It was Night

Read: John 18:1--19:42

 

Good Friday afternoon - March 29, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

The Sabbath begins at sundown, and so they must work quickly.

They must ask permission from the government officials to take down the bodies of the executed and prepare the body for burial at once.

Nicodemus, the one who had come to Jesus by night (John 3), joins Joseph of Arimathea, this time carrying a

      100 # bundle of spices along with grave wrappings.

There was an unused tomb nearby.

Quickly, quickly.

It will soon be night.

 

Especially in the Gospel of John, words often carry several different levels of meaning at the same time.

The simple word “night” may be one of them.

I'm thinking back to the beginning of the Passion story, (John 13) when Jesus and the disciples are at table together and Jesus gives the bread to Judas the betrayer, and he gets up, leaves the table and goes out hastily.

The next words that John writes are “And it was night.”

He means it in two ways:

1—it is literally dark outside, and

2—that for everyone around Jesus, their thoughts and actions are all leading toward the darkness of death;

and the grimness and alienation continue to increase the profound darkness.

It was night, in both ways.

 

The meal-time bread, which is shared by everyone, is taken by Judas and twisted into food for death.

The light of the world is offered, and darkness seems to swallow it up.

Wherever Jesus is active, there is light;

Judas goes out in haste, and there is darkness.

 

It was a fierce and dreadful strife when life and death contended ,  we will sing in one of our Easter hymns, and we know that this strife is active in the Passion story.

--Judas betrays

--the disciples argue over their places in the kingdom of God.

--Jesus instructs but they cannot understand

--the enemies come to arrest Jesus

--the disciples all fall away

--Jesus is accused and has no one to speak for him

--Pilate represents the world's confusions            

--the leaders of the people act out the world's enmity

--and the picture seems to get darker and darker as we proceed

 

Remember that John had said way back at the beginning of his Gospel

the true light that enlighten everyone was coming into the world.

He was in the world, yet the world knew him not.

He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. (John 1:9-11)

 

And yet this story of Jesus as John tells it is not a tragedy as the classic Greek writers would have written it, because throughout Jesus' story we see that he is the one in charge of it all.

--no one helps him carry the cross

--he directs all that happens

--he lectures the imperial power represented in Pilate,

      so that when the Roman brags about his power, Jesus says very firmly: “You would have no power over me unless it had been given to you from above.” (John 19:11)

--Even while suffering on the cross, he has the compassion to arrange with the Beloved disciple for the care of his mother: Woman, behold your Son;   Disciple, behold your mother.

--At the point of death, John says very pointedly, he gave up his spirit.  (19:30)

In summary, he is in charge all the way!

This is not a tragedy that catches a hapless victim;

Jesus strides on to fulfill the Father's purpose.

 

It is night,

but the darkness of sin and separation cannot overwhelm the light of Christ.

And that is very important Good News for us.

 

We each know about the powers of darkness.

We could each make a list of them, and the list could be expanded each day.

We are so quick to invent new ways to be mean to our neighbors, to ignore them.

Lying, cheating, stealing, and more...we know all about them, and they are all parts of the darkness that envelops us.

 

But we can take heart: for that great  darkness, that night of death with all of its gloom, shall not have the last word.

We hold onto the promise of the Lord Jesus who said:  I have come as light to the world that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. (12:46)

 

Things will be different.

This afternoon that looks like the victory of darkness is Jesus' way of getting inside the darkness of death in order to destroy it fully and completely from the inside.

 

It was night, but that darkness shall not remain.

Amen.