“That was a good funeral.”
Before becoming a pastor, I wouldn’t have understood what she meant, but now I could agree with this senior member of my church. We had just said goodbye to one of our dear saints who had been an active volunteer in the church and community until she had fallen ill, who had remained on good terms with all of her family who surrounded her with love and care, who had been a woman of prayer and faithful to the end. At her funeral, we sang some of her favorite songs, read words of comfort from scripture, heard wonderful family tributes, and shared food plus more stories after the service. It was a good funeral because of the life she had lived, the legacy of good relationships that she had left behind, and life eternal with no more sorrow or pain.
Just as she had a good funeral, she also had a good death. She had been well cared for in the hospice where church members, friends, and family could visit her at any time. When I stopped by to pray with her, she gave me a needlepoint that she had done, and showed me how she had tucked it into an envelope with my name on it, “in case I was gone before you came again,” she said. She knew she was dying, and she faced death with faith for the future, with grace in her relationships with others, with the same creativity and generosity that she had demonstrated throughout her life.
The gospel of John tells the story of Jesus’ good life followed by his good death and resurrection. Just as Jesus lived in submission to God, so he submitted to God’s will in his suffering and death. He refused to fight to defend himself; instead, he told Peter to put away his sword, and he healed the high priest’s slave whose ear had been cut off in his brief scuffle with Peter. Even while he suffered on the cross, he cared tenderly for his mother and arranged for her to live with one of his disciples. Jesus knew he was dying, and he faced death with the same care that he had always shown to others, with the same confidence in God that characterized his life and ministry.
In his suffering and death, Jesus certainly did not see himself as a victim. He was the victor! In fact, he often spoke of his death, resurrection, and ascension as “glorification.” When he predicted his death, he said to his disciples, “The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified” (John 12:23). After he washed their feet, he again spoke of his death in similar terms: “Now the son of man is glorified and God is glorified in him” (John 13:31). When Jesus prayed for his disciples one last time before his arrest, he prayed, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that your son may glorify you” (John 17:1).
The gospel of John speaks of Jesus’ death as an act of supreme agency where Jesus was not forced into dying on the cross or manipulated into giving up his life. Instead, he deliberately laid it down. “I lay down my life in order to take it up again,” said Jesus. “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father” (John 10:17-18).
Our text for today shows Jesus in action, facing death head on, deliberately laying down his life just as he said. When Judas brought the authorities to the garden where Jesus had gone with the rest of his disciples, Jesus did not try to hide from them or avoid them in any way; instead, the text says that “Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward” (John 18:4). Jesus went forward to meet those who had come to arrest him. He went forward to meet suffering and death.
When the high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching, their roles soon became reversed as Jesus went on to challenge the high priest. Jesus pointed out how he had always taught out in the open where the high priest or anyone could hear his teaching. He answered the high priest with a question of his own: “Why do you ask me?” (John 18:21). While the high priest seemed bent on interrogating Jesus, he found that Jesus began interrogating him.
When Jesus was taken to Pilate for further questioning, Jesus confronted him as well. To Pilate’s first question, Jesus responded, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” (John 18:34). His answer immediately put Pilate on the defensive, and their verbal sparring continued. When Pilate asked Jesus, “So you are a king?” Jesus replied, “You say that I am a king” (John 18:37). I can just imagine Pilate throwing up his hands in exasperation as he exclaimed, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). He knew he had no case against Jesus, and went to announce that to the crowds.
But the crowds would not listen, so Pilate returned to question Jesus once more. At first Jesus would not answer, and when he finally spoke, he only said, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above” (John 19:11). With this challenge to his authority from Jesus, and with the shouts of the crowd ringing in his ears, Pilate finally turned Jesus over to suffer a humiliating and cruel death on the cross. Some of the soldiers even stole his clothes, divided them among themselves, and cast lots to see who would get the best piece. Jesus endured through all of the pain and abuse, until finally at the moment of his own choosing, he laid down his life. “It is finished,” he said (John 29:30). His moment of glorification had come.
Jesus faced death with such fearlessness, with such a holy fierceness, that he went forward to meet those who had come to arrest him, he confronted and questioned the authorities, he laid down his life just as he had predicted. Just as he had spoken openly and boldly during his public ministry, when he spoke to the high priest and to Pilate, he again spoke openly and boldly.
The example of Jesus stands in stark contrast with the experience of Peter whose story of denial also forms part of our text. While Jesus faced the authorities boldly, Peter tried to hide his identity from the servants of the high priest who saw him in the courtyard. While Jesus questioned both the high priest and Pilate and put them on the defensive, Peter seemed defensive from the beginning, as one denial followed another until he had denied Jesus three times. After Jesus’ resurrection, all would be forgiven, and Peter would one day glorify God in his death too (John 21:15-19), but at this point in the gospel narrative, Jesus’ glorification takes center stage.
In this story, I would be Peter—curious and concerned enough about Jesus to follow him after his arrest, but fearful enough to follow only at a distance. I would want to be faithful as Peter insisted he would be, but my resolve would quite likely dissolve at the first question as Peter lost his resolve. I too would fail Jesus miserably. And maybe you would too.
But for Peter and for all of us, Jesus’ death and resurrection mean forgiveness and new life. However miserably we might fail God, fail others, and fail ourselves, whatever sins we have committed, whatever failures, whatever regrets we may have about the past, Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s grace are greater.
That’s why we dare to call this Good Friday. Because in spite of the injustice and brutality of Jesus’ arrest, torture, and death, he died a “good” death—without fear under interrogation and torture; with more integrity than Pilate who condemned him to death even while he knew Jesus was innocent; confident of God’s authority over every human authority; looking toward resurrection and new life. Jesus’ good death proved to be good for us all.
O God of life and death, we are grateful for Good Friday, for Jesus who laid down his life. We are grateful that you are the God of resurrection, for Jesus raised from the dead by your power. We don’t understand how Jesus could endure all that he went through. We don’t understand the mystery of his resurrection. But by faith we receive your mercy, we receive your forgiveness, we receive new life. Amen.