April 15, 2022
Good Friday, April 15, 2022 – Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9; John 18:1-19:42
Pilate’s renown line, “What is truth,” is found exactly in the middle of St. John’s Passion gospel. There are just about 40 lines leading up to it, and just about 40 lines leading away from it. Which meant that, when this gospel was composed, its writer meant it to be the high point of the story. As though Jesus and Pilate are standing on a stage that represents the whole world, and they are looking backwards and they are looking forward.
How can we preach on today’s gospel and on what we celebrate these four days without further dividing humanity into “them” and “us?” That’s the real problem. We don’t live in Christendom anymore. We live in a secular society where we have been taught, since we were little children, that all religions are of equal value. And, yes, they are, in the public arena. But, no, they are not from the point of view of truth. And that is why Pilate’s question is extremely important. Because it represents the rest of the world, asking the one person who represents all of Christianity, “What exactly is truth?”
If we look back the long way, we find that all through His public ministry in John’s gospel, Jesus has spoken about truth. He said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” But He wasn’t talking about intellectual knowledge, or facts, or theories. He’s talking about knowledge in action, knowledge that we gain through doing. And He also said about Himself, “I am the truth.” He said lots of things about Himself. “I am the Good Shepherd.” “I am the vine.” “I am the living bread that came down from heaven.” But, finally, He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.” And all those three things are one – journey, the experience of life, and truth, as Jesus understands it.
Looking the short way back, two big truths were spoken before Pilate and Jesus encountered each other. The first one was spoken in John’s story of the Garden, which has no Agony. Jesus says, “I am.” I am He. But “I Am” is the code word in Hebrew for Yahweh God. For those who came looking for Jesus of Nazareth, a Jew from Galilee, He proposes instead, “I am.” I am.
The second truth is spoken by one of the opposition. Something that’s absolutely true. “It is expedient that one person should die for everybody else.” Perhaps no truer words ever were spoken in the history of humanity.
Then Pilate speaks another truth. After Jesus is in the most pitiable condition, he has Him dragged back out onto the balcony. He says to the crowd, “Behold, the man.” Now, it’s important to know what the Latin says, because the Latin tells us what the story is really about. If Pilate had said, in Latin, “Ecce bier,” he would have said, “Look at the masculine person standing here next to me.” But he said, “Ecce homo.” Homo was the word for the species, for human beings, as opposed to lower creatures. So, Pilate’s truth is, “Look. Look. This is humanity. Look at him. This is humanity, this bruised and broken person. This is humanity.”
And the last truth that Pilate speaks he speaks in bitterness, but he speaks the truth. “What I have written, I have written.” He is who He says He is, and nobody else.
Then Jesus has a truth. At the very end He says – what our English translation does so badly – “It is finished.” In the original languages, both in Greek and in Latin, means, “I have accomplished what I came to do. It is finished. It is ended. It is done. I did it! I did it.”
The final truth is the truth spoken in the narrative that, “from the wounded side there flowed out blood and water.” Now, the church always sees that as the institution of the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist. The one that comes to us in water, the other that comes to us in blood. But there is a wider meaning. The same meaning as “Behold the man.” Because our bodies cannot survive without those two elements, water and blood. So, when water and blood flow out from the side of the dead Jesus, He is restoring all humanity, not to eternal life, but to this life. That’s why it was so expedient that this one person should die for the sake of all. Who’s the all? Not just the Jews. Not just the Jews and those who become Christians. Not just the Catholics. Everybody. Everybody is restored to being the kind of human being that God intended at the beginning of creation by this one act of Jesus. He makes it possible for us to live true human lives again.
And though we believe that the Christian faith is the truest enumeration of the truths about God, it is not true that we believe that that’s the only place where holiness is found, but rather, that through the death of one man, by living true human lives, holiness has been unleashed through all the world through all time. And because Jesus existed with one foot in time and one foot in eternity, and because there is no time in eternity, every single good act, every single inclination toward the divine, every single prayer or act of worship, no matter how bizarre, from the beginning of time, took on eternal value by that one act.
Behold the man. Behold you and me. Behold all of us.