Daily Archives: April 10, 2009

The Hatred of the Cross

Posted by on April 10, 2009 3 comments

Dan posted one of my favorite Stringfellow quotes for Holy Week. It is utterly appropriate:

“Many do not believe. Many men hate the Cross because it means a salvation not of their own choosing or making, but rather of God’s grace and his mercy. Men hate the Cross because it means a salvation which is unearned, undeserved, unmerited. Men would much prefer God to punish them than to forgive them because that would mean that God is dependent upon men and needed their obedience to be their God. Then God would be in fact no different from an idol of race, nation, family, or whatever, and a man would feel justified either by his obedience to the idol or the the punishment of his disobedience.”

~ William Stringfellow, Free in Obedience.

Resurrection Blues

Posted by on April 10, 2009 1 comment

If there was ever a song that captured the spirit of Good Friday for me, it is “Resurrection Blues” by Otis Taylor. In contrast to the pervasive tendency to see, in the secret recesses of the Christ of the crucifixion, a self-assured confidence in his divinity and mission, we have a vision that truly embraces the sweated blood, and the desperate pleas of the garden of Gethsemane, and the cry of dereliction.

We all got to die
But some people
Some people
Some people got to suffer before they die

This about a man
He’s gonna be crucified

Some people die of cancer
Some people die of aids
But this man’s gonna be crucified

Woke up this morning
In a deep deep
a deep sleep
I found out
I found out
I found out
I was Jesus

I don’t want to be crucified
Don’t want
Thorns on my head
Don’t want
Walk among the dead
I don’t want to be
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus

Woke up this morning
from a deep deep
a deep sleep
I found out
I found out
Found out
I was Jesus

I can’t break bread
Feed a thousand people
Turn sweet water
Into wine
Been on this earth
Too long of a time
Don’t want to be
Jesus
Jesus
Jesus

Listen to the song for free, here. And, if you really want to hear this song in context, and think Good Friday in concert with the crucified people of this age, you should listen to it in concert with his “Saint Martha Blues.” This devastating song is Taylor’s own description of the lynching of his grandfather, which conjures up images of the women who, after the death of Christ must go to his body. Fantastic, terrifying stuff.

The Cross as Enthronement

Posted by on April 10, 2009 2 comments

“John omits any details which might suggest pity for the victim. On the contrary, the crucifixion is described as an enthronement in which the kings gives gifts of bounty to his people. The title on the cross, about which all four Gospels are substantially agreed, is a proclamation not only to Israel but to the whole world that Jesus is king. The writing of the title in the three languages makes the enthronement an international event. John brings out the immense seriousness of the title on the cross by his report of the argument between Pilate and the Jews. Does Pilate, driven against his will to condemn an innocent man, wish to carry his public mockery of the Jews still further? Or does he wish to assert his own belief that Jesus is in some sense a king? Perhaps both motives are present. For the Jewish leaders the title is an intolerable affront. . . . They demand that the title be amended to make clear that the claim to kingship is not acknowledged. But at this point Pilate, who has been driven to such helpless vacillation between the prisoner and his accusers, suddenly becomes firm. He refuses absolutely to alter the title, and the reader knows that what he has written will stand, not because Pilate is stubborn, but because he is the unwitting witness of the truth. On the cross, Jesus reigns.”

~ Lesslie Newbigin, The Light has Come, 252-53.

The Goodness of Good Friday

Posted by on April 10, 2009 4 comments

It seems almost utterly cliche to speak of what, exactly is good about Good Friday. We certainly have an answer close at hand: what is good about Good Friday is the role that Christ’s death plays in our salvation. It’s good that Christ died because Christ needed to die to bring about our salvation. I suppose there’s nothing inherently wrong with this notion, depending on the sort of atonement theology that this line of thinking assumes, however it doesn’t take us very deep. No matter what it makes the goodness of Good Friday instrumental. It was good that Christ died because, for whatever reason, that had to happen for a bunch of other things to happen that constitute our salvation.

This construction establishes the goodness of Good Friday on the basis of it setting the conditions, as it were, for what is really the truly good thing, the resurrection. Good Friday is retroactively rendered good, as it were by virtue of the light of Easter. This also is fine, as far as it goes. However, it doesn’t go deep enough. What ultimately makes Good Friday good is that it is the actualization in history of the fullness of God’s trinitarian agape. Good Friday is good because it is on this day that we witness, in the person of Jesus the reaches to which the love of God freely goes for the sake of the world. Good Friday is good because the love that loves unto death is revealed to us on this day.

Good Friday is good because on it God in Christ gives himself away to the world, all the way to the point of death, even death on cross. Good Friday is good because it was the first day in the history of the world where we finally knew and saw the fullness of God’s self-expending love. On Good Friday the love of God journeys into the farthest reaches of the human experience under sin. In embracing death, the Son takes the infinite love of the Trinity into the most remote place that humanity could construct in its rebellion against God. What makes Good Friday good is that this is the day when the love of God entered into every last human darkness, leaving nothing out. Good Friday is not simply good by virtue of the resurrection to come. Good Friday is good because on this day, God refused to be absent any longer from any corner of our alienation and death.

“Truly  I say to you, this very day, you will be with me in paradise.” This is the promise of the love that endures Good Friday. And this is why it is good. Very good.

Pope Benedict at the Beginning of Holy Week

Posted by on April 10, 2009 1 comment

“Tomorrow we begin the Holy Triduum, the heart of the entire liturgical year: a time when we immerse ourselves in the central events of our Redemption. The Chrism Mass serves as a prelude to these three days, as priests renew their promises to the Bishop, who then blesses the holy oils and consecrates the chrism signifying the gift of the Holy Spirit. At the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, we recall the institution of the Eucharist, the supreme sign of Christ’s love for us. As we venerate his Cross on Good Friday, we contemplate the full meaning of his words: “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many” (Mk 14:24). Holy Saturday finds us waiting in silent hope for the Easter Vigil, when every church will break forth in a song of joy at the Lord’s Resurrection. The celebration of the Paschal mystery recalls the depth of Christ’s love: he did not wish to exercise his divinity as an exclusive possession, a means of domination, or a sign of distance between him and us. Rather, “he emptied himself, taking the form of a servant” (Phil 2:7) by sharing fully in our human condition, even to the point of death: not a death imposed by blind chance or fate, but one freely chosen in obedience to the Father’s will for the salvation for all. May our fervent celebration of the Triduum draw us ever more deeply into Christ’s Paschal mystery!”

~ Pope Benedict XVI, GENERAL AUDIENCE, Wednesday, 8 April 2009

Rowan Williams’ Holy Week Lectures

Posted by on April 10, 2009 3 comments

This year for Holy Week, Rowan Williams has delivered a series of lectures entitled “Growing in Prayer: What the Saints tell us about the Spiritual Journey.” Here are links to the mp3 files of these presentations. Definitely worth a listen.

Also, thanks to Jason who first alerted us to these lectures. He’s also been blogging up a storm recently, so folks should check out his blog if you’re not doing so already.

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