Good friday sermon for love sake
I’ve come to believe that the crucifixion did not kill Jesus. Crucifixion is merely the external force and circumstance of his death. On a deeper level, the cross represents the intense relationship between love and death. The ultimate cause of Jesus’ death was love. The water of Jesus’ love, which washed his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper, now bleeds out as a love for all people. Death exists wherever there is self-giving love.
Good friday sermon for love sake
True love requires a certain amount of self-denial, including self-denial of one’s ego, self-interest, preferences, fears, and sense of security. Giving oneself to another instead of annihilating oneself is the goal.
Those of you who are married are aware of the call to give up your safeguards, your anxieties, and your own plans in exchange for your spouse’s life and love. Parents among you are aware of the facets of your life you have sacrificed or lost in the name of loving your child.
You who have ever found peace with another by getting over obstacles of resentment and bitterness have allowed self-righteousness, the pride of being right, and the fear of experiencing harm once more to pass away.
To love is to run the risk of dying, and to reject dying is to reject love. In both literature and real life, the greatest love stories always end in death. Jesus’ death on the cross is the most significant and profound example of a love story. We refer to this day as Good Friday because of that love.
Too frequently, we interpret the cross incorrectly, viewing it as an act of supreme sacrifice rather than as the ultimate expression of love, as the taking of life rather than the giving of life, and as a tragedy rather than a victory. As a sort of intermediary between us and God, Jesus does not dangle from the cross. Jesus is God deciding to love—choosing to love you, me, and the entire human race—on the cross.
Despite what we know or believe about ourselves, despite what we see happening around us, despite our sins and the brokenness of our world, the cross is the ever-present arc of God’s love stretching out to reach us. Wherever we are, no matter how far from God we may have wandered, or the path we have traveled, we are never too far away and we are never abandoned.
The arc of God’s love is long, never-ending, and knows no boundaries.
Christ died for us, not because we are bad people, worthless sinners, but because we are loved because we are chosen because we are his brothers and sisters, children of his Father.
The crucifixion, on which Christ is hoisted up and pulls all people to himself, is today’s equivalent of the tree from which Adam and Eve fell. Their downfall has evolved into their ascent. Our stumbling has become our rising because of the cross. It is done solely and entirely out of love. Jesus is able to declare, “It is finished,” because love on the cross always wins.
The task is complete. Love is all there is. Only love exists.
