WEBVTT 00:00:01.339 --> 00:00:04.459 Don't you skip this part. He sealed the tomb 00:00:04.459 --> 00:00:17.940 and walked away, not knowing. The room is quieter 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:21.879 than usual. Like even the walls know what day 00:00:21.879 --> 00:00:25.519 it is. Good Friday doesn't rush in, it settles. 00:00:26.079 --> 00:00:29.120 Slow and heavy, like a storm that's already decided 00:00:29.120 --> 00:00:32.270 to stay a while. Cross stands at the center, 00:00:32.310 --> 00:00:36.829 not as decoration, as witness. Candles burn a 00:00:36.829 --> 00:00:40.770 little lower. Voices come in softer. We don't 00:00:40.770 --> 00:00:43.929 gather to celebrate, not yet. No, we gather to 00:00:43.929 --> 00:00:47.390 remember. To sit with the weight of it. To let 00:00:47.390 --> 00:00:49.909 the silence say what words can't quite carry. 00:00:50.630 --> 00:00:54.850 This is the day the world held its breath. And 00:00:54.850 --> 00:00:57.909 heaven did not intervene the way we thought it 00:00:57.909 --> 00:01:04.379 would. Now this is a extra episode here. We don't 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:07.560 normally have an episode on Fridays, but it's 00:01:07.560 --> 00:01:09.719 Good Friday. This is our Good Friday observance. 00:01:09.739 --> 00:01:11.819 A little something extra, a little extra moment 00:01:11.819 --> 00:01:14.659 carved out in the week. We shared a simple lunch 00:01:14.659 --> 00:01:18.420 beforehand, potato and leek soup. Then we made 00:01:18.420 --> 00:01:21.280 our way upstairs into the sanctuary, carrying 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:24.400 the quiet with us. I'll see you on the other 00:01:24.400 --> 00:01:32.670 side. Thank you for coming. Let us begin with 00:01:32.670 --> 00:01:38.670 an attitude prayer. Holy God, we gather now to 00:01:38.670 --> 00:01:42.069 remember the one who's wounded for our transgressions, 00:01:42.069 --> 00:01:47.170 crushed for our iniquities. And upon him was 00:01:47.170 --> 00:01:50.510 the punishment that made us whole. By his bruises 00:01:50.510 --> 00:01:54.209 we are healed. Christ himself bore our sins in 00:01:54.209 --> 00:01:58.799 the body on that tree. We might die to sin. and 00:01:58.799 --> 00:02:02.939 live in righteousness. Amen. But I want to put 00:02:02.939 --> 00:02:07.579 you back into the sandals of the Galilean pilgrim 00:02:07.579 --> 00:02:11.819 because being Good Friday, you woke up outside 00:02:11.819 --> 00:02:16.060 the walls of Jerusalem this morning. Same place 00:02:16.060 --> 00:02:19.419 you've been sleeping all week. Bedroll on hard 00:02:19.419 --> 00:02:21.900 ground, campfire, smoke still in your clothes, 00:02:21.979 --> 00:02:25.300 the taste of flatbread and somebody's leftover 00:02:25.300 --> 00:02:29.509 wine from last night. Five days ago, you laid 00:02:29.509 --> 00:02:33.250 your cloak on a road and shouted yourself hoarse 00:02:33.250 --> 00:02:37.229 for a man on a borrowed donkey. You meant every 00:02:37.229 --> 00:02:41.789 word of it, and you are still glowing from Bethany. 00:02:42.330 --> 00:02:46.610 Dead man, walk out of a tomb, and nobody has 00:02:46.610 --> 00:02:51.530 talked you out of that yet. Sun clears the Mount 00:02:51.530 --> 00:02:55.110 of Olives, and you break camp, and you walk through 00:02:55.110 --> 00:02:58.569 the gates. Into that holy city. And immediately 00:02:58.569 --> 00:03:03.949 you notice. Something is wrong. Streets don't 00:03:03.949 --> 00:03:08.169 sound right. Not festival noise. Something harder. 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:12.729 Something with an edge on it. You push through 00:03:12.729 --> 00:03:15.909 a knot of people. Near the praetorium. And you 00:03:15.909 --> 00:03:22.830 see him. Carrying wood. Your rabbi. Your teacher. 00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.259 The man whose feet you watched walk on water, 00:03:27.280 --> 00:03:32.699 stumbling streets, the Roman crossbeam tied to 00:03:32.699 --> 00:03:38.539 his back and blood in his eyes. Nothing, nothing 00:03:38.539 --> 00:03:43.280 in your body was prepared for this. Because five 00:03:43.280 --> 00:03:48.580 days ago, the road was covered with cloaks. The 00:03:48.580 --> 00:03:54.430 air was filled with hosannas. Nobody told you 00:03:54.430 --> 00:03:58.909 what was coming next because you were sleeping 00:03:58.909 --> 00:04:04.110 outside the walls when it happened. The decision 00:04:04.110 --> 00:04:08.909 was made before you ever sang. John says so. 00:04:09.870 --> 00:04:13.990 After Lazarus, Caiaphas looked at the council 00:04:13.990 --> 00:04:17.949 and said it plain. It is better for one man to 00:04:17.949 --> 00:04:22.100 die for the people. That That was before Palm 00:04:22.100 --> 00:04:26.620 Sunday. Before the donkey. Before you laid your 00:04:26.620 --> 00:04:30.079 cloak on anything. You were shouting Hosanna 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:34.040 on a road while the paperwork was already filled. 00:04:34.259 --> 00:04:38.959 In a room you were never allowed to enter. Two 00:04:38.959 --> 00:04:43.899 cities inside of one city. Yours moved in daylight. 00:04:44.699 --> 00:04:51.040 Singing. Following. Celebrating. Believing. Theirs 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:57.139 moved at night. Judas, the silver, the kiss. 00:04:58.439 --> 00:05:01.060 The arrest in the garden while you were asleep. 00:05:01.779 --> 00:05:07.240 Trial held before dawn. A crowd assembled at 00:05:07.240 --> 00:05:13.000 Pilate's gate. For your camp ever stirred. Not 00:05:13.000 --> 00:05:20.170 gathered. Assembled. Temple people. Institutional 00:05:20.170 --> 00:05:25.810 people. People out of state. And the system survived. 00:05:28.069 --> 00:05:31.889 People who waved palms did not scream for Barabbas. 00:05:31.990 --> 00:05:36.129 You need to know that. The ones who loved him 00:05:36.129 --> 00:05:39.370 on Sunday did not stop loving him on Friday. 00:05:40.509 --> 00:05:45.769 They were just outside the walls. They didn't 00:05:45.769 --> 00:05:48.949 even know what had happened. Until the cross 00:05:48.949 --> 00:05:53.949 was already out. And I told you on Palm Sunday, 00:05:54.110 --> 00:05:57.949 I'd show you what happened while you were sleeping. 00:05:58.149 --> 00:06:04.269 And now you know. Church, I said this last night. 00:06:04.649 --> 00:06:08.069 Through this entire season of Lent, we have been 00:06:08.069 --> 00:06:12.069 walking. Sandals off, the Barney Bush bread we 00:06:12.069 --> 00:06:16.060 couldn't name. A serpent. on a pole that looked 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:19.720 exactly like the thing that was killing us. A 00:06:19.720 --> 00:06:22.379 man who set his face towards a city that would 00:06:22.379 --> 00:06:27.819 cost him everything. A tomb unexpectedly opened. 00:06:27.899 --> 00:06:32.699 A road covered in cloaks. An upper room. Somebody 00:06:32.699 --> 00:06:39.459 knelt at our feet, broke bread with us, and said, 00:06:39.560 --> 00:06:49.259 remember me. Now here, The hill, the wood, the 00:06:49.259 --> 00:06:56.600 noise thinning crowd going home. It's over. Well, 00:06:56.839 --> 00:07:04.220 almost everyone has gone home. Friends, attune 00:07:04.220 --> 00:07:08.379 your ears to the reading of Holy Scripture. Our 00:07:08.379 --> 00:07:10.800 portion this afternoon comes to us according 00:07:10.800 --> 00:07:14.600 to the Gospel account of John Mark. Chapter 15, 00:07:14.759 --> 00:07:19.300 beginning verse 42. When evening had now come, 00:07:19.339 --> 00:07:23.060 because it was preparation day, that is, the 00:07:23.060 --> 00:07:26.319 day before the Sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, 00:07:26.540 --> 00:07:29.300 a prominent council member, who also himself 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:35.100 was looking for God's kingdom, came. He boldly 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:41.500 went to Pilate and asked for Jesus' body. Pilate 00:07:41.500 --> 00:07:45.250 marveled. He were already dead and summoned the 00:07:45.250 --> 00:07:48.930 centurion. He asked him whether he'd been long 00:07:48.930 --> 00:07:53.470 dead. He found out from the centurion he granted 00:07:53.470 --> 00:07:58.050 the body to Joseph. He bought a linen cloth and 00:07:58.050 --> 00:08:01.550 taking him down, wound him in the linen cloth, 00:08:01.930 --> 00:08:04.889 laid him in a tomb which had been cut out of 00:08:04.889 --> 00:08:07.910 rock. He rolled a stone against the door of the 00:08:07.910 --> 00:08:12.269 tomb and thus ends. Reading of the word this 00:08:12.269 --> 00:08:20.470 afternoon. One man hadn't gone home. A Sanhedrin 00:08:20.470 --> 00:08:25.750 member. He sat in the room when the vote happened. 00:08:26.589 --> 00:08:33.129 Luke tells you, carefully, specifically, Joseph 00:08:33.129 --> 00:08:39.480 did not consent. cast his no into a room that 00:08:39.480 --> 00:08:43.299 had already decided, and the room just kept on 00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:47.759 moving. The institution got what it had came 00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:52.879 for. The soldiers are finishing. Pilgrims are 00:08:52.879 --> 00:08:56.220 wandering the streets trying to make sense as 00:08:56.220 --> 00:09:00.980 to what they have woke up to. And Joseph is still 00:09:00.980 --> 00:09:06.610 looking. You know what kept him there? I think 00:09:06.610 --> 00:09:10.409 you do. You may not have words for it, but your 00:09:10.409 --> 00:09:14.210 chest knows. You stood somewhere you should have 00:09:14.210 --> 00:09:19.149 left. Not because you were brave, because something 00:09:19.149 --> 00:09:22.690 in you wouldn't let your feet move. Something 00:09:22.690 --> 00:09:27.649 heavier than courage. Something that felt less 00:09:27.649 --> 00:09:33.659 like conviction and more like recognition. Like 00:09:33.659 --> 00:09:35.240 you're looking at something you've been carrying 00:09:35.240 --> 00:09:38.740 around for a long time and you are finally, maybe 00:09:38.740 --> 00:09:40.940 for the first time, being able to see it from 00:09:40.940 --> 00:09:45.960 the outside. Joseph had spent 30 years inside 00:09:45.960 --> 00:09:50.059 of a story about God. A God that needs protecting. 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:56.879 Because holiness needs walls. Access to the Almighty 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:01.080 runs through proper channels. Proper credentials. 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:08.419 Proper men in the proper seats. And when somebody 00:10:08.419 --> 00:10:12.460 out of the blue shows up saying God eats with 00:10:12.460 --> 00:10:15.659 sinners and touches lepers and lets the wrong 00:10:15.659 --> 00:10:20.519 people touch the hem of his garment, when the 00:10:20.519 --> 00:10:23.279 bread of heaven shows up and doesn't come through 00:10:23.279 --> 00:10:29.360 your system, well, you know what the system does. 00:10:31.149 --> 00:10:37.330 It's on the wood right now. Cross isn't a corruption 00:10:37.330 --> 00:10:42.389 of an institution. It's the institution's finest 00:10:42.389 --> 00:10:46.870 product, followed to the end of its own road. 00:10:49.250 --> 00:10:55.549 And Joseph is looking at it. Something's been 00:10:55.549 --> 00:10:58.649 stirring in his chest for 50 years, a song he 00:10:58.649 --> 00:11:01.720 learned before. He knew he was learning it. A 00:11:01.720 --> 00:11:05.100 verse from a prophet who saw this coming seven 00:11:05.100 --> 00:11:11.240 centuries earlier. Something is rising like groundwater 00:11:11.240 --> 00:11:15.100 nobody pumped for. Because the man who spent 00:11:15.100 --> 00:11:17.799 all these years staying quiet inside that building 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:26.500 helped build crosses just like this. Watching 00:11:26.500 --> 00:11:31.149 the building's best. die on a Roman wooden cross. 00:11:32.809 --> 00:11:37.629 And for some reason, Joseph now can't unsee it. 00:11:39.070 --> 00:11:43.049 And maybe you know what that's like. You've been 00:11:43.049 --> 00:11:47.450 inside of something, a system, a story, a version 00:11:47.450 --> 00:11:49.850 of God somebody handed to you when you were a 00:11:49.850 --> 00:11:53.830 child. And one day, you looked at what it produced, 00:11:54.029 --> 00:11:57.370 and it didn't fit the God you'd actually met. 00:11:59.049 --> 00:12:03.289 And you couldn't go back. Not because you decided 00:12:03.289 --> 00:12:07.870 not to, because your eyes wouldn't let you. In 00:12:07.870 --> 00:12:11.990 the wilderness, Israel died because they believed 00:12:11.990 --> 00:12:18.450 lies about God and refused to look at the truth 00:12:18.450 --> 00:12:23.610 lifted right up in front of them. In Jerusalem, 00:12:23.809 --> 00:12:29.549 the same lie took flesh. and we nailed it to 00:12:29.549 --> 00:12:34.429 a cross. And one man, standing there with everything 00:12:34.429 --> 00:12:38.970 to lose, looked at what we had all done, and 00:12:38.970 --> 00:12:42.789 maybe for the first time in his life, refused 00:12:42.789 --> 00:12:48.590 to live like that lie was the truth. Mark says 00:12:48.590 --> 00:12:54.230 he boldly went to Pilate. The Greek word is tomosos, 00:12:54.509 --> 00:12:59.659 he dared. Not the language of a man settling 00:12:59.659 --> 00:13:02.460 accounts. That's a man whose body started moving 00:13:02.460 --> 00:13:05.399 before his theology had finished catching up 00:13:05.399 --> 00:13:09.259 with him. He bought linen. He took the body down 00:13:09.259 --> 00:13:13.159 with his own hands. He wound it in cloth and 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:18.700 he laid it in his family's tomb. The place carved 00:13:18.700 --> 00:13:25.669 for his own bones. The place. That said in limestone 00:13:25.669 --> 00:13:29.370 what his mouth hadn't learned to say yet. You 00:13:29.370 --> 00:13:36.490 are mine. And Joseph didn't know what resurrection 00:13:36.490 --> 00:13:42.370 meant yet. But he knew enough to stop calling 00:13:42.370 --> 00:13:49.370 death the truth. You look at Friday night. We 00:13:49.370 --> 00:13:56.759 always have. And all we see is dark. No. But 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:01.080 you've tended a fire before. You know not to 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:06.580 trust the gray ash. You get down on your knees. 00:14:07.580 --> 00:14:12.080 You blow soft, not hard. Hard kills it. Soft. 00:14:12.899 --> 00:14:15.200 The way you whisper to something you're not sure 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:18.120 is still alive, but you're not willing to walk 00:14:18.120 --> 00:14:22.940 away from it just yet. And if there's a coal 00:14:22.940 --> 00:14:29.799 under there, just one buried in the ash, glowing 00:14:29.799 --> 00:14:34.320 so faintly, you've got to put your face close 00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:41.799 to feel the heat. Then the fire wasn't out. It's 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:46.480 just waiting for someone to get low enough. And 00:14:46.480 --> 00:14:52.539 Joseph got low on his knees. Wrapped a body close 00:14:52.539 --> 00:14:56.500 enough to the ash. Feel the heat on its face. 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:02.059 And friend, you can't have shade without the 00:15:02.059 --> 00:15:06.679 sun. Shade and darkness feel the same on your 00:15:06.679 --> 00:15:11.960 skin. But shade has edges. Shade has a shape. 00:15:12.919 --> 00:15:15.659 Follow those edges back and they'll point you 00:15:15.659 --> 00:15:19.740 to a light that never went out. Joseph's act. 00:15:20.970 --> 00:15:26.129 The linen, the tomb, the body laid in a rich 00:15:26.129 --> 00:15:30.610 man's grave, that's shade on the ground of Good 00:15:30.610 --> 00:15:35.929 Friday. And the edges actually point to a light 00:15:35.929 --> 00:15:40.389 still shining when every eye in that holy city 00:15:40.389 --> 00:15:45.230 says otherwise. The light shines into the darkness, 00:15:45.330 --> 00:15:52.190 and the darkness hasn't overcome it. Not even 00:15:52.190 --> 00:15:58.330 on Friday night. So, if you're sitting here without 00:15:58.330 --> 00:16:03.269 certainty, if resurrection sounds more like doctrine 00:16:03.269 --> 00:16:07.590 than a dawn, but something in you, something 00:16:07.590 --> 00:16:11.070 you can't name and can't quite kill won't let 00:16:11.070 --> 00:16:15.049 you call this the last word, friends, you are 00:16:15.049 --> 00:16:22.879 exactly in right company. So, Joseph rolls the 00:16:22.879 --> 00:16:26.039 limestone against rock. That's the last sound 00:16:26.039 --> 00:16:30.840 you get this afternoon. He stands there just 00:16:30.840 --> 00:16:36.320 for a moment. Two sealed Saturday ahead of him 00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:41.440 like a field with no fence. He doesn't know what 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:45.519 morning looks like. He doesn't know if the bread 00:16:45.519 --> 00:16:47.700 will be on the ground when the sun comes up. 00:16:49.419 --> 00:16:52.799 But he does know he's done calling death the 00:16:52.799 --> 00:16:59.299 truth. He walks home in the twilight, carrying 00:16:59.299 --> 00:17:07.460 the smallest, most possible number of a fire 00:17:07.460 --> 00:17:12.940 that will not go out. I'm not taking you to Sunday 00:17:12.940 --> 00:17:20.269 this afternoon, but it's coming. Not yet. Go 00:17:20.269 --> 00:17:26.829 in silence. Carry what you carry. And come back 00:17:26.829 --> 00:17:30.190 Sunday morning. We'll see what the morning knows 00:17:30.190 --> 00:17:41.109 that the night didn't quite. Amen? Amen. If you've 00:17:41.109 --> 00:17:43.849 made it this far, just sit with it one moment 00:17:43.849 --> 00:17:47.890 longer. No rush. No need to tie it up clean. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.960 This is the day that asks you to stay. If this 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:55.740 found you where you are, somewhere between hope 00:17:55.740 --> 00:17:58.819 and silence, let that be enough. And if you want 00:17:58.819 --> 00:18:00.920 to walk with us through the rest of the story, 00:18:00.940 --> 00:18:03.220 you're always welcome here. Like, subscribe, 00:18:03.519 --> 00:18:05.819 come back. Not out of obligation, just to keep 00:18:05.819 --> 00:18:09.140 the porch light on. We'll be here when Sunday 00:18:09.140 --> 00:18:11.019 comes. Be blessed.