March 29, 2024 [GOOD FRIDAY]

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6.23)

“Peter asked, ‘Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.’ Jesus answered, ‘Will you really lay down your life for me? Very truly I tell you, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!‘” (John 13.37-38)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

[Author’s Note: By the sheer weight of gospel evidence the traditional Church calendar for the events of Holy Week follow the Synoptic Gospel order: Sabbath dinner on “Saturday”; Declaration Entry on Sunday; Cleansing the Temple on Monday; the Teaching Discourse on Tuesday; Judas plotting with the Temple officials on Wednesday; Preparation for the Passover/Seder Meal on Thursday; The Betrayal, Arrest and Crucifixion on Friday; Shroud Saturday and the Sabbath of Grief; culminating with Resurrection Sunday. In the midst of the remembrances and reflections on God’s “incarnate Word” we find some differences and recollections. It is not unusual that they exist. A survey of “eyewitnesses” to car shooting or a car accident will bring to light variations of the event as to what was and was not seen. It does not make any one of them a liar. Rather it highlights how such “impact” events are experienced based on our own personal experiences. And we will find many agreements among them as well. From those events we find the thrust and basic truth of the gospel message. The rest of it becomes the substance of inclusion where each one of us might find ourselves being exposed to the light of truth as we experience it today. One of those agreements centers on Peter. His passion for Christ was life changing. It was also a challenge. Peter the brash was faced with the question of boldness. As I think upon Peter’s experience with Jesus over three years of ministry, I wonder if we as Christ followers don’t also experience the challenge of brashness and boldness in our own witness. For me it becomes a reflection, at least today as “Good Friday,” a centering on our remembering what biblical “good” means.]

“Good.” On the Sabbath eve of that Passover week, who among the circle of faith would have called it “good.” Leave it to the early 4th Century “church” to designate the Friday of Holy Week as a “Good Friday.” Fortunately, the understanding of “good” was derived from the latin term meaning “holy.” We probably would do well intermingling “holy” with the word “sanctified” which means “set apart for the purposes of God.” We can certainly see that as an expression of God’s will and intent from the very beginning of the Judeo-Christian history revealed in Genesis, chapter 1. There we hear, according to the word revealed to Moses who was the scribe and editor of the Pentateuch, God blessing each day of creation saying “And it was good.” It is a utilitarian use of the word connecting God’s will with God’s intention of “My will be done.” How did creation come about anyway? God conceived it. God imagined it. God commanded it. God blessed it. And when the spirit of life was placed over it and the “life” came to life, it functioned just the way God knew it would. When God blessed it, He was setting it aside as a place of holiness and righteousness. Its purpose was “good” with the intention of “being good” and thus point to God the creator and become a part of the cycle of life for generations to come. It is when we come to the “image of God” created in the form of man and woman that we see the distinct difference between them and all other creation. God’s Spirit did not hover over them, it also dwelt in them and in that moment “the image of God” lived. The blessing which God spoke at that time was “It was good, indeed it was very good.”

Like the early Church in its hope to bear witness to the hope of the crucifixion which is the resurrection, there must be the sense of “good and very good” in us as well. But, such goodness takes some distance from the event of tragedy itself before the “good” of healing becomes more intimately and personally experienced. That day when the Sabbath was just a day away, “good” seemed like an eternity apart from the disciples and followers of Jesus. They had placed their hope, as best they knew it, on Jesus. We too easily might say “their hope was in Jesus.” Sadly, they were not quite there yet in their relationship with Jesus of Nazareth, a fellow Galilean whom they had come to believe was the Christ of God, the Messiah of Israel and the world. Even His command to “love one another” was the invitation to see a love born in faith to not be like a cloak put over one’s shoulder to do the work of the Father. How true it was for Jesus as He was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, led to the Judgment Court of the Chief Priest, paraded between there and Pilate and ultimately to Golgotha that He was stripped of His robe and shirt so that He was “uncovered in humiliation.” But, He was never stripped of the Holy Spirit in Him which gave Him life, strength and boldness to accept the cross as “good.” No, there was very few eyes who saw the most horrible of treatment to One who was crucified as delighted in its “goodness.” There were glimmers of such from the penitent thief, the Roman centurion and perhaps in the eyes of John who became Mary’s caretaker as if he was her son and she was now his mother. But, “good” as God’s will? We can only look upon that horrible scene of mortal sacrifice beyond anything before conceived by humanity with the knowledge of the Resurrection and restoration of Jesus in retrospect and call it “good.” He submitted to the will of God trusting and believing salvation for those whom He loved was theirs for the taking. He submitted His own Spirit and surrendered it to God so that the body they may kill but the Spirit is beyond their grasp. He was sanctified and set apart from all others so that you and I might have life and have it abundantly when we can see, absorb, take in and accommodate the “good” which God has made and considered it “good and very good.”

Strange, is it not- at least it is for me, that we allow the testimony of the world in its desire to “holiday” to stain the “goodness” of what God has done for us so that we, too, might have life and have it abundantly. How many congregations and faith fellowships join with those who have no belief in this season of mercy in festivals, feasts, parties, trivial games and the like? Is it so that we might be enough like the world that we could draw near to them and they to us and thus we then can “bear witness to the goodness of God”? Will they hear the depth of sorrow and sadness which enlivens the joy and gladness of the resurrection. And even in the knowledge of that have we fully allowed ourselves to experience and accept the wonder of what God has done in raising Jesus from the grave exchanging righteousness for sin? It is a “good” Friday when we see it with 20/20 hindsight. But, in that moment, there was nothing that felt good about it. It is like so many of us who have gone through rough and challenging times, like Peter who denied Jesus three times though brashly saying he never would and that he would rather die instead, who experience the lack of “goodness” and long for the saving grace of God. We all have our own “good Fridays” if we will admit to it. But, we know as mighty ones of God in Jesus Christ, that Friday is just the prelude of what God was going to do and what He continues to do in faith, in hope and most of all in love… that is “good and very good.”

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit spoke us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.