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During every Good Friday I think about two main ideas.
First, the story of Jesus on the cross. The brutal punishment, the heartbreaking abandonment by nearly all of his followers, the centrality of this moment in history, and the metaphysical significance of the moment he draws his last breath, as the veil between God and man is rent.
It’s not just a powerful moment. It is the beginning of the most meaningful time (aside from perhaps creation itself) in the history of the universe. Christ’s death and resurrection are the quintessence of our faith, as the Apostle Paul says,
“we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” (1 Cor 15:13-14)
And this moment is completed on Easter Sunday. We shout, “He is Risen!” And the response echoes, “He is risen indeed!”
We know, as we look back on it, that this horrible moment of Christ’s death leads inexorably to His resurrection. For us, the death of Christ holds only the power to bolster our faith.
And that’s the second thing I like to think about. For the disciples of Jesus Christ, both the 11 of Jesus’s closest, and the unnumbered many who go largely unnamed in the gospels, Good Friday was probably the darkest day of their lives. And, despite Jesus’s frequent allusions to his resurrection, they were not sure, like we are, that Easter is coming.
This story comes to us in the gospels, but only lightly. For us, the gap between Jesus’s death and resurrection can be counted in paragraphs, but for the disciples who watched (like John), or heard (like the rest) of Jesus’s crucifixion and death, all of their hopes were brutally crushed under an imperial boot, and all of their greatest fears, all of their secret doubts, were manifest.
We get impressions of this from characters like the disciple Thomas, who has gone down in history with the unfortunate moniker Doubting Thomas. He was so convinced of Jesus’s death that even seeing him resurrected was insufficient proof. He had to touch the holes in Jesus’s hands to be satisfied.
Consider what the disciples had given up in order to follow Jesus. As the gospels tell it, most of Jesus’s disciples immediately forsake what they have to follow him. Some left their family businesses. Some gave up traditions. Some burned bridges with their communities. All changed the course of their lives to follow Jesus.
Jesus’s arrest, public humiliation, and death would have been utterly condemning for his disciples in whatever public sphere they might find themselves in after. Not only had their hopes in Jesus the Messiah been dashed, but their futures were terribly uncertain as well. They must have felt like utter fools in those hours between His death and when He finally revealed His Resurrected body to them. A deep sadness, suicidal thoughts, profound regrets, shame. Some likely considered that Jesus had been a charlatan, like so many false “messiahs” had been before. How would they face the many “I told you so’s” they were bound to receive once they returned home. Would they even be able to go back home?
And yet, we know that this crisis of faith was not to last. Rumors of Jesus’s return would swirl. Some would seek out ways to verify this, and finally Jesus Himself would enter among them and reveal the truth.
This faith journey is exemplified in Peter the disciple. Peter’s overly brash personality, his desire to always be seen as the readiest and the most faithful, is at times both endearing and embarrassing. He fails as often as succeeds and seems blissfully ignorant of Jesus’s true message throughout most of his time following the Lord. In Jesus’s final days, Peter boasts that he would “never disown [Jesus].” (Matt 26:35) But when he’s actually confronted, by a young girl no less, Peter folds like a house of cards, and he does not attend to Jesus at the cross in his master’s final moments.
When we catch up with Peter again, he is one of the first to rush to verify the empty tomb. And in Acts the version of Peter we see is truly transformed. He becomes the leader Jesus saw in him years before. The overly brash Peter, and the terrified doubting Peter are both gone, replaced by the rock.
Good Friday is an excellent time to prepare for Easter, and it’s also an appropriate time to reflect on the ups and downs of faith. Faith is tempered through periods of over confidence and profound doubts. And, importantly, doubts aren’t some inevitable slippery slope toward apostasy. Faith in Jesus Christ is a religion of constant renewal.
It is proper to think deeply this Good Friday about the valleys of faith. And while you do, to wait patiently for the spring of Easter which brings resurrection, restoration, and new life.
For He is risen, and risen indeed.
CGGC eNews—Vol. 20, No. 14
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