The Powers of Darkness

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Episcopal Church
March 25, 2016

Good Friday

Tuesday morning I received a text message from a friend whose son had spent his junior year of high school in Brussels just two years ago.  The son had flown in and out of the Brussels airport a number of times that year and had gone through the Maalbeek subway station multiple times a day.  On the one hand, everyone his son knew in Brussels was safe.  On the other hand, the powers of darkness had struck once again, and shockingly close to home.

Tonight, we heard John's account of the passion of Jesus.  Near the beginning of John's gospel, we hear the words "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it."  On this Good Friday, as we wait and watch with the dead body of Jesus, as we live in a world where terrorists, violence, fear and suspicion, seem to win way more often than not, how are we to live as followers of Christ and bear witness to the story in which the light ultimately triumphs?

I am sometimes asked what it means it means to be a Christian.  While being a Christian does mean patterning our lives after the life of Jesus, that is not the primary meaning.  There are many great people after whom we can pattern our lives.  Being a Christian is fundamentally different from simply trying to live like someone we admire.  At the most primary level, being a Christian means that I am not defined by the sum total of my successes or my failures, or my successes minus my failures.  I am not defined by the powers of darkness around me, nor by fear, or hate.  As Christians, we are defined by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Our baptismal liturgy tells us that, in baptism, we are joined with Christ in his death and resurrection.  We are people who follow a crucified and risen Lord.  On Good Friday, our liturgy makes that very clear to us.  Even on Good Friday, our liturgy holds together death and resurrection.  Listen to the words we will say in a few minutes: "We glory in your cross, O Lord, and praise and glorify your holy resurrection; for by virtue of your cross, joy has come into the world."  On this holy and somber night, when the powers of death and hell have taken their best shot, we hold fast to the belief that the darkness cannot overcome the light.  The death of Jesus is real.  When Jesus gave up his spirit, he gave up his spirit.  Evil is named, not denied.  But even on Good Friday as we stand before the cross and witness the power of evil at work, and the pain and horror evil causes, we praise and glorify the resurrection.

On Good Friday, Jesus gave himself over to the powers of darkness so we can live as the people God calls us to be.  Good Friday calls us to live as people who can look evil in the eye without living in the shadow of fear or denying the reality of evil.   Good Friday calls us to live as people of the light and not be suspicious of anyone different from ourselves.  Good Friday calls us to embrace the hope that brings us together rather than the fear that divides.  In John's gospel, Jesus also said "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."  Our very identity as Christians is to live as people who have been claimed by the crucifixion and resurrection of the One who died this night to draw all the world to himself.  

Amen.