He died for our sins.... for love of us.

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Homily Outline for Good Friday, Year A    

In many powerful ways, this Good Friday service speaks for itself… it places before us the Passion of Christ, His suffering and death. We will respond shortly by praying for the whole world, we will venerate the Cross, sign of our salvation, and we will receive the fruits of the Lord’s Sacrifice, His Body Blood Soul and Divinity. We will depart in silence, into the waiting and fast, lasting all the way through tomorrow evening, if possible. Only on Good Friday and Holy Saturday, of all the days of the year, is the Mass not celebrated. We wait in silence while Christ lies in the tomb. Tomorrow evening, having passed through this silence, as darkness falls and Saturday ends, we will gather again for the Easter Vigil, the most joyous of all nights.

I simply want to draw your attention now to the reason for all of this, the reason for our somber and sober liturgy today, the reason for Christ’s suffering and death. There is an immediate reason, a painful one, and a deeper reason, a joyful one.

Listen again to the prophet Isaiah “he was spurned and avoided by people…. the guilt of us all.” Christ died because He bore our offenses, He was crushed for our sins. This is not hyperbole, this is not immoderate or inappropriate guilt, this is simply the truth. Christ died for our sins. Every time we’ve been unkind to someone, every time we’ve used pornography or indulged a lustful thought, every time we’ve refused forgiveness, whatever sins we have preferred or been unable to overcome,… the lash of our sin strikes painfully into the Lord’s wounded back. Physically, the Roman soldiers and the Temple Guard beat and killed him, Pontius Pilate in his cowardice condemned him, people in the crowd that day yelled “Crucify Him,” but only our sins brought Him to the Cross. If we ignore this fact, if we fail to be sorry for our sins… if no ray of sorrow pierces our hardened hearts at the thought of the Lord of Glory ground to a pulp, we have not understood this day or the Gospel.

If in honesty we can gaze upon our broken Lord, if we can gaze upon our broken promises, the baptismal purity that we have sullied by our sin, then and only then are we open to the deeper and far more joyful reason for today.

Listen again to Isaiah, who dimly and through shadows foresaw this mystery and joy. “If he gives his life as an offering for sin, he shall see his descendants in a long life, and the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him.” Christ gave His life for our sins… and he was motivated only by perfect love and obedience. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” God loves us perfectly, faithfully…. although our sins often render us unable or unwilling to receive that love, nothing we do diminishes His perfect and faithful love for us. That love took on flesh and dwelt among us in Jesus who is Himself God, who is Himself Love. “Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered; and when he was made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.” Jesus, in His infinite power as God, is only held to the pillar to be scourged, He is only bound to the cross, by love for us. This is the irony when they mock him, “come down from there.” He could have come down, but out of love, he took our sins all the way to death, so that we could be saved.

So, this afternoon, let our hearts be pierced with sorrow at the pain and sorrow we have caused the Lord. In this sorrow, let us be filled with thanksgiving… He bore the lash for us. By his stripes we are saved…. and in the midst of that healthy and truthful sorrow, let joy be found, and awe and wonder. Jesus loved us perfectly, and was obedient unto death, death on a cross. All has been bought and paid for at the greatest price. Through our tears, as it were, let us see the unimaginable love, the infinite love that has conquered our grief. Let us fast and wait for the joy of the coming dawn.