GOOD FRIDAY | THORNS
“Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. And the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed him in a purple robe.” John 19:1-2
The crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head completes the wardrobe designed to mock and humiliate him. Look at the one who says he is king of the Jews. Here he stands, beaten, powerless, foolish. Here is the man, the one in whom Pilate finds no fault, the one the frenzied crowd calls to crucify.
The whole scene makes my stomach turn, not only because Jesus suffers, but because I know such cruelty still exists, inflicted on people all around the world. The darkest part of our humanness too often still prevails, and yet Jesus goes to the cross for us anyway. The striking truth of Good Friday lies in that reality: human beings still humiliate, mock and crucify one another, but God loves us, Jesus dies for us, the Spirit intercedes for us anyway.
If we do not confess the painful truth of our own complicity and participation in the ugliest sin imaginable, we cannot fathom the monumental scale of God’s goodness and grace. If we fail to acknowledge our role in perpetuating evil, we too mock Jesus rather than weep at his fate.
That crown of thorns, designed to mock, represents the suffering servant who came to save. The Friday that goes midnight in the middle of the day marks the time when the light of the world overcomes all darkness. The purple robe of humiliation wraps all humanity in the love of God. The good of the One on the cross restores the God-created goodness of each one of us. Today is Good Friday, when we know without doubt the radical, transformative, saving grace of God who takes on the sin of the world, for our sake, even though we cry, “Crucify him!”
Questions for reflection
What does Good Friday mean to you?
Take some time to look at artistic renderings of this story. (Here is a collection of images.) What strikes you about those depictions?
Lord, on this Good Friday, we repent of all the ways we participate in perpetuating cruelty. We confess how often we dismiss our complicity with evil. We turn our heads, unable to look at suffering, when instead we are called to see fully what our sin has wrought. On this Good Friday, we recognize the depth of our sin in order to receive and rejoice in the expanse of your grace. Amen.
Thank you you for journeying through Lent with us. And thanks to Jill J. Duffield for allowing us to adapt from her book, Lent in Plain Sight: A Devotion Through Ten Objects.
