The season of Lent is a time to consider Jesus’ suffering and sacrifice for our sakes. Good Friday is a day during Lent in which we reflect together on the ultimate sacrifice of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and to prepare our hearts for Easter, when we celebrate that He has risen to save us all.
Message Transcript:
Good Friday Service – 4/3/15
THE SEVEN LAST WORDS
MUSICAL PRELUDE – “Once and for All”- Whiteheart
INSTRUCTION AND PRAYER
- The last words of Christ as he was on the cross
- Scripture reading, a meditation
- responsive reading, (Leader / People)
- a candle is extinguished and a song (may or may not want to sing)
- Exit in silence
- pray
READING
53 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he took up our infirmities
and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God,
smitten by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppressiona and judgment he was taken away.
And who can speak of his descendants?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was stricken.b
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
THE FIRST WORD
“When they came to the place called “The Skull”, they nailed
Jesus to the cross there, and the two criminals, one on his
right and one on his left. Jesus said “Forgive them, Father!
They do not know what they are doing.”
“They do not know what they are doing”
They do not know? They …who killed Jesus?
Who is “they”?
It is so easy to name others
to blame others
the Romans
the crowd
Pilate, Herod, Caiaphas
they all played their part
and conspired against Jesus
or simply followed orders to maintain the peace
to keep Jesus’ kingdom from infringing on theirs.
And yet where are we when Jesus’ kingdom infringes on ours?
on our peace and our order?
on our prosperity and our security?
Where are we when the victims of our peace cry for justice?
when those disenfranchised by our order call for compassion?
when the hungry and the lonely beg us to share our prosperity
our security
our power?
Where are we when Christ is crucified among us?
Surely he should have raged
at the sinners who nailed him to the tree.
Surely he should have raged at us for the evil we do,
the evil we do both knowing and unknowing,
Yet compassion is there in the first words that he utters
He intercedes for us before the Father.
Compassion that called him into being in his mother’s womb
Compassion that compelled him to the cross
Compassion that brings incredible, unbelievable grace
Compassion that echoes through the centuries
to all who participate in the killing of Christ:
Compassion that cries out from the cross:
“Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing”
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
SONG – Jesus Messiah
THE SECOND WORD
One of the criminals hanging there threw insults at him:
“Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” The other
one, however, rebuked him, saying: “Don’t you fear God? Here
we are all under the same sentence. Ours, however, is only
right, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did;
but he has done no wrong.” And he said to Jesus, “Remember
me, Jesus, when you come as King!” Jesus said to him, “I
tell you this: Today you will be in Paradise with me.”
How much are we like the first thief?
Full of anger – because we are not rescued from our sin?
Full of hate – because we suffer because of the sins of others?
How much do we want God to snap his fingers
And make right what we have made wrong?
What we have allowed others to make wrong?
How easy it is to cry “save us”
and to rail against God
when there is no magic cure
no miraculous recovery
no legions of angels
to take away pain and bring wholeness.
How easy it is to scorn the Messiah,
to mock the goodness of the world
and condemn the light of the world
because we are unwilling to face what we . . . we have done?
Yet there is goodness
There is a cure for sin
a cure that does not promise magical solutions
but promises that the pain of sin is not the end,
that when all this is over
when the suffering is finished
that the final word is not torture and defeat
but life — life springing out of the ashes
life transformed and fulfilled in Paradise.
To the compassionate thief
To the one who could still recognize the good in the world
To the one who tried to comfort and protect that good
To the one who sought good — Comfort was given
“Today, you will be in paradise with me.”
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
SONG – Humble Thyself/Awesome God
THE THIRD WORD
Standing close to Jesus’ cross were his mother, his mother’s
sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. Jesus
saw his mother and the disciple he loved standing there; so
he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he
said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that
time the disciple took her to live in his home.
Who can grasp the grief?
the grief of Mary watching her son suffer?
the grief of Mary watching him die?
And who can grasp the grief of the son?
The son who must see his mother mourn?
What gift can a man give his mother?
What can he offer when he is gone?
How can he help her?
Hold her?
Comfort her?
Honor her?
“Woman, here is your son”
Here is one I love, to love you, and for you to love.
One who knows me
One who is my brother and who can speak of me.
One Who can hold you,
comfort you,
and honor you;
One who shares your grief
Blessed Savior,
who in your hour of greatest suffering
expressed compassion for your mother
and made arrangements for her care,
grant that we who seek to follow your example
may show our concern for the needs of others,
reaching out to provide for those
who suffer in our human family
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
SONG – Great Redeemer
THE FOURTH WORD
And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over
the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour
Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Elo-i, elo-i, lama
sabach-thani?” which means, “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me?”
Of all the agony of that tortuous day
the lacerations of the scourging
the chafing of the thorns around his head
the convulsions of his tormented, dehydrated body
as it hung in the heat all the day
Nothing reaches the depth of this anguished cry of desolation
“My God, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?”
Jesus, who found his purpose and strength in the presence of God
who was sustained by the immediacy of his relationship with God
and who endured all by the tangible power of God always at work
within him ,
always a center of vitality and peace,
found himself totally alone on the cross.
Jesus, whose very being was God,
found himself utterly,
absolutely,
despairingly,
cut off from all that gives life and breath
cut off from all that gives purpose and hope
cut off from the source of his being
cut off, even from himself
plumbing the depths of the human condition
to walk in the place of the utter absence of God,
in the place of sinners
in the place of those who reject God.
“My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”
In these words is the central mystery of the crucifixion
which cannot be fully comprehended,
that there is no despair so deep
or evil so overwhelming
or place so far removed from joy, light, and love
from the very heart of God
that God has not been before us,
and where God cannot meet us
and bring us home.
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
SONG – To Know Your Name
THE FIFTH WORD
After this Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said
(to fulfil the scripture), “I thirst.”
There is a kind of timelessness about hanging on a cross.
It is not a quiet death,
over in an instant in one glorious moment of martyrdom
like being torn apart by lions.
A cross is as much an instrument of torture
as it is a gallows from which to hang,
And as the day wears on
seconds stretch into minutes which stretch into hours
until there comes a point when time can no longer be measured
except in the gradual weakening of the body
and its ever more insistent demands
for that substance which is so vital to life
so foundational to all living things
so basic to existence as we know it: — water.
Water to moisten a parched mouth
Water to free a swollen tongue
Water to open a rasping throat that cannot gasp enough air.
Water to keep hope alive
to keep life alive just a few moments longer.
Water, to a crucified man, is life.
“O God, thou art my God, I seek thee,
my soul thirsts for thee;
my flesh faints for thee
as in a dry and weary land where no water is.”
Who can tell if these words from Psalm 63 went through Jesus mind
but a thirst for water is a thirst for life
and a thirst for life is a thirst for God
who promises streams in the desert
mighty rivers in the dry land
and living water to wash away every tear.
Here, at the end of it all those promises seem far away, –
distant.
And yet Jesus – forsaken by God
still clings to the memory and the hope of life.
“I thirst.”
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
SONG – Wondrous Cross- Carolyn and Group
THE SIXTH WORD
A bowl was there, full of cheap wine mixed with vinegar, so
a sponge was soaked in it, put on a stick of hyssop and lifted
up to his lips. When Jesus had received the wine, he said,
“It is finished”;
What a sigh of relief!
What a cry of deliverance,
that finally,
after seemingly endless pain
and gasping torment,
it is over at last.
The suffering is ended.
The ordeal is finished
and nothing remains
but the blessed peace of the absence of all sensation.
When all there is, is pain
its ceasing is the greatest blessing of all
even when its ceasing comes only with death.
But Jesus’ cry is more than just welcoming the ending of pain
it is more than joy at the deliverance death brings.
He does not merely say, “it is over”
he says, “it is accomplished,
fulfilled,
achieved”
Jesus’ cry isn’t a cry of defeat and despair
It is a cry of success and triumph
– even at the moment of death –
that the race has been run
that he has endured to the end
that the strife is over
and the battle is won.
Jesus’ cry is a cry of relief to be sure
but it is also a cry of victory:
“The work I came to do is complete”
there is nothing more to add
“it is finished”
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
SONG – Lead Me To the Cross
THE SEVENTH WORD
Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, “Father, into
thy hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he
breathed his last.
It is the end, the very end
the end of the ordeal
the end of the suffering
and Jesus
alone on the cross
tortured
exhausted
abandoned by his friends
forsaken by God
gasps for a last breath
and gathers the strength for one final cry.
Why would he choose to speak
so close to the end?
Why would he muster the last energy he had
to cry out with a loud voice?
Couldn’t God have heard his thoughts?
Unless God wasn’t the only one intended to hear.
Unless his voice was pitched loud
so that we too might hear this final dedication of his soul.
A dedication made despite the pain,
despite the mocking,
despite the agony,
despite the sense of horrible aloneness he felt.
A dedication made to God
before the resurrection,
before the victory of the kingdom,
before any assurance other than that
which faith could bring.
Jesus entrusts his spirit — his life —
and all that has given it meaning —
to God in faith,
even at the point of his own abandonment
when the good seems so very far away
he proclaims his faith in God,
the darkness cannot overcome it.
“Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit”
Leader: Lord Jesus – you gave your life for us.
People: You suffered and died that we might be made whole.
Song – Medley- Parts of – In Christ Alone/Here I Am To Worship/Amazing Love
CONCLUSION AND PRAYER
Isaiah 53: 10 -12
10 Yet it was the Lord ‘s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makesc his life a guilt offering,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
11 After the suffering of his soul,
he will see the light [of life]d and be satisfied;e
by his knowledgef my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,g
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,h
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
BENEDICTION
Depart now in peace – and may the Spirit of Christ, go with you,
may his faith and trust abide within you, and may the knowledge
of his love support you both now and forevermore, Amen.