Holy Week

So we arrive at Good Friday. The Oxford English Dictionary states that "good" in this context refers to "a day or season observed as holy by the church", hence the greeting "good tide" at Christmas or on Shrove Tuesday. In addition to Good Friday, there is also a less well-known Good Wednesday, namely the Wednesday before Easter. The earliest known use of "guode friday" is found in The South English Legendary, a text from around 1290.

The origin of the word Good, is closely aligned with the word Holy and in many senses Good Friday is the day when the way was made clear for humankind to share the holiness of Jesus. We read in Philippians 2:6-8 “He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless obedient death— and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.”

In practice, on that Holy Day people continued to taunt Jesus, “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the king of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him.” Matthew 27:42

This verse contains a pair of challenges made by the Jewish religious leaders to Jesus while he hung on the cross. In the first one they said, “he saved others, but he cannot save himself.” They were referring to saving in the physical sense, and indeed Jesus had restored sight, health, and even life to many.

Their second challenge was that they would believe in him if he were to come down off the cross. I have often wondered what they would have done have he jumped down off the cross for a moment and then climbed back up to complete his mission. Somehow I doubt that it would have changed anything for them. They acknowledged his earlier miracles, and yet did not believe in him.

Dietrich  Bonhoeffer, who faced his own Calvary,  said, “Good Friday and Easter free us to think about other things far beyond our own personal fate, about the ultimate meaning of all life, suffering, and events; and we lay hold of a great hope.”

Good Friday; the death of Jesus, is our ultimate hope.

Now we know:

all is grace

all is gift.

You give us all good things:

life and love;

daily bread and water that quenches our thirst;

friends and faith.

Most of all, in your Son, Jesus,

you meet us with a love that will never let us go;

you utter words of mercy and forgiveness

that override the hurts,

and heal our brokenness;

you offer new beginnings

where we had expected only dead ends.

We give you thanks and praise

for the mystery of your suffering love

that gives us life.

We give you thanks and praise

that you know our weakness

and hear our prayers.

We give you thanks and praise

that all our dying and living

is held in your good keeping.

Now we know:

all is grace

all is gift.

We give you thanks and praise.

Amen