A Week to a New You: Day Five

Day Five of the Cool Chic and in Christ Series on the 7 Sayings of Jesus brings us to the most solemn day in the Christian Calendar, Good Friday. Some of you might attend a full Stations of the Cross meditation service, still others might have opted for the Hot Cross Bun with tea route or you might just choose to mark today by abstaining from meat come supper time, as the Lamb of God has been slain for our sins (see Gastrotastic.com later today for a CCC compliant dinner option), but today’s events are at the centre of the new life enjoyed by those who choose Christ as he endured the most horrific of deaths for the extraordinary reason that he loves each and every one of us.

“I thirst.” John 19:28

Jesus made such a simple statement as it is one that touches on the most basic of physical needs; hydration. Whilst we could all last for several days without solid food, it is lack of hydration that’s the killer. The human body itself is made mainly of water. We are essentially a walking puddle in need of a drink, be it H2O or something a little stronger! The physicality of these words shows that Jesus was entirely human. The pain that he endured on Good Friday was every bit as visceral as if it had been one of us on a cross. He did not, by virtue of being God made flesh, get a less painful experience, call it Crucifixion-Lite for want of a better term. In fact, he willingly, took up his cross, knowing that it was the only way that we, his beloved brothers and sisters, might be saved.

And yet, for those of us, even the long term or the always have been Christos, Jesus declaration of thirst can resonate in a different way. Though we are in Christ, we might occasionally feel spiritually parched. Our prayer life may have gone the route of routine and performance. In the familiarity of the scenes depicted on Stations of the Cross in our church, the desire to drink deep from this most profound of divine mysteries may have diminished.  Worse still, we might have been moving around for so long in a spiritual desert that our circumstances have become ‘the story’, rather than Christ crucified on the cross being the main event. However, just as physical thirst can be alleviated so too can the spiritual.

This Good Friday, allow yourself to be refreshed by this most perfect and enduring sacrifice. Jesus died that we might never thirst and bore our sin that it might never hinder us. From his deprivation comes our plenty and it is our plenty forever. For the new Christo, Good Friday can often be extremely emotional. I’ve sometimes envied how they go full throttle at the foot of the cross, weeping and wailing, though thankfully not gnashing teeth. For the old timer, we might think that we can only partake in that wonder and response at the beginning of our Christian journey. But every Good Friday, each year, gives us an opportunity to engage anew with the Passion. To picture Jesus on the cross, to respond to the story and humbly say thank you.