Good Friday, April 19/18 From Jeers to Tears By Rev. Wanda Winfield

On Good Friday, as the story of Jesus’ crucifixion is told, we hear how the howling and jeering of the crowd led to the cross, which was then met by tears. From jeers to tears is the story of crucifixion, and it is our story as well when we embrace it.

Death by crucifixion was the worst punishment you could receive in Roman-occupied

Judea. It was reserved for criminals, and anyone else who the Romans wished to make an example of. It was a shameful, public, and excruciating way to die.

On the way to his crucifixion Jesus was denied three times, and there were two demands for his death by the crowds. He was bound, beaten, struck in the face, mocked, stripped, flogged, and then he had to carry his own cross. He was deserted by all his followers except the three Mary’s—his mother Mary, Mary of Cleopas, and Mary Magdalene—and the one who was called the Beloved Disciple.

It is recorded in both the Gospel of John and the Gospel of Luke that Mary wept, but I think we can safely assume that others wept as well. In the account of Luke, Peter wept after his third denial, and that there were women weeping on his way to Golgotha (the Skull.)

The early Christians claimed that Jesus was a “crucified Messiah.” This made no sense to the people of the first century. It was like saying that a person was ‘enthroned on an electric chair’, ‘raised by hanging’, or ‘resurrected by lethal injection’. A crucified Messiah was a contradiction in terms.

There’s been a lot of talk this week about the tragic burning of the Notre Dame cathedral in

Paris. People are calling the lost building ‘iconic’. You don’t hear that word used previously in its existence. It was called, “architecturally noteworthy” and an “historical site.” It was built on the ruins of two churches, which were on the site of a pagan temple to Jupiter. But Good Friday, April 19/18 From Jeers to Tears By Rev. Wanda Winfield it didn’t become iconic until it was destroyed.i In his message Pope Francis called Notre

Dame, “the architectural jewel of a collective memory.”

We need emotional engagement, before we call something iconic. Perhaps that is why the death of Jesus on the cross is an iconic moment for Christians. It is part of our shared memory. In that sharing of his memory, Jesus is resurrected once again.

The ‘scandal of the cross’ is the bedrock of our belief. From jeers to tears and beyond, our faith sustains us. It is what gives us the name of Christians.

i The destruction of holy sites is not uncommon. St Paul’s Cathedral in London has survived three fires. In the 12th century Canterbury Cathedral was damaged by fire, and in the 14th century there is a record that, “a fire burnt the whole parish of St Alkmund’s starting at daybreak on the eve of Pentecost.” Notre Dame was built on the ruins of two churches, which were built on the site of a Roman temple to Jupiter.