Good Friday: Golgotha

As I enter this time of prayer, I repeat the words of Psalm 31:2 and 5, speaking slowly, several times, making them my prayer to God:

‘Turn your ear to me, come quickly to my rescue;

be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

Into your hands I commit my spirit;

deliver me, LORD, my faithful God.’

Pause and repeat

Pause to read the passage: Ps. 22:1–2

This psalm, quoted by Jesus on the cross, articulates for all of us the despair of God’s silence and the terror of feeling abandoned in our hour of gravest need. It reassures us that we are not alone in our suffering, that it’s okay to be honest in our questioning, and that Jesus understands our pain. But there’s something else here: when Jesus quoted this psalm, He knew that it opens with a cry of despair but concludes with a cry of victory: ‘All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD … They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!’ (vv. 27, 31). The similarity between these last four words, ‘He has done it!’, and Christ’s last three words, ‘It is finished,’ are striking. Perhaps even here, in the agony of the cross, Jesus knew that something new was being born.

Christ’s cry, ‘It is finished,’ is both desperate and triumphant. It tells me that suffering will come to an end, that my prayers will not always remain unanswered, that Holy Saturday will eventually, inevitably give way to Easter Day. Where are the hidden hints of such a hope, the promises of God’s purpose, within the darkness of my current situation?

Pause and reflect

I take time now to thank the Father that through Jesus’ abandonment on the cross, I need never be abandoned, and that through His death, I can have eternal life.

Pause and pray

As I bring this time with God to a close, I pray the words of the Agnus Dei (John 1:29):

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.

Amen.