We have just heard the story of Jesus’ passion in our Gospel today, and listened to Isaiah’s prophecy of the way that the chosen one would be ignored and mistreated by us and as we reflect on the suffering of Jesus, we may want to reflect on why we call today Good Friday, when it is a day that could easily have been called Black Friday.

 

I think I saw a small insight into this today while I was visiting at Sheridan Villa, a home for the aged over in Clarkson where I act as chaplain.  One of the residents there was talking as they often do, about the “Good Ole” days.  I’m willing to bet that most of us over 30 have used that _expression more than once in our lives.  I’m also willing to bet, if I can trust my memory, that most of us who are under 20 are probably sick of hearing it.

 

But it’s a fact of human nature that the “old days” rapidly become the good old days, because we forget the bad things that happen more quickly than we forget the good things.  The bad things lose their hold on us but the good lasts.  One man was talking about the wonderful house they lived in north of the city was he was young, and how he loved it so much.  As he talked on, I discovered that the roof leaked, there was no toilet inside – just an outhouse out back, the well ran dry every other year and when the freight trains went by, you couldn’t hear yourself think, but … it had the loveliest rose trellis on the back wall where the sun shone, and the tomatoes in the garden were always sweet and that’s where his oldest child took her first steps.  As I watched his face while he talked, it was transformed in that dreamy way of someone remembering something beautiful.

 

Forgetting the bad things is what gives us the strength to go on in many cases.  Finding the good in a rough time is what allows us to learn from experience.  And so, though we reflect on the suffering of Jesus and it hurts us for a while to think what happened on account of our sins, we quickly let that pass for the wonderful joy that we share together that we have been saved.  Like the man stranded on the desert island who nearly froze and nearly starved and had to eat bugs, it is all forgotten when the ship appears on the horizon.  He may remember the experience to help him through rough times in future but it has lost its power over him.

 

One of the best examples of this gift of forgetting is the cross itself.  In a few minutes, we will process in with the cross and reverence it together as a Christian Community, holding it high and honouring it.  And yet, as a people we have forgotten that the cross was a symbol of the worst shame for the people of Jesus’ time.  It was a form of execution reserved for the lowest of the low, the scum of the criminals.  Anyone who was crucified brought shame, not only on themselves, but on their whole family and all their friends.

 

It is impossible for us to really appreciate this - we who have been raised to see the cross as a sign of victory and hope.  We, who see it placed on the highest peaks of our churches, bathed in glowing light in the darkness, honouring our graves as a special memorial, we cannot really understand how much of a blow it must have been to the disciples to see Jesus endure this punishment.

 

Perhaps we might get closer to understanding if we tried to imagine the symbols of execution today.  Where we see a crucifix hanging on the wall behind us, imagine instead if it was a statue of a hanged man, with the noose around his broken neck and rope going up to the roof.  Imagine hanging a rope and noose on the wall of your living room as decoration.  Try to picture yourself wearing a small gold-plated replica of the electric chair or the lethal-injection needle proudly around your neck on a gold chain. 

 

These are symbols that still bear the burden of shame and horror in today’s world and so it would be hard to accept them as symbols of freedom and salvation as we do accept the cross today.

 

So we have been blessed with a nature that allows us to forget the bad that has happened when it is overshadowed by the good and so through the years we now celebrate a Friday which was a day of sorrow, as “Good” Friday, not an ending but a step on the way, and we look forward with joy to the celebration of Easter that we know came, even while we remember the sorrow of the disciples who still had to wait and see how salvation could come out of this tragedy they witnessed.

 

So what do we do now with Good Friday?  There is a challenge in the cross for each of us.  We may have forgotten the pain and remembered the glory, but we cannot forget the lessons we have learned.  We are challenged to stand up for the truth, as Jesus did, even when we know a lie might be easier.  We are challenged to sacrifice when we give, not just giving out of our excess but actually deciding what we will do without in order to help someone else – because after all, one of the most important benefits of our charity is not the good for those who receive but it is the transformation that happens to us when we suffer in order to give.  We are challenged to get involved when it is easier to sit back and do nothing and let someone else handle it, because it’s all such a hassle.

 

The cross is a special challenge for young people, to use the energy and the burning desire you have to make a difference and to change the world for the better - to take on responsibility, not to avoid it - to see how much power dedicated young people have to transform the world.  When you look at the cross on Good Friday, your challenge is to ask yourself, “What am I doing to make a difference?”

 

The cross is a special challenge for middle-aged people, those of us who have gotten comfortable, who kind of like things the way they are, or who simply feel too tired to bother to change.  Our challenge is to remember what it felt like to be young, to have that passion for good inside us and to have the courage to risk the worldly things we have accumulated and which can rule our lives in order to regenerate that energy level we had once before.  We have the challenge to encourage the young and not quash their efforts and in a special way we have the opportunity to show them an example, that will be the best support of all, through our actions.

 

The cross is a special challenge for older people as well, those who may feel their work is over, they’ve done enough or that the troubles of the world now has passed on to others.  This is the time of your life when you have so much to give in wisdom and experience and so your challenge comes back to same one that young people face - get involved, speak up.  Don’t wait for others to call you, but call them, and help the young learn what is really important in life from the many hard lessons you have endured. 

 

The saddest words I ever hear is when I hear an elderly person say, “It’s none of my business!”  Even when you can’t speak to the one who needs to hear or even when they won’t listen, you have the gift of time while others are at work or school to pray for them, because praying is getting involved – and even better – it’s getting God involved with you.