What is good about Good Friday? As I mentioned yesterday, it is that Jesus first celebrated the Passover and then He was the Passover. The first Passover was when Israel was enslaved and then after the meal they were set free and they went on to the Promised Land. Today in the reading, you heard Jesus drink the final cup of the Passover on the cross and say, “It is finished.” What is finished? The Passover. What does that mean for us? It means that the reign of sin is over, we are no longer slaves, we have been set free. All our sin – pride, lust, greed, sloth, gluttony – are finished. We do not have to be slaves to them any more, that is what is finished. It is exciting that we have Passover and now we get to co-create with the Father.
Now you might say this happened 2000 years ago and Christians are still enslaved to sin. We know that you go to Confession, Father, so how is it finished? It is finished because we can have victory through Jesus Christ. So we are free, but why are we not living it?
My father told me a story when I was a child that when an elephant is a baby if you tie him up with a small string, the little elephant will pull and pull and not break the string. It will then stop trying. When it is a big elephant, it can still be tied with the same small string. You see, we are the same way. We are tied with a small string to slavery. When the string is broken in our loving relationship with Jesus Christ, the string is finished.
When St. Patrick evangelized Ireland, he faced some crazy obstacles, often taking his life in his hands to bring the word of God. One of the greatest contests he faced was battling the Druids and their demonic cults which had enslaved the people in fear and barbaric worship. The main demon of the land was a idol called Crum Krout. To worship this demon idol, the people used to take their first born child and sacrifice them to the idol to ensure fertility. Imagine, a culture that is so barbaric that it would kill their children to ensure personal gain. Crazy I know. While Patrick prayed and destroyed the idol, through an act of God the earth swallowed Crum Krout . He said that though he defeated the idol, the strength of it was still in their hearts and the way he cast it out of their hearts was to form communities of believers where they learned to love God instead.
Many of you are old enough to remember Waco Texas and the cult Davidians. They were a cult founded by a man, David Koresh, and he was like a god to the people there. Before the whole place went up in flames, the authorities were able to rescue some of the children from the compound. The fellow in charge of the rehabilitation of the children wrote a book called, “The Boy Who Was Raised Like a Dog.” In his book, he claimed that after they initial debriefing and stabilization of the children, they were sent to different homes. He said when they did the follow up, they found one thing was the deciding factor. If the children were in loving homes, they recovered well. If not, it did not work out.
So, yes, the slavery is finished, the Passover complete, but you and I cannot accept the freedom unless we are in loving homes. The good news is this is all possible because Jesus can be our loving home. I invite you to come for the next four weeks as I reveal to you a way to live in the loving house of Jesus through prayer. Intentionally revive the Passover and live in the freedom of a son or daughter of God. In this period, I will show you how to allow Jesus to be your loving home and to bring you to the freedom promised in this Passover so you can break the small rope holding you back, so you can cast out Crum Krout and truth say, “It is finished. The reign of sin in my life is finished.”