Entering the mystery of Good Friday

Was Jesus a victim of a human plot to silence him - or the agent of God's redemptive work in the world - or both? 

Does God the Father take out his anger on God the Son to convince you and I to love him forever? 

The Cross is more than a stumbling block.  It is a scandal.  And yet it lies at the heart of our understanding of who Jesus is, and thus who God reveals Godself to be in human flesh.  Many of us have inherited difficult and often violent understandings of the events of Good Friday (cue The Passion a la Mel Gibson).  These events were truly violent - yet how do we understand what God was up to in all of that, and why do we call it 'Good'?  

For Good Friday this year we will enter worship together at 3pm with story and song, before Rev. Matt leads us on a wide ranging historical look at the many different ways the Church has understood the events of Good Friday and Holy Saturday.  There will be opportunities for discussion, prayer, wrapping up with an Ignatian exploration of the Stations of the Cross. 

Image: the icon featured above is 'The Harrowing of Hell,' one of the central images celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church.  It depicts Jesus descent into death and hell, its doors trampled under foot, and who does Jesus take by the hand but Adam and Eve, our mysterious ancestors.