To any length. Good Friday, April 10, 2020. The Rev. Kathleen M. Sturges

April 10, 2020

Good Friday

Years ago I had the privilege to take a trip to Spain. And one of the things that made an impression on me was what I called, rather flippantly I confess, bloody Jesus. Church after church, cathedral after cathedral there he was. This was not the Jesus I was accustomed to seeing in American churches where, if Jesus was depicted at all, he was happily walking the earth or seated on a throne in heaven or, if he happened to be hanging on the cross, didn’t seem too bothered by it. No, this Jesus was starkly different - suffering and in agony with his body contorted, face twisted, and blood - lots of blood streaming down his face, his hands, his feet, his side.

I didn’t like it bloody Jesus. He made me feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable because it’s never pleasant to see suffering. But also uncomfortable because, at that time, it stirred up in me some pretty dark theology. Perhaps you’re familiar with it? The idea that basically God kills Jesus, or at least demands that Jesus die so that God can love us. That Jesus’ blood sacrifice somehow makes us acceptable. Which, if true, should make us all pretty uncomfortable.

But over the years I’ve come to understand - or at least I’m in the process of understanding -

that Jesus’ death on the cross isn’t about God getting his pound of flesh. Rather Christ’s crucifixion is about how much we are already loved - just as we are. Loved so much that God will go to any length to save us from our selves, from our sin - the parts of us that, as individuals and as a society, operate in selfish, violent, destructive ways, ways that always lead to death, of some kind.

It is those dark parts of ourselves, not God, that put Jesus on the cross. But what kept him there was love. Love so sacrificial that he willingly takes in all of the darkness. Love so powerful that he does this without lashing out, without striking back, without giving up or turning away so that love has the final word. But let’s not kid ourselves, it takes its toll.

The image of bloody Jesus still makes me feel uncomfortable, but now my discomfort comes from the dawning realization that God always has and always will love us with a passion - a passion that I know I don’t deserve. And that’s exactly the point. The love of God is not something I or you earn or deserve. The love of God just is. God loves us because God loves us. And that love is passionate and present always, but especially in the Good Fridays of our lives. For in Christ crucified we cannot deny the power of love that will ultimately have its way with all of us by loving, loving, and loving us more until we surrender all of our selves to that love which is life.