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Good Friday
St. Stephen’s Anglican Church
The Rev. Jeffrey O. Cerar, April 18, 2014


Shall I Not Drink the Cup the Father Has Given Me?


Text: John 18:1-19:37

When we come together for worship, it is always a celebration. We celebrate the glory of God. We celebrate our joy that God has created this beautiful world and put us in it. We celebrate that God has made Himself known to us and entered into an intimate relationship with us. We celebrate that He has rescued us from sin and death, that He has defeated evil, and that He has given us the promise of eternal life. So our worship is a celebration.

It is difficult to call our Good Friday worship a celebration. Today we honor Jesus for the sacrifice He made on our behalf. We take a close look at all that He went through from the time He sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, through His betrayal by Judas, His unjust conviction, the mocking, ridicule and abuse He suffered, and ultimately His crucifixion and death on Calvary. It was a day of horror, and most especially so because it was our dear Savior, the Son of God, who had to suffer through it.

On Good Friday, we come together to worship Jesus and to walk with Him through this time of trial. Without Good Friday, there would be no Easter. Day after tomorrow, the churches will fill up with joyous, celebrating Christians shouting, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” But today, we mark what Jesus had to rise from. He had to die before He rose from the dead. He had to go down to the pits before He could be lifted up. And it was all part of God’s plan for the salvation and redemption of the world. In the reading of John’s Passion Gospel today, we saw Peter pull out his sword and cut off the ear of one of the men who came to arrest Jesus. And Jesus told Peter to put his sword away, saying, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:11)

Jesus had told the disciples repeatedly that this day of horror was coming. He had said,

The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. [Luke 9:22]

And you know how they reacted. They either didn’t understand it, or they denied it. Peter understood what Jesus was saying at one point, and he rebuked Jesus for even suggesting such a thing. We all want Easter without having to go through Good Friday. But Jesus knew that it was all part of the plan, and so He submitted to the Father’s will, and said, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?”

Let us consider for a few moments today how God has set this all up. And as we do so, let us stop and see how the sinful condition of man, from which Jesus came to rescue us, causes us to rebel and to prefer the easy way out. Where we end up, I hope, is that we recognize how deeply grateful we are that Jesus didn’t take the easy way out on Good Friday.

Why has God chosen this plan? He could solve the problem of this sinful creation any way He wants. He has all the power in the universe at His disposal. He can make anything become whatever He chooses it to become. He can make new things begin, He can make existing things disappear, He can transform and heal, and He can make all things new. In fact, that is exactly what God’s Word tells us He is doing, making all things new. The prophets of old speak of God giving us a new heart and putting a new spirit in us. (Ezekiel 36:26) They speak of God making new heavens and a new earth (Isaiah 65:17)

But why did God not simply wave His all-powerful hand and take sin out of the world? Why didn’t He just banish evil? Why didn’t He just eliminate pain and suffering without having to put His precious, one and only Son through all the pain and suffering and death of Good Friday? Well, I’m not going to try and give a theological treatise today. But I want to acknowledge that God’s choice of how to redeem the world is one of a kind. It is a unique and specific plan. It was prophesied for centuries among God’s people. And when it all came about, people struggled to believe that is what God was doing. They were waiting for a Savior, whom the prophets called the “Messiah.” But when Jesus came, they didn’t believe He was the Messiah. Or they expected Him to be a different kind of Messiah. What the people wanted was an “easy button.” And so, led by the religious authorities, they did exactly the awful things that the prophecies predicted. They fulfilled God’s plan by nailing His precious Son, the one He sent to redeem the world, to a cross. Their easy button was to get rid of the one they didn’t understand. Their easy button was to silence the one who said things they didn’t want to hear, just as they had the prophets before Him. They were all for new heavens and a new earth, a new heart and a new spirit. They were all for new life—but they wanted to get it by pressing an easy button.

We see that all around us today, don’t we?

I’ll bet there was a time in the last year when somebody who was supposed to be an expert messed up a job they were doing for you. I’ll bet that within the last month there was a time when you had to go back to a store because somebody didn’t give you what you asked for. Or you went through the checkout line and the cashier made a mistake because she was on the phone to her girlfriend.

And why does your car break down without warning and leave you stranded? Somebody didn’t do what they were supposed to do when they made it. Or maybe the owner didn’t keep up with the scheduled maintenance. We want to be able to just buy a car, turn the key and always have it work without having to do anything to keep it up.

People want the easy button to go through life. And yet, how could that possibly happen when the world is spoiled by sin? How could life possibly be easy when humanity is dishonest, selfish, lazy, careless, unfaithful, greedy and cruel?

You know, there was a time in God’s creation when things were very different than they are now. The Garden of Eden was a place where everything was in harmony. The two humans whom God placed there were enjoyed intimate fellowship with God. But when sin entered the picture, everything changed. They made the fateful choice to disobey God. That was when the intimacy with God was lost. That was when God decreed that they would have to put bread on the table by the sweat of their brow, and that there would be enmity and strife to deal with, and pain in childbirth. That was the end of the easy button.

And ever since, we have had to go through life pursued and beset by the evil prince of this world, Satan, the great deceiver and the accuser of the brethren. Ever since, we have struggled with desires to do things that God tells us not to do. We have suffered disease and war and drought and famine. We live with disappointment, exhaustion and grief. No wonder we want the easy button. There may be something in our inherited memories of those carefree days in the Garden. But the longing has become, for each of us, a desire for the easy way out from all the hard things in life.

I have to ask: if God had chosen to just wave it all away, would that have been true to the immensity of the problem? God’s perfect creation was spoiled by sin. What was beautiful and full of life has become corrupt and haunted by death. Should He just wave a hand and say, “Oh, well, no big deal; problem over?”

That is not the God we know, who loves everyone He has made, and who loves His creation. The Bible tells us that, “Because of the Lord’s great love, we are not consumed.” (Lamentations 3:22) All that went wrong with the world came about because the first human beings made a choice, using the freedom that God gave them. And so, in redeeming and restoring that creation, God is going to keep the integrity of what He first made. He is going to give us the choice of turning back to Him. And how did He do that? He did it in the most amazing way.

Should Jesus have come in King’s regalia, with battalions and regiments of military might to enforce His will? Or should He come humble and riding on a donkey, inviting us to love Him? Should He have blown up all those who came to arrest Him in the Garden, and try Him and convict Him and send Him to the cross? Or should He have done the supreme act of love by suffering for the sins we committed, and inviting us to love Him?

My brothers and sisters, life is hard. We have hard choices to make every day. We have hard things to do, every day. We have hard things to put up with, and hard realities to endure. But we serve a Savior who has been through the hardest things one could ever go through, and He did it for us. We serve a Savior who understands what we are going through. And we serve a Savior who is right there with us in all that we go through. The death He died on Calvary was not the end of the story. For on the third day, He did indeed rise again from the tomb, just as He had promised. And forty days later, after spending time with the believers who had kept the faith, he rose into heaven. He returned to the spiritual realm, so that now, He can be there with each of us through everything life throws at us.

Now, choosing to love Jesus is not an easy button. In order to choose to love Jesus, you have to become His disciple. He told His disciples that He must suffer and die and on the third day rise again. And He said that, if they want to come after Him, they must deny themselves and pick up their cross and follow Him. (Mark 8:34-35) But let me ask you this: have the greatest moments in your life come when you were lying back in your easy chair taking no responsibility, and no risk and feeling no discomfort? Or have you found that the times of the greatest growth and most profound insights about what life is truly all about came when you were doing something hard? Those times of struggle are the times when we come best to know Jesus, and when our love for Him becomes deeper. That is when we most know our need for Him. That is when His love for us is our greatest treasure.

And if we have believed in Him and turned our lives over to Him, one day He will call us home. And when He does, it will be to that home where there is no more death and no more mourning or crying or pain. (Revelation 21:4) And He will be there ready to say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21) He will be there waiting to bless us for all eternity with the same joy we knew walking with Him, counting on Him, being strengthened by Him and held up by Him.

That is why we dare call the day our Savior died, “Good Friday” – and why on Easter we will be so ready to proclaim, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!

© Jeffrey O. Cerar, 2014

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