Remembering Friday

It is all I can do to not cry through every Good Friday service. I didn’t grow up with a Good Friday service, and I love the tradition of setting aside time to contemplate what Jesus went through. It is so tempting to focus on the Resurrection. I want to dwell in the Happily Ever After. And yet it is so crucial to recognize, as Caz mentioned, that Jesus has endured everything we have. There is not a hardship he cannot empathize with. There is no physical, emotional, or spiritual pain we will experience that is greater than what He endured for us.

             There were three days that Jesus’ followers were left in devastation. Jesus could have been raised immediately and spared their suffering.  And yet God allows dark hours before the glorious light.  He allows silence when we desperately want answers.  We’re all off of our sugar high or bluebonnet flurry or whatever Easter was to you. Let us remember the sacredness of the dark, dark day our sins were paid for. Every sin. The sin we repeat even though we know better. The sin we never tell anyone.  The sins we are not even aware of. The sin still haunting us, even though we have repented.   Every sin.  We are washed clean. Let us live like it.

Beth Kropf