Good Friday

Lord, in fear, in horror, in shame, in sorrow, our hearts in turmoil, we watch you on the cross:
"Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself and come down from the cross"
And so the passers-by mocked Jesus as he hung on the cross, delighting in his suffering, feeling safe now with him nailed and tortured.
"He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe!"
And so the chief priests and the scribes mocked him. He hung, powerless, broken and reviled, wrecked by human cruelty.
"And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"
Reviled by the people at the foot of the cross, his mutilated body stretched beyond endurance, Jesus the man slips towards death, feeling so utterly abandoned.
And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, "truly this man was the Son of God"
Lord, in fear, in horror, in shame, in sorrow, our hearts in turmoil, we watch your empty and breathless body hang, lifeless. 
Lord, watching now, do we stand with those who mock and jeer, or with the centurion, or maybe worst of all turn away indifferent?

Amen