Signs of the Times

PROPERS:          GOOD FRIDAY 

TEXT:                JOHN 18:1 – 19:42

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL’S, MOBILE, ON FRIDAY, APRIL 18, 2025.

 

ONE SENTENCE:        The cross is about self-sacrifice and the tender love of God, and not about the acquisition and exercise of power.  

 

            From my childhood in the Methodist Church, I recall a hymn, “the Old Rugged Cross.” I remember, too, gathering around my great-grandfather’s piano as my aunt would play that hymn… and we would sing.

 

            Those words come back to me today: “On a hill far away, stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame…”

 

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            Yet, today, on a hill near my home stands another symbol.

 

            It is a billboard – two matching billboards, as a matter of fact.  They are promotional signs for a local religious radio station.

 

            I find them heretical.

 

            They depict a cross, emanating bolts of lightning.  The station advertised as Power 88.  A cross emitting lightning.  Think about that.

 

            We just heard the passion gospel read. Nowhere within those chapters is the power of Jesus mentioned. Because it is not there.

 

            The King of Love.  The Prince of Peace. The Word of God.  The Good Shepherd. The Son of God. Emptied of all worldly dignity – he is nailed to a cross.  And there he dies a criminal’s death.

 

            Where is the power in that moment?

 

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            Christianity, from early roots on that lonely hill outside the walls of Jerusalem, has been counter-cultural.  Compared to religious and political systems of his day, Jesus was revolutionary – non-violent with a small R.

 

            Christianity continued on that track, shunning power and influence, for the first three centuries.  Any idea where the word martyr came from?

 

            All that began to change with Emperor Constantine and the embrace of Christianity by the Roman Empire.  Power had become the church’s – and it has been downhill since. Think of the Reformation, religious wars, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust… just to name a few.

 

            What we witness and what we worship today is a God who so loves the world that he allowed himself to be stripped of his humanity so that we would realize twenty-two hundred years later the immensity of his love for this rebellious world.

 

            And it is love that is not manipulative – love that does not thirst for or wield power. I read an article years ago written by a Jesuit scholar.  The name of the article was “God’s love is not utilitarian.” God’s love – as shown by the cross – testifies to his tender love for this world – just like the father looked longingly down the road for the Prodigal Son. He doesn’t expect a return on investment. He just wants us to accept it.

 

            The cross is a symbol of sacrificial love, because that is the nature of God.

 

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            When I say a blessing over a child not receiving communion, I first pronounce the blessing and then I add “Remember that God loves you.”

 

            We cannot hear that enough. It is evidenced in the life and death of Jesus. And he calls us to share that love.

 

            Just ponder this: What difference would it make if you heard those words, God loves you, again and again and again.