Sharing in the Suffering of God (Good Friday 2024)

Good Friday 2024 John 18:1—19:42 “Christians and Heathens” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1944 from Tegel Prison)I. People go to God when they’re in need, Plead for help, pray for blessings and bread, For rescue from their sickness, guilt, and death. So do they all. All of them, Christians and heathens. II. People go to God when God’s in need, Find God poor, reviled, without shelter or bread, See God devoured by sin, weakness, and death. Christians stand by God in God’s own pain. III. God goes to all people in their need, Fills body and soul with God’s own bread, Goes for Christians and for heathens to Calvary’s death And forgives them both. If any character in the Gospels embodies Bonhoeffer’s poem it is Simon of Cyrene. He goes to God in God’s own need, finds him poor and reviled, devoured by sin, weakness, and death, and stands by God in God’s own pain.All three synoptic Gospels attest to Simon carrying Jesus’ cross for him. Curiously, though, the Gospel of John does not. In fact, it’s almost as if John goes out of his way to disagree.John 19:17 “So they took Jesus, and carrying the cross by himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha.”Who carries Jesus’ cross? Does Simon help him shoulder his burden, or does Jesus carry it “by himself”? Or (as usual) does John have a theological point up his sleeve? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit cameroncombs.substack.com