Good Friday and Easter Sunday are days unlike any other. Easter is the day of all days; there is simply no better day. All of history started over again the morning Jesus rose from the dead. When he came out of the tomb, the world was fundamentally different from when he entered days before. People now rise from the dead. God’s family is reunited. Eternity has begun.
This Holy Week, I’ve re-discovered George Herbert’s poem Easter, which begins with the wonderful stanza,
“Rise heart; thy Lord is risen. Sing his praise
Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more just.”
But what caught my eye this time was the last stanza, where Herbert remarks that no other day could be like Easter. How could there be any other day after that one? It is the perfection of all days, and in some sense, every day after is Easter all over again.
“Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.”
Every day after Easter is like that day, forever.
If there were ever a day unlike Easter, it would be Good Friday. You might stretch the case to say that if every day now is like Easter, every day before was like Good Friday.
On that day, the innocent Lamb of God was slain on a cross. I always think of Bruce Shelley’s great book Church History in Plain Language for its stunning first line: “Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its god.” I’m not sure we even grasp the depth of truth in this statement.
Crucifixion was a slave’s death. If you were a Roman citizen, you were immune from such a fate. No Roman would even discuss crucifixion, much less undergo it. And yet, over the course of the Roman Empire, more than 30,000 slaves were crucified. That’s five people a day, every day, for more than 16 years. Jesus was one of those.
Crucifixion was a scandal in the ancient world. The brutality was exceeded only by the humiliation. It’s no exaggeration to say that on Good Friday Jesus took the worst the world had to offer.
During Holy Week, we stand between these two extremes; on Friday, the lowest, and on Sunday, the highest. We live now in the land of Easter, but on Good Friday, we go back to remember what it was like before and what it took for God to make a way for us.
At our church in Carlton Landing, we celebrate Good Friday with a simple service of Scripture passages and hymns. We read the story of Jesus’s death and pause after he breathes his last until we celebrate Easter Sunday.
This year, we’re singing one of my favorite Holy Week hymns, “See the Destined Day Arise.” Originally written in the 6th Century, this hymn captures the contrast between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The author, Venantius Fortunatus, was a prolific hymnwriter, and we still have dozens of his hymns today. He was fixated on the cross, his favorite subject, and includes the death of Jesus in nearly everything he wrote.
You can’t read his hymns without being transported back to the early centuries of the church. The message is unchanged. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
In his Easter hymn, “Welcome, Happy Morning!” he writes,
“Source of all things living,
you came down to die,
plumbed the depths of hell
to raise us up on high.
Come, then, true and faithful,
come fulfill your word;
this is our third morning—
rise, O buried Lord.”
For me, though, nothing beats the second verse of “See the Destined Day Arise” for a Good Friday meditation;
“Who but Christ had dared to drain
Steeped in gall, the cup of pain
And with tender body bear
Thorns and nails and piercing spear?
Slain for us, the water flowed
Mingled from Your side with blood
Sign to all attesting eyes
Of the finished sacrifice”
The sacrifice is finished. The debt is paid. Praise be to God for our Lord Jesus Christ, who went to the cross to rescue sinners. Every day is Easter now. Hallelujah!
Here are the lyrics written by Matt Maher,
See the destined day arise
See a willing sacrifice
Jesus, to redeem our loss
Hangs upon the shameful cross
Jesus, who but You could bear
Wrath so great and justice fair?
Every pang and bitter throe
Finishing Your life of woe
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Lamb of God for sinners slain
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ, we praise Your name
Who but Christ had dared to drain
Steeped in gall, the cup of pain
And with tender body bear
Thorns and nails and piercing spear?
Slain for us, the water flowed
Mingled from Your side with blood
Sign to all attesting eyes
Of the finished sacrifice
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Lamb of God for sinners slain
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ, we praise Your name
Holy Jesus, grant us grace
In that sacrifice to place
All our trust for life renewed
Pardoned sin, and promised good
Grant us grace to sing Your praise
'Round Your throne through endless days
Ever with the sons of light
Blessing, honor, glory, might
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Lamb of God for sinners slain
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus Christ, we praise Your name