Were you there? Reflections on Good Friday

Today is Good Friday, the bleakest event in the Gospels. 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 Easter. But to the Jesus-followers present at the scene, it must have seemed that the world as they knew it was falling apart.

If you haven’t read the complete story of the crucifixion recently, today’s a perfect day to revisit it. The Gospel of Luke’s account of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion tells the full story. As you read, consider these questions:

  • Jesus several times predicted not only his death, but his resurrection. Why do you think his disciples failed to understand him? When Luke records that Jesus’ “meaning was hidden from them,” does that refer to a simple failure to comprehend, or was God deliberately keeping the meaning from them?
  • What do you think was going through the disciples’ minds as the evening unfolded? What would you have been thinking if you had been there?
  • Can you think of anything that would explain the Jerusalem crowd’s abrupt shift in attitude over the course of Easter week? Just a few days earlier they had praised Jesus and welcome him like a king, but days later “they kept shouting, “Crucify him! Crucify him!”
  • What would have happened to the early church if Jesus had not been raised from the dead? Would there even be a church?
  • One of the challenges of reading the crucifixion story two thousands years after the event took place is that it’s difficult for us to empathize with its participants. From our perspective, the Easter crowds seem insanely fickle; Jesus’ disciples seem utterly clueless; the members of the Sandhedrin contemptibly evil; Pilate laughably corrupt.

    Those things are true. Nobody except Jesus behaves well in the Good Friday story. But it’s these very people—fickle, clueless, evil, corrupt—that Jesus died for.

    The truth is that we have much in common with the fools and villains of Easter. The wonder is that Jesus loved them, and us, enough to submit to foolishness, injustice, and death. The miracle is that three days later, he rose from the dead to offer us salvation. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

    3 Responses to “Were you there? Reflections on Good Friday”

    • Kelly says:

      That is well put, and thank you i am going to follow the link to read and ponder the questions. I really like the website. The question arose and why i wound up here, i was searching for the answer:
      “will we remember this earth and our lives when we go to heaven?” A friend asked me, and i told him we have a loving God so i do believe we will recognize eachother, but i’m not sure if we’ll remember our lives here on earth, do you know?

      Sister in Christ,
      Kelly
      Please wb
      katsmeo@gmail.com Thank you! 😀

    • Fabrizio says:

      Here is a temptative answer to your 1st question. In 1Co 2:14, the Gods words are declared as being crazyness to someone doesn’t have faith. In Gal 3:23 Paul says that the people were blind to the Christian faith before it was given by Jesus. I can imagine that Christian faith includes all that was said by Jesus himself, so it leads to the possibility that, by that time, people were unable to understand Jesus words without really having Christian faith. Perhaps the apostoles were really lacking a true faith, yet, so that they could not understand what Jesus said. And then, I have to remember that all the gospels were writen only too many years after the events they narrated. Perhaps not until they could really understand…

    • Fabrizio says:

      Your 2nd question is of difficult answer. Saturday was a very holly day for Jews and the gospels didn’t say anything about this day. In the Old Testament, prophecies such as Amos 8:8-13 predicted for THAT DAY earth tremors, darkness and crying instead of chants. This make us think that such Saturday was an extremely hard day for the disciples, as it’d be if you breaks the day finding your family entirely destroyed. When such circumstances arrived, they had Jesus to comfort themselves, but no more. And it was the day before their greatest party, the day God freed them from Egypt! It’d be a terrible day if on that day you’d find yourself without God.