Lenten Blog | April 18, 2025

Good Friday

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for Good Friday, April 18th:  Psalm 22; Isaiah 52:13—53:12; Hebrews 10:16-25 or Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; and John 18:1—19:42.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today’s list of readings is quite long, but today is the special day on which we should devote extra time to our relationship with Jesus.  This is the remarkable day on which we solemnly commemorate the torturous execution of Jesus, the Christ and the Son of God.  After a night of harsh treatment and abandonment, Jesus is sentenced to crucifixion.  The accounts vary, but Jesus may have been nailed to the cross around mid-morning, dying around mid-afternoon.  Many who suffered crucifixion would linger longer than these six hours, so the shortened time may indicate the compromised physical state of Jesus before the first spike ever punctured His flesh. 

Nevertheless, those six hours must have seemed like an eternity.  Crucifixion is a slow and harrowing process of execution where the victim dies of asphyxiation.  Unable to support themselves as their strength ebbs and the pain increases, the chest muscles contract and the victim cannot inhale, and death comes slowly.  This was the form of punishment the Romans used intentionally to dissuade any person who may have contemplated challenging the Empire’s authority.  For this reason, it was performed in as public a place as possible so that as many people as possible could witness the agonizing death. 

Golgotha was located just outside one of Jerusalem’s city gates.  The number of people passing by would have been exponentially greater than the city’s usual population because pilgrims had traveled to the holy city and its Temple for Passover.  The humiliation of this naked spectacle only added to Jesus’ torture.  And yet all of this was endured by Jesus because of His devotion to His ministry and to each and every one of us.  On such a day as this, extra time devoted to our faith relationship is expected for it recognizes not only Jesus’ sacrifice but the fact that it was ignored by so many.

After a ministry to and for ordinary people, and especially to the extraordinary people who were different because they were despised and ostracized, Jesus dies alone.  The oldest Gospel bereft of the changes that will come later, recounts Jesus’ complete isolation.  There is not a comforting face to be seen as Jesus looks down from the cross.  The closest sympathy was from the persistently faithful but overlooked “women looking on from a distance.” (Mark 15:40)  

Jesus could not look to the side to hear words of consolation from other victims facing the similar torture.  Instead, we’re told “[t]hose who were crucified with him also taunted him.” (15:32)  And most surprising and agonizing of all, Jesus could not even look up to feel the presence of God at that cruelest of moments:  “At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’”

This physical, emotional and spiritual agony culminates in a visceral scream giving vent to confused emotions that cannot find words, “and [Jesus] breathed his last.” (Mark 15:37)  His dead body is then placed in a stranger’s tomb as hastily as possible because the Passover celebration is about to begin at sunset.  As I have mentioned in previous Lenten Blogs, Jesus as the Son of God experiences death in the reality of His human nature and also in the reality of the divine nature.  We can sympathize now with Jesus’ physical suffering, but it is beyond our comprehension to begin to imagine how God is affected by the reality of the death of God’s own.

On Good Friday the church sanctuary will be open for prayer or meditation or quiet from noon until 3:00pm.  People entering are asked to respect the quiet of the church and each person’s privacy.  Realizing that many will not be able to attend during these daytime hours, the faithful are encouraged to practice their own moments of sanctuary at more convenient times and places.  This is also not a day for celebrations, whether it be dinner out, a movie with friends, or whatever.  This is the solemn day of Jesus’ death.  May we treat it with the respect Jesus deserves.

If you would like to join us for our online Bible study, please send an email to [email protected] for the Zoom logins.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.