Great Friday

Rev. Alkiviadis Calivas

Comments On The Main Themes

On Great Friday the Church remembers the ineffable mystery of Christ's death. Death -tormenting, indiscriminate, universal - casts its cruel shadow over all creation. It is the silent companion of life. It is present in everything, ready to stifle and impose limits upon all things. The fear of death causes anguish and despair. It shackles us to the appearances of life and makes rebellion and sin erupt in us (Heb 2.14-15).

The Scriptures assure us that "God did not make death, and He does not delight in the death of the living, for He created all things that they might exist ... But through the devil's envy death entered the world" (Wisdom 1.13-14; 2.24). The same divinely inspired author also writes, "God created man for incorruption and made him in the image of His own eternity- . But ungodly men by their words and deeds summoned death" (Wisdom 2.23; 1.16).

Death is an abomination, the final indignity, the ultimate enemy. It is not of God but of men. Death is the natural fruit of the old Adam who alienated himself from the source of life and made death a universal destiny, whose very fear perpetuates the agony of sin. "It was through one man that sin entered the world and through sin death, and thus death pervaded the whole human race" (Rom 5.12).

The day of Christ's death is the day of sin. The sin which polluted God's creation from the breaking dawn of time reached its frightful climax on the hill of Golgotha. There sin and evil, destruction and death came into their own. Ungodly men had Him nailed to the cross, in order to destroy Him. However, His death condemned irrevocably the fallen world by revealing its true and abnormal nature.

In Christ, who is the New Adam, there is no sin. And, therefore, there is no death. He accepted death because He assumed the whole tragedy of our life. He chose to pour His life into death, in order to destroy it; and in order to break the hold of evil. His death is the final and ultimate revelation of His perfect obedience and love. He suffered for us the excruciating pain of absolute solitude and alienation - "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!" (Mk 15.34). Then, He accepted the ultimate horror of death with the agonizing cry, "It is finished" (Jn 19.30). His cry was at one and the same time an indication that He was in control of His death and that His work of redemption was accomplished, finished, fulfilled. How strange! While our death is radical unfulfillment, His is total fulfillment.

Jesus did not come to meet death with an array of philosophical theories, empty prouncements or vague hopes. He met death in person, face to face. He broke the iron grip of this ancient enemy by the awesome business of dying and living again. He chased away its oppressive darkness and cruel shadows by penetrating the bottomless abysses of hell. He cracked the fortress of death and led its captives to the limitless expanses of true life.