HOLY WEEK DEVOTIONALS
April 18 (Friday – Holy Friday)
- Scripture: John 19:30 – When He had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.
- Reflection: Holy Friday marks the crucifixion of Jesus. Have we ever held vigil while a loved one died? Have we grieved personal losses? Can we imagine ourselves keeping watch as a beloved one dies, tortured? Innocent?
On this day, in our faith tradition, we bear witness to the suffering Christ endured for our sake. The words “It is finished” signify the completion of His work of redemption. In this sacrifice, we are offered grace and forgiveness. This day invites us to pause, take stock, seek gratitude and awe , and mourn … but also to hope, knowing that the story does not end here. - Spiritual Practice Prompt: Make this a sensory reflection. Light a candle and breathe in its smoke and scent. Touch and trace the shape of the cross. Feel something sharp with the tip of your finger. Taste some vinegar if you have any. Say aloud: “It is finished.” Let your senses allow you to enter the experience of Holy Friday more fully. What do these sensations tell you and teach you? Consider participating in a Holy Friday service if available.
Song:
- Crucified, Laid Behind the Stone by Don Moen: https://youtube.com/shorts/ZXBRGrvkBPw?si=2MWQUPAtNDD5NVYE
- How Deep the Father’s Love for Us by Austin Stone Worship: https://youtu.be/z65YxhqY0_E?si=wEI_gN8oxFDOSPmt
- We Are the Reason by Avalon (caution: extremely graphic video): https://youtu.be/7jTRF35U_S0?si=dRw-oV3QNMlCyCxK
To use just one Christian example: Christ really did suffer, as the innocent of the earth really do suffer. It’s the ongoing tragedy of humans. Our lives and humanity are untidy: disorganized and careworn. Life on earth is often a raunchy and violent experience. It can be agony just to get through the day.
And yet, I do believe there is ultimately meaning in the chaos, and also in the doldrums. What I resist is not the truth but when people put a pretty bow on scary things instead of saying, ‘This is a nightmare. I hate everything. I’m going to go hide in the garage.’…
My understanding of incarnation is that we are not served by getting away from the grubbiness of suffering…
It would be great if we could shop, sleep or date our way out of this. Sometimes we think we can, but it feels that way only for a while. To heal, it seems we have to stand in the middle of the horror, at the foot of the cross, and wait out another’s suffering where that person can see us. ― Anne Lamott
Christmas and Easter can be subjects for poetry, but Good Friday, like Auschwitz, cannot. The reality is so horrible it is not surprising that people should have found it a stumbling block to faith. ― W.H. Auden
Suffering comes to us as an interrogator. It asks, “Who are you?” ― David A. Fiensy
I’d like to quickly make a case that we have experienced way too much death and grief and loss to skip holy week.
From his rough hewn throne of a cross Christ the King looks at the world and no one escapes his judgment…those who betray him, those who execute him, those who love him, and those who ignore him. He judges us all. From the cross the pronouncement is made and the judgment is final and that judgement is….forgiveness. Forgive them Father for they know not what they are doingis an eternally valid statement. From his cross Christ loves the betrayer, the violent, the God killer in all of us and despite our protests he will not even lift a finger to condemn those who put him up there. Because it is finally only a God unlike us- a God who enters our human existence and suffers our insults with only love and forgiveness who can save us from ourselves.
And, I would contend that through the cross we know that God isn’tstanding smugly at a distance but that God’s abundant grace is hiding in, with, and under all this broken shit in the world around us.
God is present with us in all of it.
And while the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross is not about you. It is certainly FOR you.
In fact, God is so foryou that there is no place God will not go to be withyou. Nothing separates you from the love of God in Jesus….not insults, not betrayal, not suffering, and as we will see at Easter – not even death itself. — Nadia Bolz-Weber, full article: https://thecorners.substack.com/p/a-case-for-holy-week#:~:text=The%20cross%20as%20love%2C%20as,broken%20heart%20feel%20healed%20%26%20seen.&text=Big%20huge%20glorious%20youth%20group%20flashbacks%20from%20this%20message%2C%20nadia.