GOOD FRIDAY
MEDITATION AT HOLY TRINITY, RINGWOOD EAST
Carrying his own
cross he went out to the Place of the Skull.
It was a brutal sight. Flayed
almost to death, bruised and bloodied, staggering under the weight of a heavy
wooden beam, staggering out the main road of the city to crucified just beyond
the city walls, in the sight of all passers-by.
The Romans must have believed in
the death sentence as a deterrent. Not merely death, but up to four or five
days of sheer uncontrollable agony: dehydration, cramp, stung by insects and by
human tormentors, shifting weight from torn feet to buttocks to torn feet again
in an effort to stop the body from slumping down and cutting off all air
supply, and yet longing to die. Naked, defecating and urinating without
control, to the mirth of the gathered crowd below.
Where is God in this? Where is the
God who created the heavens and the earth? Where is the God who slew the
Egyptian oppressors and delivered his people Israel through the Red Sea?
From the sixth hour until the ninth hour
darkness came over all the land
says Matthew. Where is God when the
lights have gone out, when all is darkness, and when the one longed for as
Messiah is choking to death on a harsh wooden cross?
Christianity is a religion fraught
with contradiction. A king who serves. A
saviour who will not save himself. A God who dies. The light that comes into
the world but who is executed in darkness. The sinless one who dies a
criminal’s death between two thieves.
Where is God in this?
Where is God when it hurts?
Where is God when I am lonely?
Why is this Friday Good?
There is nothing romantic about the
cross. popular jewellery though it is, it is a ghastly symbol. Superstitious
save-all though it has become it has of itself only the power to destroy, and
to destroy torturously. What place has a nice God like you doing in a scene
like this?
That of course is the good news. A
nice saviour on a white horse saves only the nice people. A powerful saviour
heading a vast army saves only the powerful. But a poor, lonely and detested
saviour has something to offer to us all.
For the message that Christianity
has to offer to the world is now clear. God identifies utterly with the pain and
suffering and shame experienced by humanity. God is not a God “out there.” He is a God who enters the darkness.
The light
shines in the darkness.
He is not a god of magic tricks. He
is the God who suffers death, “even death on a cross,” and does so not
because he has sinned but because we, his wayward people, have sinned.
Where is God when it hurts?
God too is hurting.
God is dying with the dying.
God is lonely with the lonely.
I said to my soul, be still, and let the
dark come upon you,
which shall be
the darkness of God.
It is in the darkness of Good
Friday that we find the mystery of a God who experiences all of the suffering
experienced by humanity.
The light shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it.
As we await Easter we shall
discover that God is more, more even than the God of the raw and bloody cross.
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