The Good Friday Road

 

1 Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble,

tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

                                  Voices United 144

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If any wish to come after me, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 

For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Matthew 16:24-25 NRSVue

This is so weird to not be in worship this Good Friday, although we all begrudgingly became accustomed to weird during the pandemic. So many "high and holy days" became online experiences or were cancelled altogether during those three years.

I'm not sure that I consider our trip to Israel as a pilgrimage given that there is nothing particularly arduous about it, other than a lengthy plane ride. I don't take the term pilgrimage lightly. Still, we do hope that this will be a time to reflect on our faith in Jesus, Crucified and Risen, in a unique way. 

I wish I knew where the bold and contemporary cross pictured above is situated and the name of the artist who created it. For me it is a powerful statement that the way of the cross is not always straightforward and that Jesus' own journey to Golgotha wasn't either. Good Friday is a day of deep gratitude for Christ's sacrificial love in the real world in which he lived and we live today. 

May the Christ who walks on wounded feet

walk with you on the road.

May the Christ who serves with wounded hands

stretch out your hands to serve.

May the Christ who loves with a wounded heart

open your hearts to love.

May you see the face of Christ in everyone you meet,

and may everyone you meet

see the face of Christ in you.

I will offer a few more posts as our time away begins. Who knows, I may find a way to "blog on the go". If not, I'll be back!