Re-Calibrate

I drank coffee for the first time, in a long time, last night. I gave it up for Lent and because Lent gave way to the Triduum season during the Holy Week, nothing was stopping me from enjoying one cup… at 7:30pm… which meant that I was up most of the night, unable to shut off my brain.

It was as if my brain was being re-calibrated to it’s full working potential. During those wakeful hours, I kid you not, I heard email notifications ding on my iPad even though the device was downstairs. I could feel the hair on my head grow (not really, but it seemed like it). I came up with 3 helpful sermon illustrations for sermons a month from now (that I have forgotten because I eventually drifted off to sleep, naturally).

The whole world seems to be in the right working order now that I’ve been re-calibrated.

Good Friday is the chance to re-calibrate. (awkward transition, I know) The question that eager persons ask is “Why on earth (or heaven) do we call the day we remember Jesus being crucified as ‘Good Friday?'”

Some folks say that Good Friday is good because it shows God’s serious commitment towards justice and mercy, that God would pour the wrath destined for all humanity on the Son, in order for it to be dealt with, once and for all.

Others suggest that Good Friday is the radical display of the love of God, in that God would willingly lay down God’s life before the most disturbing and rebellious actions of humanity. That God takes it all in, and doesn’t retaliate, but repays evil with good. Now, through Christ’s presence in the Godhead, God permanently and eternally resonates with the victim because God was the one who was victimized.

Whatever one’s assumptions may be about the significance of this day, we all have a chance to be re-calibrated, to have a moment of deep reflection and wonder about the mysterious events of this monumental day.