Perhaps your heart echoes mine; you too long to live your life speaking to God face to face, as a friend, like Moses (see the previous post). And yet maybe you feel overwhelmed and do not know where to begin. Take heart, we are not left to stumble in the dark. We do not have a God who lets his children loose on the world and then watches them from afar in some sort of macabre comedy, to which the only ending is death. In contrast, we have a God who entered and enters in. Who is not far away, but rather is closer than our breath.
And so we come to Easter. This is the time in the church calendar where we plummet the depths of pain, suffering and desolation of this world in which we live. And then, having dwelt in that place, we rise to the heights of joy. As our hope is hope in the promise of the life that is to come.
Today is Good Friday. Of all days in the year, this is the day I dislike the most (except for the hot cross buns). The pain, suffering and loss are dreadful to contemplate. It breaks my heart every year. Each year I wish that Jesus did not have to pay this price. I hear his cry in the garden and echo it as I long for another way, a different path. But then each year I glance down and see my own hands stained with his blood, knowing that his death was necessary. That it was his death which opened the way for us to live in relationship with the Father, in fellowship with Jesus, the Son, and to become a place where the presence of God is found, as the Holy Spirit lives in us. I know that all this is only possible because Jesus died.
But perhaps my distaste for this day has a further cause. For as I reflect on my life, I cringe, knowing that as Jesus disciple, I too must follow his path. For I hear his words calling to me,
“The disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master.”
Matthew 10:24
Again exactly six chapters later in Matthew, we find,
“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
Matthew 16:24
And so I too join Jesus in Gethsemane, no longer as a witness, not just with compassion for his suffering, but now I kneel beside him, pleading that there would be another way. This day tells me that the only path is death and I must choose it if I am to find the life that I long for.
Jesus, thank you for giving your life for us. We know we do not deserve it, we know that your blood is on our hands. And Jesus, we long for you, we want to follow in your footsteps, or at least we want to want this. Please help us to do that. Amen.
So, how about you? How do you find Good Friday? Do you hear the call of the cross? And do you have a favourite hot cross bun recipe?
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