Worship at Home
Good Friday
2nd April 2021
Welcome to our Worship at Home service for Good Friday.
The whole service has been recorded so please play the videos below in turn.
Thank you to Phil, Jenny, Steve, Becky, Dave, Sheila, Margaret and Roy for your contributions to today’s worship.
Introduction
‘Were you there when they crucified my Lord?’ So asks that lovely and powerful hymn so often sung on or around Good Friday. The answer of course is that we weren’t. But in the pages of Scripture, we can read the testimony of those who were – those who experienced first-hand the grief, the horror, the pain, and the anguish of watching Jesus nailed to the cross. Today we listen again to their testimony, and we seek to get behind their words through asking what else each might have said to us about that day given the opportunity.
We share in music, prayers, readings and meditations, so that as far as possible, in imagination if not in the flesh, we can be there, confronted by the Christ who died for all, who died for us.
Prayer
Living God,
in so many ways this is the blackest of days
recalling the darkest of moments —
a day on which hearts were broken and faith tested to the limit,
a day of appalling suffering and agonising death,
a day when all hell was let loose, and love seemed overwhelmed.
Yet we can call this day ‘Good Friday ‘, for in all of that horror you were there.
In the despair, in the pain, in the humiliation, in the sorrow,
you were supremely at work, demonstrating the immensity of your love.
Living God,
as we recall those terrible yet wonderful events,
give us new insight into what you did that day,
for us and for all.
Amen
Reading: John 18:33-40
28 Jesus’ trial before Caiaphas ended in the early hours of the morning. Then he was taken to the headquarters of the Roman governor. His accusers didn’t go inside because it would defile them, and they wouldn’t be allowed to celebrate the Passover. 29 So Pilate, the governor, went out to them and asked, “What is your charge against this man?”
30 “We wouldn’t have handed him over to you if he weren’t a criminal!” they retorted.
31 “Then take him away and judge him by your own law,” Pilate told them.
“Only the Romans are permitted to execute someone,” the Jewish leaders replied. 32 (This fulfilled Jesus’ prediction about the way he would die.)
33 Then Pilate went back into his headquarters and called for Jesus to be brought to him. “Are you the king of the Jews?” he asked him.
34 Jesus replied, “Is this your own question, or did others tell you about me?”
35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate retorted. “Your own people and their leading priests brought you to me for trial. Why? What have you done?”
36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. If it were, my followers would fight to keep me from being handed over to the Jewish leaders. But my Kingdom is not of this world.”
37 Pilate said, “So you are a king?”
Jesus responded, “You say I am a king. Actually, I was born and came into the world to testify to the truth. All who love the truth recognize that what I say is true.”
38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. Then he went out again to the people and told them, “He is not guilty of any crime. 39 But you have a custom of asking me to release one prisoner each year at Passover. Would you like me to release this ‘King of the Jews’?”
40 But they shouted back, “No! Not this man. We want Barabbas!” (Barabbas was a revolutionary.)
A Meditation - What Pilate Might Have Been Thinking
He was different, I have to admit it. Not a bit like I’d expected.
I’d heard the stories, of course. Who hadn’t?
Teacher, miracle worker, Messiah.
But l just thought he’d be like all the others: a charlatan out for what he could get, or some crazy fanatic who dared imagine he could take on the might of Rome.
Give me five minutes and I’ll usually break them down.
A good flogging will see to that if all else fails.
Not this one though – I tried that,
I tried everything.
We gave him the full works and still he just stood there looking at me,
as if l was the one on trial,
as if he was the one in charge.
He was quite innocent, of course; any fool could see that.
But he wouldn’t help himself, almost like he wanted to die.
Maybe he knew it was useless, that the crowds would never let me get away with it… though why they wanted him killed beats me.
I had no choice, that’s what l keep telling myself. It was my duty.
And anyway, it was them, not me, who had the last word.
Yet I can’t help thinking l should have done more,
feeling guilty
The wife doesn’t help… nagging me about him all the time.
Does she think that I can sleep any better than her?
What would she have done in my place?
I washed my hands of him in the end, literally.
But l still feel dirty, as though it’s finally down to me.
He was different all right, but what sort of man was he?
That’s the mystery.
Reading:- John 19: 1-16
Then Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. 2 The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. 3 “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped him across the face.
4 Pilate went outside again and said to the people, “I am going to bring him out to you now, but understand clearly that I find him not guilty.” 5 Then Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. And Pilate said, “Look, here is the man!”
6 When they saw him, the leading priests and Temple guards began shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
“Take him yourselves and crucify him,” Pilate said. “I find him not guilty.”
7 The Jewish leaders replied, “By our law he ought to die because he called himself the Son of God.”
8 When Pilate heard this, he was more frightened than ever. 9 He took Jesus back into the headquarters again and asked him, “Where are you from?” But Jesus gave no answer. 10 “Why don’t you talk to me?” Pilate demanded. “Don’t you realize that I have the power to release you or crucify you?”
11 Then Jesus said, “You would have no power over me at all unless it were given to you from above. So the one who handed me over to you has the greater sin.”
12 Then Pilate tried to release him, but the Jewish leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are no ‘friend of Caesar.’ Anyone who declares himself a king is a rebel against Caesar.”
13 When they said this, Pilate brought Jesus out to them again. Then Pilate sat down on the judgment seat on the platform that is called the Stone Pavement (in Hebrew, Gabbatha). 14 It was now about noon on the day of preparation for the Passover. And Pilate said to the people, “Look, here is your king!”
15 “Away with him,” they yelled. “Away with him! Crucify him!”
“What? Crucify your king?” Pilate asked.
“We have no king but Caesar,” the leading priests shouted back.
16 Then Pilate turned Jesus over to them to be crucified.
Reading: Mark 15: 22-26, 33-34
22 And they brought Jesus to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”). 23 They offered him wine drugged with myrrh, but he refused it.
24 Then the soldiers nailed him to the cross. They divided his clothes and threw dice to decide who would get each piece. 25 It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. 26 A sign announced the charge against him. It read, “The King of the Jews.”
33 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 34 Then at three o’clock Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
A Meditation – John at the Cross
“He was groaning; a sound like I’d never heard before, a sound I never want to hear again — awful, stomach-churning, indescribable, the sound of unimaginable pain, of overwhelming sorrow, of utter isolation. And l could watch it no longer.
“I thought l was ready for it, prepared for the worst, for l knew he had to die, but I wasn’t ready, not for this; I never realised people could suffer so much, that anything could be quite so terrible.
“But l know now, and I’m telling you straight, I’d have felt sorry for anyone facing that – a robber, a mugger, even a murderer. My heart would still have bled for them.
“But to see Jesus there, a man of such gentleness and compassion, a man who had always loved and never hated, a man who had brought healing to the sick and wholeness to the broken, it all but finished me.
“What had he done to deserve this?!
“I prayed that God would finish it, put him out of his misery, but still the torment continued. Still, they mocked him, delighting in his pain.
“I knew he was suffering, but even then didn’t realise how much, not until he lifted his head and l saw the despair in his eyes, not until he spoke, and I heard the wretchedness in his voice:
‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
“Then I realised, and my blood ran cold.
He felt alone, totally alone, abandoned by everyone he’d loved and trusted, even by God himself.
He could cope with the rest – he’d even expected it… but God? It was the final torture, the ultimate agony, a pain beyond words.
“He was groaning, a sound like I’d never heard before, a sound which suddenly l understood, and a sound l could listen to no longer…
pause to reflect
Reading:- John 19:25-27
25 Standing near the cross were Jesus’ mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary (the wife of Clopas), and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother standing there beside the disciple he loved, he said to her, “Dear woman, here is your son.” 27 And he said to this disciple, “Here is your mother.”
And from then on this disciple took her into his home.
A Meditation – Mary, Jesus’ mother
He was thinking of me, even then, I couldn’t believe it – despite everything he was going through, the awful, stomach-churning agony which seemed to pierce my very soul, he was concerned more about my welfare than his.
Yet I shouldn’t have been surprised — it was so like Jesus, the way he’d been from a boy, always putting others before himself. I’d dared to hope that just this once it would be different, that for the first time in his life he’d look after number one. Why not? Would it have been so wrong?
He’d given enough already, hadn’t he?
Scarcely a moment to himself, the crowds always with him, clamouring, calling, pleading, demanding — enough to break any lesser man.
I saw him so many times just about all in, drained to the point of exhaustion, and I can’t tell you how much it troubled me, to see my wonderful lad pouring himself out in a constant act of sacrifice, pushing himself to the very limit.
But it was useless to argue – I tried it sometimes and he simply smiled at me in that gentle way of his, knowing l understood full well that there was no other way.
He was right, I knew that, and l knew equally there was no way he’d come down from that cross, but l could still hope, couldn’t I, still pray I might be wrong?
He was thinking of others even then, not only me, but a common thief hanging there beside him, my fellow-women, sobbing their hearts out, even those who’d hounded him to his death — thinking, in fact, of everyone except himself…
Reading:- Luke 23: 44-49
44 By this time it was about noon, and darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 45 The light from the sun was gone. And suddenly, the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn down the middle. 46 Then Jesus shouted, “Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!” And with those words he breathed his last.
47 When the Roman officer overseeing the execution saw what had happened, he worshiped God and said, “Surely this man was innocent.” 48 And when all the crowd that came to see the crucifixion saw what had happened, they went home in deep sorrow. 49 But Jesus’ friends, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance watching…
A Meditation – The Centurion at the foot of the cross
It was dark… so very, very dark. Like the dead of night. As black as sin.
Nothing strange in that, of course… except that it was noon,
the sun having blazed out of a cloudless sky just a moment before!
It was simply another day, up until then, the usual routine executions to get through, and we watched impassively as the latest batch of ne’er-do-wells had suffered in the heat, crying out for water as they squirmed and writhed in agony.
Did I feel anything for them?
Not a thing – you get used to the screams after a time.
But there was something about one of them this time which couldn’t help but catch my attention, for there was a calmness about him, even – you might say – an air of authority, which left me flabbergasted,
unable to believe quite what l was seeing.
He was in a terrible state,
his back an ugly mass of lacerations where the whip had bitten into him,
and blood oozing from his head, his hands, his feet;
yet some, it seemed, felt even then he hadn’t endured enough.
They mocked, insulted, rebuked, tormented him,
enough to make any ordinary man return their curses,
yet – can you believe this – I heard him with my own ears cry out,
asking God to forgive them… Amazing!
And when he died, it was more uncanny still, for I’d swear that as he drew his final breath there was a look of triumph in his eyes,
for all the world as though he believed that ghastly death of his had some meaning, some hidden purpose…
heaven knows what that could have been!
Yet it was the darkness which got to me most,
the way, without warning, literally out of the blue, the skies closed in as he hung there, and a cold and eerie hush seemed to cover the world.
Coincidence, some called it, but not me;
l saw enough to convince me that this man was special,
innocent, without question,
almost, you might say, the Son of God.
it’s not like me to say that, for I’m not a sentimental type – no time usually for all that nonsense —
but as I watched the man suffer, and when I saw him finally die,
it was then that the light went out for me,
the world suddenly more black than it had ever seemed before.
It was dark, so very, very dark.
Final Thought…
As we’ve revisited all these events for Good Friday, it really is quite beyond our understanding how our loving God could sanction such a thing, let alone plan it all before the beginning of Creation, even time itself… but that’s what he did.
And all this raises important questions that need wrestling through… but not now. Today we pause to marvel, with great sadness that all this should be necessary for our sakes; but most of all to worship, recognising that even though they knew what would happen, what it would cost Jesus… the God-head, Father, Son & Spirit together, chose to give us life, decided they were willing to do what it took to rescue us when we blew it… and to love us for all eternity.
And even as Jesus dies, the signs of hope begin to appear: the earth shakes, the centurion confesses Jesus as Son of God, and the dead are already rising from the tombs!! ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.’
Bring on Easter Day!
But let’s not hurry on too quickly from these events of Friday and the deepest, most astonishing expression of heavenly love in Jesus giving himself for me… and for you.
Let us pray…
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ,
there are no words sufficient
to express the wonder of your love,
no deeds sufficient
to express the enormity of our gratitude,
but we come asking
that you will receive our worship,
our faith and our lives
as a token of our thanksgiving,
and as a sign of our love for you.
Lord Jesus Christ,
receive this day our heartfelt praise,
and use us to your glory, for your name’s sake.
The Lord’s Prayer…
Silence
Bible Readings from The New Living Translation
Meditations and prayers from:
“No Ordinary Man” by Nick Fawcett (Kevin Mayhew Ltd: 1997) and
“No Ordinary Man 2” by Nick Fawcett (Kevin Mayhew Ltd: 2000)