Collect for Good Friday

 

Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

It is interesting that the Collect for Good Friday shifts focus for a moment. We do not ask God to look upon Jesus, but upon “this your family.” Which family, though? Jesus’ disciples – the ones who ran away in the dead of night when he was arrested? Jesus’ mother (and other assorted women who chose NOT to run away)? We who gather here on the second day of the Triduum? Or is it something much more entirely unexpected?

Are we asking God “graciously to behold this your family …” the human race that came into being there in the Garden of Eden o so many generations ago? That “family” which was dredged up out of the mud, molded, and into which the very breath of God was imparted? That family which crowned the creation, reflecting the very image of God in the fulness of their humanity – and which fell shortly thereafter?

St. Paul tells us it is unusual for someone to sacrifice themselves for a loved one, but Jesus did so, not just for those he loved, but for the whole human race. The healing and restoration of the world began here, on Good Friday. Not the healing and restoration of me, or even us, but of the whole world. I suspect that healing and restoration is not limited to we human beings, either, but for the entire creation. It started here, nailed to a tree.

Jesus was “willing to be betrayed” and given into the hands of “sinners” (by which we mean those who fall short. We are all part of that package. Either Jesus died for all of us, best and worst alike, or he died for none of us. How scandalous!), and to “suffer death upon the cross.”

 We humans have never lived up to our potential as the people of God. The cows offered us corn, the squirrels offered us nuts, but the serpent offered us a fig, and we’ve figged up royally ever since. But this is God, “whose property is always to have mercy.” We’ve not earned God’s mercy, but we’ve got it, whether we want it or not. We pray for God to look at us, and not at what we’ve done. The miracle of God Friday is that God hears our prayer. Thank God.

Amen