This is the third year I've attend the Good Friday noon service at my local church since moving here.
It's a spirited enactment of the passion by the junior high students, complete with soldiers, brown robed bystanders and a wooden cross.
They cleverly combine some contemporary music with participative prayers of the congregation - is it OK for me to say that I really enjoy this Good Friday service?
But the eyewitness accounts are the most moving element of the service. As the stations of the passion take place, the last supper, the betrayal, the scourging, the crucifiction...one "eye witness" steps up to the podium to share their perspective on Jesus - Peter explains his remorse over denying Jesus, a soldier his anguish over seeing a just man suffer, a woman her awe over his inclusive love for all people...
One by one, these young people get into character and remind me - in riveting fashion - that there was a lot more going on that day 2,000 years ago. There were real people watching Jesus suffer - including those who hated him and those who loved him.
There was probably a confusing rush of emotions and fear in the hours before Jesus died on the cross. But when it was all said and done, each person had to determine in their own heart what it really meant, and what Jesus meant to them. Just another thief dying on the cross? Or the Son of God who came to redeem our sins? That's still something we have to decide for ourselves.
What do you believe?
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