On Good Friday our first reading from Isaiah (Is 52:13—53:12) starts: “See, my servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.” He is about to be tortured and killed, and he shall prosper!
Our gospel reading is the full, excruciating, account from John of the process of Jesus being tortured and killed – Jn 18:1—19:42. But the chapter before, that sets the scene, is all about glory! It starts with Jesus’ praying: “Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you”. He then pulls all those who were entrusted to him (that includes us) into this glorification: “I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one”.
Just before the passage in Isaiah that we hear today, the prophet says:
Break out together in song,
O ruins of Jerusalem!
For the LORD has comforted his people, has redeemed Jerusalem.
Jesus’ death was horrible, but in no way exceptional. The Romans killed countless numbers of people by crucifixion. On this weekend on a hill outside Jerusalem they executed 3 people. I guess there was nothing unusual about that. After battles they might crucify thousands. Before and since, so many people, old and young, have died in equally horrible ways though war, accidents, disease.
The thing that makes Jesus exceptional was not that he died, or the manner of his death, but that his death was the moment of his glory. And that glorification he shares with us. That was why the martyrs could go to their deaths happy and glad that they could witness to Christ’s power over death. Not because it spared them from dying, but because death no longer mattered to them.
In many ways we might think we have gained over the centuries a deeper or fuller understanding of how we should behave as Christians. That the wars and persecutions that have so marred the memory of our Lord who came to bring peace are behind us. That we now follow the teaching of Jesus that we should love one another as he has loved us. But have we learned better to accept that Jesus’ moment of glory was the moment he died; that we are called to share in that death so we can share in his glory. Maybe we have more fear of death than those early disciples and martyrs. We also should listen to the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews: “let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help.” (Heb 4:14-16; 5:7-9)