A Dark Good Friday

Greetings!

Today I would like to explore the Good Friday that many Christians celebrate.

It centers around Jesus Christ being beaten almost to death by several groups of people who had made false charges against Him, and then taken to a hill above Jerusalem to be crucified with 2 other criminals.
On a Friday.

This happened around 200 years ago, yet still is alive and current to all of us.

Handel's 'Messiah'

As Paul Harvey would say:

".....now here's the rest of the story..."

Central in the history of Jesus dying while on a cross is that

G-d turned away from His only Son.

I think this was the greatest grief that Jesus could have born.

Earth reacted to this in many rather stunning ways.

There blew in a sudden and severe storm,

turning the sky so dark that it looked like it was night.

There were loud claps of thunder.
The ground shook like an earthquake.

It shook so severely that many tombs that had been sealed broke open.

But wait....there's more!

There are reports all over Jerusalem that loved ones that had died...

 and been buried...

are alive!

They are knocking on doors to see their loved ones again!

Wow.

AND, the seamless curtain that hung in the Temple,

that separated the people from the awesomeness of Y'weh -

split from top to bottom!

To demonstrate how important this curtain was,

the priests would draw "straws" to see which one

had to go behind the curtain every day to wait for Y'weh to speak,

 or to perform religious ceremonies.

They knew the power of their Y'weh,

so the chosen priest would have a rope tied around his waist,

just in case G-d struck him dead.

The rope was to pull him back to the 'people's' side.

Wow again.

c. 1550, Michelangelo sketch

What an incredible event,

and how sad for the followers of Christ that He died in such a horrible way.

....But now for the rest of the story....

c.1900

Jesus' body was taken down from the cross by some friends.

One of His friends lent space in a tomb, because Jesus was too poor to own one.

A pet peeve of mine:

People that leave Jesus on the cross.

check out the dates these were painted:

c.1308, Giotto's 'Lamentations"

c. 1505, Andrea Solario's 'Lamentation'

and a modern coloring page for children:

All of His disciples and followers and at least a few members of His earthly family were sad and grief stricken. They were scared. They were at a total loss.

Why would anyone call this Good Friday?

It sounds more like Dark Friday to me.

But...

Oh yeah, you have to wait for more,

just as Jesus' disciples had to wait too!

by Spencer Williams

see you tomorrow!

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

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