(5 minute read with free Good Friday resources)
Earlier this week, we wrote about our son Paul’s death on Good Friday, 1988. I remember the irony of that “Good” Friday. Our son’s genetic anomalies led our church into 52 days of fasting and prayer. We wanted our son to be healed, and yet, sometimes, our prayers felt, well, chaotic. One prayer would be, “let this cup pass—not my will but Your will.” On other days we told God what the “word” (the Bible) said, and the “word” revealed that it was indeed God’s will to heal Paul.
After Paul’s death, we wondered if we had picked a prayer pattern and stuck with it if the results would have differed. That Good Friday would have been good. So, depending on your theology of healing, you land on one side or the other. We’ve discovered through the years that it’s more about our theology of suffering than our theology of healing. Whether you know it or not, you have a theology of suffering that include answers to questions like;
Why is there so much suffering in the world?
Why do good people suffer?
Why did the God-man suffer?
Why did Jesus allow human beings to kill him?
What is all this grievous brutality?
Some people believe as Jesus hung on the cross, “the wrath of God was satisfied.” That is a really unfortunate way to describe God’s willingness to become human, knowing the wrath of humans would put him to death. Still, he came to partake in our suffering. Also, telling someone who is in pain “everything happens for a reason” makes God out to be someone that creates suffering and that doesn’t fit for us either. So, this is our imperfect theological assumption:
Suffering happens on this side of Heaven.
God is Love, and we can be held in God’s Loving presence when the worst is tearing us apart.
God is The Way and can guide our feet through the darkest of nights.
god is the Truth and if we listen we will hear words from the Word that can be trusted.
God is The Life, and Life has faced death and anything else Hell has to offer us every-single-time.
When we gave Paul’s body to the University of Michigan’s Teratological Unit and followed by cremation, we did it with God. God cried with us. God suffered with us.
My theology of suffering (Clare’s) was developed by my dad who took me to church for the Stations of the Cross. Once married, we continued the tradition in one way or another together. For us, the stations are the gateway to Easter. There is no resurrection without first contemplating the cross.. This rhythm gives us an encounter this Almighty and All-Suffering God. Jesus, the Christ who came to earth with full knowledge that his incarnation, loaded with loving, healing, and Good News, would come to an end by humans who required violence to remedy their guilt and religious fears.
Theologian, John Dun Scotus said, “Our predestination to glory is prior by nature to any notion of sin.” Franciscans describe the cross as a “…freely chosen revelation of Love on God’s part. In so doing, they reversed the engines of almost all world religions up to that point, which assumed humans had to spill blood to get to a distant and demanding God. On the cross, Franciscans believed God was “spilling blood” to reach out to us! This is a sea change in consciousness. Instead of being a theological transaction, the crucifixion was a dramatic demonstration of God’s outpouring Love, meant to utterly shock the heart and mind and turn it back toward trust and Love of the Creator.”*
Dear friends, we invite you today to join Christians worldwide who will meet Christ in the Stations of the Cross. Today, receive God as Love. Allow yourself to love God with a new heart, mind, and strength. See what God will speak to you through this tradition and the Holy Spirit’s ever-present awareness of what you need to hear today. We have a few ways for you to join us-
1. Join us at Crossroads this on the labyrinth at 7pm. We will walk the Stations of the Cross together.
2. Come to Crossroads anytime on Good Friday to walk the labyrinth with Stations of the Cross alone or with your family/friends. Good Friday booklets will be available in a box at the labyrinth (back right corner of the campus.)
3. If you can’t come in person, we have a shortened prerecorded version below. Click here for art** and prayers here to go with the video below.
