By Frank J. Hernando
Scripture Text: John 18:1 - 19:42
1. It is Good Friday. Commemorating the death of Jesus on the cross should not be called good at all. It should rather be called Violent Friday, if not Martyrdom Day! In many countries where the Lenten Season and the Holy Week have red letter days such as Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, people would rather spend time with family and spending leisurely time on the beach because of the simmering heat of the dry season rather than stay put, spend the days in self-introspection and spiritual retreats reflecting on the meaning of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Have solemn religious commemoration been eroded with the need to escape from work places and from the pressures of daily life?
2. Good Friday has been claimed to be good for humanity because Jesus Christ, the Son of God was offered by God as a sacrifice for the sins of humanity. Theological articulation of God’s offer of salvation to humanity through a human sacrifice is a once and for all a sacrifice that replaces the scapegoat at the altar of sacrifice. In Christian theology there is what we call ‘soteriology’ or principles and understanding of salvation. It focuses on God’s saving act through the Son, Jesus Christ, who gave his life for propitiation of the sin of the world or of humanity.
3. Our Judeo Christian theology or understanding of salvation goes back to the Old Testament books, especially the Book of Exodus which is considered the watershed of God’s purposive acts of salvation from concrete social oppression of the Hebrew people in the land of Egypt and searching, journeying and settling in the land of promise where a nation of mix tribal origins forged their unity through a socio-religious covenant. God’s initiative for salvation of God’s people was articulated by Moses and the succeeding leaders, like the judges, kings, prophets, and later through Jesus Christ.
4. The suggested Good Friday texts for this year is from the Gospel of John. In the pericope we can read the sequence of events from the eve of the Passover Feast when Jesus and his disciples had supper and where Jesus disclosed Judas betrayal. From my reading of the narrative the sequence of the events on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday:
Sequence of events:
The arrest at the Garden, Judas identified Jesus to the Roman soldiers
Peter’s use of sword to defend Jesus
Jesus brought before Annas, then to Caiaphas, the high priest
At Pilate’s court, flogging on Jesus, the crown of thorns and the purple rob
Peter’s 3 times denial of association with Jesus
Pilate and judgment by public outcry/trial
Pilate found no fault in Jesus, he was initially asked, ‘Are you king of the Jews?’
Pilate was scared about the public trial, asking questions, “what is truth?” and “where are you from?”
The verdict of the crucifixion, Jesus suffering on the cross
Last words of Jesus on the cross, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ The two other last words were, ‘I am thirst’ and ‘It is finished.’
The last rites for a dead body and burial of Jesus
5. The focus of Good Friday events in the Gospel narratives is atonement. In atonement God initiates the means for the propitiation of sins of humanity. It also discloses the victimization of an innocent scapegoat who should bear the sins and its blood provides the remission of sins. The theological understanding of atonement and victimization from anthropological perspective has been articulated by Rene Girard and his associates.The following paragraphs were culled from an article Atonement and Mimetic Theory:
The biblical and Christian power of understanding phenomena of victimization comes to light in the modern meaning of certain expressions such as “scapegoat.” A “scapegoat” is initially the victim in the Israelite ritual that was celebrated during a great ceremony of atonement (Lev. 16:21). The ritual consisted of driving into the wilderness a goat on which all the sins of Israel had been laid. The high priest placed his hands on the head of the goat, and this act was supposed to transfer onto the animal everything likely to poison relations between members of the community. The effectiveness of the ritual was the idea that the sins were expelled with the goat and then the community was rid of them.
b) This ritual of expulsion is similar to that of the pharmakos in Greece, but it is much less sinister because the victim is never a human being. When an animal is chosen, the injustice seems less, or even nonexistent. This is no doubt why the scapegoat ritual doesn’t move us to the same repugnance as the “miraculous” stoning instigated by Apollonius of Tyana [described in ch. 4]. But the principle of transference is no less exactly the same. In a distant period when the ritual was effective as ritual, the transfer of the community’s transgressions onto the goat must have been facilitated by the bad reputation of this animal, by its nauseating odor and its aggressive sexual drive.
c) In the primitive and archaic world there are rituals of expulsion everywhere, and they give us the impression of enormous cynicism combined with a childish naivete. In the case of the scapegoat the process of substitution is so transparent that we understand it at first glance. It is this comprehension that the modern usage of “scapegoat” expresses; in other words, it is a spontaneous interpretation of the relationship between the ancient Jewish ritual and transferences of hostility in our world today. These latter are no longer part of religious ritual, but they always exist, usually in an attenuated form.
d) The people participating in rituals did not understand these phenomena as we do, but they observed their reconciling results and appreciated them so much, as we have seen, that they attempted to reproduce them without feeling shame. This was the case because the operation of transferring sins from community to victim seemed to occur from beyond, without their own real participation. The modern understanding of “scapegoats” is simply part and parcel of the continually expanding knowledge of the mimetic/imitative contagion that governs events of victimization. The Gospels and the entire Bible nourished our ancestors for so long that our heritage enables us to comprehend these phenomena and condemn them.
e) “But never,” you will tell me, “does the New Testament resort to the term ‘scapegoat’ to designate Jesus as the innocent victim of an escalation of mimetic/imitative contagion.” You are right, no doubt, but it does use an expression equal and even superior to “scapegoat,” and this is lamb of God. It eliminates the negative attributes and unsympathetic connotations of the goat. Thereby it better corresponds to the idea of an innocent victim sacrificed unjustly. Jesus applies another expression to himself that is extremely revealing. It is drawn from Psalm 118: “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” This verse tells not only of the expulsion of the single victim but of the later reversal that turns the expelled victim into the keystone of the entire community. (pp. 154-156)
f) The point to which Girard is leading is that the Lamb of God is taking away from us this sin of the world. Scapegoating is becoming increasingly difficult. He writes: Because of Jewish and Christian influence scapegoat phenomena no longer occur in our time except in a shameful, furtive, and clandestine manner. We haven’t given up having scapegoats, but our belief in them is 90 percent spoiled. The phenomenon appears so morally base to us, so reprehensible, that when we catch ourselves “letting off steam” against someone innocent, we are ashamed of ourselves.
g) It is easier than in the past to observe collective transferences upon a scapegoat because they are no longer sanctioned and concealed by religion. And yet it is still difficult because the individuals addicted to them do everything they can to conceal their scapegoating from themselves, and as a general rule they succeed. Today as in the past, to have a scapegoat is to believe one doesn’t have any.
6. As Christians we are concerned about the our personal and social life and that concern springs from our faith that because God in Jesus Christ forgiven our sins through the death of Jesus on the cross, our neighbors near or far should as well accept this sacrifice Jesus did for the remission of their personal sins. Perhaps your personal belief in the atoning power of God’s love in Jesus death on the cross enables you to live a life of love and compassion. But this faith of ours should not only be a personal possession to keep. Isn’t that true that Jesus’ mission was in the first place social and secondly personal?
7. In the context of forces labor and marriage migration, millions of Filipinos, not less than ten million scattered in many countries in the globe, or 5,800 individuals leave the country every day, have opted to seek jobs outside of the country. Many Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) did not live long to see the fruits of their labor because they came home in a box due to unfortunate experiences of abuse and consequent violent deaths. Thousands, at least 4,000 suspected street-level drug addicts were killed in the course of conducting the anti-drug war of the Duterte government in less than 2 years. Many indigenous people were killed for defending their ancestral lands.
8. All these are the transferences of scapegoating in the Philippines. Christians should recognize this, because the lives of the scapegoats are ours and those who benefit from our people’s blood, sweat and tears are those who concentrated more power and wealth in their hands and families. May Good Friday’s meaning enlighten us and God’s love in Jesus Christ save our society and the world. Amen.
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