I wasn’t a cradle-Catholic. I discovered God when I was a teenager. Back in the 1960’s, when I was a long haired hippie motorcyclist. I had an old Volkswagen Beetle too. It was purple with flowers painted all over it. Ahh, the sixties.
And to be honest, I didn’t really discover God – it was more like I started to see things differently – and when I started looking around me I began to sense the subtle presence of God. It wasn’t a “Born-Again in an instant” experience. I didn’t get knocked off my motorcycle on the road to Damascus.
That was 45 years ago, and since that time, I am still discovering God. Each day. Every day. And I am finally starting to understand the crucifixion. Why this Friday is a Good Friday. I guess I am a slow learner.
For me, that understanding rests on two key insights.
The first is that God is so much bigger, so much more than we can imagine. We live our lives surrounded by, immersed in, God’s creative spirit, God’s creative energy. God is so much bigger than our world and so much bigger than our worldly viewpoint. Yet, we constantly put limits on God, human limits. In our minds, we make God in our image.
We see pain and suffering in our world, and we don’t like it. And so we expect that God, like us, will not like it either. And since God is so powerful, we expect that God will do something about it. That God would do what we would do if we had the power. Like stop earthquakes and tornados. Or somehow touch nasty people and make them nice people. Or take over the steering wheel on our car when we are about to have an accident. You know, the kind of things we would do if we were all-powerful.
What an incredibly limited view of God that is. God is infinite, and we have these little finite minds, and we just can’t comprehend God.
So that first insight comes when we become aware of the times when we, in an all too human way, put limits on God. That first insight comes when we recognize the times when we expect God to act and react as we do. That first insight comes when we catch ourselves putting God in an all-too-human box, and remind ourselves that our perception of God is not what God is. God is so much bigger, so much more than we can imagine.
The second insight flows from the first.
John the evangelist, got it, in spades, when he said God is love, and where Love is, God is. God is love, and where Love is, God is. Love is not merely an attribute of God, it is God’s very nature.
It seems to me that at a certain point in our evolution as a species, we were ready to be given this insight. And given our human nature to see God as we see other humans, how could God reveal to us God’s very nature?
Firstly – by becoming Human. Someone we can see, feel, touch, relate one-on-one to.
And then, to show that love in tangible action. Here again, the Evangelist John gets it spot on, when he reminds us that there is no greater love than to lay down our lives for another.
You and I experience that, and we know it to be true. Each day, you and I experience what that means in real, tangible actions. I love my children, deeply, and each day as they were growing up, I headed out into traffic, into the office, into the problems of running a business. And there were many times when I wished I was somewhere else other than stuck in traffic, or at the office, or solving someone else problems. Yet, I put away my wishes, my desires, knowing that I was laying down these parts of my life so that my children could have life, food, shelter.
Sound familiar?
It is one way that you and I experience a laying down of our lives, because we have all sacrificed our lives in a small way because of love of our children, or of our family, or of our friends. It is part of the human experience.
God taps into that human understanding, knowing that as uncomprehending as we are, as limited as we are, that we would understand the concept of sacrifice for the sake of love. So, God becomes human, and to reveal to us God’s very nature, God lays down God’s life for us. Knowing that we would understand that there is no greater love than to lay down ones life for another, God lays down God’s life to reveal to us the greatest secret of existence. That God IS love.
Did it work? Well, you are here today. I think it did.
After 2000 years, have we fully understood the mystery of Good Friday, of God’s sign of Love? No, but maybe we all are just slow learners.
Today is a very special day.
It is the day we set aside to remember God’s gift of love. In a few short minutes, we will venerate the Cross. But not as an instrument of torture. Not as a sign of our inhumanity to other humans, or of the culmination of jealousy, or a protection of the status quo of religious thinking.
Rather, we do this as a remembrance of that day when God chose to reveal God’s very nature to us. An event that continues to this day to reveal ever more deeply the nature of God, and God’s desire that we come to know God, to see God, to sense God ever more profoundly in the moments of our life.
God is so much bigger, so much more, than we can imagine. God is Love, and where Love is, God is. With these two insights, I think I am finally starting to understand the crucifixion. Finally starting to understand why this Friday is a Good Friday.