A Good Friday Reflection

Although the life, death and resurrection of Christ are crucial to the daily Christian life, it is when we celebrate Easter that they are given particularly special attention. However, tonight as a watched a local Catholic Bolivian Church perform its rendition of the passion of Christ, I was struck by this thought: we are still crucifying Christ. I know this sounds like a heretical statement, but the words of Christ in Matthew 25 keep coming back to me: “...I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me” (v 45). The opposite is also true as shown in verse 40: “…I tell you the truth whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine you did for me.”

The death of Christ was a consequence of his life – he chose to live in non-violent resistance to the structures of sin and death, of violence and injustice. God knew the consequences of such a lifestyle, the lifestyle of the reign of God that Jesus initiated: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:18). Jesus embodied the reign of God, choosing to live a lifestyle that did not make him popular with the powers of his time.

Like Jesus, the physical actors in his crucifixion also had choices to make – God did not force them to align themselves with the structures of violence and injustice – God did not revoke free will in order to bring about Christ’s murder. Pilot chose to be apathetic. The religious leaders chose, out of their jealousy, to actively seek a way to have Jesus violently murdered. Judas chose love of money over love of Christ, over love of justice. They all chose to align themselves with the powers of sin and death, violence and injustice.

We have a choice to make as well. Often we choose the apathy of Pilot, the greed of Judas, the legalism of the religious leaders – we align ourselves with the structures of violence and injustice, of sin and death – the very same structures that killed Christ and that were overcome by his resurrection.

But we do not see the face of Christ in those who our apathy crucifies – the least of these- the innocent millions who are crucified in violent conflicts such as those in Iraq, Darfur, Colombia, and Kenya; the innocent millions who die every year from curable diseases, and HIV/AIDS; the innocent millions who lack access to clean water, food and health care. Like Pilot we have washed our hands of their blood. And Jesus’ words ring out: “...I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Salvation is complete in Christ – it is accomplished in his life, death and resurrection and we are called to live out that salvation, following in his footsteps: footsteps of non-violent action that live in stark contradiction to the structures of violence and injustice, sin and death; footsteps that, in the light of the resurrection, do not fear death, but hope and live in the reality of the reign of God instituted by the life of Christ.

Although sometimes the evil of the world seems as dark as that Good Friday, we live in the hope of Easter morning. Let us not be apathetic and complacent participants with the structures of violence and injustice, but rather enthusiastically follow Christ’s resurrection example of triumphant resistance to those structures and active participation in the reign of God!