Bible and Theology on Good Friday

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"Good" Friday

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Keywords

Scripture

1 Peter 2:24

Do you remember the first time someone explained to you the concept of “Good Friday?” I remember my own mother explaining how it was possible that Jesus’ death was “good,” not because torture and suff...

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Author

Robert Brault

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Good Friday, and again we are reminded to never lose hope — or at least give it the weekend.

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Good Friday

Author

Jonathan Cornell

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Scripture

Hebrews 4:14-16, 5:7-9, Hebrews 5:7-9

Ancient Lens What Can We Learn From the Historical Context? Old and New Testaments Meet Hebrews is a rich tapestry of intricately woven theology that spans the Old and New Testaments. With Christ...

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Author

Billy Crystal

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The Passion of the Christ opened up on Ash Wednesday, had a Good Friday.

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Where is God? Hanging From the Gallows

Author

Jonathan Cornell

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Scripture

Matthew 27:46, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 3:18, John 19:30, 1 Peter 4:13

In Elie Wiesel’s Night , Eliezer is a Jewish teenager, a devoted student of the Talmud from Sighet, in Hungarian Transylvania. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis occupied Hungary. Increasingly repressi...

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Author

Rodney Buchanan

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We will never know, this side of heaven, what terrible struggles took place in the spiritual world between Palm Sunday and Easter morning.

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Adapted from 2 Corinthians 5:21 & Romans 5:6-8

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

2 Corinthians 5:21, Romans 5:6-8

Leader: For him who knew no sin God made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. People: For while we were yet weak, at the right time Christ died for the u...

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Almighty God, whose most dear Son went

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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...

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Lord of Hosts, We come before you today

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

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Scripture

Micah 7:18-19, Colossians 3:13, Matthew 5:44, Philippians 2:3, Romans 5:8

Lord of Hosts, We come before you today in a tone of solemnity. We recognize that while it was Judas who betrayed you for 30 pieces of silver, that we often betray you as well. We know what is right,...

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Preference for the Christ-Child Over the Cross

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Luke 19:10, Luke 2:7, John 19:18, Philippians 2:8-9, Isaiah 53:5, 2 Corinthians 5:17

In the sixteenth century, Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci journeyed to China, bringing religious art to share the Christian story with those unfamiliar with it. The Chinese readily embraced images of t...

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May Jesus Christ who chose the path of

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Scripture

John 10:17-18, Philippians 2:8, Isaiah 53:5, Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 12:9

May Jesus Christ, who chose the path of crucifixion and death for us and for all, strengthen you and save you. Amen.

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God so loved the world, that he gave

Author

Joseph E. McCabe

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:16, Isaiah 53:5-8

God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our...

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We Need to Linger, a Call to Worship for Holy Week

Author

Lisa Ann Moss Degrenia

Keywords

Before we get to Easter, we need to linger: in the vulnerability of the basin and the towel at the remembrance and promise of the table in the struggle and betrayal of the garden in the shadows and sh...

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Holy Saturday | John 19:38-42 | Stopping to Mourn

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

John 19:38-42

Reflection It is striking that after Jesus’ death there are no close companions left to claim his body. All his public followers scattered. Only a secret follower, Joseph of Arimathea, accompanied by...

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St. John Chrysostom's Easter Sermon

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

A Joyful Easter Proclamation John Chrysostom (344-407) was the Bishop of Constantinople and is remembered as a Doctor of the Church. He was a renowned preacher (his name, Chrysostomos means "...

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And So Was Raised the Cross…

Author

Melito of Sardis

Keywords

And so he was raised on a cross, and a title was fixed, indicating who it was who was being executed. Painful it is to say, but more terrible not to say. . . . He who suspended the earth is suspended,...

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Gracious God, you freely embraced death

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Gracious God, you freely embraced death for us. Every day we choose our own will. We choose not to die to ourselves for you. We take the gift you gave us and squander it. Please give us the courage ...

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“It is finished.” With those words, You

Author

Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church

Keywords

Scripture

John 19:30

“It is finished.” With those words, You declared victory. Sin, death, and evil lost their power. We are the church: Each of us recipients of Your victory. In Jesus, we have won! But often we deny Your...

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Adapted from Isaiah 53:2-7

Author

Dustin Ray

Keywords

Scripture

Isaiah 53:2-7

Pastor: For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised ...

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Adapted from “The Precious Blood” in The Valley of Vision

Author

Arthur Bennett

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 51:1-2, Luke 23:39-43, Luke 15:11-32, Ephesians 2:4-5, Romans 5:8, Isaiah 53:5

Leader: Blessed Lord Jesus, before your cross I kneel and see the heinousness of my sin, my iniquity that caused you to be made a curse, the evil that provokes divine wrath. All: Show me the enormit...

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Isaiah 53:2-5

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Scripture

Isaiah 53:2-5

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised...

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The Cross is Not Tragedy

Author

Os Guinness

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 1:18, 2 Corinthians 13:4, Luke 24:5-6, John 16:20, Revelation 21:4

The cross of Jesus is the world’s supreme example of anguish, suffering and injustice, but it has nothing to do with tragedy as we experience it in Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides and Shakespeare—trag...

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Tell Me Dear Tree

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Tell me dear tree on which my Lord, my blessed Lord did hang, How could you hold the spotless Lamb, be party with the gang? That cheerless day, that shadowy hour, my blessed Savior died, to free my so...

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The Two Thieves on the Cross

Author

Johann Ernst von Holst

Keywords

The two thieves appear to be representatives of two opposing directions. One of them founders on the cross; the other is raised up by it. The story of the repentant thief does not teach that every sco...

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From Action to Passion

Author

Henri J. M. Nouwen

Keywords

Scripture

Mark 14:10, Romans 8:32, Matthew 27:1-2, Luke 23:1-3, John 19:16

I was invited to visit a friend who was very sick. He was a man about fifty-three years old who had lived a very active, useful, faithful, creative life. Actually, he was a social activist who had car...

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He is With us in our Crying Out to God

Author

Wesley Hill

Scripture

Mark 15:34

When the great theologian Jürgen Moltmann was sixteen years old in 1943, he was drafted into the German army and was soon captured by the Allied forces. He wound up in a prisoner of war camp in Scotla...

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The Cross Was The Devil's Mousetrap

Author

Os Guinness

Keywords

Scripture

1 Corinthians 1:18, 1 Peter 2:24, Galatians 3:13, Revelation 5:9-10, Isaiah 53:

The cross, Martin Luther wrote, was the devil’s mousetrap. The devil smelled cheese, and wham, felt steel. Thus, we see a little baby lying defenseless in a crib at Bethlehem, and a tortured man hangi...

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The Impact of Going Through the Fire

Author

The Pastor's Workshop

Keywords

Scripture

John 3:16-17, Romans 5:8, 1 John 4:9-10, Matthew 27:45-50, Isaiah 53:1-5, Luke 23:34, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, Ephesians 5:2, John 15:13

In George Bernard Shaw’s play about Joan of Arc , as Joan faces her execution by burning, she addresses those in power who have condemned her: “I will now go to the common people and find comfort in ...

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Adapted from 1 John 4:7-16

Author

Austin D. Hill

Keywords

Scripture

1 John 4:7-16

“Dear friends, Let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God…. This is love: Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his So...

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The Cruelty of Crucifixion

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Exposed to public view like slabs of meat hung from a market stall, troublesome slaves were nailed to crosses…past. No death was more excruciating, more contemptible, than crucifixion. To be hung nake...

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