If you have friends and family like mine you probably saw a lot of "It's Friday, but Sunday is coming" posts online. And I get it. For years even as I tried to sink into the meaning of Friday I always consoled myself that Sunday was coming.
Good Friday two years ago I first heard of thinking otherwise. It was right after the veneration of the cross–pretty scary itself to a girl who grew up Southern Baptist. The priest said that Good Friday and Holy Saturday were more than stopping posts on the way to Easter Sunday.
No, she told us it was for abiding in the sorrow, the brokenness, the heart-ache.
That felt like someone tearing a life preserver from my hands– how could I survive the weekend without clinging to the approach of Sunday? Wasn't that what Easter was all about–not having to wait with death? That weekend I wrestled more with my understanding of God than I had in a long time. And it was good.
Two years latter I'm still wrestling with God and crying out like Jacob, "Bless me!" What does that wrestling look like? I don't know as much as I did two years ago, but I'm learning how to abide with God. I'm learning how to sit in the rubble of my plans and see God there.
Good Friday and Holy Saturday are about waiting in darkness and doubt. About having our idolized ideas of God smashed before our eyes.
This year I encourage you to stop rushing to the comfort of Easter Sunday and abide in the mystery of the cross.
I don't know what that looks like for you. Abide by the Quaker singer songwriter Carrie Newcomer captures what the time in the shadow of the cross is like for me this year. You can hear it and read the words in the video below.
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