Good Friday?

Do you personally or as a family do anything to observe Good Friday?

If so, what do you do and what does it mean to you.

Our Experience

Neither Libby or I remember doing anything special on Good Friday when we were growing up. Easter Sunday was the big celebration, complete with new clothes. It was not until we were adults that a Maundy Thursday or a Good Friday service became an important part of our life.

Personally, I was not quite sure how I was supposed to feel on Good Friday. Was I supposed to feel horrible about myself, that Christ had to die for me? Was I supposed to deprive myself of any pleasure in order to identify with the suffering of Jesus? (As if that were possible. Also, note the power of supposed to. Never a good motivation.)

“I appreciate the opportunity to get in touch with the sorrow of the day,” says Libby.

“When I do, the joy of Easter is even more powerful,” she adds.

A few things surprise me every year on Good Friday. The first is that the world doesn’t totally stop at the moment Jesus took his last breath. It didn’t then either. The second is how easily I could move through my day without giving it a thought.

I will give it a thought today by reading one or all of the crucifixion accounts in the Four Gospels. I imagine then that I will have a growing sense of gratitude. Gratitude that Death and every way it finds expression in my life and in the world has been destroyed. Even though it doesn’t look like it.

Then I will ask myself a question:
What fears, anxieties, resentments, wounds, attitudes, and ill will am I holding onto that belong dead and buried?

Marriage is a breeding ground for all of those things, which makes it a perfect place for resurrected life.