Good Friday Uplift, 4/3/15

“With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last.”
Matthew 15:37

Taking a slight pause from Psalm 139 this week, for this “good” Friday.
I often wonder what is so good about this day, this strange and uncomfortable day.
and then this article came across my newsfeed and it spoke perfectly to this cross that we come to stand at tonight.

It was written by Shane Claiborne, and called “Holy Week in an Unholy World.” In it, Shane reminds us that this day is about more than the death of Christ.

He writes about a time where he learned this lesson:

“One of the most powerful Good Friday services we’ve ever had was a few years ago. We carried the cross into the streets and planted it outside the gunshop in our neighborhood. We had our services there. We read the story of Jesus’s death… and heard about the women weeping at the foot of the cross. And then we listened to the women in our neighborhood weep as they shared about losing their kids to gun violence.

Calvary met Kensington.

Afterwords, one woman said to me: “I get it! I get it!” I asked her what she meant. And then she said something more profound than anything I ever learned in seminary: “God understands my pain. God knows how I feel. God watched his Son die too.” Then I realized she was the mother of a nineteen-year-old who had just been murdered on our block.

God understands our pain. That is good theology for Good Friday.”

This is the lesson for us today I think.
When you look at the cross, know that God understands your pain. And in then know that just as God doesn’t leave Christ on the cross, God will not leave you in your pain either.
There is pain on this day, yes, but there is also hope.
Hope for the resurrection.
Hope for the day when love wins.
That day is coming.

AMEN