinking about the victory of the cross. It implies that Jesus did not come simply to fix a problem; to fix the problem of evil and sin. The random evil of pandemic and war, the countless sufferings of the past two years clearly show that things have not been fixed in any simplistic sense. But what we do see on the cross is Jesus coming to share his love without limit. Less than a week before Good Friday Jesus had entered Jerusalem in triumph. With bewildering speed, it all went so badly wrong that Jesus was completely crushed by events. In the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus saw all that he was going to suffer on the way of the cross, and the horror was so great we are told he sweated blood.  But, and this is crucial, he still chose to be with us, to taste the worst that could happen to a human being. And, equally important, the Father chose to let Jesus suffer that he might be with us in all things.

So, the victory of the cross is not so much about Jesus fixing things immediately as about sharing with us the love of the Trinity. The cross reminds us that the Son of God is not exempt from the human reality that there is nothing in this life that cannot go badly wrong. And yet Jesus has chosen to be with us whatever happens. His love will not let us go.

He came, though, not only so nothing might separate us from the love of the Trinity but also to share with us the divine life. One of my favourite phrases from the scriptures comes at the beginning of John’s Gospel, when it says of Jesus: “in him was life”. And as the gospel unfolds it develops this saying about the life that is in Jesus. We hear Peter telling us that the words of Jesus are “the words of eternal life” (6:67) Later, Jesus tells us that the reason he came was that we might have life “and have it abundantly” (10:10). And then just before he died, he said to his disciples: “because I live, you also will live.” (14:19) But in order that we might receive this abundant life there had to be an exchange. Jesus took into himself all the deadness of the world, tasted death in all its bitterness. Death, though, could not contain this abundant life and was swallowed up in victory.

And we see this portrayed in a powerful print by the American artist R.O. Hodgell. The first thing we notice about this print is that the marks of the nails in Jesus’ body are very visible. Jesus really died on the cross. But what I like about this print is the way Hodgell then conveys the sense that “in him was life”. His body ripples with muscles; Jesus seems to explode from the cross with life and power; he tramples over death making it look defeated and powerless in the face of divine energy. George Herbert’s great phrase came to mind as I looked at this: “such a life as killeth death”.  And Hodgell shows us “Jesus the life” with arms wide open. This is Jesus embracing and drawing all people to himself (12:32) and inviting us to share his abundant, transforming life. Death, diminishment and destruction do not have to have the last word – there is a life that is greater.

Henri Nouwen was a Roman Catholic priest who taught at Yale and Harvard as well as writing many books. After years in academia, he felt restless and lost. And following a time of searching, Nouwen ended up spending nine months in a L’Arche community in France caring for those who could do nothing for themselves. He was given responsibility for Phillipe, a quadriplegic, who was totally disabled. He needed twenty four hour care and had to be carried everywhere. Nouwen developed a profound respect and love for Philippe who never talked or walked or did any of the things we take for granted. Then one day Nouwen carried Philippe into chapel, as he often did, but this day was different. It was Good Friday, which triggered in Nouwen a reaction to all the accumulated strain of weeks of caring. He was overwhelmed with a colossal sense of anger towards God. Philippe had done nothing that he should suffer as he did; what sort of God would not do something about this; to say God shares our suffering and loves us without limit doesn’t seem enough.

Later, as Nouwen reflected on his anger in tranquillity he heard spoken in his mind some words from St. Paul: “we will all be changed” (1 Corinthians 15: 51). It is a text that comes just before the words “Death has been swallowed up in victory”. Death, diminishment, and destruction will not have the last word – there is an abundant life that is greater, a love that will not only be with us but will transform us – “we will all be changed”. There is a prayer by Desmond Tutu which sums us this victory with which I would like to finish:

Goodness is stronger than evil; Love is stronger than hate; Light is stronger than darkness; Life is stronger than death; Victory is ours through Him who loves us.