Good Friday

Good Friday

Jeff Lampl
March 25, 2016

Friday was a bad day for Jesus.   He . . . . .

was crucified. 

Friday was a bad day for his followers.  Their dreams of a victorious future as best friends of the new King and dignitaries in the new Kingdom of Israel were shattered. 

Friday was a bad day for Jesus’s mother.   Can you imagine watching that happen to your son?

Friday was a good day for the Romans.   They got rid of another menace, another would be disturber of the famed Pax Romana, the Roman peace, achieved of course through fear, intimidation and brutality.

Friday was a good day for religion.   This disturber of two thousand years of tradition and law was finally and permanently taken out.   Who did he think he was anyway?

It was Friday . . . . . but Sunday was coming*.

Have you ever had a really, really, really bad Friday, or week of Fridays, or month or year or years of Fridays?

Even though it might still be “Friday” for you, according to the bible Sunday’s coming.  

But before Sunday came Saturday.   Saturday was the Sabbath.  All of Jerusalem kept the Sabbath.   They did their rituals, kept Torah, and sought the peace of God.   Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel, 600 years prior to this Friday, wrote that religious leaders are prone to settle for false peace, declaring “peace, peace, where there is no peace”

Maybe religious leaders have disappointed you too.  You’ve been told about things to do, to think, to believe, to choose to believe, to meditate on, religious practices to get right, to repent, to forgive, and none of it has helped.   They’ve all just given you their own version of the promise of peace and you’re still despairing.

Maybe your life has been a life of religious Saturdays.

It was Saturday but Sunday was coming. 

Sunday came.  

Maybe it’s something like this:   how does Christmas Day rearrange your entire life in the month of December?   It does doesn’t it?  At least it rearranges my life.   Presents to buy, parties to attend, family gatherings to plan, decorations to put up, people to care for who are alone, and on it goes.   The fact that Christmas Day has come in the past, will come each December, changes things.

It's Friday but Sunday was coming. 

Sunday did come.

So, as Christmas rearranges your December, describe how Easter (God doing for the world what God did for Jesus “on Easter”) rearranges not just March, but your entire life. 

I find that to be a very, very good question for each of us answer.

*this line comes from a famous sermon by Tony Campolo

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