Good Friday

“After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.”

This Lent Fr Mike has decided that we look again at the Liturgies which the Church uses during Lent, Holy Week and Easter. This is a very useful discipline for us from time to time. My grandmother had a favourite phrase: “familiarity breeds contempt”, and with liturgy this can hold a bit of truth. We can become so used to things that we just say or do them without truly thinking about what we are doing. The Bishop has spoken to us of the Stations of the Cross, Fr Mike has talked about Maunday Thursday and today, I’m going top say a few words and share a few thoughts on the subject of Good Friday: what we do, why we do it and what it tells us about Jesus Christ.

On Good Friday the Church is solemn. The altars are bare and the usually bright “resurrection atmosphere” of Christian gatherings is missing. The clergy process into church and kneel or even prostrate themselves before the altar and silence reigns. Because this is our most solemn hour.

The readings begin with the prophet Isaiah calling to mind the price Christ paid and the purpose of it: “...he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the punishment that made us whole, and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have all turned to our own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

This is why Jesus has willingly taken Himself to this point in His ministry: to take away the sins of us all.

Then read aloud is The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John. Usually this is read in the so-called “dramatic fashion”. Personally, experience has told me that “drama” is often lacking from the narrative when read in the style called upon – but none-the-less the power of the words of Scripture always come through. Only the hardest of hearts can fail to be moved as the words are read out “...When Jesus had received the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” The church waits with baited breath. We know the end of the story but for now, at this moment, we stand in the place of the beloved disciple and our Lord’s Blessed Mother. We are sure that somehow God has a plan but from this perspective it is hard to see what it is. Fear and dread and sadness fill our hearts.

St Paul tells us “we worship Christ crucified”. Let there be no doubt that it is through the Cross that we are saved and in no other way. This has been the teaching of the Christian Church from the very beginning. And so, on this day of days, this Good Friday, and we remember the hour on which Jesus Christ, God incarnate, came to know death we venerate that Holy Cross. The custom started in Jerusalem with the veneration of the relics of the true cross. From there the process spread, first to Rome and then around the world. Within a very few years churches with no relics held the ceremony and the practise became universal. We honour the cross on which our Lord hung and died for us. Is it too much to ask of us to kneel before a surrogate piece of wood in faithful thanksgiving? It humbles us, but it is less than being nailed to it. We venerate the cross in thanksgiving for the pain, the suffering and the blood that has been shed for the sins we have committed again and again and again.

What do Christian people do when they gather together? They pray. Praying is what the Church does. We can get so wrapped up in good works for the poor, or evangelism of the new housing estate, or dinner events to raise money for the church roof that we can easily forget that our primary role in the world is to worship Almighty God, witness to Jesus Christ and to pray. On Good Friday the whole Church prays formally, Anglicans, Roman Catholics, Uniate and Orthodox pray essentially the same set of prayers. A prayer for the Church of God throughout the world and the nations of the world. We pray for the Jewish people, those who first came to recognise the true God of Creation and the race in which birth of Jesus was chosen to be. We pray for those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus, those who are unaware that the Cross of Christ is for them just as it is for us. We pray for those who suffer and we pray for ourselves, that we may follow the way of Christ.

Finally, in this liturgy, we gather around the altar to receive the sacrament of Christ Himself. This is not the “resurrection-recalling” liturgy of the Last Supper we normally have on a Sunday. This is a quieter moment. We use the reserve sacrament – left-overs, if you like, from the Last Supper that had been partaken of the night before on Maunday Thursday; Doing this, as Jesus asks us to, in remembrance of Him.

And so we leave the Church once again in silence. On this day when “Christ our paschal lamb was sacrificed” and what had long been promised in signs and in the prophets was at last revealed and brought to fulfilment. The true Lamb of God replaced the symbolic lamb and the many offerings of the past gave way to the single sacrifice of Christ. In contemplating the cross of her Lord and Bridegroom, the Church commemorates her own origin and her mission to extend to all peoples the blessed effects of Christ’s passion that are celebrated on this day in a Spirit of thanksgiving for God’s marvellous gifts; forgiveness of sins and resurrection to eternal life.

Amen.