Good Friday Reflection

Holy week is a mixture of emotions.

Following the jubilation of Palm Sunday, where Jesus rode through the crowds as they chanted Hosanna, the disciples could be forgiven for feeling unstoppable.

So I’m sure there was some confusion when, within days, Jesus began to talk about death as if it was imminent, “You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” Coupled with pronouncements of betrayal: “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me”.

Then the Garden of Gethsemane, perhaps at this point, the disciples were feeling a bit less concerned, comforted still from the celebrations of the previous week, determined that their friend and master wasn’t going to die. So much so, in the peace of the garden, as Jesus wept and prayed, they dozed.

The next few hours must have been chaotic. Fighting and arrests, doubting and lies. Watching the man they had followed for three years be whipped, chained, trialled. The surge of hope that maybe, this crowd, who had so willingly accepted Jesus just a few days ago, would remember and let him go free. Watching as he was mocked and hung to a cross. Listening as he cried out.

And then silence. An enduring silence.

Grief is a strange thing. The world carries on around you, and yet you’re stuck. Mary, mother of Jesus was probably weeping, clinging to a disciple for support. Joseph of Arimathea was offering to bury the body in his private tomb. The world has not stopped. But for the disciples, it must have felt like it.

Silence. An enduring silence.

A silence that engulfs everything, makes them forget what Jesus promised before he died.

And yet, into that mix of emotions. There breaks hope. Sunday is coming, and on it, the Son of Man will rise again, like he said he would.

And in the hope of the resurrection is the hope for new life and a defeating of the silence of death.

Silence. The silence has been defeated.

For those who are grieving today, we pray for peace, comfort and hope.