My Own Loss & Good Friday

Today is Good Friday, the bleakest moment for us in the gospel story. To refresh your memory, here are the four Gospel accounts of the story.

§  Matthew 26:14-27:66

§  Mark 14:12-15:47

§  Luke 22-23

§  John 18-19

Reading the story of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion today, we have the benefit of knowing that it’s all leading up to the triumph of the Resurrection. But to the Jesus-followers present at the scene, it must have seemed that the world, as they knew it, was falling apart.

One of the challenges of reading the crucifixion story more than two thousand years ago is that it is difficult for us to empathize with its participants.

The best way to mildly experience Jesus and his crucifixion is to take time to meditate on each day leading up to his crucifixion. Read the passages repeatedly, meditate on them in silence, and pray to the Lord in a personal way. If possible, pray and dialogue with others so that you can talk about it and think of the event through different lenses.

Another way to experience to some degree the gamut of emotions the followers of Jesus went through is to think about those closest to you that you have lost.

My Story of Loss: For me, it is my father. Although I was only seven-years-old, I can practically remember everything that led up to his death. You see, my father was someone I put my hope in as a child. He was someone I trusted. Someone who I could turn to amid my pain.

I remember leaving a juvenile detention center the night that he died. My brother and I had stayed there for an extended period of time because the courts did not know where to place us kids. Finally, they decided that my brother would live with my mom and I would be sent to a Foster Home. 

When my parents found out about the arrangement, they did not want to lose me, so they got back together for my sake. It was a happy day, one that I had longed for in my young life. 

When we made it home to Fort Lewis, Washington, while my brother and I were playing with his pinball machine upstairs, my father had a heart attack and was taken by ambulance to Madigan Hospital. They were not able to revive him. He was dead. 

Later, my mom told me what had happened, and, I was in total shock and disbelief. I could not understand it, I had experienced such joy that day, knowing my family was back together.  The pendulum had swung from extreme joy to ultra-extreme grief.

I remember the next day I woke up, I had hoped it was all a bad dream. It wasn’t, it was as real as the heaviness in my heart. I had lost someone I had given my life to as a seven-year-old.

Good Friday: As I reflect on my steps of loss, I can to some degree understand how all those followers of Jesus felt. Their hope in life was gone. The person that gave them value and worth had now left the building. No doubt they were in disbelief and trying to process what happened. No doubt they woke up the next day and hoped it was a bad dream. It was not, it was as real as the intense pain in their soul.

Yet, and this is hard for many to understand, this tragic outcome had to happen for there to be hope for our tomorrow. In the end, there just was just no other way to solve the criminal problem of sin. You must remember, Jesus did not dread having to die, he had prophesied that reality on several occasions throughout his ministry. What he dreaded the most was that you and I would not be able to have that relationship with God that would guarantee your joy and peace now, and your eternity for tomorrow.

So, as you reflect on Good Friday, remember the One who valued you to such an extent that he gave his very life for you. Why would he do such a thing? Jesus did it so that you would experience life to the fullest now, and throughout all eternity tomorrow. May you find strength as you reflect on the magnitude of what happened on that Good Friday. History was changed now and forever!