3rd April 2026 –
Listening to the account of Jesus’ suffering and death or reading it privately surely opens a window of understanding concerning some common elements in the sufferings of the human race. First Christ prays in the garden of Gethsemane that his expected torture and painful death will be taken from him – the prayer of anguish; it is not granted. Then He turns to His friends – they are asleep – just as in so many ways our friends can be, or we can be, or busy, or away, or preoccupied – not understanding the real need of the one seeking help. Then Jesus faces the priests, the Church of His time – that institution brought into existence by His Father – and it condemns Him. This is also characteristic, for in all religions, in every institution, there is something which sooner or later may work against the very purpose for which it was established. But as the story unfolds there seems to be another chance. Perhaps there is hope in the State; in this case the Roman Empire. Its claim to importance were far lower than those of the Jewish religion and it might properly have been free from local fanaticisms. Indeed that was true – but as it was then so it is now, such freedom is governed by political expediency and the keeping of power. Individuals become mere pieces on the board of a complicated game. Perhaps an appeal could be made to the people. And so they are asked what is to be done with the man Jesus, who is called the Christ. But the poor and simple whom He had blessed, whom he had healed and fed and taught, to whose race He belongs, have become overnight a murderous rabble shouting for His blood. What is left, where is He to turn? He will turn to God. And to God, the Son of God’s last words are “Why have you forsaken me?”
As each part of the Passion story unfolds they are representative of the human situation. These are among the things it means to be human. It seems there is no where to go, every door is slammed just as it is reached, every thread of hope breaks when it is seized. We do not have to look very far to see and hear of tragedies, of mental and bodily sufferings, of cruelties and anguish. Events in Ukraine and Iran have shown how evil, pain and suffering can touch all our lives in some way.
What then is the Christian to think, to say and do if even Jesus cries out to God “Why have you forsaken me?” If the crucifixion was the end we would not be here in any case so this particular problem would be removed – for there would be no Christians. Our hope is in what follows – our faith is belief in the disciples testimony. We pass from Good Friday to Easter Sunday – never forgetting that every man and woman has to live some form of Good Friday. No human being can escape a measure of anxiety, pain or suffering – how each person faces this depends, like everything else, on the preparations made beforehand. The world throws its hands up in horror and seeks someone to blame; and the worldly way often seeks escape in passing pleasures in a desperate effort to avoid depression and the consequences of any real change of heart. The Christian will undergo these temptations, but we hear the voice of Christ saying to us, ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me’. The key must surely lie in those words – ‘follow me’. We are asked to follow Christ and so to die to sin – to the immaturity of egotism, to the wilful denial of truth, to the wastefulness of time and resources and to greed. In following Christ we die as we live – we move from the darkness of sin to the light of Truth – and so to a share in the glory and light of the resurrection.
