Why Good Friday

Becoming willing instruments in the eternal symphony

03/30/2018

John 19:4-11 Once more Pilate went out and said to them, “Look, I am bringing him out to you, so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak. And he said to them, “Behold, the man!” When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out, “Crucify him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Take him yourselves and crucify him. I find no guilt in him.” The Jews answered, “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” Now when Pilate heard this statement, he became even more afraid, and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus, “Where are you from?” Jesus did not answer him. So Pilate said to him, “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above. For this reason the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”

Are you familiar with the story of St. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was murdered in his own cathedral in 1170? I’ve been reading a short book about him by T. S. Eliot called Murder in the Cathedral. But if you like to learn about the saints on the silver screen, you can watch the 1964 movie version of Becket’s life starring Richard Burton and Peter O’Toole, simply called “Becket.” Thomas Becket grew up as a friend of King Henry II of England, who even made Becket Chancellor of England because they were so close. But when Becket became the archbishop he chose God over king, the cross over the crown, and a deep rift developed between them. King Henry wanted Becket (and the Church) to accept his royal authority, while Becket insisted that King Henry should acknowledge the Church’s divine authority and bow to the pope. Finally, on December 29, 1170, four knights barged into the Canterbury Cathedral, and while the archbishop and the monks were chanting vespers, they brutally killed Becket as the unarmed priests beheld in dismay their bishop dying.

Four days earlier, on December 25, Thomas Becket preached the Christmas homily where he foretold prophetically: “A Christian martyrdom is never an accident, for Saints are not made by accident. Still less is a Christian martyrdom the effect of man’s will to become a Saint, as a man by willing and contriving may become a ruler of men.” Becket continued: “A martyrdom is always the design of God, for His love of men, to warn them and to lead them, to bring them back to His ways. It is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr” (Murder in the Cathedral, 49). In other words, a martyr is like a musical instrument upon which the divine Musician (God) plays the notes of love, mercy, holiness and grace. A martyr knows he or she is in God’s hands, more than in the hands of their executioners.

In the narrative gospel of Good Friday, we see Jesus with the same serene composure and confidence as St. Thomas Becket. He knows he is in the Father’s hands. My favorite exchange in the passion account is where Pilate and Jesus face off about power (not unlike Archbishop Becket and King Henry argued over authority). Pilate asserts arrogantly: “Do you not speak to me? Do you not know that I have power to release you and I have power to crucify you?” To which Jesus calmly answers: “You would have no power over me if it had not been given to you from above.” Jesus knew without doubt or difficulty he was an instrument in God’s hands, and he actually tried to help Pontius Pilate realize that Pilate was too. Jesus, like Becket, tried to help earthly rulers realize that all authority and power comes from God. We are all musical instruments in God’s hand, and when we allow him to have power over us, when we become obedient to his will, we become a powerful instrument in the eternal symphony.

My friends, you do not need to become a martyr to be a musical instrument in God’s hands. We can all play a note of grace and goodness, joy and peace in the eternal symphony. Whoever you are: mothers and fathers, priests and people, husbands and wives, presidents and populace, kings and commoners, young and old, Americans and Russians, cowboys and Indians, millionaires and the homeless, Hispanics and Anglos, citizens and immigrants, all have a part to play. And how do we play our notes well?  We do as Becket and Jesus did: we become someone “who has become an instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and no longer desires anything for himself.” In other words, it is a matter of power, and whether we allow God to have power over us. That is what makes Good Friday so “good.” For the first time in the sad saga of human history, Someone finally played their part in the eternal symphony perfectly. Jesus did not miss one note.

Praised be Jesus Christ!