GOOD FRIDAY - C - 19 JOHN 18. 1- 19.37
Few Christians observe Good Friday, that is, liturgically speaking Roman Catholics, Orthodox and Anglicans do. For others Holy Week, as we know it and keep it, is not so observed. Perhaps in some instances a drama of sorts, called a Passion play is conducted with more emphasis on the empty tomb than the cross.
However, today is the day to refocus our vision on Christ crucified. We do this by focusing clearly on the readings of the day - the Servant Song from Isaiah, the passage from the letter to the Hebrews, and the Passion according to
The readings do not seek to invoke a sense of guilt in us because our sins have caused the sinless Jesus to suffer and die. Nor do the readings strive to create feelings of compassion to make us wish we had been historically present at the crucifixion so that we could have consoled Jesus in his suffering.
The readings proclaim what God has done for us in Christ and bid us a new to receive the gift of God’s redemptive love in our lives. That is why we call is Good Friday.
The opening words from the first reading from the prophet Isaiah proclaims the good news of God’s Paschal victory in Christ: “Behold, my servant shall prosper, shall be exalted and lifted up.” Joined to that theme is
Isaiah does not deny the terrible sufferings that the servant must undergo; but the emphasis is not upon the horror of those sufferings. Rather it seeks to proclaim their significance within God’s plan of salvation: “He was wounded for our transgressions, and was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement that made us whole was upon him, by whose stripes we are healed.”
The liturgy of Good Friday causes us to focus on the crucified one, lifted up, as drawing all humankind to himself, so that his wounds can be a source of healing unto new life.
As I said a moment ago, many Christians choose not to observe the events of Holy Week but prefer instead to skip to Easter. This makes it easy not to focus on the crucified Jesus, but rather the empty cross and the empty tomb.
True, we are Easter Christians who are on this side of the cross, but we would not be Easter Christians had it not been for the crucifixion. Today is the day to put ourselves on the other side of cross.
On Good Friday we gather as a Christian community around the proclamation of the Paschal mystery in Isaiah, Hebrews, and the Passion of St. John to receive God’s gift of new life in Jesus Christ crucified. To focus on him who died for us is to proclaim the good news of God’s redemptive love in Christ.
From his pierced side issued forth water and blood, which cleansed the world of her sins, including yours and mine. By his wounds, we are healed anew by the woundedness of our lives being drawn into him so that we may receive the gift of new life and healing promised to us in the Word of God.
Easter, with its focus on the empty cross and the empty tomb brings with it the hope of resurrection to everlasting life because of Jesus’ victory over death. Good Friday, with our focus on Him who died on the cross, brings the gifts of life and healing that can become for us a lived reality to the forefront once again, so that we may witness in truth what we petition in the bidding prayers.
Let us, then, lift high the life-giving cross as a sign of our faith in what God is doing for us in Christ Jesus crucified and risen. For in our focusing on the one who was lifted up on the cross, we are reminded once more that through God’s grace and mercy we have been reconciled to God.
And not by any merits of our own, but by the merits of Him who died and rose again as a sign of God’s redemptive Love to a broken and sinful world that God’s Love wins. AMEN+
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