This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 22; Lamentations 3:1-9, 19-33; 1 Peter 1:10-20; Mark 10:32-45
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 14 (Prayer of Manasseh 1-2, 4, 6-7, 11-15, BCP, p. 90); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (Revelation 4:11; 5:9-10, 13, BCP, p. 94)
Collect for Good Friday. Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
…before the cock crows, you will have denied me three times. — John 13:38. Today is Good Friday. It’s a day for us to remember Jesus Christ’s death, but also, as Peter’s denial reminds us, of the sins that made his death necessary. These sad words to Peter leave me at a loss for words, because of the many ways I daily deny Jesus myself—in thought, word, and deed.
Today’s passage in Lamentations gives me words to lend hope to my own lament. Today’s passage in 1 Peter reminds me of just what it is that makes Good Friday good.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases…. — Lamentations 3:22. This third chapter of Lamentations depicts Judah/Jerusalem’s sufferings in ways that strikingly anticipate Christ’s Good Friday sufferings. Bearing the rod of God’s wrath, flesh and skin wasting away, sitting in darkness, prayer seeming to be shut out, wormwood and gall. And yet, hope. Such hope that, right in the middle of the agony of suffering, a song breaks out: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”
We know that Psalm 22 was on Jesus’s mind as he hung on Good Friday’s cross. He quoted that song of dual suffering and hope (it begins “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” but pivots to “You answered me. I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters; in the midst of the congregation I will sing hymns to you” — Psalm 22:1, 21).
Lamentations 3 was there in case he needed it as well. It’s there for us too, when we feel besieged and enveloped by bitterness and tribulation, sitting in darkness feeling like we’re already dead (Lamentations 3:5-6). Right then and right there is when and where to sing: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases….” The dark night of Good Friday’s death broke for Jesus on Easter morning. As a result, death’s dark night breaks for his followers, too.
…the Spirit of Christ…testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. — 1 Peter 1:11. Easter prompts me to remember the many Old Testament Scriptures that had pointed to the life and saving work of Jesus Christ long before his appearances on earth. On the Emmaus road after his resurrection, Jesus explained to two disciples “the things about himself in all the scriptures” (Luke 24:27). I’m reminded of how movie directors charm audiences by embedding “Easter eggs” inside their films. You can find Alfred Hitchcock appearances in his films, and Stan Lee in Marvel Comic Universe movies, for example. You’ll find images of Star Wars’ R2-D2 and C-3PO in the hieroglyphics of a pillar in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Look closer, the directors say.
Peter tells us angels have been looking closer for a long time. His sweeping statement about the advance notice of Christ’s suffering and glory in the Old Testament invites us, too, to look and find God’s Easter eggs hidden throughout his Word:
• The Seed who will strike the Serpent’s head, despite suffering a bruised heel (Genesis 3).
• Escape from a storm of judgment in an ark built by the One Righteous Man, with a new start signaled by a rainbow (Genesis 6-9).
• The sparing of a beloved son by the substitution of a ram (Genesis 22).
• A snake lifted up on a tree for the healing of people snake-bit by the power of sin (Numbers 21).
• After three days and three nights in the belly of “a great fish,” deliverance unto life, and the renewal of a call to prophetic ministry (the whole book of Jonah).
So, despite everything—Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s (and my) denial, the whimsicality and the vitriol of the crowds, the obscene injustice of religious and political authorities—Good Friday is good because it marks the pivot point in the long epic of God’s unspeakable love and unstoppable plan. Because of Good Friday, the Great Vigil’s song can ring out in praise of the God who “casts out pride and hatred, and brings peace and concord,” joining earth and heaven, and God and humankind.
Be blessed this day,
Reggie Kidd+