Good Friday

Less than two months ago, we prayed with grief on the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Four years of unspeakable horror and corrupt leadership and gross misinformation.  To paraphrase Oleksandr Mykhed, a Ukrainian writer, we pray ‘about things one can never forget.  Or forgive.’ (Mykhed 2024:xi).  It seems like this is also the story for the illegal war between Israel, Iran and its proxies, supported by the US and dragging in the rest of the Middle East as we confront rising civilian deaths, and the killing and maiming of far too many children.  The war rolling on in South Sudan, testing ancient enmities has its own echoes of hell and matching genocide as well, while the Western World looks the other way.

I feel inadequate writing about pain and the horror of war, about murder and injustice as this has not been my experience; and today, as I talk about Jesus and his treatment by his leaders, I know this has far too many echoes and similarities in our generations.  Instead, I find myself reaching for words others have used who have known intimately, the inhumanity of their enemy, as they know more clearly those who have chosen to dehumanise and obliterate the existence of the ‘other’ in clear words and deliberate actions.  They know the sheer evil encapsulated by unbounded death, destruction and cataclysmic glee at the potential of Armageddon in all its forms, based on race, faith and gender.

The Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt spoke of the banality of evil, as the evildoer lives an ordinary life, while focussed on unmaking the lives and humanity of others.  Their lack of imagination and inability to see they have succumbed to the temptation of death, to bring about obscene profits through annihilation, means they have become enablers for the resurrection of ancient hatreds. They accept irrational decisions, gross greediness, and the desire for power at any cost, so they may upend the rule of law, enabling genocide and apartheid in all its grotesque configurations. 

The work of 2nd WW killers like Adolf Eichmann made unimaginable evil a normal practice, essentially an acceptable aspect of any working life in those days. We are shown the impact of living with the deadening experience of cynicism, betrayal, and overwhelming helplessness, which are all critical in making us feel powerless to resist.

Adolf Eichmann would go home at the end of a working day, love his family and play the piano.  He was untouched by the brutalities of his work and the efficiencies he designed in his system and processes in the Final Solution for the Jews. These were smoothed out by establishing a functioning, opaque bureaucracy, appealing to the greed, selfishness, sense of entitlement, and wilful capacity of people across many countries to ignore God’s two great commandments. He ensured Christian people were actively involved in the death of millions and payment with their blood, guaranteeing the wholesale looting of their possessions.  The system enabled Christians to ignore and deny any moral, human connection, and, even better, not feel responsible for their roles in the bureaucracy of killing, as they lost their understanding of temptation and their moral compass.

We see such stories today with our generations in the wars expanding exponentially around us.  The scapegoat is always found, the blame is laid, the killing is celebrated and the establishment is relieved.

The penitential rite of seeking forgiveness, when we act too late to stop it, like Judas who was overwhelmed once he saw the consequences of his decision and actions, can feel like it is not enough as a response.  With Jesus and the manner of his death, we see all we have done and all we have left undone.   For us, religion continues as a loyal servant of the state, the ritualising of prayers of peace where the tyrant must be the winner, and the God of war leaves Jesus in the tomb, seemingly with no hope of resurrection.  God lies waiting in our souls for prayers of peace and release.  It seems as if we are forever destined to be in Saturday’s Easter Eve tomb.  

We offer such pain to Christ, to Jesus hanging on the cross today, tortured, betrayed, unjustly tried and murdered, who yet managed words of hope and love to one hanging beside him, to those waiting and watching, to those who were despairing.  We encounter the story of God’ son, his death and love with incredulous hearts and we read and reread the words and listen to our hearts beating faster as we remember what God is and how God is present, always, even in the darkest moments.  Our greatest fears can be given to God and we become resurrection people.

This is not an attempt to understand, translate, transform, or find peace.  We sit in the dust of death at the foot of the cross and pray with empty hearts and minds, with only prayer and faith keeping us going.  Death awaits as life gives way.  ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’  God is in the tomb, broken, bleeding, dead.

The unspeakable nature of grief on Saturday’s Easter Eve, without resurrection yet, leaves us in a dark place, without light, yet the story is not finished, hope is present, even if unrecognised and unrealised.

Our prayer is for the people in all places of conflict, injustice, rampant illegality, corruption and the murderous imposition of brutal power and death, together with love, hope, community, trust, joy, fellowship and justice are this day and always, held by the loving arms of Jesus on the cross with hope, love and peace.  May the God who never confuses power and love unsettle whatever is inside us that has grown to comfortable with cruelty.  May the Jesus who welcomed the stranger, blessed the vulnerable, and refused the sword, lead us back from the edge of fear and into the arms of mercy.  And may the Holy Spirit give us the courage to grieve what we have become, tell the truth about it, and still be stubborn enough to believe God’s grace can make us new.

The Lord be with you.

References

Arendt, H.1992.  Eichmann in Jerusalem.  A Report on the Banality of Evil. Penguin Group, England

Chomsky, N. Pappe, I.  2015.  On Palestine. Penguin Random House, UK

Chomsky, N. Polychroniou, C.J. 2023.  Illegitimate Authority.  Penguin Books, UK

Girard, R. 1986, The Scapegoat. The John Hopkins University Press.  USA

Girard, R.  1999.  I See Satan Fall Like Lightening. 

Havel, V. 1990.  Disturbing the Peace.  Alfred A. Knopf  New York

Klein, N. 2007.  The Shock Doctrine.  Allen Lane, Penguin Group, Australia

Levi, P. 1989.  The Drowned and the Saved.  Abacus, London UK.

Mykhed, O. 2024. The Language of War.  Penguin Random House UK.

Penwell, D. 30March2026 Derek Penwell from Heretic Adjacent <derekpenwell@substack.com>

Roy, A. 2003.  War Talk.  South End Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Ibid, 2002.  The Algebra of Infinite Justice.  Flamingo, HarperCollins Publishers, London

Ibid, 2004.  The Cheque-Book and the Cruise Missile. Harper Perennial, HarperCollins, London