Friday, April 7, 2023

Today’s Scripture Reading 
Matthew 27:45–55

From noon on, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And about three o’clock Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” At once one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”

Then Jesus cried again with a loud voice and breathed his last. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After his resurrection they came out of the tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now when the centurion and those with him, who were keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” Many women were also there, looking on from a distance; they had followed Jesus from Galilee and had provided for him. (NRSV)

Reflection

There is in the Celtic languages a word that refers to thin places. A similar word is found in the language of the Aka of Ghana. The Good Friday narrative includes a great deal of thinness. The thinness between sin and redemption, between suffering and salvation from suffering, between belief and disbelief, and between life and death.

But have you ever stopped to think about the most curious of thin places in this narrative: between the resurrection of Jesus and those of the elders?

It seems as though something is, like in many thin places, out of order. The grammar of the Greek leaves ambiguity as to the order of events. What could that mean? Perhaps this — that when the work of redemption takes place in us, things are simply out of order. God’s graciousness overflows and oozes out in disturbing, jolting, and terrifying ways.

Even on Good Friday, we get a taste of what is coming, and what is coming has already arrived. It is as if these newly risen saints come to testify and wake up those in the city who sit in metaphorical, spiritual slumber and death. And we also see the resurrection of one is caught up in the rising of us all.

Signs and wonders abound, not just in the distant future, but in the early days, the precious first and last moments.

Prayer

Holy God, who brings the slumbering to life, awaken us — who remember this day the cross of your beloved — to a life that testifies to the life and fire within us, for the sake of your world. Amen.

Written by Joseph L. Morrow, Associate Pastor for Evangelism and Community Engagement

Reflection and prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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