Sweet Spots

by Rev. Mindy Smith

I was 32 years old and found myself sitting in a podiatrist’s waiting room. I remember how uncomfortable I felt sitting there when I realized the two elderly women next to me were both in wheelchairs and knew the nurses by name. I was too young it seemed for my feet to have failed me. When I finally got in to see the foot doc the diagnosis came down like a cruel joke: “Bunions,” he stated. “You’ve got two nasty bunions.” Bewildered and embarrassed I quickly went home and googled, “bunions.” And what I found was not pretty. Like the internet is prone to do it led me to a world of foot impediments, foot diseases, foot surgeries, and the consequences of an ingrown toe-nail.

​During this time when both my feet had to be operated on, I began to study them. Feet are often ignored, unappreciated, and covered up, I discovered. (Unless of course, on a rare occasion, a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes shows up, and then they become the focal point.) Most of the time though, feet, rarely get much attention if they are doing their job well. If they are moving us where we need to be, at the appropriate speed, with efficiency and stride, they often go unnoticed. Yet, if a toe gets stubbed, or an Achilles becomes compromised, or God-forbid a bunion shows up, every other part of the body is affected. I ended up spending some good time with my podiatrist that year and I remember he told me, “If the feet go down, it affects everything. Your legs, your knees, your back, the feet are central to our whole body function. You must make it a practice to care for your feet.” And he said, “No high heels. Never wear high heels.”

The feet are crucial to how our bodies function, how we move about, how we work, how we serve. So, it is no surprise that the Bible so often mentions the work of the feet as necessary to spread the gospel. Isaiah described them, “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings the good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” The Hebrews scriptures say this, “And make straight paths for your feet so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.” And in Samuel, “For who is God, but the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? This God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights.” When God gets his hands on our feet, the scriptures affirm they are praised for bringing the good news, for building peace, for claiming salvation and they exude joy.

​As Jesus’ life on earth was coming to an end he gathered his friends together one last time. The ministry that Jesus had led for three years was finally coming in off the streets and had moved into a small, simple upper room. Imagine that room. A simple meal, a few good friends and the anticipation of what was to come. Leslie Newbiggin described it this way, “the noise of the cosmos has died away: the stillness of night prevails (Bultmann). And yet, in that quiet room, Jesus is preparing his disciples for the mission to the world on which he will send them.” And before they gathered to eat, Jesus got his hands on their feet.

​“Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2 The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4 got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” 7 Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 10 Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And youare clean, though not all of you.” 11 For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14 So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16 Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17 If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.” (Jn 13:1-17)

​John in his gospel writes: Jesus knew “that the time had come to leave this world to go to the Father.” He also knew that Satan had Judas firmly in his grip, that his traitor’s mind was made up and betrayal was inevitable. But the scriptures go on to tell us “Jesus also knew that the father had put him in complete charge of everything. That he came from God and was on his way back to God.” There, two stories being written simultaneously. The first includes the details of the gathering in the upper room shrouded in anxiety, tension, fear, and betrayal. And at the same time Jesus’ deep knowledge of the story God was of a love poured out for his people. A story of a suffering servant who in his faithfulness would wipe away the sins of the world.

​Jesus’ life was drawing to a rapid end. The worst brutality of his life was going to seize him at any moment. Yet, notice here that he does not talk about strategy, or his autobiography, or his next book. He does not talk to them about becoming people of influence. He does not talk about acquiring power or outsmarting the world at its own game. And instead of fighting, or complaining, or breaking-down, Jesus stayed attuned to the story God was writing. He got in the back of the line, disregarded the place of honor, and he moved in low. The Son of God did the most ordinary of mundane tasks and did the washing no one wanted to do. In the face of his bestial ordeal, he stood up and wrapped a towel around his waist.

​The culture of that time required people to walk around all day in a hot, dusty environment with just sandals on. Walking in sandals on the filthy roads of Israel in the first century made it imperative that feet be washed before a communal meal, especially since people reclined at a low table. No one was interested in going near the feet. The rabbis said that if you had a Jewish servant they were not required to wash feet. Since there was no servant present to wash their feet, it would never have occurred to them to wash one another’s feet.

​When Jesus took off his outer robe and stooped to this lowly task, they were stunned into silence. To his credit, though, Peter was profoundly uncomfortable with the Lord washing his feet, and, never being at a loss for words, he protested, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus then calmly explained the obvious to Peter. Everyone in this room is the same. Everyone here has filthy feet. It is the common denominator. Everyone has feet that need to be washed. Even Judas. And I suspect when it was Judas’ turn Jesus looked him in the eye and then graciously dropped his head and dipped his hands in the water basin. Slowly letting the water drip through his fingers, holding his foot gently, allowing the dirt that covered Judas’ toes, and ankles wash into Jesus’ hands. And at that moment Jesus’ love was not an act of sympathy but a loving act of empathy. Sympathy would say, “I feel sorry for you because your feet are dirty.” Whereas an empathetic love would say, “I do this because your dirty feet are also mine.” This is what we describe as agape love, love that suffers with. Jesus in his most humble position that evening is offering a depth of love which connects the disciples to himself AND connects them to each other through the agency of pain. God doesn’t love us from a safe distance.  No, God’s agape-love draws him right into the middle of our struggles and pain.  God sent his Son as a suffering servant, the man of sorrows, the crucified Messiah.  In Jesus Christ, we see this love that doesn’tstay aloof in heaven, but a love that plunges into the pain of this broken world — bearing it, dying for it, redeeming it.  We’re never closer to the heart of God than when our own heart is breaking.  Agape-love is a suffering love from a God who claims, “your pain is my pain.” FrederickBuechner once said this: “The Buddha sits under the lotus tree with eyes closed to keep the pain of the world out. Jesus hangs on the cross with his eyes open to let the pain of the world in.”

​And when he was done, Jesus commanded them to do the same. Live empathetically. Live in a way in which you do not just see someone’s pain, but you live in the pain together, standing in the back of the line, in the low places, recognizing we are all the same, we all have nasty feet, we are all broken, filthy people who need a savior to wash us clean.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul writes, “Death will be under God’s feet.” Death will cower at God. Death has not been the victor, God is. We know this because Christ is alive! Jesus Christ, God’s one and only begotten, loved and cherished son, who “though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself.” He willingly poured it all out and “taking the form of a slave, he took off his outer robe and washed the feet of his disciples.” He cared for their feet so they could walk in paths of righteousness. Christ did not use his feet to destroy his enemies but instead washed the feet of his betrayers. He was crucified between two thieves and one nail was driven through his two feet with the right foot over the left foot. His feet were destroyed. He took a final breath. And then, three days later he stood, there on his own two feet, on solid ground.

Heed this holy mandate: Live close to the feet of others. And not because you are striving to be justified like Peter, but because you recognize you are just like Judas. All of us in the human race are much more alike than we are different. We are all relying on our feet to take us somewhere. So, the command is to walk in his footsteps as he leads you to the back of the line. When he asks you to suffer for another. When death feels close at hand. When your betrayer sits before you. Jesus patiently redirects Peter, and he quietly moves toward Judas. He crouches down by his feet. Because Jesus knows he is writing a different story. One in which we finally realize that the kingdom of God is filled with people in the back of the line and one by one Jesus the Christ is washing us clean, and as the water of life drips down between our toes, and the dirt disappears, he brings the towel up around our ankles. And as he does, I can hear the Savior quietly singing, “how lovely on the mountains are the feet of them that bring good news.” He wrings out his towel and when he is finishes he moves us up into the high places in which the feet we stand on proclaim the love of the Suffering Servant, Jesus the Christ, the Savior of the world.

“Good Friday Homilies and Service” by Guest Preacher Rev Dr. Gregg Borror

Hymn- When I Survey the Wondrous Cross

Tears in the Garden- Luke 22:39-46

Narrator- Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. On reaching the place, he said to them,

Jesus- “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”

Narrator- He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,

Jesus- “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.”

Narrator- An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When he rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, he found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow.

Jesus- “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.”

Poet:
Gethsemane’s Garnets
Crystal beads of sweat
It’s the beginning of a flood
Their translucence reveals an anguish
That is growing underneath
Causing them to swell
A great heaviness pulls
There is no resistance
They start a lowly journey
Moved in surrender to greater will
As the purest heart crumbles
One drop follows after another
Forming glistening streaks
Along a spotless brow
The tender heart soon shatters
Under the weight of woe
Drops fall to the ground
Like glistening shards of crystal
Where the beads first surfaced
A single crimson drop forms
It slowly paints a stripe
Down that stainless skin
It rolled along the hairline
Over the cheekbone to the jaw
In a moment of uncertainty
It clung there at the edge
With no alternative to release
The final hold was given up
Like a rose petal it fluttered down
Gently landing in dampened earth
Where sweat and tears first fell
At this silent touch of crimson
Broken crystal drops transformed
Color slowly deepening
Dirt glittering with garnets
Each hearts’ filth was covered
But their purity had this stain
(Sarah Lane Feb 2017)

Homily:
I. A Time Like No Other
A. It was a “usual” habit for Jesus, He regularly went of by Himself to collect His thoughts, recover from the crowds and commune with the Heavenly Father. The Disciples were used to His need for “alone time” and they gave Him space. They might have sensed that He was quieter, more introspective than usual, but they knew it had been a hard week. When He asked them to pray for Him, that is what they were planning to do, but they dropped off one at a time.

B. This was different, this moment was not like others. Jesus was not just tired of people, He was in deep need of consolation from His Father. No one else would be able to understand the conversation, the tearful flow of pleading words that He spilt out to God. This was not Jesus asking for direction, this was Jesus asking for a complete reversal of what He knew to be God’s will.

C. Meeting the Father to talk Him out of something. In the quiet moments, Jesus approached a familiar place- the feet of God; the Throne Room with which He was completely familiar, but now seemed unwelcoming and strange. He was here to make petition, but not for others this time, He was asking for a personal miracle, and He already knew the answer.

II. A Time Alone
A. This was not a time for the disciples to participate; they would not understand. They would never understand why Jesus had to die, or why God would let Him, maybe even require Him to do so. They would never be comfortable watching Jesus cry and sweat what now looked like blood. They had witnessed many things as they followed Jesus, but this scenario would not fit any of what they thought of Jesus- the Messiah! In fact, they would probably try to dissuade Him as before, entreat Him to leave, quickly before anything bad happened; and it would definitely be a temptation to avoid all that was about to come.

B. A time to suffer alone, for everyone’s sake, even Jesus’ own sake, it was better for Him to be alone. Just He and the Father to hammer this out; either move away from God’s will, or hasten toward it. This was His cross to bear, the disciples would have their own soon enough.

III. A Time to Cry
A. Mingled with the sweat were salty tears, the evidence of a breaking heart. Was it fear, frustration, hurt or betrayal? Probably all three wrapped in heaving sighs of remorse, suffering and giving in. He had not cried much for a “man of sorrows” but this outflow made up for all of those more controlled moments.

B. It all seemed more than any one man could possibly bear: the burden of betrayal, the sting of death, the distance from the Father. He had trusted the Father and the Spirit in everything, but this shook Him to the bone. It was a time to cry.

Tears of Denial- Luke 22:54-62

Narrator- Then seizing Jesus, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance. And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them. A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him,

Servant Girl- “This man was with him.”

Peter- “Woman, I don’t know him,”

Narrator- A little later someone else saw him

Male Bystander- “You also are one of them.”

Peter- “Man, I am not!”

Narrator- About an hour later another asserted,

Female Bystander- “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”

Peter- “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Narrator- Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed. The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him:

Jesus- “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”

Narrator- And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Poet:
The Tears of St. Peter
When noble Peter, who had sworn
that midst a thousand spears and a thousand swords
he would die beside his beloved Lord,
realized that, overcome by cowardice,
his faith had failed him in his great moment of need,
the shame, sorrow and pity
for his own failure and for Christ’s suffering
pierced his breast with a thousand darts.

But the bows which hurled
the sharpest and most deadly arrows
into his breast were the Lord’s eyes, as they looked at him;

It looked as if his Lord, surrounded by many
enemies and abandoned by his peers, wanted to say:
“What I foretold him has now come to pass,
disloyal friend, proud disciple”

“More cruel”, He seemed to say, “are your eyes
than the godless hands that will put me on the cross;
nor have I felt a blow that struck me as hard,
among the many that did strike me,
as the one that came out of your mouth.

I found no one faithful, nor kind,
among the many that I deemed worthy to be called mine:
but you, for whom my love was so intense,
are more deceitful and ungrateful above all the others.
Each of them offended me only by leaving me:
but you denied me”

The words full of anger and love
that Peter seemed to see written
on the serene, holy eyes of Christ,
would shatter whoever who heard them.

Like a snowbank which, having lain frozen
and hidden in the depth of the valley all winter,
and then in springtime, warmed by the sun,
falls apart and melts into streams,
such was the fear which had lain like ice
in Peter’s heart and made him repress the truth;
when Christ turned His eyes on him,
it melted and was changed into tears.

And his crying was not a small spring
or mountain stream, which dries in the warm seasons;
for although the king of Heaven forgave him
immediately for his disgraceful deception,
not a single night in his remaining life passed
without the cock’s crow waking him up
and reminding him how shamefully he behaved,
and inciting new tears for the ancient betrayal.

Realizing that he felt much different
than before, and unable to bear to remain
in the presence of the scorned Lord,
who loved him so, he didn’t wait to see
if the harsh tribunal would hand down
a severe or clement sentence, but,
leaving the despicable place where he was,
bitterly crying, he returned outside.

By denying my Lord, I denied
life itself from which every spirit springs:
a tranquil life that neither fears nor desires,
whose course flows on without end:
because then I denied the one true life,
there is no reason, none at all, to continue this false life.
Go then, vain life, quickly leave me:
since I denied true life, I do not want its shadow.”
Luigi Tansillo 1560

Homily:
I. Fear
A. He had felt so brave in the safety of the closed room with Jesus, when he said he would rather die than ever deny Jesus. And he believed it; Peter had never felt so courageous as in that moment. But that seemed like a million years ago now, like a whole different reality. If he had known then what he knew now, he never would have made such a promise.

B. “I would die for you!” Was it arrogance? Certainty? Confidence? Stupidity? Why did he always say such impetuous things? Why was he always first? It seemed that in every situation like this, one of the other 11 would say what Peter wished he had waited to say, or even hear before he blurted out his claim. Now sitting outside the light of the fire, he was crying for his false sense of himself. He wished once again that he had thought first before he denied knowing Jesus. Maybe he should go back in and admit everything.

C. But something inside of him had changed- it was all so real now- FEAR. He was afraid down to the last ounce of his being. He’d been nervous before, maybe a little anxious on stormy seas, but never paralyzed by this feeling. He had no clue what to do with it, maybe go do what Judas did; just to stop the horrible terror of what is happening right now, and what will happen to him when he has to face God and say that he denied His Son.

II. Faithless
A. He did have faith! He had proven it when he got out of the boat and walked on the sea. No one else would have even dared to try, but there he was stepping on waves. He knew the deep certainty of faith for one brief moment, then the loss of trust and the sinking feeling of knowing Jesus was watching him go down. “Why did you doubt?” what a simple and complicated question. Why indeed? Not because of Jesus, not because of water, but because of what was inside of Peter.
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B. He had felt it when he asked Jesus about forgiveness, “how many times, Jesus, seven?” “No, Jesus answered, 70 times 70.” How could God require that much trust? There was no way someone could be forgiven that many times, it is too much to ask. Could anyone trust God enough to forgive another that many times or that deeply?
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III. Forgiveness?
C. How deep? When someone denies knowing his best friend, that is how deep forgiveness must go. “He went outside and wept bitterly.” The deep tears of shallow faith; the depth of sorrow that comes from feeling you are unforgivable. He had trusted Jesus and Jesus had trusted him with everything, every big moment of Jesus’ life since they had been traveling together. Now Peter had denied it all- “I don’t this man!”
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B. Now he was sobbing uncontrollably; a grown man crying his eyes out. A big strong fisherman who had dealt with a life of disappointment is reduced to a puddle. It wasn’t embarrassment he felt, it wasn’t just knowing people were watching him, it was shame and it was destroying him from the inside out.

D. Maybe Jesus could forgive him, but he would never be able to forgive himself. Even if Jesus somehow survived this horrible night and saw the light of tomorrow, Peter would never let himself be seen, not in broad daylight. How could he ever even face Jesus again? He felt he would never see Him, but if he did, now or in His eternal Kingdom, how could he look in those penetrating eyes?

Hymn- Alas and Did My Savior Die?

Tears on the Road- Luke 23:26-31

Narrator- As the soldiers led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him.

Jesus- “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then “‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us” and to the hills, “Cover us!”’ For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Poet:
The Journey to Golgotha
Children are frightening,
Complex beyond all adult illusions,
Paradoxical in their calculated innocence!
Beware of them,
And so a king in a very old tale
Killed every child to kill one child-
But one child lived yet,
The child that was himself
Hidden in the folds of an ugly aging flesh!
Oh, King, of those wild wastes, our hearts,
you moved once in the Biblical bazaars,
Among fishermen and farmers,
Lepers and prostitutes,
And your breath was a miracle!
Innocence suffers in the end always,
For it is always misunderstood-
So you, your jasmine face under a crown of laughing thorns.
Lean king of visionary kingdoms,
You carried a cross to the castle of skull, Golgotha!
Deeper the friendship, nobler the betrayal,
And in any case, the thirty silvers settled it-
But was the betrayal really so clever?
What of those other betrayals,
Judge betraying justice,
A father betraying his son,
And the flesh betraying the spirit?
K. Raghavendra Roa

Homily:
I. A Cross to Bear
A. Jesus was already sad, He had cried over Jerusalem a few days earlier, the City of God was His cross to bear and it was heavy. As He passed the crying women, His heart was broken again, as they cried for Him He was crying for them. Their beloved city, the City of God would pay the price for not being able to see the time of God’s coming to them.

B. It seemed to Jesus these people, His people, would never get it. They hadn’t for all of Israel’s history, having ignored and even killed God’s prophets. Living back and forth through years of rebellion followed by years of exile, the surviving generation, alive when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, faced a false tribunal and now carried the cross through the city streets were no better at recognizing God at work.

C. This is His cross to bear- His people, and their inability to see Him. Though all the miracles, His authority in teaching, the love and compassion He showed daily were all ample proof of who He was, but they would not see it. Now they would pay the price.

II. A Curse, Beware
A. They are crying for a sorrow they could barely comprehend. The women were sad to see Jesus suffer; who wouldn’t cry at the sight? Watching Him stumble under the weight of the cross was torture for every mother who ever had a son. The women who were close friends to Mary were the most desperate; their sadness went beyond Jesus’ suffering and encompassed the sorrow only a mother could know. But there was much more suffering to come.
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B. Jesus says- “It will get worse- save your tears.” In the end the lucky women will be the ones who were never mothers. Considered cursed in the eyes of God’s people; the tables will turn and then the childless will be called blessed. In that day when children are being mercilessly killed by the enemies of God’s people, there won’t be enough tears.
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C. But how could anything be worse than this? The Road of Suffering was covered with tears over the years of villains, criminals and reprobates of all kinds carrying their crosses up the hill to Golgotha. This was a familiar scene, made worse on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion because He really was innocent. Jesus’ prediction was that he would be one of the first innocents to die horribly, but not the last, not by a long shot!
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III. “Fall On Us”
A. When the disaster Jesus was predicting comes, it will feel like the world is caving in, but it won’t be, it won’t feel like it could end, even though it will be the real end. Jesus says the women will cry for the walls to fall in on them and stop the massacre; it would feel like God’s own mercy falling on them- on That day.
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B. If people will act like this when God’s only Son is here, how will they act in that day? This really seems like people at their worst, but there is worse to come. Worse for Jesus as he finally gets to the place of the skull, worse for these dear women whose hearts pour out to Jesus and worse for the Jews who would finally be demolished with their city.
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C. This night would be one of the worst in history; the night that humanity killed God’s own Son. But Jesus is predicting more horrible days, days when everyone would feel the betrayal, pain, fear and destruction Jesus felt in His heart.

The Cry of Death- Luke 23:44-46

Narrator- It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus cried out with a loud voice,

Jesus- “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”

Narrator- When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Poet:
Good Friday
Am I a stone, and not a sheep,
That I can stand, O Christ, beneath Thy cross,
To number drop by drop Thy blood’s slow loss,
And yet not weep?
Not so those women loved
Who with exceeding grief lamented Thee;
Not so fallen Peter weeping bitterly;
Not so the thief was moved;
Not so the Sun and Moon
Which hid their faces in a starless sky,
A horror of great darkness at broad noon –
I, only I.
Yet give not o’er,
But seek Thy sheep, true Shepherd of the flock;
Greater than Moses, turn and look once more
And smite a rock.
Christina Rossetti

Homily:
I. The Darkest Day
A. At noon, the sun was covered, the sky filled with dark clouds
But the oppression was not just overhead- it was inside of each person gathered there. It was the darkest day in every heart, like a bad dream, like the ninth plague- a darkness you could feel.

B. We all know darkness; we have those places in our hearts and lives that we keep hidden and think no one knows about, but this darkness was worse, it started on the outside and went all the way through to the darkest corner of the darkest heart.

C. The Light of the World was going out and the darkness that would be left was overwhelming. It seemed like there would never be light again; like the very sun had given up and refused to show the horror of what was happening.
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II. Into the Father’s Hands
A. Can you trust these hands? Like a young dad at the poolside saying- “Jump! I’ll catch you” Jesus had known what it meant to be betrayed- Peter, Judas, the Pharisees and Scribes, but this final moment when His Father turned away had to challenge the very deepest faith Jesus could ever muster. His last “statement of faith” was a desperate cry- “catch me Father, I’m falling!”

B. The hands that cradled Jesus in the stable, guided him into the wilderness, the hands that blessed- “This is my beloved Son” are now the hands that bleed in sympathy. Jesus’ hands, are the Father’s hands; another mystery of the triune God. As Jesus releases His Spirit, the Spirit, the Holy Spirit- He releases it into the Hands of God.
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III. Tears in the Last Breath
A. One last breath, should he save it or let it out loud. Every breath had been a struggle and now Jesus could feel His strength at and end; this would be the last, he had no more will, energy or patience; should He just sigh, or cry out His faith in the Father?

B. “Into you hands I commit my Spirit!” a loud cry- no whimpering, no sobbing, more like yelling. He had cried privately for Lazarus, angrily as He cleared the temple, alone in the garden, but now everyone would hear His cry, the last cry.

C. Pain, loneliness, betrayal, sadness, anxiety, maybe even anger- it is all one cry. All the emotions of the life of the Suffering Servant, the Man of Sorrows would all come out in one last heave. The emotion, the frustration mixed with the divine confidence that He was accomplishing the salvation of all humanity culminated in this one last burst. “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit!”

Hymn- O Sacred Head now Wounded

Communion:
Above All
How Deep the Father’s Love for Us

Closing
Revelation 5:6-14
Narrator- Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. He went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who sat on the throne. And when he had taken it, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. And they sang a new song, saying:

All- “You are worthy to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
and with your blood you purchased for God
persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,
and they will reign on the earth.”

Narrator- Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying:

All- “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and praise!”

Narrator- Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying:

All- “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be praise and honor and glory and power,
for ever and ever!”

Narrator- The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.