~ Another Good Friday Resource ~

Reflections From Calvary

NIGHT IS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN

Good Friday is a time to reflect on the meaning of Christ’s crucifixion – and it is also a good opportunity to examine our relationship to Christ and to each other in the family of faith.

One of the ways we can do this is to try to imagine what might have gone through the minds of those who were closest to Jesus. There is an interesting verse in Luke's 23rd chapter where he tells the story of the crucifixion... It reads "His (Jesus’) friends had all been standing at a distance…" What an incredible thing it must have been to have stood at a distance as Jesus went through the most agonizing hours of his life!

Earlier they had fled...Peter had really ducked out -- and yet, now they all felt themselves drawn to this final scene. There he was... the center of their hopes and dreams stretched out in death's struggle. Night and darkness had truly fallen on their hopes.

As Andrew watched Jesus writhe in pain, a cold chill ran through his body....it felt like his bones were exposed to some kind of north wind.... He glances at his brother Peter standing beside him. Pain was etched on Peter's face and Andrew reached out to touch him as though to say "It's okay...It'll be okay. He knew the mental anguish which Peter had experienced since the denial....

The cross was just a foggy outline on the Jerusalem skyline in Peter's tear filled eyes. His mind was wandering -- going back.....back almost three years..

He could remember like it was yesterday when Jesus came to him and his brother...a total stranger, but just as the sun danced on the sparkling waters of the sea, this man's eyes danced with joy! When it was over… that strangest of days, they could do nothing but go with him. "Come and follow me," Jesus had said. There was a choice – sort of – but in another way there was no choice because their spirits bonded with his and everything else faded into the background.

Peter had never experienced this kind of commitment before...life had been work, sleep and drinking... He could remember how his stomach churned with excitement when Jesus spoke of the New Life – of a God who cared about and loved people no matter who they were or what they were. He could remember the feeling of complete freedom he had experienced as Jesus led them through the towns and villages talking about Good News.

Oh....and the things they shared together in this new community.... laughing by the sea side, ducking the scribes and pharisees on the Sabbath, confounding the officials... but mostly learning how to really love and care for each other....That was probably the key thing....Peter thought of... the commitment, the new found depth of loving... and his own failures...yet Jesus loved him still... what a love that was.....a love that brought all things to this....

"How could it be", he wondered, "... how could I have said 'I don'tt know the man?"'

Peter's thoughts were interrupted by a cry that pierced the air...."MY GOD, MY GOD WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?"

"Oh Lord! No!" Peter thought, "He's giving up. It's really all over – I should be there with him.... I' should never have…" He turned and looked at John, John was no better off than he was… really broken up. "Poor John" thought peter, "What a change!" John’s transformation was more thorough than any of the disciples...When they first met, John was the loudest, most belligerent, man he'd ever met....he would fly off the handle at the slightest provocation and would sneer at just the hint of emotionalism. They even called John and his brother the "Sons of Thunder!"

And now....here ; John was... drowning in his own emotion.... earlier he had spent almost the whole time of their last meal together with his head on Jesus shoulder, refusing to accept the fact that this crucifixion would really happen...

John was thinking to himself......"How could I ever have suspected that I would know such love.... I can remember countless times when I flew off the handle and Jesus would take me aside.... talk about the important things in life...I came to realize that I had wasted half of mine...

But I really thought that somehow it wouldn't have to come to this... he was the most open, joyful, and complete person I've ever known and there he is....

In the background John could hear the jeers and the sneers....

"If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. Ha! He talked about saving others and look... he can’t even save himself?"

His heart almost bursting with grief, John turned to leave... it was all over and he just couldn't stand to watch any longer... Then a cry shattered the hour and then quietly, these words. "Father, into your hands I trust my spirit."

The disciples looked at each other in desperation....then John looked at Mary... he reached out to take her in his arms. "It’s terrible," he said and broke down no longer able to hold in his feelings. But Mary looked up into his face, took his face in her hands and said, "John… night is always darkest before the dawn. There shall yet be hope."

Off in the distance one could see the cold and lifeless form of Jesus hanging in the air and then just a short distance away.... a small group huddled together, clinging to each other in the kind of sharing that rarely happens in this world.

They were a huddle of love, waiting for the dawn.