The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Good Friday

3-30-18 Good Friday

This is the brief meditation before experiencing "The Sights, Sounds, and Smells of Good Friday."

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts by acceptable in your sight, O Christ our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Tonight, things will go a little bit differently than you might have experienced before.

The story hasn’t changed. Last night was Maundy Thursday, when Jesus broke bread with his disciples in his last meal before his death… men who would later betray, deny, and abandon him. Jesus broke bread, and shared a cup of wine with them, creating our sacrament of holy communion. In the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed in agitation and dread of this very day. His closest friends could not keep awake with him, and later deserted him altogether. His betrayer, Judas, is about to hand him over to religious leaders who sought his death. These chief priests and scribes, in turn, will him over to their Roman oppressors, who in the end were all too willing to put him on a cross.

From that cross, in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus calls out from the beginning of Psalm 22, which we read together just a moment ago. “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Last night the altar was stripped and laid bare, just as Jesus was stripped of all support and comfort. Jesus was left to face death alone. Here was a man, abandoned by his closest friends, abandoned by the rule of law, abandoned even by his God.

That is why we call this day “Good Friday.” Today was not good for Jesus. But it was good for the whole world…. good even for the disciples who ran away and are hiding. Good even for Peter who denied Jesus. Good for the women, who stood near the cross and later stood outside the tomb in hopelessness, waiting for a Sunday they didn’t yet know was coming. Good for us, gathered here tonight, as we enter the story in a new way.

The details are part of the same account we remember every year. This time, however, we will take the time to examine each part of description of Jesus’s suffering and death. We will enter the story will all of our senses – last night we tasted the bread and wine. Tonight, we hear, see, smell, and touch. Because this isn’t just a record of something that happened a long time ago. This is a story that we are a part of too. This is a story that still means something to us, two thousand years after it happened. It is a story to take home with you, just as you will be taking items home with you - to keep in mind that Good Friday is more than just remembering how much Jesus suffered before he died. It’s about all the ways that we get to share in the story too.

We begin the account of Good Friday from John’s Gospel, just after Jesus and his disciples have finished sharing the Passover meal. There will be lots of times for silence and reflection… which may be uncomfortable at times. And that’s ok. And we will be leaving here tonight in silence as well, because our service of the holiest three days of the year isn’t over. Though, this night Jesus is in the tomb, he does not stay there. Sunday is coming. And so is the dawn. Amen.

Some of the items that people took home with
them.