Good Friday; A Reflection on Lament

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time with holidays where there’s a lot of pressure to feel a certain way. 

Good Friday is an invitation to grapple with the negative parts of the human experience. 

It shows that even Jesus Christ Himself wasn’t free from the rejection and brokenness of this world. It literally killed Him.

I grew up in America and I realized just how uncomfortable we are with negative emotions like sadness. In the church services in my childhood, I noticed that we had a tendency to speedrun Good Friday and get to Easter Sunday, and to a certain degree, we still do today.  However, there is no resurrection without death.

Death is uncomfortable. Especially in the West. We’ve all felt the awkwardness of delivering or receiving bad news. The not knowing of what’s deemed “appropriate” when it comes to grief. The Bible does not shy away from the fullness of our human experience and even gives the tools to express it. 

Lamentation is a spiritual practice just like worship and prayer, I’d even argue that lamentation is another facet of worship and prayer. 

God invites us to Contend with Him and be authentic with where we’re at with Him, wherever that may be, He isn’t going anywhere.

David writes in Psalm 139,

"Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

 if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."

A world corrupted by sin is broken and sad and we can’t afford to ignore it. He gives us authority to pray for brokenness to be fixed and brought into alignment with God’s character. 

In Ecclesiastes 3:1-8  it says, 

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

 a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to close;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace."

It’s not super fun to spend time with our sadness. It’s hard to move towards pain, but sometimes it’s valuable not to move away, but move towards. 

It’s difficult for us to think that Jesus died. 

That this person who was so full of love, who walked with compassion and grace and mercy and kindness, was rejected and hunted down and killed. It should weigh heavy on our souls that we’re capable of that same rejection. I think it’s important to sit in that reality from time to time. 

Being honest with God, yourself and others leads to more healthy well-adjusted spirituality. Lamentation is a release and it won’t last forever.

Our God witnessed the sacrifice of Friday with the glory of Sunday secured. We are invited to live in His faithfulness, trusting beyond the circumstances that we see now. On this Good Friday we choose to believe that there is a greater hope, stronger than anything that we can begin to understand. May we take this Friday to acknowledge the depth of the sacrifice that was made for us. May we take this Sunday and everyday thereafter to rejoice in the victory of Jesus’ defeat of death. It had no hold on Him and has none on us. 

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."- Galatians 5:1