What’s so good about Good Friday?
“To whom shall we go? You have the words of life.", an old fisherman once said.
I hear the exasperation in his voice, the need for a reassurance that Jesus did have the words of eternal life. Perhaps because in my own life I have asked that question over and over: to whom shall we go?
Where else could we go? Who else will care for this heart of mine? And Peter's words remind me that not only did Jesus have the words of eternal life, Jesus lived them so much so that it cost him his life.
The first time I had a revelation of the Cross I was no older than 7 or 8 years old. I was sitting in my living room singing about calvary when tears started trickling down my face. As a kid, I didn't have the words to say what was happening to me, but I knew suddenly that the Cross was real. Yet what caught my attention wasn't just the Cross, the place of death, what caught my attention was the path that led Jesus to the Cross. I pictured a crowd where maybe he saw people who followed him, or someone he healed. Were kids present? How his body must have craved rest and water and a warm blanket.
It wasn't until recently that I remembered that image and the question came up again. What did I actually know of the journey that led Jesus to the Cross? I was convinced Jesus had to go to the Cross because there was a big scary God somewhere in the cosmos who thought I should be crucified too, but instead chose Jesus to take my place.
Yet if I was evil why would a Creator choose to create me?
My question was incomplete. What if I asked why did Jesus have to go on the path of Golgotha? And I think of his love, a love from the outside of the city walls, a love not afraid to touch the leper, a love that cried over the loss of a friend, a love that honored women, and a love that taught about loving enemies in a way that disrupted the Roman empire so much so that perhaps it was what led him to ending up on the Cross.
Jesus of Nazareth. What good could come from Nazareth? What good besides feeding the poor, healing the sick, bringing life to death, dignity to an accused woman, calling the ones who have been forgotten by empire, and changing the way a Kin-dom is to be. What good besides showing us that “justice is what love looks like in public, and tenderness is what love feels like in private” (Dr. Cornel West).
Jesus found himself on the Cross because even when he didn’t have Roman citizenship the empire knew that his nonviolent life was a revolution so brave that it could change the course of history. What if the reason Jesus walked to the Hill of the Skull was to tell us that he too knows what it's like to be oppressed and killed by empire? And I’m reminded of the wise words of Kenyan leader Carol Ng'ang'a, “Being at the Cross is a continuous process for Jesus. At the Cross Jesus is always on the side of the most oppressed, whoever is the most oppressed”
Jesus is at the Cross when our Black bodies are brutalized by the police. Jesus is at the Cross when racism denies the Divine beauty of another human being. Jesus is at the Cross when the LGBTQIA community is not loved and celebrated. Jesus is at the Cross when we turn our back on our siblings at the U.S Southern border and our siblings fleeing war in the Middle East. Jesus is at the Cross when the Indigenous Peoples of this land are dying at disproportionate rates.
Jesus is at the Cross today, on a day called “good”.
So, today I choose to call this day, “Holy Friday”, like we do in Spanish – Viernes Santo.
Because holy is a love that stands up for the oppressed, in authentic solidarity.
Holy is joy of a Creator who could've come to this earth as a military man in power but chose to come as a poor, brown-skinned, Palestinian Jew.
Holy was the life he lived because he taught us what dignity is, he came, saw you and me and said, "You are loved”, and I think of the old fisherman again: ¿A quien iremos? To whom shall go?
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website: dearkarla.com
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