Meditation for Good Friday Vespers

Upside Down yet Rightside Up: Good Friday
by Rev. Lance Armstrong O’Donnell, Pastor
St. Philip Lutheran Church and School
Chicago, Illinois

Good Friday
2 April, A.D. 2010
Isa 52.13-53.12; Heb 4.14-16, 5.2-9; Jn 19.17-30

By the time Jesus got to the cross He was “marred almost beyond all recognition.” He had been brutally beaten and wore a crown of thorns that gouged his skull, leaving the kind of marks that make one cringe;  He “had no form or majesty that we would look at him”; He was “as one from whom men hide their faces.” (Isa 53.2,3) Indeed, to read the “suffering servant” passages in Isaiah is to be astounded by their predictive veracity, and to ask some logical questions:

How, for so many centuries, did the religious leaders of Israel come to ignore the powerful prophecy of Isaiah? How were the people so ill-prepared for what God had so clearly spoken?

The answer strikes powerfully close to home, and--again--the predictive veracity of Isaiah is stunning: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa 53.6)

This is what makes Jesus’ “first word” so powerful, for Luke tells us something that neither John nor the others record. At Golgotha--the place of the skull--where Jesus’ own skull throbbed because of the piercing thorns, where His flesh hung from His body, they put Him to the most excruciating and cursed form of death. There, appropriately centered between two criminals and marred beyond recognition, was the Word who said, “Let there be light”; the One who breathed the breath of life into Adam. He was the second--and greater--Adam, the great and final high priest doing the work which only this priest could do. His “first word” is, fittingly, an intercession: “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23.34)

How true that was. And how true that is.

For we who are gathered here dare not let this Word pass as merely an historical remembrance. These are the Words of Jesus. They are, therefore, Living Water that wells up to eternal life. They are words for us, too, like the Word of God through Isaiah was--and is--for us: “We all like sheep have gone astray...”

Yes, on this truly “Good” Friday it is well for us to remember that Jesus’ “first Word” is for us, too. Most often we do not know what we do. We hurt one another, especially those whom we love, with our words and deeds. Often it is the subtle things that hurt the most: the rolling of the eyes, the change in tone, the turning away when love would have us face one another.

Yes, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” is for us, and whereas we in word and deed betray Him, on this Good Friday we see the God-Man whose Word and Deed are without fail. Behold!

" Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." (Hebrews 4:14-16, ESV)