Devotional for Good Friday

(Chapel of the Pieta, The Vatican, by Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1499)

John 19:25-27 (New International Version)

25Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," 27and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.

It is Friday: An invocation and poem for Good Friday

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

Nothing can be said, nothing can be done. Action is futile. I can hold the other's hands and weep, but I cannot be comforted.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

The air is heavy still with waiting and longing. Waiting for the inevitable, longing for the impossible. Can this cup pass from me? I look around me – all the colors are muted. Dusty browns and grays – Cold and metallic. Rolling black clouds cover the brilliant blue of the sky as my soul is occluded by pain. All that remains is the red of the blood running down the weathered wood of the cross.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

I reach out and touch the raised grain of the wood. It is rough against my fingertips. The pong of unwashed wool and bodies crowds my nose. I smell fear, pain, death. I taste it at the back of my throat. I hear the labored breathing from the cross. Death is near.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

Remember Him! Remember Him as the silver cord is severed, as the golden bowl is broken. Remember Him as the pitcher is shattered at the spring and the wheel broken at the well. Remember Him as the dust returns to the ground it came from and His spirit returns to the God who gave it.

It is Friday
And I stand at the foot of the cross.

(by the Rev. Theresa Coleman, Georgia)