My pastor asked me to give the Good Friday talk. And I’m thankful.
For one thing, it forced me take a closer look at the Christian calendar. I grew up in a Korean immigrant church in the suburbs of Seattle. Sure, it was Presbyterian, but it was also marked by a Korean spirituality: they spoke in tongues, believed in prophecy, and prayed with vigor. In that way, it was much like a charismatic church, except that they sang more hymns and the crazy stuff never showed up on a Sunday. But it definitely wasn’t a typical Presbyerian church.
In terms of the Christian calendar, the Big Two always made it in: Christmas and Easter. I mean, how else were we going to satisfy our materialistic urges, right? But I didn’t know about Advent and Lent until I went to college. And Pentecost, the birthday of the Christian community, got no mention. Shouldn’t we feel sorry for poor ol’ Church? Imagine how you’d feel if someone forgot your birthday every year?
I only learned about Maundy Thursday recently. I had to look it up on Wikipedia. The day before Good Friday, Jesus and his students were having their last meal together, and he wanted to them to become the kind of community he’d always envisioned and lived out. So he gave them a new command: to love one another. That’s where Maundy comes from. It’s from the Latin, mandatum which means “command.” It’s where we get the word “mandate,” but Mandate Thursday or Command Thursday just doesn’t ring off the ear like Maundy.
So it was Good Friday and I was still praying and racking my brain for one passage to teach. (I like to teach out of one passage instead of many: you can only have so many plates spinning before they all hit the floor.) I needed a passage that would speak about Good Friday without jumping ahead to Easter Sunday. That’s hard to do.
Then a story laid itself down in front of my path of thinking: a few years ago, I was up in the Sierra Madre foothills at a Passionist retreat center. The grounds are hidden in a residential neighborhood, but after driving through the gate and up the road, the grounds are idyllic and well-manicured. It’s tear-jerkingly gorgeous at sunset. (At night, however, the rooms and hallways can be a little scary: sculptures and crucifixes of bleeding Jesuses hang everywhere. It felt like a scene in a bad horror film.) But the place is perfect to spend time in reflection. I spent two weeks there, learning about the connections between spirituality and ministry, because it’s amazing how quickly those two strands which were meant to be intertwined often become severed.
One afternoon, the priest (we called him “Father,” at any rate) that ran the center walked us through the Stations of the Cross. I’ve never heard of them before, but they’re supposed to help us reflect on the Passion of Christ. The Latin passio means to suffer, and we were to think about his sufferings (Ah, it clicked: a Passionist retreat center.)
We walked up to the first station: white bricks protruded from a red brick background to make a portico. This represented the courtroom. On the left of the portico is a stone relief of Jesus being condemned by Pilate. The priest made some reflections about this scene, and then ended with a question, “Where have you felt condemned?” And then he gave us some silence.
But, shouldn’t we reflect on Christ’s condemnation? I thought.
We followed a path through the grove to the second station: a similar red brick structure, except in the middle, it only had a stone relief of Jesus. He’s given a cross to carry. And after some reflections the Priest asked, “What burdens are you carrying today?” Then more silence.
But, isn’t this about Jesus?
Then we walked silently along to the next station, and this time the relief portrayed Jesus falling for the first time. And after some reflections, the Priest asked, “What are the ways you’ve fallen?”
And finally, I got it: we weren’t just being thankful for what Christ has done, we were participating with Christ in what he was doing.
As a protestant, when I watched, “The Passion of the Christ,” I sat in the theater after most everyone else filed out, shaking and sobbing with gratitude for what Jesus has done. He died for me, so that I might have life. But this movie, at its core, is a Catholic movie. Mel Gibson patterned his film after the Stations of the Cross. So when many Catholics watch it, they are connecting their own lives with the Passion of Jesus. In Christ, they die. And both views are true.
I still use other passages in the talk, but Luke 9:23 becomes the core one. In light of the Stations, it started to make much more sense: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.”
Good Friday isn’t just a memorial, but an invitation: to die each day in Christ, so that we might truly live. All that is junk within me, I allow to die with Christ. So that who I’m supposed to be, in Christ, can truly live. And again I’m thankful, not only for what he’s done, but what he’s doing in me.
I retreated Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to pray and be alone with God. Sadly, I completely forgot it was holy week but I suppose it was providential.
While alone, I read a good chunk of the book Recovering the Scandal of the Cross. The gist, if I got it right, is that so much more happened at the cross than any one person, culture, theory, or metaphor can capture. The authors specifically critiqued the Western Church’s obsession with the theory of penal substitution. It was a fascinating exploration of Biblical imagery and church history with regard to unpacking the meaning of the atonement. On a personal level, it was intellectually and spiritually stimulating … encouraging me to reflect on Jesus’ radical love that made him a threat to the system and lead him to be put to death.
I appreciate your invitation to not only reflect and meditate on the cross but to share in it with Christ. After all, my goal is not to think Jesus but to become more like him.
Hey Danny!
Matt and Grace were over for dinner last night, and we were just talking about you. And I’ve been in touch with one of the authors of the book you mentioned, and he’s shipping it to me. (He saw the Big Story.) So I’ll be reading it soon! Providential is a good word!
Hope you’re doing well, man!
Nice,
You know, this sounds pretty “Nagasawan”. Mako’s long tried to reconcile the substitutionary (”for”) model and the more Orthodox / Catholic / African American transformative (”with”) model, and I think he’s not sure how possible it is. He has some strong words about ways he feels substitutionary soteriology has damaged the Asian American church in particular (more so than most other groups) and often tries to steer away from it as much as possible. He also feels that the pursuit of social justice doesn’t fit well in a substitution-based framework, but makes a lot of sense in a transformative framework.
Happy Easter!
Great post–thanks for the insights. I’m preaching on discipleship from Luke 14–kind of an expansion on the same theme, Tuesday for a student group…your thoughts are stimulating.
Happy Easter!
Jon
i like jon ball’s description for this post: stimulating…indeed. i definitely appreciate the insight. what’s also pretty cool to hear about is the process of how you landed on the idea for the talk.
Hello,
I discovered your Big Story videos recently and I just want to say a huge THANK YOU! Growing up, I used to sit down about once a year and try to write down, in summary form, what exactly this good news was that I wanted to share with my friends when the chance arose. My understanding of the gospel and atonement evolved over the years, and then in college when (among other things) I encountered N.T. Wright, my perspective changed a lot more. Since that time, I’ve tried to tell a more satisfying and bigger story of God’s love, but the way you do it and illustrate it is just wonderful. Thanks for all the thought and heart you must have put into developing this. I’ll look forward to reading the book.
The world feels small as I read your comments. I read _Recovering the Scandal of the Cross_ several years ago and it is great! I see someone else mentions Mako, who I heard speak more than once during college in Harvard IVCF. (I remember one really great talk on the Christian hope.) And then Jon Ball comments–I met him a few years back when he spoke at an Easter event we put on for international students here in L.A. (I remember that he did a great job of sharing the gospel without invoking the standard penal substitution, which would have had little resonance for most of our international students.) Actually, I think it was the staff I volunteered under out here, Bo Kim, who told me about your four circles…but I didn’t get the full story until I stumbled on your blog recently.
Thanks Bryant!
And the world gets even smaller. Mark Baker, who edited Recovering the Scandal of the Cross, emailed me when he saw the Big Story, and we’ve been emailing back and forth. So he sent me a copy of the book — so I’m glad you liked it, because I promised to read it!
And Mako’s a good friend. We were on staff in Boston together. He’s given me words to what I’ve been feeling, and has shaped my thinking. And went to Harvard IVCF? I was on staff at MIT for seven years, back in the day. So the world truly does get smaller.
Ah, you were at MIT–that probably explains why you look so familiar. I was at H from 98-02. Maybe we had a retreat or two together. And maybe you know Francis Chen (Harvard AACF staff)? We grew up together in Michigan.
Anyway, glad to discover your blog! I’ll look forward to reading more.
I know Francis, for sure. I was on staff in Boston from ‘95-’02, so we probably had some overlap. Good to (re)connect with you!
even though it’s past good friday…the message is particularly relevant to my life. thanks for the ministry of your site