TGIF (FRIDAY)

When he had received the drink, Jesus said, ‘It is finished.’ With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. - John 19:30

The work week is a funny thing to me. As humans we are given 7 days in a week. And in 1926 – Henry Ford decided that 5 of those days we would work, and two of those days we wouldn’t. It was a business model, his factory workers were building the cars Monday-Friday, and he wanted to sell them Saturday and Sunday.

And thus we have ‘Friday’. – A universally adored tick on the calendar, the weekly finish line that seems to promise endless possibilities. It’s the day when the rigid professionalism of our email sign offs can loosen up a little bit, even daring to end our correspondence with ‘Have a great weekend!’ Friday carries the sweet sense of freedom; it’s like a social sigh of relief after holding our collective breath through the rigors of Monday – Thursday.

From this, the phrase TGIF or Thank God Its Friday was born. Embodying the relief and excitement for the upcoming weekend. It gained popularity in the 60’s and 70’s and has since cemented its place in popular culture through media, Including a popular restaurant chain and a prime time TV programming block. It seems a large portion of humanity, absolutely loves Friday.

If you have read all that, and thought ‘wow, she really is passionate about Friday’s’ you would be right. I am passionate about Friday’s, I love them. But there is something about this Friday, the Friday that I am sharing this, that means more than any other Friday in the year. It’s Good Friday, the day in the Christian calendar that we acknowledge the crucifixion of Jesus. I am not going to assume that everyone reading this knows the whole story, so bear with me while I catch you up.

Jesus was born to a virgin named Mary (Christmas) he lived a completely perfect and sinless life for 30 years. When he was 30, he was baptised by a man called John the Baptist, and it was after this he started his mission. He picked 12 (likely teenage) guys to follow him and called them his disciples. And together, they spent 3 years completely turning everything that the Jewish people knew and believed on its head. He preached about love, forgiveness and kindness. He encouraged people to have integrity. He encouraged people to be peace makers and to love even when it was hard. He challenged the rigid rule following the Jewish people had become accustomed to and in doing so, ruffled some feathers. The religious leaders of the time decided to kill him, and actually managed to use one of his disciples to betray him, and have him arrested. Then we get to Good Friday. The day he was tortured and crucified.

In case you’re unfamiliar with what a crucifixion is, it is one of history's most brutal forms of capital punishment, it encapsulates a depth of suffering that is profound and multifaceted. Once laid on a wooden cross, nails were driven through His wrists and feet, each hammer strike resonating with unimaginable pain as metal pierced flesh and bone. This act, beyond its immediate physical torment, initiated a harrowing ordeal where the body's weight strained the nailed limbs, complicating every breath and turning each gasp for air into an excruciating endeavour. Jesus then hung on the cross, with his body weight pulling down on his arms, making it difficult to breathe. This gradually led to asphyxiation and respiratory failure. To breathe, Jesus would have to push up with his legs, but this would cause excruciating pain due to the nails in his feet and the wounds from the whipping that would have taken place before then. The prolonged period of hanging on the cross, lasted several hours and would have led to extreme exhaustion and dehydration, further hastening death. Ultimately, Jesus’ death resulted from a combination of factors, including shock, heart failure, organ failure, blood loss, and asphyxiation. As Jesus hung there, the sky darkened, and His pain transcended the physical, bearing the weight of everything every human had ever and will ever do wrong. A burden He accepted out of an unfathomable completely unreasonable love for us. On this day, he endured both abandonment from his followers and friends, and most painfully, abandonment from his Father, God.

That got pretty dark pretty quickly didn’t it? – But that is the reality of what we are remembering today. So why on earth do we call it good? Why on earth are we celebrating? What is good about any of what I just wrote? Why are churches holding Good Friday fun days? Why is it a bank holiday?

I encourage you, beyond reading my words here, to go back and read the story, it is found in all 4 of the New Testament gospels. Because if you read it, really read it, you’ll find unbelievable depths of mercy weaved throughout this harrowing story. If you’ll stick with me, if like to highlight a few instances of this miraculous mercy.

Firstly, the veil was torn. In the Jewish temple, there was a thick veil that separated the Holy of Holies, the innermost sanctum where the presence of God was believed to dwell, from the rest of the temple. Only the high priest could enter the Holy of Holies, and that only once a year on the Day of Atonement. The bible tells us that the moment Jesus gave up his spirit and gave his life, the veil in the temple tore down the middle. Giving all of us, at any time access to the presence of God. God was no longer reserved for the most holy of people, but for everyone.

The thief on the cross.  According to scripture, Jesus was hung on the cross in between two criminals. While they were dying, one of the thieves recognised Jesus as God and asked that Jesus take him with him to his kingdom in heaven after they died. In that moment, Jesus assured the thief next to him that they would be together in paradise, that very day. This is the first visual representation we have of what it means to accept the sacrifice of Jesus. You could be in the middle of the consequences of your sin, no time to clean yourself up, no time to make it right. But if you should call on Jesus, your eternity with him is set, just like that.

He is praying for you. I can’t imagine completely what was going through Jesus head while he was hanging on that cross. We read earlier about what it does physically. But if I was to travel to the furthest corners of my imagination I could never have assumed he would say what he did. Breathing would have been hard, talking near impossible, but with the words he could muster he said… ‘Father forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing’. It makes you ask what kind of love this could be. That Jesus would be advocating for us in the middle of his anguish, and I know he is seated in heaven, doing exactly the same on our behalf.

He was forsaken. Now this one, I agree with you, doesn’t sound like mercy. Why would the fact that God turned away from Jesus be at all merciful? (We know he did by the fact Jesus asked God why He had forsaken him). Jesus is the only human being to have ever lived that is truly and completely innocent. The fact that he bore the wrath of God seems like an injustice, not mercy. And if you think that you would be right. But it becomes mercy when we realise that Jesus bore the weight of being forsaken by the

father so we would never ever have to. God looked away from Jesus so he would never have to look away from you.

If you have read this far well done, I had zero intention of writing so long. But I had to spell it all out, because I know some of you are in your Friday moments right now. You’re currently walking through some of the darkest times of your life. You are in more pain than you can muster the strength to describe. You are living in a darkness so heavy, it’s physically hunching you over. To hope almost feels cruel. You’ll never experience physically the pain that Jesus did, but you can relate to the idea that every single breath breaks your heart a little bit more.  If this is you, please take my words as your sign that a perfect loving God, is reaching out to you. He sees you, he knows you and he loves you. And there isn’t a length that he would not go to, to show you that. All you have to do is choose to believe him.

Even on the darkest day in History, where we somehow managed to crucify the saviour of the world, Our God in heaven was kind enough to weave his mercy through it. He didn’t have to tear the veil, but he did. He didn’t have to raise the righteous dead to life, but he did, he didn’t have to forgive the thief on the cross but he did and, he did not have to call out to God on your behalf, but even at the point of inexplicable pain, you were on his mind, so he did.

So if it is Friday for you in this moment, and it feels like God has turned is face away from you? I can promise you, he hasn’t. He is looking right at you, closer than your next breath. I am sure of this, because he turned his face away from the only one who has ever and will ever live, that DIDN’T deserve it. He put your sin and shame on perfection, so he never had to take his eyes off you.

When I feel its Friday, it helps to remember that if I look at Jesus, I know I’ll find the mercy he has laced my life with.

So yeah, Thank GOD it’s Friday, but thank you God, Sunday is coming.

Agape x