It’s Good Friday. I suppose the title is most appropriate in some sort of brutally honest way. Why this day on which Jesus of Nazerath was put to death is good, clearly depends on who this Jesus really was. It marks either the end of a bothersome nuisance and the silencing of a most troubling voice in human history, or the accomplishment of God’s greatest feat of love and sacrifice for his children, the greatest exchange in history, and the definition of God’s identity with the poor and the afflicted. Regardless, in many ways this event stands at the center of history, a marker at which the way humanity remembers history, measures time and defines people groups changed forever. And through the reborn eyes of faith in Christ, the moment towards which the prophets looked and about which the psalmists sang for centuries, this moment which the gospel witnesses recorded in horror and awe, this night about which poets have mused for millennia. Tonight I would reflect on this moment around which history orbits through the song of the Psalmist in the 22nd Psalm and the wondering accounts of the gospel eye witnesses and the modern musings of a favorite poet, author and mentor Henri Nouwen…

The Psalmist sings:
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.

The Gospels remember:
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

And the poet writes:
Lord Jesus, help me to understand this mystery. So much blood has flowed through the centuries: blood of people who did not even know why they were trampled underfoot… blood that comes forth from angry, bitter, jealous, vengeful hearts, and from hearts that are set on hatred, violence and destruction. … victimized by the evil intentions of their sisters and brothers in the human race, blood has been covering the earth, and cries have gone up to heaven: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us?”

The Psalmist sings:
6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people. 7 All who see me mock me; they make mouths at me; they wag their heads; 8 "He trusts in the LORD; let him deliver him; let him rescue him, for he delights in him!"

The Gospels remember:
39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, "You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross." 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 "He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, 'I am the Son of God.'"

And the poet writes:
These were the voices Jesus heard right after he heard "You are my beloved." Another voice said, "Prove you are the beloved. Do something. Change these stones into bread. Be sure you're famous. Jump from the temple, and you will be known. Grab some power so you have real influence. Don't you want some influence? Isn't that why you came?"
Jesus said, "No, I don't have to prove anything. I am already the beloved."

The Psalmist sings:
16 For dogs encompass me; a company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet- 17 I can count all my bones- they stare and gloat over me; 18 they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

The Gospels remember:
33 And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. 34 And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments.

And the poet writes:
Your heart is broken, the heart that did not know hatred, revenge, resentment, jealousy or envy but only love, love so deep and so wide that it embraces your Father in heaven as well as all humanity in time and space. Your broken heart is the source of my salvation, the foundation of my hope, the cause of my love. It is the sacred place where all that was, is and ever shall be is held in unity. There all suffering has been suffered, all anguish lived, all loneliness endured, all abandonment felt and all agony cried out.

The Psalmist sings:
I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast; 15 my strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to my jaws; you lay me in the dust of death.

The Gospels remember:
28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said ( to fulfill the Scripture), "I thirst." 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth.
And the poet writes:

“Good Friday: day of the cross, day of suffering, day of hope, day of abandonment, day of victory, day of mourning, day of joy, day of endings, day of beginnings. . . .

The Psalmist sings:
19 But you, O LORD, do not be far off! O you my help, come quickly to my aid! 20 Deliver my soul from the sword, … 24 For he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, and he has not hidden his face from him, but has heard, when he cried to him. … 30 Posterity shall serve him; it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation; 31 they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn, that he has done it.

The Gospels remember:
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
And the poet writes:
“With my minds’ eye I saw large crowds of …individuals walking away from the cross together, bound by the love they had seen with their own eyes and touched with their own lips. The cross of horror became the cross of hope, the tortured body became the body that gives new life; the gaping wound became the source of forgiveness, healing and reconciliation.”

From:

Psalm 22

Passion Accounts of Matthew, Luke and John
Moving from Solitude to Community to Ministry by Henri Nouwen
Good Friday prayers by Henri Nouwen
Show Me the Way: Daily Lenten Readings by Henri Nouwen