The Victory of the Cross - Reflections on Good Friday

I count it an immense blessing to live in a country where Good Friday is a national holiday. Yesterday, a parade went by our home. Pontius Pilate led the way with his wife, followed by Caiaphas the high priest, a large group of Roman guards, and finally Jesus carrying the cross.

We protestants often don’t think too much about Good Friday. But it was the climax of Jesus’ life on earth up to the resurrection. It is in his arrest, trial, and execution that Jesus is seems to be defeated. And yet it is here that the Gospel writers find him victorious.

John records the deep irony of Jesus’ trial with Pilate. There are three main characters: Jesus, Pilate, and “the Jews.” (It is important to understand that “the Jews” is John’s way of talking about the Jewish authorities, not just a random group of Jews.)

Jesus had been arrested and brought before a local council of Jewish leaders. There were no credible witnesses against them, but they still wanted him dead. They brought him to Pilate apparently with the charge of insurrection, rebellion against Rome (remember the crowds shouting earlier that week “blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! Jn 12:13) But John does not record that they have any credible accusation against Jesus. So, Pilate takes Jesus inside the house to question him. But as Pilate is interrogating Jesus, he finds no guilt in him. And so he goes in and out six times reasoning with the Jews, and questioning Jesus. But there are seven scenes, not six: the middle scene is in 19:1-3, rendered well by the NRSV:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe. They kept coming up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.

It is no coincidence that this lies in at the center of the trial. It is one way that John highlights this part of the story. Here Jesus, Pilate, and the Jews are all silent. It is the mocking soldiers who unknowingly testify to the truth. Here is the suffering-servant-king. He is not king in spite of suffering – but in light of it!

Having questioned Jesus, Pilate goes out to the Jews declaring that he has found no guilt in Jesus. The Jews bring a new charge against Jesus – he has claimed to be the Son of God. As it turns out, though Jesus is apparently on trial, it is really the Jews who are on trial as Jesus pronounces the guilt of the high priest: “The one who delivered me to you has a greater sin [than Pilate]” (vs 11).

Finally, the Jews corner Pilate into pronouncing a guilty verdict on Jesus (v.12). John describes in great detail the place, the day, and the time that the verdict is delivered. It is the same day (and some argue the same time) that the Passover lambs are slaughtered. Between breaths, one can almost hear the pronouncement of John the Baptist – behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! But what Pilate says next is neither this nor guilty verdict the Jews expect:

“Behold your king!”

The crowd, enraged, demands his crucifixion.

“Shall I crucify your king?”

And bringing down guilt and condemnation on their heads, they scream at Pilate –

“We have no king but Caesar.”

Through the roar of the crowd, we can hear echoes of God’s response to Samuel at the people’s demand for a king – ‘they have rejected me as their king.’ Do not miss that this is precisely what is happening.

This rejection of the identity of God as their king, and of Jesus who is presented to them as their king by the most powerful Roman representative in the land sucks the breath out of the observant reader who remembers the words that were written in the beginning of the book.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.  He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

We must see Jesus as King not in spite of the cross – but in light of it. The cross characterizes and defines not only his kingship but his kingdom and all those who belong to it. 

Littleness as opposed to leadership. Humility as opposed to hubris. Sacrifice as opposed to self-preservation. 

It only appears as if this world is run by the visible powers. Underneath the chaos, the power of God is at work in the quiet, in the invisible, in the subversive. In Jesus’ apparent failure - crushed beneath the Roman war machine, rejected by his own people – the power of God was at work in the most glorious way the world would ever know. And the desperation of the rejection is staved off by this brilliant hope:

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.