Amy-Jill Levine - Witness at the Cross: A Beginners Guide to Holy Friday

In each chapter of Witness at the Cross, Levine parses out the Gospels witness accounts of Jesuss crucifixion and invites readers to be transformed by this theological symphony of the cross. This informative, witty, and accessible study provides a welcome preaching and teaching resource for clergy and laity. Small group leaders will also appreciate its six-chapter format ideal for a Lenten study.

Rev. Dr. Deborah Appler, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Moravian Theological Seminary

Amy-Jill Levine reminds us that the story of Jesuss death is something we do not just read; we are meant to experience it. In Witness at the Cross, she takes us by the hand and walks with us through the story, pausing alongside each of the characters to see and hear and feel how they individually experienced it, how each was affected by it. This is not just a fresh retelling of the Crucifixion narrative; it is a remarkably personal immersion and participation in the narrative. Amy-Jill Levine breaks open new dimensions and possibilities of the storys meaning for all of us.

Larry J. Beasley, Presbytery Leader and Stated Clerk, Presbytery of Utica

This is a timely and important introduction to the events of Holy Friday. Levines approach is scholarly yet personal, theologically sophisticated yet devotional. She does a masterful job sorting through the perspectives of the Gospel writers, showing readers what each evangelist accentuates and the things each writer wants us to think more deeply about and to question when it comes to our own experience of the world today. This is the best possible resource for either reflective reading or a study group.

Rev. Dr. John S. McClure, Charles G. Finney Professor of Preaching and Worship, Emeritus, Vanderbilt Divinity School

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A Beginners Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven

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A Beginners Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings

AMY-JILL LEVINE

WITNESS at the CROSS

A BEGINNERS GUIDE to HOLY FRIDAY

Abingdon Press | Nashville

Witness at the Cross

A Beginners Guide to Holy Friday

Copyright 2021 Amy-Jill Levine

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission can be addressed to Rights and Permissions, The United Methodist Publishing House, 810 12th Avenue South, Nashville TN 37203 or e-mailed to permissions@abingdonpress.com.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021946826

978-1-7910-2112-2

Scripture quotations unless noted otherwise are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org/.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from The Authorized (King James) Version. Rights in the Authorized Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Reproduced by permission of the Crowns patentee, Cambridge University Press.

Scripture quotation marked (CEV) is from the Contemporary English Version Copyright 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.

Additional Scripture quotation from the Tanakh (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, copyright 1985).

Source texts for the works of Josephus can be found at Sefaria.org: https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Second%20Temple/Josephus.

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For Elizabeth Caldwell and Ann Neely

Gospel evidence does not provide a precise setting for the Crucifixion. Matthew 27:33, Mark 15:22, and John 19:17 call it Golgotha, an Aramaic term meaning [place of] the Skull; the Greek word is kranion (whence cranium). Luke, who tends to avoid Aramaic, calls it The Skull (Luke 23:33). The Latin gives us Calvary. Artists tend to depict the site as a hilland so presume that the cross could be seen from afarand the name could come from a cranium-shaped plot of land; it could also come from the bones of other victims, unceremoniously tossed into a pit on the site. The Gospel of John 19:20 suggests it was near the city, meaning Jerusalem. From the time of Helena, the mother of Constantine the emperor, the site has been identified as near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

That Jesus was crucified I have no doubt. That we do not know the exact location should be a prompt for reflection rather than consternation. Such speculation begins as early as the New Testament itself. The Epistle to the Hebrews 13:12 understands the location theologically: Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. For this author, outside the city gate fits the view that the followers of Jesus are spiritually not at home in the Roman Empire where their movement is more often denounced than embraced. Speaking not of the Jerusalem Temple but of the sanctuary around which the Exodus generation lived in the wilderness, between Egyptian slavery and return to the Promised Land, the author urges, Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for a city that is to come (Hebrews 13:13-14).

The Skull suggests mortality, but at the same it reminds us that Jesus gave his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). Good Friday anticipates Easter; death anticipates resurrection. Perhaps we are reminded of the cranium, the part of our anatomy that encloses the brain and that is related to our sensory organs. This notice suggests that the story of Jesuss death is something that we do not just read: we think about it, and we experience it; we hear the taunts of the soldiers, the priests, and the passersby even as we hear the famous seven last words (there are actually more) from the cross. We taste the gall held up to Jesuss lips even as we feel his thirst. We inhale the fetid smells of sweat, of blood, and of death, and then the hundred pounds of spice Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea use to provide Jesuss body a royal entombment. We touch each other, as did the Beloved Disciple when he took the mother of Jesus to his home. We feel the wind blowing in the darkness, and we sense the Holy Spirit. With the tearing of the Temple curtain, we recognize that the universe is in mourning.

We filter these visions through the witnesses at the cross. Each saw something different. Each needed something from Jesus, and in turn, he needed them as well, for that is what it means to so love the world (John 3:16). Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschels book, God in Search of Man, shows how the God of Israel wants to be in relationship with all of humanity, and so does Jesus. The Jewish and Christian traditions tell us that God needs us. It is through our hands and feet, our mouths that speak and our hearts and minds that prompt us to act, that Gods work is seen in the world.