Good Friday Reflection

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 Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
 I wonder what our response is. Of course I wasn’t

And yet still the nails are driven in….

·        When people are humiliated, for who they are or what they believe
Christ is mocked again by the soldiers
·        When the poor of the developing world groan under the weight of unjust trading systems favouring those of us in the rich world, Christ stumbles again beneath the weight of the cross
·        When a woman is found in a North London flat dead for three years – living in a society which apparently neither missed nor found her for three years, 
Christ cries again “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?”
·        When another person dies needlessly in Afghanistan, 9/11 or the Holocaust
Christ again and again and again gives up his Spirit…


Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?  
We were all there.
Do you not see the whole human race gathered in the deepening gloom about the cross – all of us enmeshed in our sinfulness and selfishness…   
Do you see your face there in the crowd?
And who can but tremble??


I read recently about a Church which each year places a large wooden cross outside the Church at throughout Lent.
Then on Good Friday the cross is brought into the Church and placed by the Communion rail.
On the preceding Ash Wednesday at the start of Lent everyone in the Church had been given a nail and asked to carry it with them throughout Lent.
Then on Good Friday they come to the Church and are asked to come forward with their nail.    Each person takes a hammer and hammers their nail into the cross.
The Church is filled with the sound of hammering.


Were you there when they crucified my Lord??
Of course you were, 
Of course we are, 
with hammers in our hand…
 And what hope can there be for us – 
for us who have conspired to kill the Son of God – 
what Jury or anywhere else would have mercy on those involved in such a conspiracy??
 But we are not judged by a court but by the victim – 
who says 
“I came to a cross precisely to be with you in the depths of sin & death – 
I came here precisely to save you – 
Do you think now I will let you go now?    
My love is enough to cover your sins 10000 times over – 
May your sins be forgiven 
You shall be with me in Paradise…
Yes I was there when they crucified my Lord
And this Amazing love A Love so amazing so divine that it demands my soul my life my all.

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