Ever since I started this blog last month, I’ve been posting the prayers I lead for my daughter’s Senior Class each Friday. Our school is on Spring Break this week, so we won’t be praying together. We will get back together next week to finish out the school year.. How about something different this week?

It’s Holy Week, and my family generally goes to church at least one extra day, sometimes more, for Maundy Thursday or Good Friday services. This year things are just so strange, and if you’re like me it’s sometimes hard to remember what day it is! Just for the record, it’s Friday. And for today, I’d like to suggest the readings for Good Friday from the Revised Common Lectionary.

If you go to a church that uses a Lectionary, you know that the readings are organized by season and can help us to draw parallels between the Old and New Testaments, among many benefits. And whether or not you follow the Lectionary, it’s so easy to race from the high of Palm Sunday to the HIGH of Easter without ever plumbing the depths of Good Friday.

The Lectionary readings for today will stop you. Take a few moments to go through the readings listed below. I’ve included a very short commentary to help you get oriented to the context of each reading.

Gospel Reading: John 18 and 19

This is a very long reading! It covers the entire period from Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane to His execution, literally all day Friday. As you read, you will be surprised at how familiar many of the stories are. Reading them as one narrative instead of a bunch of small vignettes helps to bring home the true awfulness of that day.

Palm Sunday is described in Chapter 12 of John. Now we are in Chapter 18. It’s worth considering how much of the Gospel of John is devoted to the last week of Jesus’ life before his execution. John slows his narrative down a lot, walking step by step with Jesus through these few days.

The passage opens with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he’s gone after having Passover with his disciples. He’s accompanied at least by Peter and John. Jesus is arrested there, and he’s taken to Annas’ house (he was the head of one of the three most important families in Jerusalem, and the father or father-in-law of several who served as high priest) and then on to the Jewish high priest Caiaphas’ house. It’s very late on Thursday night when this starts happening.

By early morning they are on their way to the governor’s house to meet with Pilate. (Peter has denied Jesus three times by now.) Pilate has a conversation with Jesus and honestly, I don’t think he wanted any part of this dirty trial. He tries to offer Jesus as the prisoner he’ll set free, but of course the crowd would rather have the criminal Barabbas.

We are getting close to the “end” for Jesus now. Chapter 19 opens with Jesus’ flogging and abuse by the Roman soldiers. Again Pilate tries to release Jesus but the city is so agitated that he gives up, putting the blame of an unjust trial squarely on the shoulders of the Jewish leaders.

Finally, Jesus is led to Golgotha and crucified.

Read the passage as a whole, and as a family. Stop at the end of the reading. Sit with the magnitude of what happened to Jesus. We know this isn’t the end of the whole story, but let it be the end of today’s story.

Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 52:13-53:12

This passage explains how one servant will take on himself the sins of the world. “I” is God; “he” is the perfect servant; “we” are the disciples of that servant.

Isaiah was a prophet who lived in the kingdom of Judah around 700 BC. His whole book lays out the surprising plan for God to rescue his people with grace and glory. The book was written while the northern kingdom of Israel was defeated by the Assyrians. Defeat was a real possibility for the southern kingdom, too, and parts of the book lay out the deals the Judean kings considered and sometimes made.

It’s a beautiful book with some great poetry in it. Many lines are familiar to us from hymns and other music, including Handel’s Messiah. The passage today is probably familiar to you, and it points directly to the sacrifice that Jesus made.

Psalm Reading: Psalm 22

Read this Psalm closely with the Isaiah reading. David wrote this Psalm when he was under extreme physical and mental distress. Whether or not it is a prophecy of Jesus’ sacrifice, it is an anguished cry. We can imagine that Jesus would have known this Psalm very well and was probably thinking of it as he hung on the cross.

New Testament Reading: Hebrews 10:16-25

I think this passage is the hope we can hold on to, even in the darkness of Good Friday!

The author of Hebrews makes arguments for the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus throughout this letter, offering evidence upon evidence of the supreme and single sacrifice that Jesus made. He traces the Psalms, comparing them to Jesus’ life, and there is a great “Faith Hall of Fame” in Chapter 11, not long after this passage.

Chapter 10 opens with “But since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come….” By verse 16, the author is quoting Jeremiah’s explanation of God’s new covenant.

Read the last part of this reading slowly. Savor the promises. We have confidence. We can draw near to God. We have full assurance of faith. We can stir one another up to love and good works.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and that Easter morning is beautiful for you!