Good Friday

We follow the cross up Calvary in His footsteps

D E Siripathy JAYAMAHA

Good Friday, Christians around the world commemorate this day with lots of prayer, meditation and penance, the tragedy; when our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on a hill. After a mockery of a trial.

On this sad day, shall we join Him on His pilgrimage of love, and humbly share the thoughts of a mother who was to suffer very much and was more or less on the threshold of being the most exalted mother of all time, as uttered by her when she visited Elizabeth.

We join a weeping mother, Her Son, carrying a heavy piece of timber on His shoulders, blood spattered face haggard in agony, body cracked with the whip lashes, walking up Calvary. We are in the crowd. A distraught repentant Peter leaning on a beloved disciple John. An unforgettable trek, we, who follow Him will return. Not our Saviour.

Let us take our thoughts back to the day, when the tiny Island of Kiribati welcomed the sun on the dawn of the second millenium.

It was a memorable day, we lit crackers and fireworks. Dined, wined and danced in five star hotels. A few, chauffeur driven to their homes. All this merriment while about half the world went hungry, that day. Children with bloated bellies, flies hovering over sores, oozing with pus. Looking up with lacklustive eyes longing for a morsel of food. It took place in a world where the second millennium of the Prince of Peace was commemorated.

Many of us fast and cry on Good Friday. In mourning. But within us, hatred, anger and jealousy. For some, how to make millions by making billions of human beings cry and shudder. Pawns of war games and man made Tsunamis’ in tranquil waters. Yes! Jesus must be crying for Calvary once again.

We walk in silence. His Mother runs up to Him. May be hugged Him. How many times would they have embraced each other with gentle Joseph joining them during the past thirty three years. Her thoughts. Yet it was her maternal blood that covered Him when He brought joy to the world on that star filled night in Bethlehem. This day, His blood covered her face and clothes. A delay. A soldier approaches with two raised whip. Jesus looks at Him. Smiles. The soldier lowers the whip and backs away. His thoughts. ‘Was I going to whip an innocent Man and His mother?” We reach the summit of Calvary.

Jesus is stripped off his garments. To see a scantily cald son whether in his childhood or adulthood to a mother is nothing to be ashamed of. But to see a near naked thirty three year son before a laughing, weeping, inquisitive multitude to a mother is unbearable.

How He wailed when the nails were driven into his hands and feet. They raise the cross. Between two thieves. He who was born in a manger, visited by humble shepherds and royalty, He whose kingdom was to have no end, He who taught us to pray to our Almighty Father, forgave sinners, healed the sick, gave life to a few, preached on forgiveness, peace and love was between two persons despised by society.

We see the one on His right side smile. Yes, he had been promised a place in Paradise. What an honour. No wonder he smiled.

We look up. He is there, gasping for breath, mouth distorted, ribs protruding, taught hand muscles. Then He makes His mother, a mother for all time through his beloved disciple John. His mother looks at her son. Her thoughts, looking at son. The many times she had applied oil on his shoulders after helping gentle Joseph in the workshop. Those nailed hands, the same hands that blessed the little children who surrounded Him. Hands that touched in healing. Hands that were lifted up to heaven in praying to the Father. His nailed feet the same feet walking to many cities preaching on Love and Peace.

We were on the hill. Cold, dark clouds cloaked the hill of death. A silent crowd. A mother at the foot of the cross. Laughter among the soldiers. For them a common happening. Then suddenly silence.

Today was different. Even the elements and birds seemed restless. A shout. His Father had abandoned Him. He was in pain like all humans who are from birth, prone to pain.

A distraction, ‘Our Holy Mothers friends are with Him. He speaks to them. Omnious. Prophetic words. The Holocaust may be. Milions die from a nation that killed the saviour. How much He would have despised the last two letters nailed over His Head on the cross.

He shouts, we look up, unbearable. “I thirst.” A solider obliges. Mother is consoled. Water for a thirsty son. No! Instead vinegar. He spits it out. We share a mother's thought. How many times have you hugged me. Touched my face.” This is, so tasty. Fantastic, your seasoning dishes with vinegar tastes lovely.” She remembers, Joseph's quip. “Yes! Yes! Everything mother cooks is delightful. They laugh. She cries. We follow her gaze. Our Lord's precious blood is trickling down the cross. Soaking Mother Earth, Mother of a dying son and a few others. We are not blessed to feel those drops of His Sacred Blood on us.

We go closer. Darkness surround us. A sort of radiance is seen at the Summit. He shouts, He knows. His Heavenly Father had truly forsaken Him. He commends His spirit to His Father. Bows His Head.

Then he dies – it was the beginning where there would be no end.

The Earth stood still. Nature stood still cold. No wind, silence. We could hear our bereaved Mother say, ”Be it done to me according to your word.” We watch in silence.

Our beloved Redeemer is taken down from the cross. A grieving mother keeps Him on her lap. Usually lifeless bodies are felt heavy. Dead weight. Perhaps, He did not want to burden her more.

She had carried enough. Herods decree, flight into Egypt, looking for a lost son when in Jerusalem, inviting the wrath of the elite and priests, Their humiliation at his words when a woman in sin was brought before him and now, an innocent son, murdered. On her lap. Joseph of Aramethie offers his tomb as a resting place for Jesus. Pilate had not been happy about the happenings of the day. He had very promptly released Jesus's body to Joseph.

Shall we look at the serene face of our Massiah and bow our heads. He is there with His mother. He was sent to heal the world by His words of love. The world showed its gratitude by crucifying Him.

After nearly 2000 years, let us not continue to be accomplices in sending Our Messiah to die once again on an infamous gibbet.

‘Never ever to do what we do not wish to be done to ourselves’, as said by another Englightened Teacher, who walked this earth 540 years before our Lord Jesus.

And let us beseech our Heavenly Father to give us the strength to strive to live according to out Redeemers words by not trying to remove the speck in our nighbours eye before removing the beam in our own and ‘Physician heal thyself.

Above all prayers and His immortal words. “Peace be unto you all.”

Opinion:

Plea for the Lamb

Gwen Herat

Let us first see what the Old Testament has to say about the lamb in the First Passover;

‘Moses called for all the leaders of Israel and said to them; ‘Each of you is to choose a lamb or a young goat and kill it so that your families can celebrate Passover. Take a sprig of hyssop, dip it in the bowl containing the animal's blood and wipe the blood on the door posts and the beam above the door of your house. Not one of you is to leave the house until morning. When the Lord goes through Egypt to kill the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the beams and door posts and not let the Angel of Death enter your houses and kill you. You and your children must obey these rules forever. When you enter the Land of the Lord who has promised to give you, you must perform the ritual. When your children ask you ‘What does this ritual mean? You will answer, ‘It is the sacrifice of the Passover to honour the Lord because he passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt. He killed the Egyptians but spared us'.... EXODUS 12, 21-28.....

And does what the New Testament say over the Passover meal:

‘On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the day the lambs were killed, Jesus's disciples asked him ‘Where do you want us to go and get the Passover meal ready for you?’

Then Jesus sent two of them with the instructions ‘Go into the city and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house he enters and say to the owner of the house.’ The Teacher says ‘Where is the room where my disciples and I will eat the Passover meal,’ Then he will show you a large upstairs room, prepared and furnished where you will get everything ready for us'. MARK 14, 12-16.

They went off and found everything just as Jesus had told them and they prepared the Passover meal. When the hour came Jesus took his place at the table with the apostles and told them ‘I have wanted so much to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer'. Then Jesus took a cup and gave thanks to God and said ‘Take this and share it among yourselves'. This cup is God's new covenant sealed with my blood which is poured out for you. He also took a piece of bread, gave thanks, saying, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me'.

The Bible clearly says in both Testaments about meals being served with lamb which had been the custom from Moses’ time but it never says that Jesus ate lamb at the Passover meal. He only had bread and wine with which he served the disciples.

‘The lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world'. How many times each Sunday throughout our lives, would we have chanted this phrase? Naturally, without pausing to think of its deep meaning.... but go on eating the flesh of the lamb, relishing, serving with pride at weddings, events and other functions, some which are associated with the church.

Have you ever felt guilty? Evaluated the significance the lamb has over our faith. I do not feel bad about it because I do not eat any kind of flesh but I feel guilty why I had to wait this long to question my fellow Christians. Why we should not spare the lamb. We all owe it to our Lord, Jesus Christ on whose lap and arms he carried the symbol of love, innocence and purity. How dare we usurp its significance. Some may argue that the Lord never said so and not found in the Holy Bible and find an excuse to continue to consume lamb. May be one need not find it in the scriptures. God has given us the wisdom to use our heads wisely and with compassion. The Good Shepherd that he is, we always see Jesus cuddling a lamb gently in his arms with so much love in his eyes (No, I do not get carried away by paintings). If it is symbolic or otherwise, we must know that the lamb plays a significant role of influence and we must look differently and confine the purity of the lamb to Jesus and revere the tenderness he showers on it by refraining the slaughter of this innocent young adult. Look at the role of Jesus as the Shepherd;

The Parable of the Shepherd

Jesus said, ‘I am telling you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep yard by the gate but climb in other way, is a thief and a robber. The man who goes in through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him and the sheep hear his voice as he calls his own sheep by the name and he leads them out, he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will not follow someone else, instead they will run away from such a person because they do not know his voice.’ Jesus told them the parable but they did not understand what he meant.

John 10, 1-7

But we are blessed more than them because we understand what Jesus meant in the parable because we have travelled through long passages of time where our minds’ reasonings have improved better enough to what the Lord meant.

Revelation 7 also refers to the lamb. This time the reference is to God which clearly says that those who stood before God and who went through for safety and had washed their robes and made them white with the blood of lamb. Here, the blood is very symbolic in its power for the reason it is not the blood we imagine as one cannot wash with blood for it to look white. It is the power of the lamb which is God and Jesus takes on the role of the shepherd, the protector of the lamb...Do you still want to eat lamb?

Every preacher will express his own version in the church which we must not grab for its eloquence or emotion;

In John 9, Jesus says ‘I am the good shepherd who is willing to die for the sheep'. True enough the ‘sheep’ here means his people but he uses the word sheep to illustrate his feelings and because in his eyes he sees the humility of the animal. If so, do you ever think that our Lord would have ever consumed its flesh?

We believe that Jesus is the promised Saviour, the Son of God and through our faith in him, we shall have eternal life.

We know Jesus as the great Teacher who has the authority to interpret the Law of God and who teaches about the Kingdom of God. His teaching about the end of the present age, is revealing signs when one nation is rising against another and perhaps the world destroyed by fire.

But for the moment, we Christians must obey His word, recall Jesus's journey from Galilee to Jerusalem and the events of his last week that culminated in his crucifixion and resurrection. We must be ready for His call as He has said, I shall come like a thief when you are asleep. (Let me from one of my books, quote part of a sonnet though I never wrote it with the Lord in mind)

But at the last trumpet call

When dead arise from smitten graves and sigh;
Upon the fallen creatures that we maketh the lot,
Come Lord and Saviour, the great Redeemer;
When in solemn grace we bow before Him
And riseth to His command o'er frailties of death
Unto eternal rest.... (Sonnet XLIV)

(This text has been Bible-researched and therefore, not open to debate)

Pope given whopper Easter egg

A pleased-looking Pope Benedict XVI was presented with a colourful, two-metre high Easter egg weighing 250 kilograms on Wednesday, as Catholics and other Christians prepare to celebrate Easter.

The egg, made by Italian chocolate maker Tosca, was unveiled in a Vatican courtyard. The brilliant yellow and blue wrapper was decorated with the pope's coat of arms, wreathes of flowers and doves - the symbol of peace.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church, who will be 85 later this month, will not be cracking open the egg himself, but will give it to young offenders in Rome's Casal del Marmo institute, which he visited in 2007, according to the Vatican's official newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

Tosca, based in the northern town of Cremona, is known for its oversized delicacies. AFP

Easter Morning Resurrection
(Long Dark Night Ends for Lanka)

Beauty from warring ashes
Oil for mourning & bruises
Garments of compassion
Clothing our civilization

Father mother meet in harmony
Nations again in racial symphony
Paternal fraternal fractures healing
Gaps of generations are mending

Tombstones rolled freeing the dying
Dungeons open releasing the sighing
Christ arisen - did it for every victim
Oppressor & oppressed meet in Him

Three fragile ladies with spice to anoint
Christ meets them - to privilege appoint
“Allow children, Let the weak come to Me
I lift up the fallen transforming the mighty”

Grief & gloom, a long night of human suffering
Ends with Rome perplexed - religion protesting
Galilean Carpenter proven to be Life’s Architect
Baby Fragile, Crucified Victim, Saviour Perfect

Doubting Thomas touches to believe
Fighting Zealot bows low to receive
Impetuous Peter – “Feed My Sheep”
Master’s Bidding makes him weep
Son of Thunder- John turned to love
Invaded by the Kingdom from above
Rome succumbs to Another King
Pilate remorseful - the humble sing
Priestcraft defeated – Way now open
Selfish to selfless, miracle will happen

Manthai to Hambantota Our Beloved Lanka
Point Pedro to Dondra dance a new Samba
Galle to Trinco, West to East Hopes arise
She surely shines her detractors to surprise
She Awakes midst threat of Panel reporting
Her Races unite Prosperity Peace adorning
Israel’s dark Diaspora lit by the Myrtle
Enduring hopes shaded by God’s mantle
Hadassar turns Esther Orphan to Queen
Ruin or Restoration we are in between

Easter Lilies smile, mud unable to drown
Hope beams - humble not trodden down
Yokes are broken – meek get the crown
Utopia of grace reigns – mercy renown

Dr Lalith Mendis
(www.apeksha-lanka.com)