Good Friday Homily: The Politics of Good Friday

Homily: People of God, the story of Good Friday is that it was by a tree that Adam fell in the garden and by a tree Adam is restored.[1]

We see this restoration unfolding for us in the Gospel of St. John. In the narrative, Pilate represents the evil empire that conspires against the Lord’s anointed (Ps. 2), but he does not collude in isolation; he conspires with the Jews of the day. These are two manifestations of politics in the Passion Week: the Romans with their propensity to elevate kings to the status of gods and the First-Century Jews with their propensity to elevate Maccabean characters as messianic figures. Both groups with their distinct ideologies share the same contempt for Jesus. The Romans despise Him because He is a threat to the peace of the empire; the Jews hate Him because He equates Himself to Yahweh. There is a back and forth dilemma facing the political powers of this world. “What do we do with this man?” “Do we crucify him; do we let Him go; will He anger Caesar; will He draw to Himself members of our political party?”[2] Throughout the Gospels we often hear of the confusion and uncertainty about the nature of Jesus. But by this point, the leaders of the day have realized that Jesus is no ordinary man; that He is not just claiming to be the Messiah, but also a kingly substitute to the current selection. After this realization, their tone changes quite drastically. Their plans of execution and murder suddenly become quite concrete.  This is the politics of Good Friday:

“The Word of God, who was with God and was God, the Only-Begotten Son, takes flesh and dwells among us, and in response, the most sophisticated religious leaders of the ancient world join forces with the most powerful political leaders of the ancient world to murder Him. God enters His creation, and His creatures concentrate all their ingenuity, passion, piety, and power to destroy Him. “Now is the judgment of this world,” Jesus had said. While the world thinks it is passing judgment on Jesus, it is really judging itself.” [3]

What is distinctive about the politics of Good Friday is not that Jesus despises power; after all, He will receive all power and authority in heaven and earth[4] from the Father, rather the uniqueness of Good Friday is that power comes through death, and the declaration of His kingship does not appear in the splendor of a Roman coronation, but in the horror of a tree.

When Pilate handed over Jesus to the Jews and mockingly stated: “Behold your King!” little did he know that the destruction of his own kingdom now was certain, and the genesis and emergence of an everlasting kingdom was already taking place.

Unlike Adam, Jesus did not fail to crush the Serpent.[5] On a tree, Adam fell, but through a tree, a New Adam and a New Humanity is resurrected.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.