Good Friday and Regular Fridays and Resurrection

I want to attend to Jesus Christ and him crucified,

Even as I desert him.

My desertion is of the type of the first disciples who ran away.

Mark 14:50: “All of them deserted him and fled.”

What captures my attention is my captivity to my own will that not just cannot but will not trust God in such a way as to let Good Friday be just like any other Friday. Any other Friday: a day to live, love, die.

I desert him if I make him out to be more than he is

And

I desert him if I make him out to be less than he is.

I desert him when I am the object of my attention rather than the object being the landscape of my neighbor and all creation that lies before me.

I desert him when I am concerned about deserting him rather than just running back and joining him in the good trouble again and accepting that all is and ever has been and ever will be forgiven. And just get on with the business at hand.

Because Good Friday brings us to live fully in every Regular Friday it is a day that deserves Observation. It does, because this “living fully in every Regular Friday” is a liberation from concern about God and the bondage to attention to creation. All this “regular living” is given by Jesus of Nazareth being no more than Jesus of Nazareth dying by Imperial execution for sedition. Do not forget that it was an Imperial execution and not some natural causes death, lest we forget our own marching orders to resist all tyrannies.

Martin Luther wrote that a Christian is completely free from all and completely servant of all (On the Freedom of a Christian, 1520).

It’s true.

But how is that?

It’s true because the cross of Jesus doesn’t do anything for us. It simply (!) does something to us!

It kills us (liberation from all, including God) and raises us (bondage to all creation) all at the same time.

Easter Sunday morning is no magic. It’s a story to describe what all took place on Friday.

The best way to name and too describe this liberation from concern of self and bondage to concern of creation is Resurrection.

Today I will run back into his arms.

It’s not a question of whether I will run away again. Of course I will.

It’s a question of whether his arms will always be stretched out in embrace.

And there is no question there.

It’s time to get busy with the business of justice (the best synonym for righteousness!) at hand.

Alleluia!