A Personal Reflection on Good Friday from one of our Team Members:

Good Friday is here, and it is here to make us uncomfortable

Why do I say that Good Friday makes us uncomfortable? Because everywhere I turn I read (and even sent texts myself) that proclaim, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin’!”

During the Passover meal Jesus had with His disciples in the Upper Room, I don’t see Him rush through it, ‘to get to Sunday’. Instead, I see an explanation of what was to come, and the commanded words in Luke 22:19: “do this in remembrance of me”.  

I sit with those words today, let the reality of death set in. I hear the whips of the strips bruise His flesh, and the strips of leather break His flesh. And I cry tears of grief and sadness. Then, I dare to stay in this place of grief and remembrance for a while.

With the unexpected and sudden loss of my father, these type of seasons carry a lot of pain. It was our favorite holiday to celebrate as a family. I feel the urge and the desire to rush through to Sunday. I want the Resurrection, and I want it NOW! 

But there’s silence that shrouds the air on the Shabbat between death and resurrection.

Good Friday to Sunday Resurrection 

I recently watched The Passion of the Christ. I’ve seen it before, and I swore I would never see it again. I told myself I didn’t need to see that again. I didn’t need to hear those sounds again. And I didn’t need to go ‘there’ again…to that place of death.

But don’t I? Don’t you? Don’t we?

That rush to get to Sunday resembles the current state of our society, how we tend to hurry through grief. We don’t “feel all the feels” because it’s just too painful. 

Often, we hurry the process, when even in death Jesus didn’t. 

We talk about the cross, and the empty grave, but for the most part we leave that Friday and Saturday in the realm of declared unimportance. The truth is, “unimportance” translates to numbness, denial, anger… The feelings about grief we don’t want to experience. 

It is easy to tell ourselves that we don’t have time to deal with those feelings in the moment, and that we’ll come back to them later… but we never do. And besides, why deal with the pain and the void of a “Saturday” when it’s all about heaven and the joy of “Sunday”, right?

Well, I would dare say, no it’s not. 

It’s about God.

And He, too, is the Designer of the process. And that process involves grief, silence, and sitting in those dark places that leave us wondering: What’s going to happen next? What do we do with ourselves now? Where is our hope? Do we have any faith left? Why is God silent?

In the midst of our pain & suffering, God meets us there. 

Both of my parents died on a Friday. When I lost my dad more recently, I asked God to reframe Fridays for me. He showed me that they both entered His eternal Shabbat (Sabbath) on a holy day. I realized that is what Jesus did, too. He paved the way for us to enjoy that rest forever. What a gift!

So, yes, I recognize the goodness of Friday every week, as well as this particular one, called Good Friday. It precedes Resurrection Day.

It truly is the hope of heaven that sustains every believer to make it from Friday to Sunday.

I just hope that the grief of Saturday, the time in between, isn’t lost in celebration, but remembered with integrity.

It’s Good Friday, and Sunday’s comin’… And so is Saturday.

Have you ever wondered how Israel, Passover, and the Resurrection are connected?

Discover why they bless the heart of God and reveal a mosaic of His faithfulness in this 30-day Bible Reading Plan.