Proclaiming the death of Jesus

This is my homily for this evening, Good Friday.  The Good Friday readings are here.

I’m going to break a rule.  One of the rules for preaching, and it’s a good one, is to preach about the readings that were just proclaimed.  But I want to start by focusing on a line from a reading that was proclaimed last night, at our Holy Thursday celebration, because it has a direct bearing on what we just heard proclaimed: the death, awful yet salvific, of Jesus on the cross.

The line I have in mind was from last night’s second reading, which was from the first letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians.  After describing what Jesus did at the Last Supper, St. Paul instructs us that as often as we eat the bread and drink the cup, we proclaim Jesus’s death until he comes again.

We proclaim his death.  Just think about that for a moment.  We’re told that every time we gather together to celebrate the Eucharist, as we do every Sunday, we proclaim Jesus’s death.

If you pause to think about it, the death of Jesus might seem like kind of a strange thing to proclaim.  Well, sure, when someone we love dies, we do proclaim that person’s death: we tell people we know that this person has died.  But that proclamation doesn’t go on for months and years and centuries.  We spread the news, and then we’re done proclaiming it.  

But this proclamation about which St. Paul instructs us is not the same thing.  He tells us we proclaim the death of Jesus, every time we eat the bread and drink the cup.  For me, that’s several times every weekend.  For some folks, that’s every single day.  That proclamation goes on and on.  And on!  

We’re told to proclaim Jesus’s death.  But do we?  Do we proclaim his death?  Think about conversations you may have had with other people about Jesus.  For example, I suppose many of us here this evening are parents and grandparents.  I’m a parent; and I can say with a clear conscience that I’ve spoken with my own children about Jesus.  That’s part of the job description for parents and grandparents.

When we speak with our children or grandchildren about Jesus, what do we tell them?  Well, I’m certain I told my children that Jesus is God’s Son.  And that Mary is his mother.  And that he loves us.  And that he taught us many wonderful things, such as loving our neighbor and feeding the hungry.  And that’s fine; those are important things to teach our children and grandchildren about Jesus.

But have I proclaimed Jesus’s death on the cross when I’ve spoken with my own children about Jesus?  Hmm – not sure.  Not sure I gave it the weight it really deserves.  

Do we really proclaim Jesus’s death?  Speaking as one of the world’s great avoiders and procrastinators, I can think of reasons to avoid or procrastinate about proclaiming Jesus’s death.  For one thing, speaking about death with children feels like one of those difficult, awkward topics for parents.  I think our first instinct is to try to shield our children from thinking about suffering and death.

But at this point, we avoiders and procrastinators may see St. Paul waving his finger at us: No, no, no!  Don’t avoid the difficult, awkward conversations – at least not this one!  We must proclaim the death of Jesus, including to our children and grandchildren and the ones we love the most.

A second objection to proclaiming the death of Jesus is that we may feel it kind of misses the point.  Isn’t the real point that Jesus rose from the dead, and his death was just a prelude, perhaps necessary and certainly unfortunate, but only to help set up the main point, which is the resurrection?  Isn’t it better that we just scoot right past the death of Jesus and hurry on to Easter, with Jesus rising, not to mention Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs?  Isn’t the resurrection what we really should be proclaiming?

Once again, St. Paul steps forward, this time magisterially stretching out his arm toward us and raising his palm: No.  Stop.  Don’t scoot past the death of Jesus.  The death of Jesus is not something that merely sets up something else.  It’s important in its own right.  If we scoot right past Jesus’s death on the cross, we’re skipping one of the central tenets of our faith.  St. Paul, and the church, and God, want us not to scoot on by, but to stop and linger, and ponder, and discuss, and pray, and, yes, proclaim the death of Jesus.  Let’s not move on, on this night; let’s stay here by the body, pierced and broken, of our savior.  

Okay, fine, I respond to St. Paul.  I’ll proclaim the death of Jesus.  But why, St. Paul?  Why should I take the trouble to proclaim the death of Jesus to my children and to the people I love?

St. Paul is so glad I asked.  Because he has reasons.  They’re right there in his letters.  I’m not going to go into all of them, because we don’t have time.  But let me mention a couple.  One is: if we want to teach our children that Jesus loves us, then we need to talk about his death, because Jesus’s death is the supreme act of love for us.  Jesus died, not because he was ill, but because he took all our sins upon himself – and then agreed to die for us.  He died to save us from what we deserve.  Jesus died, so that we may live.  That’s a reason to thank him – over and over and over again.  When we talk about the Gospel being the Good News, this is part of what we mean: Jesus saved us!  He saved us by his death!  Isn’t that good news?  Isn’t that worth proclaiming?

Here’s another thing about Jesus’s death, courtesy of St. Paul: by dying on the cross, Jesus reconciled us with his Father.  But, you might ask, Why would we need to be reconciled?  Well, if there is a rift between us and God, it’s not God’s fault.  It’s ours.  We’re the ones who rebelled against him.  We’re the ones who listened to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and continue to listen to the evil one when he’s whispering his poisonous temptations in our ears.  But Jesus’s death on the cross reconciled us – his sacred death healed the breach between us and God.  Now God is our father again, and we’re his adopted children.  Jesus died to bring us together again. Isn’t that good news?  Isn’t that worth proclaiming?

So my friends: proclaim the good news!  And that means: proclaim the death of Jesus!  Proclaim it!  Tell the people you love!  Tell your children. Tell your spouse.  Tell your friends.  Make a TikTok and tell the world!  Because this is Good News indeed: Jesus died – for us.  Because he loves us.  He sacrificed himself for us.  Jesus’s death, it turns out, really is Good News!  Proclaim it!