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Good Friday
Friday 3rd April 2015 @ 9:23 pm
My Good Friday reflection this year …
I have a friend in Australia – she has had, what, by any standards has been a bad year. There is no need for details, but suffice to say, the pain of loss and separation and sacrifice and hopes dashed have all been her traveling companions for much of the last year.
At one point, after some email contact, during which I was simply assuring her of my thoughts & prayers during these months, she simply and warmly replied, “its so hard, and yet I wouldnt want to be anywhere else! I want to believe in the God you pray to – he sounds ever so receptive and peaceful …”
Her struggles continued – her care of the sick continued – her darkness continued … then a few months later, I received another email, which I have permission to share, where she wrote the following …
So today while I was despairing that my patient hasn’t eaten for 36hrs and can barely move and feeling very very desperate and alone
I was leaning my kitchen bench which is granite and very reflective. From behind me the sun which believe it or not has not shone through the storm clouds for several days (I am running out clothes and sheets for my brother – as I cant wash), the sun came through my window. It touched through the trees from behind me and touched my left arm and sparkled on my bench. It felt like the fingers of God reminding me He was there with me. While I was in a dark and desperate hour and no–one else could be here – He was. The sun ray only lasted for 30sec – it was amazing
What my friend experienced, was a glimpse of life & light, in the midst of darkness and loss.
You, probably, don’t have to go too far to empathise with at least one side of that equation … you, probably, have experienced loss, disappointment, heartache and sadness, you probably do know what is like to lose people close to you … and you know there is nothing quite like it.
There is nothing quite like today. Like Good Friday. A day when the Christian faith remembers words of absolute abandonment
““Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani’ … God, God, why? Why have you forsaken me.”
Theologically, it’s an incredible statement … and people will preach about all around the world today. The pain of sacrifice – the absolute lowering of God in Christ to human punishment, the incredible nature of divine life voluntarily laid down … it is in many ways too incredible to contemplate.
But more than that – all the theological books and writings in the world, mean hardly anything when the pain of abandonment and loss is yours. When you have been mistreated, misrepresented, misunderstood, considered and failure or a loser or somehow less than the beautiful creation of God that you are. In those moments, the audacity of clever theological frameworks means nothing … but … maybe, just maybe, the suffering of God can mean something. For, of everything else of which today speaks. It speaks “You, are not alone” … the one who became absolutely abandoned, did so, so that you may know, God does understand. You, are, not, alone …
And now, maybe, just maybe … today, you can in the midst of the darkness that is Good Friday remember, that not far off is a shaft of light coming through the kitchen window … unexpected, but welcomed, and life–giving.
But – one final thing – don’t jump too soon. We know Sunday’s a coming – we know that light & life will call all things unto itself, we know that ‘all will be well and all will be well and all manner of things shall be well” … but, we cannot get to Sunday without going through today … to do so is to miss the full story and to miss half the experience of simply being human …
but here’s the thing … the pain, and loneliness and agony and grief of separation and loss which looms heavy on this day … these things lead to the dawn of new life, when we celebrate on Sunday. We know, we know, that this, the things of this day, are not the end. This, today, this is not the end. So stay a while. Embrace, even, something of the loss and the grief, experience something of the depths of divine abandonment and human experience … for in that place of cruel injustice – a whole new thing is about to stir …
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