Friday • 4/7/2023 •
Good Friday
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 22; Genesis 22:1–14; 1 Peter 2:10–20; John 13:36–38
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 10 (“The Second Song of Isaiah,” Isaiah 55:6–11; BCP, p. 86); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 18 (“A Song to the Lamb,” Revelation 4:11; 5:9–10, 13, BCP, p. 93)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we bring to our lives that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you this Good Friday.
Genesis 22. There’s something unthinkable about the story of Abraham’s nearly sacrificing Isaac — unless its significance is to point beyond itself. Yahweh commands something that, on the face of it, is both inherently evil and abortive of his promise to his servant Abraham of “a seed.”
And yet, on Mt. Moriah an angel speaks and stays the executioner’s hand. By contrast, on Mt. Calvary, the angels are mute as heaven’s lights go out and the executioners complete their grim work. On Mt. Moriah, a ram is offered as substitute for the favored son. On Mt. Calvary, the substitute is the favored Son. As the apostle Paul says, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?” (Romans 8:32).
It turns out that Genesis 22 is one of the many “Easter eggs” (see below) that God plants in his Bible to prepare us for the mystery of Good Friday. The evil miscarriage of justice committed against God’s Son that first Good Friday turns out to be the salvation of the world.
Image: From the 14th century Icelandic manuscript AM 277 fol., now in the care of the Árni Magnússon Institute in Iceland. Public Domain.
Similarly, Psalm 22 anticipates, by a thousand years, Jesus descending into the abyss of abandonment to death (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”), so he can rise to lead the praise of the God who rescues those “that fear him … the poor in their poverty … those who worship him … all the families of the earth … all who go down to the dust … [and] … a people yet unborn” (Psalm 22:1, 22, 23, 24, 26, 28, 30).
It seems fitting to reprise some observations from last year’s Good Friday Devotional based on the 1 Peter reading:
…the Spirit of Christ…testified in advance to the sufferings destined for Christ and the subsequent glory. — 1 Peter 1:11. Holy Week prompts me to remember the many Old Testament Scriptures that pointed to the life and saving work of Jesus Christ long before his appearance on earth. On the Emmaus road after his resurrection, Jesus explained to two disciples “the things about himself in all the scriptures” (Luke 24:27). I’m reminded of how movie directors charm audiences by embedding “Easter eggs” inside their films. You can find Alfred Hitchcock appearing momentarily in his films, and similarly, Stan Lee in the Marvel Comic Universe movies, for example. You’ll find images of Star Wars’ R2-D2 and C-3PO in the hieroglyphics of a pillar in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Look closer, the directors say.
Peter tells us angels have been looking closer for a long time. His sweeping statement about the advance notice of Christ’s suffering and glory in the Old Testament invites us, too, to look and find God’s Easter eggs hidden throughout his Word:
The Seed who will strike the Serpent’s head, despite suffering a bruised heel (Genesis 3).
Escape from a storm of judgment in an ark built by the One Righteous Man, with a new start signaled by a rainbow (Genesis 6-9).
The sparing of a beloved son by the substitution of a ram (Genesis 22).
A snake lifted up on a tree for the healing of people snake-bit by the power of sin (Numbers 21).
After three days and three nights in the belly of “a great fish,” deliverance unto life, and the renewal of a call to prophetic ministry (the whole book of Jonah).
So, despite everything—Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s (and my own) denial, the whimsicality and the vitriol of the crowds, the obscene injustice of religious and political authorities—Good Friday is good because it marks the pivot point in the long epic of God’s unspeakable love and unstoppable plan. Because of Good Friday, the song at the Great Vigil can ring out in praise of the God who “casts out pride and hatred, and brings peace and concord,” joining earth and heaven, and God and humankind.
Collect for Good Friday. Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.
Be blessed this Good Friday,
Reggie Kidd+