A meditation for Good Friday by Stephen Harris
This year, in the course of Holy Week we have not been able to follow the Way of the Cross in our churches, or to stand in meditation before the Stations of the Cross. We still have, though, the Passion narratives for our own personal meditations and in them can find the Seven Last Words. These have, throughout the life of the Church, formed the backbone of Good Friday devotions. The texts are precious and I hope that, together, we can draw something important from them today.
Jesus, reduced to a husk of a man, was in the most vile of circumstances. He was in unspeakable agony, unimaginable degradation and the most abyssal dark night of the soul. We cannot begin to comprehend. We read of his suffering with tears in our eyes. Yet through it he speaks, if not to the unhearing crowd, to us who want, who need, to believe.
What can those Words say?
We have come to the Gethsemane moment for our generation. In this time of trial do we, like the disciples, fade out of the picture-duvets over our heads. We do. Yet talk to me Lord, talk to me from the Cross.
Jesus said ‘I thirst’ (John 19 vs 28).His thirst was physical; how could it not be, hanging uncared for under a Passover Sun. And it was spiritual too; a thirst for righteousness and the redemption of fallen humanity. So too must we thirst, thirst for great things and thirst for small. We must be desperate for a change to come throughout the human race. We must thirst for our cup of suffering to be a signpost on the road to a world seen as the Kingdom of Heaven.
Jesus said ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? (Mark 15 vs 34). These words should shock us, can you imagine the effect on a new Christian? They are a barometer of pain, the measure of a mind derailed; the words of a Messiah truly human as well as truly God. And we might say something similar – ‘why has this plague been inflicted on us?’
Jesus, when his mind clears, knows that he has not been forsaken. And nor have we. Might it not be better to say ‘My God, my God why have we forsaken you?’ We can now see that the past decades have been crazy; times of strange infatuations and ‘greed is good’. Like the words in our Easter Messiahs, we like sheep have gone astray. If we understand that it is us who have turned our face from God, not he from us, we see that by turning back we can be whole again.
And we have the example of the penitent thief, to whom Jesus says ‘Today you will be with me in Paradise’ (Luke 23 vs 43). The thief saw that moaning and recrimination were not the true Way of the Cross. Knowing that we are not forsaken guides us on the true path as well.
Jesus said ‘Father forgive them they know not what they do’ (Luke 23 vs 43). Even in torment he could forgive them then. Can we plead for forgiveness now? For the leaders of the nations when they stand against co operation, for rumour mongers and profiteers, for those obsessed with salvaging their reputations; for us as we say ‘surely these instructions don’t apply to me?’ Father forgive me too.
‘When Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing near, he said to his mother ‘Woman behold your son’. Then he said to the disciple ‘Behold your mother ‘ (John 19 vss 26,27). In our time of trial how hard has it been to comply with the guidelines and not be with the ones we love. Yet how wonderful the response of neighbours and strangers, and, again, how wonderful the response of those proud to be independent who now realise how much they are loved.
Can you too feel the love of God walking in our streets, breaking down barriers and showing, as Jesus commanded his mother and his friend, that we are family. As, regardless, we always should be.
Jesus said ‘Into thy hands I commend my spirit, (Luke 23 vs 46). These words strike such a chord. We also may have to commend our loved ones into the hands of dedicated professionals, knowing that we may not see them again in this life.
Jesus having said this Word, Luke says that he breathed his last. Jesus was secure in knowing that he was going to the Father. We must be secure in the knowledge that souls precious to us will, in faith, take that journey too. After a time here, we, like our Saviour, will go home. Let us hope that this may be some small comfort, when separated in the time of dying, and in the finality of death.
Jesus said ‘It is finished’ (John 19 vs 30). It was more than his suffering that was finished, more than a life’s work. The thing finishing was the physical intervention of the One God in the world that he had created. And it was finished well. And in our way, you in your small corner and I in mine, we have to finish this chapter well. We realise that it will not be enough to just get through; we understand that we need to work tirelessly to rebuild a wrecked economy, in God’s way, and a society on the rebound. Yet, with God’s help, we too may be able to say with conviction ‘It is finished’
Amen