Pause for Prayer: GOOD FRIDAY

                        

For many years now, I've posted the image above on Good Friday but the link to the image and the artist is no longer active.  To the best of my knowledge this is Meditation on the Crucifixion by Mimi Ess. If you click on the image for a larger version, you'll see the crucifix more clearly - and some faces who I imagine to be those who stood at the foot of Jesus' Cross. 

 

Here are two reflections for Good Friday: While Meditating Upon the Passion by Brenda Stinson and The Cross is a Scandal on Every Level by Pastor Brian Zahnd, pastor of the Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri.

 

While Meditating Upon the Passion

I long to be the teardrop
Rolling ever so slowly down your cheek
Searching the curves and creases of your most holy face
Lightly kissing moisture upon your dry lips.

I long to be the air that becomes your breath
Bought with your agony as you push up to draw me in,
Absorbed into your body offered to the Father,
Flowing mercy from your wounds,
Exhaling love upon the world.

I long to be the cry
Welling up from the depths of your soul
Blinded by the night that envelops it.
Rushing to meet you as the all-consuming pain
draws you deeper into the darkness,
Finally bursting forth a helpless scream,
The cry of God - to God -
For mercy.

I long to be the last beat of your heart,
Suspended there in time
Until the Father grants you life anew
And then -
Captured there in eternity,
A prisoner of Divine Love.

- Brenda Stinson

 

The Cross is a Scandal on Every Level

The Cross is a scandal on every level
A king with a crown of thorns
A death march processional
Acclamation by insult
It’s a macabre coronation

The Cross is a scandal on every level
You say he won a war?
You can’t win a war that way
You have to kill to win a war
Who could win a war that way?

The Cross is a scandal on every level
Love your enemy
Forgive your enemy
Reconcile your enemy
Whoever heard such madness?

The Cross is a scandal on every level
“Take up your cross and follow me”
No one would ever sign up for that
Promise me pleasure and riches
Don’t bid me come and die

The Cross is a scandal on every level
We’re promised glory and we’re given this
A kingdom to come and we get that
The glorious kingdom of a crucified king?
We want gold and silver, success and splendor

The Cross is a scandal on every level
Pharaoh did it first
Alexander did it great
Caesar did it best
But not a crucified conqueror

The Cross is a scandal on every level
Give us sword and shield
Something we can win with
Not outstretched arms
And a pierced side

The Cross is a scandal on every level
No wonder the followers fled
What is there left to follow?
It’s the ultimate dead end
It’s common sense to run from that

The Cross is a scandal on every level
You say it’s the road that leads to life?
It’s quite obvious it’s the way of death
And when you’re dead the story ends
Unless you believe what the silly women said

- Pastor Brian Zahnd

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