Good Friday 10 April

DAILY BYTE – Authentic Worship – Grieving

On this Holy and Good Day, we re-member, we relive with every part of our bodies, minds, and souls that on this day, the Son of God died a gruesome, passionate death. We remember that Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem for just such a time as this. And we are in awe of that sacrificial courage and unbounded love.

We recognize that on this day, Christ took on the bonds of the cross’s suffering so that we could be free.

Quietly ponder this deep, mysterious, delivering love on this day through praying through the anonymously written words to one of the most haunting hymns of all time. As we strive to be authentic in our daily lives of prayer and worship, may these be your words of grief:

O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
With thorns, thine only crown:
How pale thou art with anguish,
With sore abuse and scorn!
How does this visage languish
Which once was bright as morn!

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
Was all for sinners’ gain;
Mine, mine was the transgression,
But thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
‘Tis I deserve thy place;
Look on me with thy favor,
Vouchsafe to me thy grace.

What language shall I borrow
To thank thee, dearest friend,
For this thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
And should I fainting be,
Lord let me never, never
Outlive my love to thee. Amen.

FOCUS READING

Psalm 22:1-5

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; and by night, but find no rest. Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. To you they cried, and were saved; in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.