NONE OF OUR HANDS ARE INNOCENT

As we come closer to the celebration – yes, celebration! – of Good Friday, it might be good for each of us to remember, realize and confess that we had a hand in Jesus’ death. That's the bad news. Henri Nouwen in his prayer Heart Speaks to Heart puts it this way.
  
"O Jesus, I look into my own heart and at my own hands….And can I truly say that my hands are clean? So often have they been instruments of greed and lust, of impatience and anger, of accusation and recrimination. I know they have often been used to strike instead of caress; I know they have often formed fists instead of making a sign of peace and reconciliation. I know how often they have taken instead of given and have pointed an accusing finger at others instead of beating my own breast. I know how often they have made signs of cursing instead of signs of peace. There is blood on my hands, too, even when I do not see it. I cannot wash my hands in innocence. Sinful, guilty and deeply ashamed, I can only stand under your cross, knowing that my hands are the hands of a blood-stained humanity."
        
That's the bad news: no one of us is innocent. We all have blood on our hands, Jesus's blood. The good news is that we have been forgiven. The paradox is that if we had not participated in Jesus's death, there would be no forgiveness of our sins. No, I don't understand it any more than you do. How can we? I – we – simply believe it. We believe in the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus's death on the cross.
        
And so we can all give thanks that in spite of our continued and continual sinfulness, a life of sin that will never end until this life ends, we are still, always, forgiven. No, I don't understand that any more than you do, either. How can we always be forgiven: always, no matter what?
           
The answer is the Cross. The only answer is the cross and God’s unconditional love for each and every one of us. Anything else, any other answer, any other explanation, comes up short. The death of God the Son on the cross, for you and for me is the only explanation possible. Left to our own understanding, left, especially, to our own personal experiences of sin and forgiveness, we'd all be left out in the dark. We don't so easily forgive others let alone easily forgive ourselves. But God does; always.
           
It makes no sense, of course, in this world where a crime demands, calls out, for a punishment; a sin calls out, cries out, demands at least an eye for an eye. If we think turning the other cheek is a tough sell, try forgiving everyone all the time with no demand for retribution or punishment. That won't play in Peoria – or anywhere else for that matter.
 
Except at the foot of the cross, where we all stand, looking up at the One who is hanging there, dying for our sins, yours and mine, and says to God, "Father, forgive them. They really don't know what they are doing. Father, forgive them, even if they do know what they are doing." That is why Good Friday and what happened on Good Friday is truly a cause for celebration.