Good Friday

We began our week singing, “Hosanna!” or “Save us!” What did the people want to be saved from? Perhaps they wanted to be saved from corrupt politics or an unequal pay. Perhaps they wanted to be saved from worshipping the culture of the empire. Maybe they wanted to have better education for their children or more equal opportunity or freedom from bondage. Perhaps there was cohesion in their reason to cry “save us!” or maybe their pleas were as diverse as our own are.

Now, on Good Friday, we look up at the cross and see the very one we sang for hanging. The cries of the people changed from “save us” to “crucify him” in a matter of days. What happened to create such a drastic turn? Did people realize they would lose too much in saying “yes” to the way of Jesus? Was it too scary to stand alongside him and insist change? Was it too risky to say “no” to the Roman Empire?

Good Friday is the awful day when we cry alongside Jesus. The day we mourn alongside the disciples. The day we shake our fists at God and ask, “why?”

William H. Lamar IV, pastor of Metropolitan AME in Washington, D.C. reminds us: “God is not the cause of the suffering and God did not send Jesus here to die... our systems, our government, our politics, our economics killed the one God sent to teach us how to LIVE.” Thinking about the awful death of Jesus points to his innocence and sacrificial love. In addition, it ought to point us to the ones who are losing their lives because of the maintenance of our systems -- by both action and inaction alike.

Everytime someone innocent is killed at the hands of the powerful, we should think of Jesus and the anesthetizing grief of the disciples. When we remember victims of genocide, we should remember Jesus. When we think of Black men lynched by the KKK, we should remember Jesus. When a child dies because they found an unlocked gun, we should remember Jesus.

What are the things you would call out for Jesus to save us from? To save you from? What comforts are you willing to let go of in order to challenge the status quo and let the oppressed be free?