Scripture Reflections for Good Friday of the Lord’s Passion
Year B, Lectionary 40
As Jesus hanged on the cross we are meant to meditate on this event. On how we contribute to his crucifixion with our actions of hate and with our failure to act for justice. On how God willingly came to serve us all the way to the cross, all the while offering love and forgiveness. We all journey to the cross with Jesus but we can either be condemning him, preoccupied with his possessions, or at the side of the cross with him.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Accompany • Adam • Care • Community • Conciliation • Contemplate • Control • Covenant • Creation • Cross • Death • Disciple • Economy • Eve • Faith • Fear • Follow • Forgive • Guilt • Healing • Helpless • Holy Spirit • Hope • Journey • Joy • Justice • Kingdom • Lamb • Light • Love • Memory • Mercy • Naked • Nonviolence • Passion • Peace • Prayer • Priest • Prophecy • Racism • Reconciliation • Repent • Resurrection • Sacrifice • Salvation • Silence • Simon of Cyrene • Sin • Suffering • Temple • Truth • Water • Wisdom • Witness • Worth •
“He is looking for those who are going to stop and lend their hearts, their souls, the whole of their being to the project at hand which is to bring healing to the whole human race”
“if Jesus' body is the temple and the side of his body from which the blood and water flows point us to the side of the temple mount, then where is the altar? Right? Well, the altar then would be his sacred heart.”
“he says 'come to me. Come to me naked and unashamed. Come to me completely as you are because you were made in my image. And you are mine and I love you.”
“one of the signs we may need to look to is 'words may be great but silence is golden'”
“if you want this Church to be around long after I'm gone, he's gone, you're gone, we got to show that love for each other and build up this faith family”
“the greek word 'basileia' usually translated as 'kingdom' does not refer to a particular geographical or political entity that we could locate on a map...it is rather an authority under which people live”
“many experienced thirst, hunger and lack of basic needs but knowing that we were persecuted because of our belief gave us power and hope in the Cross”
“In Jesus Christ, God invites us to join in his mission of love by standing close to those in pain and suffering. By bearing with them their silent cries, their cross, their darkness and by joining in their fight against injustice and abuse”
“Who among us hasn't needed a friend to wipe our faces clean of the blood and the sweat and the tears that we sometimes shed?”
“And when our standard is built upon mercy, is built upon grace, gold can run out, mercy cannot. Dollars can be burnt away but grace is eternal.”
“Good Friday is clearly about deep, faithful, steadfast, merciful love. Jesus shows us how to love. To love like God. Jesus' whole life and ministry and death show us how to love. The question is what do we do with so great a love?”
“That's the message of the day for us. To stand as the women stood and to speak as Joseph of Arimathea spoke”
“The Son of God in all his glory came all the way down into our humiliation, into our physical suffering, into our fear of death...so that now we know even in our worst fears that we are accompanied by the divine love”
“Love is a very scary thing, people of God. It opens you and I up. It heals. It breaks down the toughest barrier. It's something that always is a balm, not a bomb, but a balm. We can rub into any situation that is impossible. It helps us to find perspective and healing”
“Don't domesticate the cross. Don't turn the cross into a harmless pious religious symbol but let it display itself in all of its judging and taunting and finally liberating power”
“If the cross means all the negativity we can imagine, it means the limit of suffering, it means the limit of sin, it means all of human dysfunction, Jesus took that on and then broke its power”
“The ruler of this world has been vanquished and Jesus the sacrificial Lamb of God has won this victory on the cross. He has taken away the sin of the world.”
“He resisted the dehumanization of this system by recognizing each person as being made in the image and likeness of his beloved Abba and he acted accordingly. For him, this was God’s law written on his heart and his life testified to this truth.”
“our God speaks through the silence. Did you notice how many times in St. John’s Passion that Jesus was silent before his accusers?”
“Were you there when love costs everything? What is the cost of true love? A question asked on this Good Friday. What is genuine 'no holds barred' passion?”
“through our sin we were there. Through our love for God we were there. Yes, even through our ongoing connection as the body of Christ we were there when they crucified our Lord.”
“Good Friday reminds us that Jesus' life exemplified just actions and the love for everyone especially the least of these”
“I walk in the promise that by his stripes we are healed. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so for we are truly not just a Good Friday people. We are Easter redeemed people.”
“Isaiah's imagery holds us because the Servant's suffering is our suffering too. In it we can feel seen, validated, embraced by this key text of salvation history”
"we're not immune to tragic events or to illness or to anything. We just have a different, I guess, we just have a different way of approaching it and that's through the lens of faith."
In the latest episode of the 1 Christian 1 Topic Podcast "Faith Amidst Tragedy," we have a conversation with Liz on faith, suffering, and prayer. More