Good Friday Crisis and Easter Eve
Mar 22nd, 2008 by Tim
Crisis - that’s what some of us experienced last night when Wellspring Church and Creekside Community Church gathered together for a joint Good Friday service.
Music included rockin’ (co-blogger) Pastor Sam (on the electric guitar) leading a team that included guitars, keyboard, drums plus two female vocalists. Additionally, there was a delightful ensemble comprised of a violin, cello, recorder, keyboard, and vocals. Selections featured the simplicity of SovGrace’s “The Gospel Song” along with the antiquity and beauty of “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” - a piece attributed to Bernie Clairvaux but perhaps known best from JS Bach.
There was no “preaching” this night. Pastor John Bruce (Creekside) read sections from Luke’s Gospel. His readings were interspersed with the music. There were times of silent prayer and the communion elements were shared near the service’s end.
But the evening stopped with crisis - “a crucial stage or turning point”. The reading in Luke closed with a dead, crucified body in a tomb. Participants, even though most have read the whole account, had to be left wondering - what if this had been the finish.
I didn’t want the evening to be over; I wanted Pastor John to exclaim “He is risen!” I wanted him to race through the final chapter of Luke. I wanted to hear how a resurrected Christ taught the disciples from Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms. I could have listened further into the evening to readings that close the other Gospels. But Pastor John ended at the right spot for Good Friday and the musicians put away their instruments and scores and called it an evening. For me, at least, crisis prevailed.
I can’t wait to sing and celebrate and rejoice tomorrow! It’s Easter Eve, almost. I have a ton of grown-up stuff to do. But I feel like a 5-year old on Christmas Eve, waiting for the next morning …
For me, there is a depth to Good Friday that I think is sometimes missed in the rush to Easter.
And so we have the setting for Luke 24:41 after ‘crisis’ was shattered with “Peace to you!”
“…they still disbelieved for joy and were marvelling…” After eating some fish, the risen Christ says the following,”These are My words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
everything…fulfilled
He is risen. He is risen indeed!
Two quotes I can recall from two people whose theological views I don’t hold to but whose sentiments regarding the resurrection are at the very least interesting:
1. Keith Green: “Jesus rose from the grace…and you!…You can’t even get out of bed.”
2. Tony Campolo: “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s a comin’”