Every year, I find the Good Friday worship service at St. Luke’s to be one of the most powerful worship services of the entire year. If you have never been to a Good Friday worship service before, I highly encourage you to make it a point to go this year. Typically, this service is what we call a “Tenebrae” service. Tenebrae is a Latin word that means “darkness.” As we go through the service, we begin to extinguish candles and lights in the room until we find ourselves in complete darkness as we remember the death of Christ on that first Good Friday.
As a young person, it always seemed strange to me that we would call this day “Good Friday.” It was a day all about the death of Jesus. It seemed more appropriate to call this day “Bad Friday.” I am sure, for the disciples, it was an incredibly bad day. Just a few days earlier, they had been with Jesus, making a triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday as the crowds gathered to wave palm branches and praise Jesus. Now, less than a week later, He had been crucified and killed. They were left in the darkness, not knowing what was next.
It is because we live on this side of Easter that we are able to look back on the events of that Friday and call it “Good.” It is not because of what the Romans did that day, beating and crucifying Jesus, was a good act. It is because of the good that God was able to bring out of that day. Out of one of the darkest, most horrific, and most brutal forms of torture the world has ever seen, God was able to bring about the greatest good.
We all face times in life that are incredibly dark, lonely, and full of fear. It is easy to become overwhelmed in those times with all the “bad,” but it is important to remember that God is with us, and we are never alone. If God can turn that day of crucifixion into a “Good” Friday, then God can bring good out of our dark times as well. Sometimes we just have to hang on a couple more days to hear the good news that God is bringing. That’s exactly what the disciples found on Sunday morning when they came to the tomb.
Rev. Josh Attaway, Edmond Campus Pastor, CFO
