April 3, 2026 – Good Friday
Zane Scarlett
How did we get here? How did the glory, laud and honor; the palms and hosannas of last Sunday turn into this grief and loss and remorse that we feel today? How did we get here? On this darkest of days, when we feel abandoned and empty, can we ever feel the fullness of love again? We started this journey on Ash Wednesday after a night of partying in celebration of the abundance of the blessings that God gave us by giving us this life. And the journey began with the recognition that this life is a gift, but that it is a temporary gift. It is a gift that must be returned to God, the giver. “Remember that you are but dust, and to dust you shall return.” What we do with this gift, this life, while we have it, has been the subject of our meditations, our prayers, our fasting during this season of Lent. The teachings of Jesus have helped us come to an understanding of God’s love. But there is hate in the world, and now that hate has taken away from us the gift that was the life of Jesus. Hate and envy and selfish concerns have nailed Jesus to a cross and we are left to wonder where is God’s love in this world? How did we get here?
Caiaphas unknowingly gave us the answer when he said that one man should die to save all the people. Jesus knew it to be true; and he had tried to tell his disciples, but there was a lack of understanding. At the arrest of Jesus, Peter drew his sword and struck the first blow in what he thought would be a battle. Peter’s actions show that he thought in terms of an Earthly kingdom. Jesus later told Pilate that if his kingdom were of this world, his followers would fight. Peter did not understand. Like Peter, we all live and think in terms of this world. We let our actions, our beliefs, our lives be ruled by our own desires, our own will, rather than following God’s will. Peter represents the everyman; he does what we would do. After he has been told not to fight, he fears his own arrest and he abandons Jesus; but he follows along to find out what is going to happen. He is confronted and he pretends ignorance. And his conscience catches up with him. Someone in my neighborhood keeps chickens and when I am out some mornings, I hear the rooster crow. When I hear it, I think of Peter. And I think of how many times I have abandoned and denied Jesus. I denied Jesus when I did not visit the sick or the lonely. I abandoned Jesus when I ate in a restaurant and ignored the hungry who were rummaging through the dumpster out back looking for food. I denied knowing Jesus when I talked to the financial advisor and did not arrange to give it all away to the homeless. How did we get here?
Pilate was a Roman governor whose main job was to send money back to Rome. Rome conquered lands and ruled the people in those lands for the purpose of gaining those people’s wealth and sending that wealth back to Rome. This was done by getting the cooperation of the leaders of the local people. These local leaders in Jerusalem were the religious leaders, the high priest and the Sanhedrin, the governing body of the Temple. These priests felt their power threatened by Jesus, so they invented an imminent threat to the peace and security of the nation and turned to Pilate to quell that threat. Pilate acquiesced and condemned Jesus to die, even while proclaiming the innocence of Jesus. How many times have we gone along with the crowd or allowed our actions to be governed by others rather than standing up for what we know to be right? How did we get here?
We met Nicodemus early in Lent. He realized that Jesus was sent from God, and he came to Jesus to learn; but he did it at night. He was a secret follower of Jesus. He believed, but he was afraid of what following Jesus would do to his position as a leader of the Temple. After the death of Jesus, when all of the disciples had fled in fear for their own safety, Nicodemus and another secret follower of Jesus came forth to show their respect for the man by preparing the body and finding a burial place. Why do I often wait too long to speak up for the moral choice? Am I afraid of what others will think if I let them know the truth of what I know to be right? I let the moment pass when I should show love and respect to another human being. Acting too late because of the fear of the cost of doing the right thing, the fear of letting my true feelings be known. Am I a secret follower of Christ? How did we get here?
Our consciences have caught up with us. We feel the guilt, the grief, and the hopelessness. We are engulfed in the darkness of our own making. We have spent the last few weeks coming to terms with our own failings, our own shortcomings, our own mortality; and now we face the fact of the mortality of Jesus. This is too much to bear. Our savior has left us; where are we to turn? Jesus said “It is finished.” The mission of Jesus, the man, is finished. And we are in shock. Our own worldly thinking makes us think that this is a tragedy, but in the plan of God this is not an end; this is a beginning. It is the beginning of a new life, a life where we live with Christ for eternity. A life where there is no darkness because Christ is the light and that light is always with us.
During Lent, we have come face to face with our failure to live into the love of God. But we have also learned that God send the Son not to condemn the world, but that through the Son the world might be saved. We are not condemned for our failures. God loves us; and God has forgiven us, and God has saved us by the sacrifice that Jesus willingly made. What we see as failure, God uses for a showing of grace. We all fall short and we grieve. But with grief, growth should come – growth of faith, growth of hope, growth in the knowledge that the Spirit lives within us. In the darkness of Friday, we have the knowledge that Sunday will come. God has not left us alone. Jesus’ death is not the end. It is only the beginning. How did we get here? We got here by the love and grace of God.
Year A – Good Friday – April 3, 2026 – Zane Scarlett
