Good Friday The Passion of the Christ

If I look back far enough I remember the first time that I 'got' Good Friday. I was 7.

I watched some movie about the life of Jesus at a theater. I don't know know which one it was. I have researched but haven't found the answer. It could have been the 1979 version of the Jesus movie that was updated in 1989.

But it was 1979. Movies were not so easily watched then. It was the days before digital download, itunes, DVDS, and even before VHS, if anyone still remembers that. I know the VHS was invented but it had not become household, at least not for families like mine who had little cash to spare. We had a black & white TV with a large antenna.

I had been to church that morning.

But seeing the crucifixion on the screen...it was nothing like the Passion of the Christ. It was rated PG. There was not that much blood. But I could not believe anyone would do that to my Jesus. Lumps in my throat. Agony. I cried. I shut my eyes. I decided I could not bear to watch something like that again.

Fast forward to 2004. Everyone is raging about the Passion of the Christ. All the staff at my church went to see it the night it came out: Ash Wednesday. I avoided it like the plague.

But I am a Bible professor and of course all my students began questioning me about it. So I went to watch it. Alone.

I was not alone in the theater but the experience itself was surreal. There was a group of women in front of me: about 20 of all ages that cried like the women following Jesus in the film.

The group behind me was eating popcorn, drinking Cokes and even making inappropriate comments.

I sat alone, shaking. Wondering how anyone could eat and watch something so gory at the same time. This is not just a normal movie for your entertainment! I wanted to shriek at them.

About the time they crammed the crown of thorns on his head, I left. I couldn't take it anymore.

There is no way anyone could have survived that loss of blood as long as it took. They went overboard. I understand why. but I can't watch.

Good Friday: Reflections on the Stations of the Cross. Station 4.

They are not going to be in order. That's just me. Today I was thinking about Jesus meeting his mother on the via dolorosa.

Station 4 Jesus meets his mother

Jesus meets Mary, his mother. She looks into his eyes. How can she bear this burden of pain? She remembers the prophecy of Simeon who said ‘A sword will pierce your heart.’ The sword has pierced. She feels the pain of the twist. If she could bear this burden for him she would. But she knows it is his. She says nothing, but he knows her love.

O Lord, sometimes it hurts worse when I see the pain in the eyes of others than when I feel it myself. May I never purposely cause pain for those I love and may I always have someone who loves me to look in my eyes and share my pain when I travel in anguish. 

Wednesday of Holy Week. Jesus was bullied.

An educational website aimed at kids defines bullying in the following ways:
"Punching, shoving, and other acts that hurt people physically.
 Spreading bad rumors about people.Teasing people in a mean way.
Getting certain people to "gang up" on others."

I found this to be a description of the way Jesus was treated during Holy Week.

Luke 22:63-65 "The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, 'Prophesy! Who hit you?' And they said many other insulting things to him." (Punching, shoving, and other acts that hurt people physically. Teasing people in a mean way)


Luke 23:1 Then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate.  And they began to accuse him, saying, "We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ, a king."  (Spreading bad rumors about people. Getting certain people to "gang up" on others)

What does it say to us that our Lord and Savior was bullied?

Tuesday of Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9

Songs of the Suffering Servant echo across the ages, through dark times and light, through hope and despair, we hear the sound of the Servant.

It is Tuesday. In two days he will eat the Supper. In three days he will die. In four days he will descend. In five days...well, we don't know that yet, do we?

Let us wait. Let us ponder the suffering of not only Jesus, but all of those who suffer in Jesus' name.

Monday Holy Week Isaiah 42:1-9

"I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness." Isaiah 42:6-7

Everything for which we hope has come to pass in Jesus Christ. Yet now we ponder, we hope, we wish he would be the powerful warrior prince. Monday. All our hopes are tied up in one Man. But the chief priests and scribes seek to kill him. What will Jesus do? Will He show them He is God?

Holy Week is coming

Sorrowful anticipation for Good Friday
Happy anticipation for Easter
Holy Week is coming. Let us remember his Passion.

When I started observing Holy Week as an adult, I couldn't believe the meaning it put into the events of Jesus' last days for me. As I child of 7  I watched a movie about Jesus (can't remember which one) and remember I almost vomited when the whipped and killed him. It wasn't even at the level the "Passion of the Christ."   A teacher of mine read us The Day Christ Died once. I shook the entire time. I don't advise reading that book to children. I know we can't be shielded from the horror of the event. Over the years I have tried to push the feelings down. I avoided Good Friday services and any visual that had to do with the crucifixion. Now I believe  it is best to embrace the feelings of horror. It WAS the worst thing humanity could ever do. It was obscene and horrific and violent and gory. I tried to watch the "Passion of the Christ" when it came out in theaters. My students were asking about it. I felt I owed it to them. I went by myself. I sat behind a group of people that were laughing and joking and eating popcorn. I sat in front of a group who were loudly sobbing. I sat alone. I couldn't cry, the pain was too deep. Finally when they shoved the crowns into his scalp I left. I shook all the way home. I confessed to my class I couldn't get through it. I have never managed to finish it.

Tuesday Holy Week Year A B C Isaiah 49:1-7, Psalm 71:1-14, I Corinthians 1:18-31, John 12:20-36

The Light to the nations for the salvation of the earth hanging on an execution stake beaten and bloody?
Foolishness to the wise and wisdom to the foolish?

Holy Week holds a basketful of parodoxes that we often overlook.

We get caught up in the beauty of Easter and forget the pain of Good Friday.
While shopping for Easter finery we overlook the homeless on the street corner with the sign that says, "Will work for food."

The cross is foolishness. A stumbling block/scandalon. We trip over it or we don't believe...
We find it in the path on the way through life. We can't believe a God would become human and allow himself to be killed by us. But he did.

May this Holy Week find you stumbling over the cross. You can't go around it.

Monday of Holy Week Year A B C Psalm 36:5-11, Isaiah 42:1-9, John 12:1-11, Hebrews 9:11-15

“There is no single action that can be claimed as the exclusive embodiment of Christ in the world. Perhaps Christ becomes flesh in our world in a variety of ways as long as there are people who make themselves available to God for that purpose.” Jirair Tashjian at http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Clent5nt.html.

In John 12, Mary anoints the feet of Jesus with $12,000 worth of perfume. Judas Iscariot accuses her of wasting money that could have been given to the poor. Jesus affirms Mary’s gift to him instead of agreeing with Judas.

Being available for Jesus’ work is never boring, and usually we find he leads in ways we never imagined possible.