Two Momentous Days

Good Friday and Easter.

Today is Good Friday—for those reading Friday’s Word on Friday. And this Sunday is Easter.

Two momentous days.

One no more important than the other.

On Friday evening, our great choir will sing, Without His Cross, there Is No Crown.

Without Good Friday, there is no Easter.

The “prop” for the Good Friday service tonight is a life-sized image of the burial shroud of Jesus.

The “Shroud of Turin,” as it is called.

(The radio-carbon dating was wrong. Two more recent dating tests are right. It comes from the time of Jesus.)

The Shroud image will be referenced as we follow the story of Jesus’ last hours from John’s gospel.

John’s gospel carries the close-to-first-hand account provided by “the beloved disciple.”

It is powerful.

Standing at the foot of the cross were four Marys: Jesus’ mother, Mary the wife of Clopas. And Mary Magdalene.

Jesus’ aunt, his mother’s sister, was also there.

And “the beloved disciple.”

That is the only way he is named in the Gospel of John. I do not believe he was John. He was not one of the twelve. We do not know his name. But his witness takes us close to both the death and the resurrection of
Jesus.

I turn to that witness again on Easter Sunday morning.

Please consider this your personal invitation to both of these services.

Tonight, we have a light supper at 6:30 before worship. The service starts at 7:00.

On Sunday the kids hunt Easter eggs at 10:00.

Easter worship starts at 11:00. Let us, too, gather at the foot of the cross.