Fri, Apr 19, 2019
How our world works
Luke 22:47-23:56 by Craig de Vos
A homily/reflection for Good Friday
Series: Sermons

A gruesome, barbaric, and senseless death––

there’s really no other way to describe it.

And that’s highlighted, especially, in Luke’s version of the story.

Three times he has Jesus pronounced innocent:

by Pilate;

by one of the bandits crucified alongside Jesus;

and by the centurion at the end.

And yet, contrary to how the author of Luke’s Gospel would have us understand it…

we have believed and proclaimed that God did this…

that God demanded this… 

and without this humanity couldn’t be forgiven.

But what sort of God does that give us?

 

Surely what we get is a hypocritical deity;

a God who expects or even demands that we should forgive each other––

again and again, without reservation––

but who won’t do the same.

And that despite the fact that Jesus–– 

in God’s name––

had the audacity to forgive during his lifetime.

Surely what we get is an amoral fiend;

a God who tries to pretend that the end justifies the means…

or that two wrongs make a right.

Surely what we get is a Heavenly Father guilty of the worst form of child abuse…

which, if one of us were to do it, we would spend the rest of our lives in gaol…

and be subjected to the full scorn of our community.

I cannot…

will not…

believe, or put my trust, in such a God.

No, God did not do this––

not the loving, forgiving God that Jesus revealed to us.

God was not responsible for this gruesome, barbaric, cruel, and senseless death.

Rather, this was our doing––

ours… 

and ours alone.

Because that’s what we humans do:

we pick on the powerless…

we exploit the defenceless…

we abuse the weak.

Psychologically…

socially…

spiritually…

we need to find someone or something––

some scapegoat to sacrifice. 

That’s how our world works…

that’s how we prop-up our structures…

that’s how we maintain our safe and privileged way of life:

the Nazis and the Jews…

apartheid in South Africa…

ethnic cleansing in Rwanda or Bosnia or Sri Lanka or Myanmar…

the slaughter of Aboriginal people by white settlers…

the inhumane warehousing of asylum seekers…

sweatshops in third world countries––

the examples are almost endless;

and not just on a grand or global scale––

we also see it much closer to home:

in the emotional or physical abuse of wives by their husbands…

the molestation of children by adults…

the demonisation of welfare recipients…

and the oppression of LGBTI people.

We have done it throughout history.

We’re doing it still.

And each time that we do––

each time that we pick on someone weaker…

someone less powerful…

someone who makes a good scapegoat––

it’s as if we’re banging another nail into Jesus’ wrists or ankles.

We humans seek security through violence. 

We seek to maintain our structures through victimisation.

We seek to prop up our power through manipulation and abuse.

If there was a deity being appeased through the crucifixion of Jesus…

then it was us.

Through a gruesome, barbaric, and senseless death…

Jesus––

symbolically, sacramentally God with us, God among us, God as one of us––

innocently became our ultimate victim…

in order to help us realise that we don’t need to sacrifice scapegoats.

Jesus died to show us the depths to which we will stoop.

Jesus also died to show us the depth of God’s love.

And Jesus died to show us another way of being human.

That’s why we need to remember this awful day––

this awful act––

because we still haven’t learnt what God is trying to teach us.