Good Friday

Today is Good Friday. A day set aside in the Christian world to commemorate the suffering (torture) and death (on a cross) of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I have attended Good Friday services my whole life…well almost my whole life. For a number of years I didn’t go to church…I know, surprising…and so didn’t go to Good Friday services. But I have always taken Good Friday off usually by taking a vacation day. This is leftover from growing up going to Lutheran schools. We never had school on Good Friday. So I don’t work on Good Friday. At my last job, I was in charge of setting the holiday schedule so I always scheduled Easter weekend as a three day weekend with the third day being Friday. Since one of my bosses professed to be a Christian, no one objected to this.

Since I am currently unemployed, I don’t have to worry about taking a vacation day today. I just simply didn’t schedule any activities for the day except for going to the Tenebrae service this evening.

Once again this year I was one of the readers. The service consists of reading a Bible passage around the seven last words of Christ on the cross. After each Bible reading, someone reads a meditation that brings the Bible passage to life in a wonderful way. Then there is a prayer and we sing a hymn. That is, until it gets too dark (the lights are lowered a little more with each reading) and then the choir sings. After the seventh word, our music director played a piece on the piano. Then Pastor carried the Christ candle out, which was the last light in the sanctuary.

After the candle left the church, with the place completely dark, a soloist sang “Were You There”, acapella, her voice rising and falling as we quietly listened and tried not to cry. It is a completely moving ending to a very somber service.

Every year the service moves me and touches me deeply. I have heard the seven last words my whole life and heard the same hymns also. But this year I heard thing something brand new.

The Seventh Word, the last word, described in vivid detail Christ being taken down from the cross by Joseph of Aramethia and being wrapped in a shroud and placed in the tomb. Very vivid detail. At two points in the reading, a sigh is mentioned. “Somewhere someone delivers a long, soft, terrible sigh to the world” and then “- and once more the soft sigh, a low, compulsive, wordless sigh.”

In the prayer that follows, the person who sighs is identified as “me”. The 21st century “me” attending the burial. Actually the prayer is:

“That sigh was me, Lord. That weeper is me, the twenty first century me, attending your burial. Your dying is never far away nor long ago, but always as close as my own. I cry for the sorrow of being at your death. But I cry also in gratitude that you will be at my death, O my Savior – and that, though I can only cry for yours, you rescue me from mine. Amen”. (author – Henry Wangerin)

When someone dies, there really are no magic words to make their loved ones feel better. There isn’t a saying or reading that will ease their pain. The only thing that can be said is a heavy sigh. A wordless demonstration of our deepest sorrow.

It struck me tonight that I felt exactly that. Christ died. At that moment in time, not knowing what happens three days later, the world must have felt like it was over. Dark, cold… and utterly and completely sad. No words exist that would make it all better to those who know and love Jesus. Nothing but a deep sorrowful sigh.

Except…

The Christ candle returned. Pastor stood in the front bathed in it’s light and read from the Bible. One of the things he read was: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.”

We are saved. Because of Jesus’ death.

So in three days, on a beautiful Sunday morning, we won’t be sighing any more but will raise our voices in joyful praise and sing that Jesus Christ is Risen Today! Amen!