Church of the Holy City

And He Surrendered Jesus to Their Will

And He Surrendered Jesus to Their Will
Rev. Dr. David J. Fekete’
April 6, 2012

Luke 23: 1-49 Psalm 22

On Good Friday we see Jesus especially in His humanity. He works no miracles. He teaches no multitudes. And He submits to the ultimate human experience of death.
Nevertheless, our reading from Luke shows Jesus as a truly Godly Man. He endures a terrible fate with calmness, patience, and compassion. He shows us how God on earth acts toward the human race that He loves. And He shows how humanity can act when our best nature is called forth.
Swedenborg tells us that the crucifixion was the final and worst of Jesus` temptations. Jesus went through grievous temptations throughout His life. But in the crucifixion Jesus` deepest love was assailed as was the most basic human drive for life.
Let`s see if we can imagine the crucifixion might have meant for Jesus. Of course we cannot enter the Divine Mind and plumb its depths. We do not have a mind that in any way can compare to His. But I still think there is value in speculating about some of what the crucifixion may have meant for Jesus. Jesus is the Divine Human, and He has a Human Nature as we do.
To begin with, we need to say something about temptations. Temptations are struggles in which our loves come under attack. One form of temptation is when God helps us to deny a profane pleasure. In this form of temptation, our profane love and delight comes under attack. We seek to flee from these unhealthy drives and rep-lace them with healthy, holy loves. Another form of temptation is when heavenly loves and delights are polluted by profane passions that evil spirits inspire into us. We feel horrified at these feelings and fear that our heavenly loves are being overwhelmed. This form of temptation has the benefit of strengthening our hold on heavenly loves, as we fight to keep them in our hearts.
I think that when Jesus was on the cross, His deepest love was threatened by the human race and by the hells. Jesus` deepest love is for the whole human race. He came to the earth in order to save us. He came to earth to teach us the ways of God, and the heavenly life. He came to earth to call us home. Yet one of Jesus` earliest perceptions was about how depraved the human race had become. He saw that humanity was consumed with destructive self-interest and that humanity had ceased to regard each other with love and care. A history book about some of the things that happened in the Roman Empire will give us some indication of just how horrible humanity was capable of being. When Jesus looked at the human race, and saw its character, He was horrified. Swedenborg tells us,
the thought . . . concerning the human race, that this was their quality, struck horror; for the Lord’s love toward the human race was so great that He wished to save them all to eternity, by the union of His Human Essence with the Divine, and of the Divine with the Human (AC 2222).
How did we appear to Jesus as He endured that horrible death–a death that was commonplace in the Roman Empire? Earlier in Jesus’ ministry, it may have looked like humanity had a chance. Multitudes were moved by Jesus’ presence and His teachings–from as far north as Phoenicia all the way south to Jerusalem. In fact, that was one of the very charges that the chief priests brought against Jesus. They told Pilate, “He stirs up the people all over Judea by His teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here” (Luke 23:5). Now these very multitudes had turned against Jesus and were calling for His death. Luke tells us that the chief priests and teachers of the law were the primary orchestrators of Jesus’ death. But Mark makes it a mob scene. Pilate releases Barabbas in order, “to satisfy the crowd” (Mark 15:15).
I can imagine the humanity of Jesus looking at the violent crowd and wondering if they would accept His teachings, turn, and be saved. It sure didn’t look like it at the time of the crucifixion. Jesus’ only thought was for the salvation of humanity. Even as He endured the cross, He said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Enduring the insults, the mockery, the trumped-up charges against Him; watching humanity go amok with the frenzy of blood; Jesus forgave, and saw that they didn’t know what they were doing.
Let’s shift gears a little, now. Let’s see Jesus as a mere man–not as the Son of God. With Good Friday, we emphasize the crucifixion and death of Jesus: things that happened to many human beings during the Roman Empire. And we, too, will face death in our given time. Let us, then, for a minute, look at Jesus’ humanity and his death. What quality of a man would, could, go through all that Jesus did, and forgive the mob scene that led to His terrible death? Can you imagine any mere man forgiving his murderers, forgiving the church orthodoxy that brought him to Pilate on trumped-up charges? Can you imagine any mere man bearing this tragic reversal in fortune with the calmness and acceptance that we see in Jesus of Nazareth? Such a man is hard to imagine and is worthy of our utmost respect, admiration, and emulation.
To me, the way Jesus died is almost proof enough that He is indeed God in the flesh. In Mark, the Roman centurion who witnesses the way Jesus died, exclaims, “Surely this man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39). To endure all that Jesus did with a compassionate heart; to forgive in the face of humanity at its worst; to submit to death without a struggle or fight–these are the qualities of God. This is the love of God. This is the example we all are called to follow. In all our small or large difficulties in this life, compassion and forgiveness are the qualities God wants us to embody. Love for our enemies, doing good to those who persecute us, forgiving those who oppose us–these are the lessons of the crucifixion. And with the crucifixion, we see that even in death, Jesus had a final lesson yet to teach the human race He so loves.

PRAYER

Dear Lord Jesus, we love you and you are our God. But we sometimes fall short in our devotion to you. And we fall short in our dealings with each other. Too often we think of ourselves first, and forget about those around us and how we treat them. We come to you conscious of our own failings and shortcomings. Yet we know that you came to bring a fallen humanity back to you. And we know that today you are still with the human race, that you are still with each of us, calling us home to you and to your kingdom. Enlighten our minds and soften our hearts so that we may respond better to our loved ones and our neighbors. Fill our hearts with devotion to you. And may we never forget that we are your children, and that you, our Father, wish nothing more than to live eternally together with us in heavenly joy.