Lectionary thoughts for Good Friday

This, very mixed, collection of ideas are the result of looking at the Lectionary readings and noting the thoughts that 'popped' into my mind. I have, very deliberately, not tried to 'polish' them in any way, mainly because I lack the finesse necessary.

Year A

Good Friday (ABC)
Isaiah 52: 13 - 53: 12

Sometimes we gaily sing
"In the cross of Christ I glory"
And yet the event itself
Was utterly ghastly.

We prefer the vision of
The 'victorious Christ'
And yet he was brutally
Disfigured, physically destroyed.

And all this suffering,
Abject humiliation was,
And is, because of our sin.
And all for our salvation.

Good Friday (ABC)
Psalm 22

Was it the horror of those
First 'concentration camps'
That caused our lord's
Despair upon the cross?

Was it the slaughter of
Paschendale and "the gas"
That caused our lord's
Despair upon the cross?

Was it the terror of Hiroshima
And the Tokyo fire storm
That caused our lord's
Despair upon the cross?

Was it the accumulated
Mass of all our 'little' sins
That caused our lord's
Despair upon the cross?

Good Friday (ABC)
Hebrews 10: 16 - 25

It is all very well having
A deep theological understanding
But unless that serves to
Make a difference to the way
In which we live, what use is it?

It is all very well having
An intensely practical approach
To 'the hard facts of life'
But unless this is based on
An understanding of what Christ
Has done, what value has it?

For that "fullness of life"
Which Christ came to offer
Can only be realised through
A delicate balance of all
Those powers of intellect and
Will and discipline in living.

Holy Saturday
Joseph of Arimathea
Matthew 27: 57 - 61

I had been sure in my own mind for some time that he was ,indeed, the promised Messiah. However the political situation in the Sanhedrin did not allow for any public recognition, and some care even in private. Now that their dread schemes had come to such an awful reality I felt compelled to act. He could not be left to rot on that cross. Being known to Pilate, I decided to ask for his body and ignore the question of ritual purity - it didn't seem important any more! Thus it was, after Pilate had ensured he was in fact dead, he allowed me to take him away. I knew it would be hard and difficult but the two Mars were a real help. We could not prepare him properly. What few spices I had in the house had to do until we could return after that grim Sabbath.

So we laid hem to rest where I had planned to go - it was an honour and the deepest sadness.