Today a grave holds Him…

Today a grave holds him
who holds creation in the palm of his hand.
A stone covers him
who covers with glory the heavens.
Life is asleep and hell trembles,
and Adam is freed from his chains.
Glory to your saving work,
by which you have done all things!
You have given us eternal rest,
Your holy resurrection from the dead.

— a matins hymn for Holy Saturday, from Orthodox Lent, Holy Week and Easter

***

Also, in searching for an image for this post, I came across the full homely divinity site’s page on Holy Saturday, including an ancient 8th c. Holy Saturday hymn by Saint John of Damascus:

Into the dim earth’s lowest parts descending,
And bursting by Thy might the infernal chain
That bound the prisoners, Thou, at three days’ ending,
As Jonah from the whale, hast risen again.

Thou brakest not the seal, Thy surety’s token,
Arising from the tomb Who left’st in birth
The portals of virginity unbroken,
Opening the gates of Heaven to sons of earth.

Thou, Sacrifice ineffable and living,
Didst to the Father by Thyself atone
As God eternal: resurrection giving
To Adam, general parent, by Thine own.

– John of Damascus, 8th Century, translated from Greek by John M. Neale in Hymns of the Eastern Church

art credit

“We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death” – St. Ephrem of Edessa

originally posted by Fr. Al Kimel at Pontifications in April 2005

“We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death” – St. Ephrem of Edessa

Death trampled our Lord underfoot, but He in His turn treated death as a highroad for His own feet. He submitted to it, enduring it willingly, because by this means He would be able to destroy death in spite of itself. Death had its own way when our Lord went out from Jerusalem carrying His cross; but when by a loud cry from that cross He summoned the dead from the underworld, death was powerless to prevent it.

Death slew Him by means of the body which He had assumed, but that same body proved to be the weapon with which He conquered death. Concealed beneath the cloak of His manhood, His godhead engaged death in combat; but in slaying our Lord, death itself was slain. It was able to kill natural human life, but was itself killed by the life that is above the nature of man.

Death could not devour our Lord unless He possessed a body, neither could hell swallow Him up unless He bore our flesh; and so He came in search of a chariot in which to ride to the underworld. This chariot was the body which He received from the Virgin; in it He invaded death’s fortress, broke open its strong-room and scattered all its treasure.

At length He came upon Eve, the mother of all the living. She was that vineyard whose enclosure her own hands had enabled death to violate, so that she could taste its fruit; thus the mother of all the living became the source of death for every living creature. But in her stead Mary grew up, a new vine in place of the old. Christ, the new life, dwelt within her. When death, with its customary impudence, came foraging for her mortal fruit, it encountered its own destruction in the hidden life that fruit contained. All unsuspecting, it swallowed Him up, and in so doing released life itself and set free a multitude of men.

He who was also the carpenter’s glorious son set up His cross above death’s all-consuming jaws, and led the human race into the dwelling place of life. Since a tree had brought about the downfall of mankind, it was upon a tree that mankind crossed over to the realm of life. Bitter was the branch that had once been grafted upon that ancient tree, but sweet the young shoot that has now been grafted in, the shoot in which we are meant to recognise the Lord whom no creature can resist.

We give glory to You, Lord, who raised up Your cross to span the jaws of death like a bridge by which souls might pass from the region of the dead to the land of the living. We give glory to You who put on the body of a single mortal man and made it the source of life for every other mortal man. You are incontestably alive. Your murderers sowed Your living body in the earth as farmers sow grain, but it sprang up and yielded an abundant harvest of men raised from the dead.

Come then, my brothers and sisters, let us offer our Lord the great and all-embracing sacrifice of our love, pouring out our treasury of hymns and prayers before Him who offered His cross in sacrifice to God for the enrichment of us all.

St Ephrem of Edessa

Holy Saturday around the Blogosphere 2015

These links are in fairly random order…, but represent some of the good resources that are being posted today for Holy Saturday.

Lent & Beyond Holy Saturday entries  (several new entries posted already… more to come later)

Ohio Anglican:  Collect and Scripture readings for Holy Saturday

Biola Lent Project:  Devotional for Holy Saturday

Kendall Harmon:  A Prayer for Holy Saturday (I)

Kendall Harmon: The Sound of Perfect Silence

Anglican Mainstream: Meditation for Holy Saturday

Archbishop Cramner blog: Easter Eve: dead, buried, bereft

Trinity School for Ministry:  Holy Saturday Devotional

Godspace:  Even Resurrection Pauses For Sabbath Rest

Desiring God: He Descended into Hell? Holy Saturday

Prydain:  For Easter Eve: a reading from Augustine of Hippo

Give Us This Day (Fr. Charles Erlandson) – Easter Even – John 19:38-42

Emily Polis Gibson – Upon our Saviour’s Tomb, wherein never man was laid

Malcolm Guite – Check out his 14 Sonnets for the Stations of the Cross (especially sonnets 13 & 14)

Scotty Smith: A Prayer for Saturday of Holy Week

Patrick Comerford: Through Lent with Vaughan Williams (46): ‘Dona nobis pacem’ 6 ‘Dona nobis pacem’

Dean of Durham: Harrowing Hell: the significance of Easter Eve

Transfigurations:  Holy Saturday (Psalm 88)

Vicar’s Versicles: Holy Saturday – Meditate in Silence

A new poem from Teresa Roberts Johnson: To His Mother on Holy Saturday

Music for Holy Saturday:  I Called to God (Jonah 2:2-9) Patrick Schlabs

CT Magazine:  Sitting, Waiting, and Hoping in the Tomb of Jesus

Emily Polis Gibson:  Waiting in Hope, Brought to Our Senses

John Ortberg:  In between despair and joy

Cardiphonia:  The Canticle of Jonah for Holy Saturday.  (Also at Cardiphonia, check out several older entries including: Bruce Benedict’s original Holy Saturday hymn / poem:  “Death Tasted Hope in Christ’s last Breath,” and their compilation of Songs & Hyms for Holy Saturday)

Wow… I can’t ever remember seeing so many excellent and meaty reflections for Holy Saturday before…!  It’s been a blessing to have some time to read, reflect, and collate these devotionals and resources!

 

Henri Nouwen on Holy Saturday “The Day of God’s Solitude”

The following comes for a series of devotional reflections on the Stations of the Cross by Henri Nouwen.  This is excerpted from the meditation for Station 14:  Jesus is laid in the Grave – from Walk With Jesus

A young Salvadoran woman stands in front of the casket that holds the body of her cruelly executed husband.  She stands alone near the grave into which the casket will be lowered.  Her eyes are closed, her arms folded across her body.  She stands there barefoot, poor, empty. . . but very still.  A deep quiet surrounds her.  No shouts of grief, no cries of protest, no angry voices.  It seems as if this young widow is enveloped in a cloud of peace.  All is over, all is quiet, all is well.  Everything has been taken away from her, but the powers of greed and violence that robbed her of her lover can’t reach that deep solitude of her heart.  In the background stand her friends and neighbors.  They form a protective circle around her.  They honor and respect her solitude.  Some are silent; some whisper words of consolation; some try to explain to each other what happened; some embrace and cry.  But the woman stands there alone.  She understands something that the powers of death cannot understand.  There are a trust and confidence in her that are vastly more powerful than the weapons that killed her husband.  The solitude of the living and the solitude of the dead greet each other.

⌘

Joseph of Arimathea placed the body of Jesus “in a tomb which was hewn in stone and which had never held a body. . . .  Meanwhile, the women who had come from Galilee with Jesus were following behind.  They took note of the tomb and how the body had been laid.  Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments.  And on the Sabbath day they rested. . . .” (Luke 23:53-56)

There was deep rest around the grave of Jesus.  On the seventh day, when the work of creation was completed, God rested.  “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating,” (Genesis 2:3).  On the seventh day of the week of our redemption, when Jesus had fulfilled all he was sent by his Father to do, he rested in the tomb, and the women whose hearts were broken with grief rested with him.  Of all the days in history, Holy Saturday – the Saturday during which the body of Jesus lay in the tomb in silence and darkness behind the large stone that was rolled against its entrance, (Mark 15:46) – is the day of God’s solitude.  It is the day on which the whole creation waits in deep inner rest.

Read the whole entry here

 

“Life lock’d in death, heav’n in a shell!” – Henry Vaughan

This is a copy of a devotional originally posted by Fr. Al Kimel at Pontifications in 2005

LORD, when Thou didst Thyself undress,
Laying by Thy robes of glory,
To make us more, Thou wouldst be less,
And becam’st a woful story.

To put on clouds instead of light,
And clothe the morning-star with dust,
Was a translation of such height
As, but in Thee, was ne’er express’d.

Brave worms and earth! that thus could have
A God enclos’d within your cell,
Your Maker pent up in a grave,
Life lock’d in death, heav’n in a shell!

Ah, my dear Lord! what couldst thou spy
In this impure, rebellious clay,
That made Thee thus resolve to die
For those that kill Thee every day?

O what strange wonders could Thee move
To slight Thy precious blood, and breath?
Sure it was love, my Lord! for love
Is only stronger far than death!

Henry Vaughan

Links for Holy Saturday

We’ve not traditionally blogged much on Holy Saturday, but here are some links to past entries and some good sites for those looking for prayers, music and devotionals.

All our Holy Saturday entries

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Resources & Compilations

Poems for Holy Saturday

NEW: Holy Saturday around the Blogosphere 2015

Holy Saturday around the blogosphere (2014)

Kendall Harmon’s wealth of Holy Saturday entries

Holy Week: Index of Holy Week devotionals, prayers, quotes and resources here at Lent & Beyond

A collection of fantastic Holy Week Devotions from the Pontifications blog from 2004

More Pontifications Lent, Holy Week & Easter Devotionals (from 2005)

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Quotes & Devotionals

NEW: Henri Nouwen on Holy Saturday “The Day of God’s Solitude”

NEW: “Life lock’d in death, heav’n in a shell!” – Henry Vaughan

Holy Saturday: Death has seized our Lord Jesus Christ; but shall not keep its hold on Life

WA Criswell: He is dead… He is dead… He is dead. Then, then then…

Lent Quotes: St. Cyril of Jerusalem – He vouchsafed salvation

Three Spiritual Classics for Holy Saturday (from the Pontifications blog archives)

A Homily from Saint Ephrem of Syria

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Music & Poems

Poems for Holy Saturday

Palestrina: Lamentations for Holy Saturday, performed by the Tallis Scholars

Classic CCM for Holy Saturday into Easter: Christian Stephens’ The Descent, and Arise

A Classic CCM Song for Holy Saturday – He Holds the Keys (Steve Green)

Max Lucado – the Main Event

The Cross IS the Main Event of human history.

Listen to Max Lucado’s reflection on this truth from the Holy Week musical “He Chose the Nails” (a great CD released in 2000, accompanying Max Lucado’s devotional of the same name – now out of print.)

 

 

Here is a partial transcript of the words:

[…] History has only one main event.
Scripture has only one main event.
Others matter but only one is essential . . .
David’s defeat of Goliath might reduce your timidity but only the cross prepares you for eternity.

For if there is no cross of Christ, then there is no truth to Christ . . .

To remove the cross is to remove the hingepin from the door of hope, the door of your hope.
For if there is no cross, then there is no sacrifice for sin.
If there is no sacrifice for sin, how will you face the sinless God?
Will you cleanse your own sin?

And if there is no cross of Christ, then there is no resurrection of Christ.
And if there is no resurrection, how will you live again?
Will you push back your own grave?

[…]

Let there be no mistake, the cross is not an event in history,
it is The Event of History.

– words courtesy of Janell Price’s blog Releasing the Word

Music for Good Friday- John Michael Talbot- Prayer Before the Cross

One of my favorite worship songs – a musical prayer – just played in my Good Friday playlist.  I’m spending the evening listening to music focused on the Cross.  I thought I’d share this here since it’s from an older album that may not be so widely known or played these days.

(John Michael Talbot,  from Troubadour of the Great King, 1981.  iTunes link)

We adore You, most holy Lord
Jesus Christ, Lord Jesus Christ
As we gather together in this place
And throughout all the world

We worship You, Lord
We adore you, Oh Lord
And we bless Your holy name
For by Your cross
You have redeemed us
You have redeemed all the world

Trevin Wax: My Jesus – Dead

Trevin Wax has written an amazing poem /meditation for Good Friday.  I’m reproducing the whole entry here.  Thanks Trevin for such profound words. (I’ve also tagged this under Holy Saturday, since it makes a good Holy Saturday reflection as well.)

Art Credit: Carracci,Annibale The dead Christ c 1582, Stuttgart Staatsga

And Jesus called out with a loud voice,
“Father, into Your hands I entrust My spirit.”
Saying this, He breathed His last. (Luke 23:46)

~~~~~

He is dead: this man from Nazareth, the Messiah of Israel, the Lord of the world.

With His dying breaths, He spoke words of forgiveness, finality, and faith.

But now the breathing has ceased, and the lungs that exhaled forgiveness are deflated. My Jesus – dead.

The eyes that looked at the crowds with compassion are closed. My Jesus – dead.

The arms that reached out to the unworthy are lifeless. My Jesus – dead.

The hands that touched the leper are driven through with spikes. My Jesus – dead.

The ears that heard the cries of blind men are deaf. My Jesus – dead.

The lips that that told news of a kingdom are stilled. My Jesus – dead.

The voice that calmed the seas is silent. My Jesus – dead.

The feet that walked on water are stopped. My Jesus – dead.

The heart that bled for sinful humanity no longer beats. My Jesus – dead.

The Bread from heaven, broken on earth.

The Light of the world, in the shadow of death.

The Vine that bears fruit, withered and fallen.

The Gateway to God, now sealed in a tomb.

The Shepherd of souls, struck down by the sheep.

The resurrection and life, a crucified corpse.

My Jesus – dead.

~~~~~

He loved me and gave Himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Emily Polis Gibson – In the midst of sorrow, a terrible question (a Good Friday reflection in memory of the Kenyan martyrs)

Reflecting on some of the writings of Frederich Buechner and Julia Esquivel (a Guatemalan poet and theologian), Emily Gibson has posted a powerful and beautiful Good Friday entry which she has dedicated to the memory of the 100+ Christian college students brutally murdered in Kenya this week in yet another persecution of our faith.

I’m posting here one of her quotations of Buechner and three stanzas of her original poem which spoke so powerfully to my heart as I think of and remember those who have been martyred for their faith.  Thanks be to God that through His suffering Christ HAS conquered death and hatred even if it often seems they have the upper hand in this life.  We know this life is just a shadow, and that the Cross shows we can rely totally on the Father’s love for us.  There is nothing He has spared to bring us into His joy, not even the life of His own Son.

…{His is} the love for the enemy–
love for the one who does not love you
but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain.
The tortured’s love for the torturer.
This is God’s love. It conquers the world.
~Frederich Buechner from The Magnificent Defeat

This is God with a man’s beating heart,
who bleeds from open wounds of a man’s skin,
while nailed to a tree,
considering His torturers below
and forgives them.

[…]
This is God with a man’s frailty and fear,
feeling forsaken,
conquering death and hatred
by dying for us.

This is God with a man’s last breath
giving His spirit into the hands of His father
and in so doing, ensures we live forever.

Go read and reflect on the full entry.  It’s one of Emily’s best.

And please keep praying for the families of the students killed in Kenya yesterday.

A Poem for Good Friday – Amy Carmichael: Lest We Forget

I know I p0sted this last year, but I think it is my favorite Good Friday poem of all time. We have so many questions, there is so much we don’t understand about suffering and pain, but Calvary has the power to still all our questions with the truth that Christ suffered more than we ever will, and in His death is our life.

Lent & Beyond

I’ve been re-reading a bunch of Amy Carmichael’s poetry from her books Toward Jerusalem, and Mountain Breezes, this Lent.  Here’s one of her poems that’s appropriate for Good Friday.  I particularly like the last line… it reminds me to pray for those who are lost and wandering, that they would find their home, rest and joy in Christ.  How incredible that Christ’s pain was for our joy, and His death became our life – fullness of life for now and eternity.

Home of our hearts, lest we forget
What our redemption meant to Thee,
Let our most reverent thoughts be set
Upon Thy Calvary.

We, when we suffer, turn and toss
And seek for ease, and seek again;
But Thou upon Thy bitter cross
Wast firmly fixed in pain.

And in our night star-clusters shine,
Flowers comfort us, and joy of song;
No star, no flower, no song was Thine,

View original post 60 more words

Good Friday entries at Kendall Harmon’s TitusOneNine (2009 – 2015)

Rather than just linking to Kendall Harmon’s Holy Week category at TitusOneNine as I’ve been wont to do on Good Friday in past years, I thought it would be good if I did a round up of some of Kendall’s best Good Friday entries from today (so far) and years’ past…  As I did in last night’s Maundy Thursday roundup, I’ll post several prayers in full, and then post links to quotes, poems, music, sermon excerpts, etc.

A Prayer for Good Friday (I)

Lord Jesus Christ, who for the redemption of mankind didst ascend the cross, that thou mightest enlighten the world that lay in darkness: gather us this day with all they faithful to that same holy cross; that, gazing in penitence upon thy great sacrifice for us, we may be loosed from all our sins, and entering into the mystery of thy passion, be crucified to the vain pomp and power of this passing world; and finding our glory in the cross alone, we may attain at last thy everlasting glory, where thou, the lamb that once was slain, reignest with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever. Amen.

A Prayer for Good Friday (II)

O Christ, who by the thorns pressed upon thy head hast drawn the thorns from the sorrows of this world, and given us a crown of joy and peace: Make us so bold as never to fear suffering, nor to suffer without cheerfulness in thy service; to the glory of thy holy name.

A Prayer for Good Friday (III)

Lord Christ, who didst enter into thy triumph by the hard and lonely way of the cross: May thy courage and steadfast loyalty, thy unswerving devotion to the Father’s will, inspire and strengthen us to tread firmly and with joy the road which love bids us to take, even if it leads through suffering, misunderstanding, and darkness. We ask it for thy sake, who for the joy that was set before thee endured the cross, despising the shame, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer.

A Prayer for Good Friday (IV)

O God, whose blessed Son endured the loneliness and darkness of the cross, that we might enjoy eternal fellowship with thee: Grant that amidst life’s shadows we may know that we are never forsaken, but that we are ever walking in the light of thy countenance; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

A Prayer of William Temple

Lord Jesus Christ, who didst for me endure the horror of deep darkness, teach me by the depth of thine agony the vileness of my sin, and so bind me to thyself in bonds of gratitude and love that I may be united with thee in thy perfect sacrifice, my Saviour, my Lord, and my God.

A Prayer of John Wesley

O holy and ever-blessed Jesus, who being the eternal Son of God and most high in the glory of the Father, didst vouchsafe in love for us sinners to be born of a pure virgin, and didst humble thyself unto death, even the death of the cross : Deepen within us, we beseech thee, a due sense of thy infinite love; that adoring and believing in thee as our Lord and Saviour, we may trust in thy infinite merits, imitate thy holy example, obey thy commands, and finally enjoy thy promises; who with the Father and the Holy Ghost livest and reignest, one God, world without end.

And Another Good Friday Prayer

O holy and adorable Redeemer, by whose condemnation we are acquitted, by whose stripes we are healed, by whose death we have life, by whose cross we gain our crown: Keep us, we beseech thee, ever mindful of thy boundless love; and when thou dost call on us to bear for a while thy cross, like Simon of old, make us to rejoice that we are counted worthy to suffer for thy sake, and accept our feeble sacrifice, through the merits of thine eternal redemption. (W. E. Scudamore (Rector of Ditchingham and Fellow of Saint John’s College, Cambridge)

Still Another Good Friday Prayer

O God, the Father of mankind, who didst suffer thine only Son to be set forth as a spectacle despised, derided, and scornfully arrayed, yet in his humiliation to reveal his majesty: Draw us, we beseech thee, both to behold the Man and to worship the King, immortal, eternal, world without end. Amen.

A Prayer for Good Friday (IX)

Hear us, O merciful Lord, and remember now the hour in which thou didst commend thy blessed spirit into the hands of thy heavenly Father; and so assist us by this thy most precious death, that dying unto the world, we may live unto thee; and that at the hour of our departing from this mortal life, we may be received into thine everlasting kingdom, there to reign with thee, world without end.

A Prayer for Good Friday (VII)

Dear Lord, who hast blessed us with the gift of family life, that we may learn to love and care for others: We praise thee for the example of thy Son Jesus Christ, who even when deserted and betrayed by closest friends took thought for his mother and his disciple. Open our eyes to recognize in all men the claims of kinship, and stir our hearts to serve them as brethren called with us into the sonship of thy love.

A Prayer for Good Friday (VI)

Almighty and eternal God, who in thy great love didst give thine only Son to die for our sins, and for the sins of the whole world: Enable us, we beseech thee, by thy Holy Spirit, to worship thee with reverence, and meditate with humility upon those mighty acts by which thou didst bring redemption to thy people; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.

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Poems, Quotes, Sermon Excerpts…

• John Donne—Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward
• George Herbert—The Sacrifice
• Richard John Neuhaus on Good Friday
• Of Which Wood Shall we Eat this day? (Martin Luther)
• Lord George Carey’s 2014 Good Friday Sermon
• “The love that Jesus showed on the Cross: love that endures and that saves”
• Good Friday is about the central and pivotal idea of a “happy exchange”
• Good Friday—A Five Year Old Gives Just a Glimpse of What the Cross Really Means
• For I the Lord have slain (John Newton)
• All generations shall lament and bewail themselves more than him (Martin Luther)
• Charles Spurgeon on the Dying Thief
• The Agony  (George Herbert)
• His Damnation our Liberation, His Defeat our Victory (Karl Barth)
• How shall I measure out thy bloud? (George Herbert)
• The Carpenter’s Son (A. E. Housman)
• And so we come to Good Friday (Benedict XVI)
• Ian Poulton’s Good Friday Sermon 2012 – Five Words from Matthew: Surely
• The 2012 Good Friday Homily of Father Raniero Cantalamessa (Preacher of the Papal Household)
• To open that Kingdom to them (St Thérèse of Lisieux)
• Father Cantalamessa’s Good Friday Homily 2011
• Meditations for Good Friday Via Crucis by Augustinian Sister Maria Rita Piccione
• Father Cantalamessa’s Good Friday Homily 2010
• A Ballad of Trees and the Master (–Sidney Lanier 1842-1881 )
• The Seven Last Words
• The Twelve –Allen Tate (1899-1979)
• Who was Jesus? –Attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389)
• Roosters –Elizabeth Bishop (1911 – 1979)
• Father Cantalamessa’s Sermon on Good Friday 2009
• Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of India: Meditations for Good Friday 2009

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MUSIC & SERMONS – Audio & Video links – (I’m in the process of checking these links, not all may be working)

• From Sweden’s Lund Cathedral—The final Chorus of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion

• St Pauls Cathedral Choir: God So Loved The World (John Stainer)

• Orlando Gibbons – Drop, Drop, Slow Tears

• Johnny Cash & The Carter Family – Were You There (1960)

• Kings College Cambridge Chapel Choir: Faure Pie Jesu and Agnus Dei

• J.S. Bach: “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” (Choir of King’s College, Cambridge)
  • Try this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3M4uUJibpvw

• A Sermon for Good Friday: Tim Keller on 5 things the Cross Teaches us about Suffering 
  • try this link (web archive)

• Music For Prayer and Meditation on Good Friday 2011—Michael Card’s “Why”
  • try this link

• O Sacred Head Now Wounded – Fernando Ortega

Some short Good Friday quotes

This is my first Holy Week on Twitter, and several pastors and Christian leaders have been tweeting some very encouraging and meaningful short quotes and prayers for Good Friday.  I thought it would be good to compile some of the most striking quotes here.

 

At the cross, Jesus did not merely feel forsaken. He was forsaken. Not only by his disciples, but by God himself. http://t.co/LSzQqLrHFQ

— Desiring God (@desiringGod) April 3, 2015

Jesus endured the horrific agony of Good Friday so that we could share in the spectacular glory of Easter. http://t.co/LSzQqLrHFQ

— Desiring God (@desiringGod) April 3, 2015

Nails didn’t hold Jesus to the cross. Love did. #Jesus pic.twitter.com/KkFVqAsweM

— Tony Evans (@drtonyevans) April 2, 2015

Our God is none other than the God of the Cross – the God who has pledged His own being for us with every drop of His blood. #EnjoyYourDay

— Glen Scrivener ن (@glenscrivener) April 3, 2015

A prayer for Good Friday Love did not die upon that cross but, arms outstretched, still welcomes us, the twisted… http://t.co/4KU3r5yxbo

— John Birch (@faithandworship) April 3, 2015

The man who stands there making no defence, Is God. His hands are tied, His heart is open.#GoodFriday http://t.co/kBoG3QjhTg

— Malcolm Guite (@malcolmguite) April 3, 2015

There can only ever be 1 answer to the question: ‘Can you name the day on which you were saved?’ ‘I was saved on Good Friday’- @malcolmguite

— Ed Thornton (@Edthornton) April 3, 2015

Reason for the cross…Before the cross is for anyone else’s sake, the cross is for God’s sake (John 12:27-28).

— David Platt (@plattdavid) April 3, 2015

Today, he took our ugliness that we might have his loveliness.

— Mike Reeves (@mike_reeves) April 3, 2015

“Why do bad things happen to good people? That only happened once and He volunteered for it.” @rcsprouljr R C Sproul Jr.

— Scotty Smith (@ScottyWardSmith) April 3, 2015

“To become a man was something, but to become a man of sorrows was far more; to bleed, and die, and suffer…” Spurgeon

— Matt Redman (@matt_redman) April 3, 2015

I believe as they beat on his beautiful face He turned a torturer’s chair to an altar of grace http://t.co/XcNXFIPEgN #CrucifiedMan

— MakeWayMusic (@MakeWayMusic) April 3, 2015

Good Friday – evidence that no matter how desperate our circumstances, God has been there before us, and will meet us there. #EasterMeans

— Church of England (@c_of_e) April 3, 2015

#eastermeans the greatest sacrifice ever made, and the greatest love ever shown, for the greatest freedom ever given #thankyoujesus

— Hannah Frost (@Happityhan) April 3, 2015

New blog post: Quote of the Week: “Our sin was so great that nothing less than the death of Jesus could save u… http://t.co/TFUR2fT9aB

— jillsavage (@jillsavage) April 3, 2015

1 God + 3 Nails = 4 Given #GoodFriday

— Ann Voskamp (@AnnVoskamp) April 3, 2015

With every strike of the hammer, it looked liked the dark would win. This was God’s masterstroke. #GoodFriday #SundaysComing

— Ann Voskamp (@AnnVoskamp) April 3, 2015

By His love — you are held, By His grace — you are saved. And by His wounds — you are healed. #GoodFriday pic.twitter.com/eAfJPuYNbG

— Ann Voskamp (@AnnVoskamp) April 3, 2015

“When Satan tells me I am a sinner he comforts me immeasurably, since Christ died for sinners.” M. Luther #GoodFriday #gospel

— Alex Hawke (@AlexGTHawke) April 3, 2015

No matter what the controversies of the moment, here’s what matters: Pontius Pilate is still dead, and Jesus of Nazareth is feeling fine.

— Russell Moore (@drmoore) April 3, 2015

Good Friday Quotes. John Piper – The Intentionality of Christ’s Death

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love.

“When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was.

Look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52–54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’s death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the Word of God.

from here:

http://solidjoys.desiringgod.org/en/devotionals/every-calvary-step-was-love

http://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-intensity-of-christs-love-and-the-intentionality-of-his-death

Maundy Thursday – a sonnet by Malcolm Guite

Malcolm Guite has been posting beautiful poems throughout Lent & Holy Week at his blog.  Here is his wonderful sonnet for Maundy Thursday:

Here is the source of every sacrament,

The all-transforming presence of the Lord,

Replenishing our every element

Remaking us in his creative Word.

For here the earth herself gives bread and wine,

The air delights to bear his Spirit’s speech,

The fire dances where the candles shine,

The waters cleanse us with His gentle touch.

And here He shows the full extent of love

To us whose love is always incomplete,

In vain we search the heavens high above,

The God of love is kneeling at our feet.

Though we betray Him, though it is the night.

He meets us here and loves us into light.