April 3rd, 2026 - "Good Friday?" - Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris

Matt Nelson: Welcome to the sermon podcast from First United Methodist

Church in downtown Bentonville.

If you have questions related to what you hear today or just want to find

out more about the ministries of First United Methodist Church, please visit us

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Rev. Dr. Michelle Morris: Second

reading is from Luke 23, verses one through 25

The whole assembly got up and led Jesus to Pilate and began to accuse Him.

They said, "We have found this man misleading our people, opposing the

payment of taxes to Caesar, and claiming that He is the Christ, a king." Pilate

asked Him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus replied, "That's what you

say." Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, "I find no legal

basis for action against this man."

But they objected strenuously, saying, "He agitates the people with His

teaching throughout Judea, starting from Galilee all the way here." Hearing this,

Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean.

When he learned that Jesus was from Herod's district, Pilate

sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time.

Herod was very glad to see Jesus, for he had heard about Jesus and had

wanted to see Him for quite some time.

He was hoping to see Jesus perform some sign.

Herod questioned Jesus at length, but Jesus didn't respond to him.

The chief priests and the legal experts were there fiercely accusing Jesus.

Herod and his soldiers treated Jesus with contempt.

Herod mocked Him by dressing Jesus in elegant clothes

and sent Him back to Pilate.

Pilate and Herod became friends with each other that day.

Before this, they had been enemies

Then Pilate called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people.

He said to them, "You brought this man before me as one

who is misleading the people.

I have questioned him in your presence and found nothing in this man's conduct

that provides a legal basis for the charges you have brought against him.

Neither did Herod, because Herod returned him to us.

He's done nothing that deserves death.

Therefore, I'll have him whipped, then let him go." But with one voice,

they shouted, "Away with this man!

Release Barabbas to us!" Barabbas had been thrown into prison because of a

riot that had occurred in the city and for murder. Pilate addressed them again

because he wanted to release Jesus. They kept shouting out, "Crucify him!

Crucify him!" For the third time, Pilate said to them, "Why?

What wrong has he done?

I found no legal basis for the death penalty in this case.

Therefore, I will have him whipped, then let him go." But

they were adamant, shouting their demand that Jesus be crucified.

Their voices won out.

Pilate issued his decision to grant their request.

He released the one they asked for, who had been thrown into prison

because of a riot and murder, but he handed Jesus over to their will

I didn't know what to preach today.

I haven't preached Good Friday in a long time, and I really honestly

was struggling with what to say

And then Ken shared the order of worship for today, and he had a

placeholder there for the title of my sermon, and the placeholder said Good

Friday, but it had a question mark

And I thought, "Ah, that's what I'll preach."

Because my guess is that he is not the only one who wonders

why is this called Good Friday?

Let's think first about the story and the good things that

we heard in the story today.

First of all, Jesus got a kiss from Judas.

How nice.

We'll ignore the fact that it was tipping people off that he was to be arrested,

but nah, a lovely greeting from a friend.

A servant got his ear magically healed.

Never mind it was because somebody cut it off with a sword, but you

know, it was a fantastic moment

Jesus got to wear the nicest clothes he's probably ever worn, thanks to Herod.

And Herod and Pilate became the best of friends

Look at all the good on the Friday

No, in truth, it's arguably our very worst Friday ever because our hate and

our violence took over and we killed God

So why do we call it Good Friday?

The short answer is that it comes from God's Friday from Old

English, which means God's Friday.

And as English evolved, it became Good Friday

But we didn't have to keep that name when the meaning changed so differently

from God's Friday to a good thing

So why do we keep it?

But we kept it because of what is accomplished through the cross.

Now, we don't actually know exactly what happened through the cross.

But from the biblical witness, we have several explanations, and

those are referred to as atonement theories, that Jesus atoned for us.

But what exactly did Jesus do for us?

Well, I'm gonna take us through the major models of atonement.

The first is one that probably most of us are familiar with, and that is the

substitution model, which that Jesus takes our place in dealing with sin.

Sin was too deep, too powerful, and we needed someone to step in for us,

and God sent his only Son to do that.

That makes the cross the location of and the means of the

sacrifice made on our behalf.

We see this reflected in the biblical witness, particularly in the Gospel

of John and Revelation and Hebrews, that all use sacrificial imagery or

refer to Jesus as the Lamb of God.

And John was so committed to this image of Jesus as the Lamb of God that he actually

moved the crucifixion to taking place before the Passover meal instead of after.

If you've ever noticed, there is no Last Supper recounted in the

Gospel of John because in John's telling, Jesus died right as the

Passover lambs were slaughtered

Another way of understanding what happens in the cross is restoration.

What happens is that Jesus restores or remakes humanity in that moment.

Jesus undoes the sin of Adam and returns us to being made in the image of God.

The cross in that understanding is the location of an act of

complete and utter selflessness to counter the selfishness of Adam.

You see that recounted in Romans chapter five, 1 Corinthians fifteen,

and in the Philippians Christ hymn.

Another thing that happens at the cross is transformation.

These are sometimes referred to as the moral influence models of atonement.

They argue that Jesus fundamentally changes us, and he does that in

part through the life that he lives.

But also at the cross, we have to confront our reality and make a choice.

So the cross is a crossroads.

It is a place for our conviction, and it awakens within us

our love and our repentance.

We see this in the centurion's confession.

"Truly this man was the Son of God." And we see it in verses like, "Christ

died for us while we were yet sinners.

That proves God's love for us." Or in, "We love because he first loved us." And

then there are the revelation models that Jesus exposes the truth of who we are

And in those models, the cross reveals our violence and our injustice.

You see this when Jesus proclaims, "Father, forgive them. They

don't know what they're doing."

And we see it recounted in the preaching in Acts

But that's not the end of that model's story.

And that points us to the fact that we cannot have the cross without the tomb.

They have to go together and create a fuller mystery unfolding.

So as we make our way to the tomb, the revelation models also reveal

God's profound love and abundant life because something happens in

that tomb, something that reveals God's love for us and that is then

recounted in the resurrection stories.

And then the final atonement theory, the victory model, that Christ defeats sin

and evil and death takes place not on the cross because the cross looks like we lost

The tomb reveals the victory.

And again, that's recounted in the resurrection stories, but something

happens in the darkness of that tomb to reveal this abundant life.

So I love that we have the cross as a symbol because of the mystery and

the power and what it shares with us.

But I want us to also pair it with the tomb.

And I've spent a lot of time thinking about why did we focus so much on

the cross and not also on the tomb.

And I honestly think it's because the cross is easy to draw

So we can put it everywhere.

You don't have to be a great artist.

However, I want to argue that the tomb is also easy to draw, and I want to

suggest that you could do it like this

That just a circle could represent the tomb

And this particular circle, I think makes a powerful image of the tomb

because this is an eclipse stone

It looks completely black and opaque, and held up to most light, it is.

But if you turn it toward the sun, you can see the light shine through

This dark space that looks like no light shines reveals the light of the sun.

The light always breaks through, even in the darkest places.

And that, my friends, is why it is a very Good Friday.

Matt Nelson: Thanks for listening to the sermon podcast from First United

Methodist Church in downtown Bentonville.

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