Today every one of us was at the event that crucified Jesus Christ. Today, everyone who has ever betrayed a good friend and everyone that has ever been betrayed by a good friend was there. Today, any person who has ever stood by and accused someone of something they did not do and held them to the last punishment was there. Any person who was ever falsely accused with no way to defend themselves and get out of it alive was there. Any person who has ever laughed and mocked someone in severe pain and anguish was there. Any person who has ever been laughed and mocked at while they were in severe pain was there. Any politician who has maneuvered to get someone that was a nuisance to them out of their way was present on Good Friday. Any one who has been the victim of political maneuvering was there. Any person who has had a deep prejudice towards someone and made sure that person was crushed beyond recognition was there. Any person who has experienced prejudice and was handed over to the will of those who discriminated against them was there. Any person who has ever washed their hands of their own responsibility to do the right thing was there. Any person who has been the result of someone washing their hands so as to excuse themselves from doing the right thing was there. Anyone who has abandoned their best friend at their most desperate hour was there. Anyone who has been abandoned by their best friend at their most desperate hour was there. Anyone who has ever turned their back on the person who did them the greatest service was present on Good Friday. Anyone who has gone out of their way to make someones life better and then been back bitten and experienced shameful behavior from those that they serviced, was there. Anyone who ever killed someone was there. Anyone who was killed was there.
Today all of us were there when Jesus experienced his passion and death. In Jesus Christ, God experienced everything that we know. When Jesus was met by the injustice of all that happened to him, he did not turn away from it. Jesus met injustice and experienced it out of love for all. Jesus experienced the totality of human suffering and offered it as the way in which God would save us from our sins. In Jesus, God served all of humankind through God's unconditional love. Jesus asked God to forgive us all. Jesus held nothing back.
In going through this horrific passion and death, Jesus did so many things. Much of it we will never completely understand. Among the many things Jesus did was bring the face of God to suffering, death and injustice. God had experienced all of these and many other things through Jesus. God gave a name and face to those who experience injustice, prejudice, betrayal, pain and ultimately God won. Because in the death of Jesus, God showed all of these things that they do not have the final word. They may exist, but they do not ultimately win when God becomes their victim.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people continue to experience great prejudice often at the hands of religious individuals and institutions. We continue to work hard to change hearts and minds about what being LGBT means. Sometimes we succeed. Other times not so much. The pain and anguish we often feel when we loose laws that we had gained after so much hard work, is something that God understands all too well. Sometimes life just does not make sense and we just cannot understand all that's happened. In the death of Jesus, God understands us all too well. I think what God would like all of us to see is that no matter what we do or what we experience God wants to be there with us. God never wants us to walk through all that we experience without God being there with us. In Jesus, God has put a name and face on us, and everything that we humans could ever know and not quite understand. It is God's way of saying that God does understand and it is okay to cry and get mad when life falls apart. But, just as the death of Jesus on the Cross was not the end, so we can go on and through trusting in God we can continue to work towards the day when there will be equality for LGBT people. God will be there with us when everything works out. But, God will also be there when we lose and we think we just cannot do anymore.
Today when we remember that Jesus died on the Cross, we remember that God never gave up on us. God kept on loving us even when we had turned our backs on Jesus in his most desperate hour. Jesus still considers us his friends, even if we have ever denied him as Peter did. When Jesus saw us from the Cross as he hung there suffocating, Jesus told us that he had stretched those arms out to embrace all of us, even though our sins put him there. Jesus loved us all. Jesus was killed because he loved differently. Love for Jesus did not stop with our sins or even those times when we have been unkind to him through our lack of charity towards someone else. Jesus has told us that it is okay to love differently. Jesus tells LGBT individuals who want to love Jesus back, that he is just delighted in each of us, and wants us to live in relationship to God through him.
Before I close this blog post, I want to join all those who condemn the idea of spreading the notion that the Jewish people killed Jesus on this day. All forms of anti-Judaism are to be condemned and avoided by all who call themselves Christians. The Jewish people are a people of faith who are part of God's work in progress just as any group of people. All Christians would do well to ask God's forgiveness for any way in which we have behaved towards the Jewish people that has denigrated them and caused them harm. Because the Christian faith is about healing and reconciliation, all Christians should seek ways to bring about the work of healing and reconciliation with all peoples including LGBT and the Jewish people. We offer them our sincere wishes for a good Passover.
May all of us this day and every day, know of God's boundless love for every one of God's children.
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, adn given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the Cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Good Friday, Book of Common Prayer, Page 221).
Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the Cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (Book of Common Prayer, Page 101.)
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