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I remember one Good Friday back when I was in seminary. The preacher for that day gave a sermon that had very little to do with the crucifixion and more to do with the Resurrection.
After the service, I got together with some close friends. One of my friends was clearly frustrated by the sermon. When we asked him about it he said, “why can’t Jesus just be dead for one day?”
After all, that is what today is about. Jesus’ death, the crux of our faith, the reason there’s even a Resurrection at all.
We try so hard in our faith to keep things positive and upbeat. That doesn’t necessarily help when we are hit with the reality of life. That doesn’t actually help when things aren’t positive and upbeat.
We would do better to just allow our thoughts and emotions remain with us instead of trying to bend them to our will. We would be better not to sweep the awful things under the rug that we don’t want to talk about. We would be better to talk about Jesus’ death instead of trying to pretend like it didn’t happen or even that it didn’t have to happen.
Jesus’ death is hard and difficult and painful. I wish that it didn’t have to happen, and not just because Jesus’ death on the cross means one of the most painful deaths possible for the greatest human being who ever lived and who could ever possibly live. I wish Jesus didn’t have to die because then the world wouldn’t be so messed up that it took Jesus dying to help reconcile us to God and bring us back to Him.
I don’t particularly like dwelling on the awfulness of it all. It hurts to realize that I am a sinful human being in a broken and messed up world and only because we messed it. I suspect all of you, whether you realize it or not, feel the exact same way.
The reason we should take time to dwell on these emotions is that even in the despair of sin there is hope. I’m not talking about the Resurrection here. I’m talking about God’s presence with us.
When we cry out to God in despair, God cries out with us in the form of Jesus on the cross. God even uses the same words we use in Psalm 22. When we are overwhelmed by suffering and shame, God is there with us. When death and destruction is all around us, God is in the worst and the thick of it.
Don’t sweep Jesus’ death under the rug. Without it, we don’t have the hope of God’s presence with us in the midst of our worst pain. Without Jesus’ death, we don’t have a companion with us in the midst of sin, both the world’s and our own. Without the crucifixion, we don’t have the comfort or assurance that no matter what happens, no matter how bad it gets, that God is with us, that Jesus is with us, walking that journey with us every step of the way.