The Heart of Christianity

Good Friday Meditation

April 17, 2019

Why was Jesus killed?

Both history and the church tell of a variety of reasons:

Jesus was a social prophet - and an advocate for God’s justice. 

He challenged the empire and the evil forces of power in the first century. 

Why was Jesus killed?

The purpose of his life was not to die,

but his death is a consequence of how he lived

and what he was doing as a healer,

wisdom teacher and social prophet.

The New Testament witness and the church see Good Friday and Easter as the heart of our faith.

What is at the heart of our faith?  St. John 3:16-17:

¹⁶For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  ¹⁷Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Love – the heart and character of God is seen in Jesus.  Christ preached, healed, and stood in solidarity with the outcast, including those who society chose not to include.  Love, radical unconditional love!

Gave - God gives.  God gives by creating the universe, our fragile planet.  God gives – give us life.  He also gives his only Son.  Although misunderstood, rejected and crucified – God gives us his only Son back again by raising him from death.  Though our act of vengeful violence kills his Son - God returns the favor with new life!

Believe – now Biblical belief is not a matter of espousing propositions about God, rather it is deep trust – a relationship with God whereby you trust God.  In fact, you are willing to stake your life not on certitude, but on promises – God’s promise of eternal life.

Eternal life is not simply life after the grave – but God’s Spirit and life in us now.

The heart of Christianity is not about condemning the world – but saving the world.  The word for world is ‘cosmos’ in the Greek.  God loves the ‘cosmos’ and saves the ‘cosmos.’

Saving – Salvation in the Biblical sense is not about erasing sins or reserving a ticket on the train to heaven.  No!  The root of the word ‘salvation’ is salve – a healing.  Salvation at its root means to be made whole – complete.  Salvation is something that happens in this world.  For Christ the Kingdom begins NOW!

There are a multitude of Biblical images to describe what ‘being saved’ means:

• Light in our darkness
• Sight to the blind
• Liberation from bondage
• Coming home from exile
• Resurrection of the land and the dead
• Being made right with God
• Being ‘born from above’
• Being ‘in Christ
• Food and drink
• Milk and honey
• The Promised Land

All this describes God’s relationship to the ‘cosmos’ and to us.  God loves all of God’s creation – not just human beings.  God pronounced the animals and the sky, the stardust, and dark matter ‘good!’  God loves it all.  God is determined to make all of the ‘cosmos’ whole and complete.

On Good Friday God reveals the lengths God will go to in order to make the creation whole again.  The heart of Christianity:

Love / Giving / Believing

Not judgment or condemnation

– but wholeness and new life.

Amen

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