And returned. The sight that St. Luke refers
to is this, what they beheld. We behold. We behold
it in a different way. Moses asked to see the
glory of God, and God says, well, I will pass
by you, my glory will pass by you, but you can't
see it. This is the glory of God. cross that's
why it says the king of glory it's the one who
is on it that's glorious because of what he's
done and the fruit it says in Isaiah the fruit
of his travail he will see and rejoice and that's
us we are the fruit of this agony and travail
the sight that we behold now the profound meaning
of what happened that day hidden from the eyes
of those that were there mocking him Hopefully
we see now a little bit more by faith. And by
over 2 ,000 years of witnesses, that is the saints,
the martyrs, who bore testimony by their own
death to the death and the resurrection of Christ,
that death is overcome. St. Joseph the Hesychast
says we need to not be afraid of death, but actually
chase it a little bit because it starts to run
away from us. It's afraid of us because we're
Christians and we've been given the Holy Spirit.
Last night we heard about St. Peter's denial.
Multiple times. The early church put that in
there while St. Peter was still alive. Imagine
every year he bore that shame. He bore that shame.
Multiple times it was emphasized. emphasize to
us how easy it is to deny the faith, whether
it's by words or our deeds or by laziness or
by our sloppiness in the faith or by our apathy
about the faith or because our fear or shame
that someone may cause to us. And yet, although
Christ had done so many miracles before them,
says, one of the evangelists. Still they did
not believe. And here we are, contemplating and
pondering what it meant to the few people, the
few people that took the Lord down from the cross
that day. Just a few of them. Two men and some
women. One disciple only. The old spiritual hymn
asks, were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the cross?
Yes, that's what we're doing here. We're there.
How many times do we have to hear the word today?
Today, the Lord of glory is crucified. Today,
the most pure virgin stands and beats her breast
and tears her hair. Today, over and over and
over again. This means that we are there when
they crucified our Lord. And sometimes it is
not they who crucified. the Lord, but as we by
our lukewarm response to him and our sins. But
today is no day for a lukewarm response. Today
it's all or nothing from us because he gave all
because we were nothing, returning to the dust
from nothingness that we were created. Today
is not about a lukewarm response. Yesterday,
last night, this morning, today, over and over
again, we read gospel accounts of the trial.
The beating, the spitting, the whipping, the
crucifixion, the mockery. Twelve selections last
night. A long reading at the liturgy yesterday.
Another long reading that the deacon did so beautifully
today. Why? Why this repetition? In order to
invite us to the today of the earth -shattering
event that happened today over and over and over
again, the repetitions saturate us in that. They
penetrate into our hearts, our understanding
and our feeling. It takes a while, my brothers
and sisters, for us to get it. So the church
says over and over again this same story. You
heard it. Multiple times, it's the gospel in
its power. It's not information. It's the truth,
and it convicts us, and it embraces us. Because
the Lord, as I was telling the deacon the other
day, he asked me a question. I said, he is not
only our judge, but he is our defense attorney.
Father Andrew Morby, dear friend, former rector
here back in the 80s, says that this is all somewhat
problematic for us. Holy Friday is not easily
approached and understood. He says this, in our
daily life we can put up with a lot of things
if we know the outcome is going to be good. Surgery,
chemo, medication, losing money, family issues.
Those are representative of the many moments
and transactions in our life that we know if
we're patient and we work hard, we will get through
them. And there'll be a good outcome, a positive
outcome. But in this case here today in the church,
in this service, what's problematic is that we
actually know the gospel story. And we know what's
going to happen over the next three days. It's
quite possible that the real gravity and horror
of that day, the crucifixion of the Lord, the
sorrow, the anguish of it, remains a story, yes,
a moving and deep and profound story. But knowing
the end as we do, maybe our minds are already
thinking about the celebration to come. Breaking
our fast, the cheese and the meads and the beverage
and the enjoyable time. But today the church
wants us to be disciples like they were. The
women and Nicodemus and Joseph. Perhaps fearful
disciples have run away, of course. Why does
the church want us to be disciples with the women
and Joseph and Nicodemus? Because for them, they
knew. They knew that the crucifixion was the
absolute end. It was the end of the story. It
was utter defeat. They were crushed. They weren't
just dismayed and sad. They were completely confused,
anguished, grieved. We thought it would be he
that would be the consolation and the savior
of Israel. The apostles say to Jesus on the road
to Emmaus, Broken hearted, the pain and pains
that all throw their shadow across our life.
This is what we experienced too. This was the
death of the one they loved the most. Imagine
for a moment in a spiritual way that today is,
this is it. Crucifixion's the end of the story.
There's nothing more. Are we brokenhearted? We
have to put ourselves in their place if we are
going to rejoice in their place too. The suffering
of the Lord, his anguish, his pain, it embraces
all of us and all our anxiety and all our suffering
and brokenheartedness. His love, his death embraces
everything. And so this way, says Father Andrew,
the way in which to approach the tomb of the
Lord is to come and venerate the Plaschnitza
and the cross and to allow full measure of your
grief. All the memories of hurts, offenses, hard
-heartedness, brokenness, betrayal, sorrow, a
way in which we've had so many dead ends in our
life. and thought there was no hope and no escape
and no solution. Forget about breaking the fast
and sausages and shots of vodka. Bracket off
the glorious cry, Christ is risen. Leave it aside.
Let us experience today this moment as the end,
how the apostles saw it in their bewilderment
and fear. As a priest, I can tell you, when people
are suffering, that's how they see it. They don't
see what's coming. We forget about it. So this
is where today we bring all our sorrow to the
man of sorrows, to the mother of sorrows who
love us. Can we spiritually enter into the great
today of this service and realize that our Savior
experienced a real genuine death, that he was
afraid in his human nature, that he sweated,
as it were, great drops of blood, that he was
sorrowful and grieving, says the evangelist,
even to death. You see, that's the whole problem
of knowing the outcome. We don't always grasp
that it's a very real death. It's not a pretend
death. It's not acting. It's not an appearance.
It's a reality. And as real as this fallen and
broken and devastated world, that's what God
entered into for our sake. Why? So that he could
go into that dark realm of death and transform
it from the inside. And we will celebrate that
tonight and tomorrow. Love gets crushed. Betrayals
happen. Wickedness happens. The same stupid violence
that the Lord experienced, we experience, we,
us, now. Since he also experiences it because
he is our head and we are his body. He knows
it. This is what we need to bring to the Lord
this great today of Holy Friday, with tears in
our eyes, with love like the women and Joseph
and Nicodemus. This is our story too. Amen.