Why This Friday is Good

In the first track of the album, “Wrecking Ball,” Bruce Springsteen’s tone is a mix of irony, sarcasm and anger as he sings: 

I've been knockin' on the door that holds the throne / I've been lookin' for the map that leads me home / I've been stumblin' on good hearts turned to stone / The road of good intentions has gone dry as bone / We take care of our own…

From Chicago to New Orleans / From the muscle to the bone / From the shotgun shack to the Superdome / We yelled "help" but the cavalry stayed home / There ain't no-one hearing the bugle blown / We take care of our own

Then follows a barrage of questions: 

• Where are the eyes, the eyes with the will to see? 
• Where are the hearts that run over with mercy?
• Where are the hearts that run over with mercy? 
• Where's the love that has not forsaken me?
• Where's the work that’ll set my hands, my soul free?
• Where's the spirit that'll reign, reign over me?

Now this is not a commercial to buy that album, although if you don't have it, you should, because it really is very good. It is to say that those hard questions take us to the very heart of our faith and to the heart of why it is that we call this Friday good. 

Where are the eyes? Where are the hearts? Where’s the love? What is the work, guided by the Spirit, to which we are called?

Jesus says: if you love God, then you will love your neighbor. And conversely, when you show love to your neighbor, to even the least of these among you, then you are doing it to me. You cannot separate love of God from love of neighbor because they are two sides to one coin.

On the last night of his life, Jesus gives final instructions to those who wish to follow him. In washing their feet, he says: love one another, as I have loved you. Clear enough? Well, just in case, before he takes his last breath...

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Those who mean to follow Jesus are called to “take care of our own.” But we need to be clear that “our own” extends beyond the walls of any church building or national boundaries in all directions: north, south, east and west. “Our own” includes all of God’s children, created in God’s own image. Everybody. No exceptions. 

The disciple took her into his own home and made her his own mother. We never stand at the foot of the cross alone. Jesus invites us into communion not only with God on this Friday, but with one another. The spiritual journey that takes us deeper into the heart of God is never a private matter; it is a matter of opening our eyes and our hearts to neighborly love.

Jesus stretches his arms of love on the hard wood of the cross so that everyone might come within the reach of his saving embrace. And then, so that we might reach forth our hands in love to everyone we meet. Behold your mother. Behold your son. Take care of each other. 

The empty tomb is God's yes to all of this, yes to love which is stronger than death. But it shouldn't come as a surprise because in his living, and in his dying, Jesus is about the Way of Love from the beginning to the end of his life. 

God so loved the world…that death is conquered. God so loved the world, that Christ is victorious over sin and death, so that neither height nor depth nor anything else in all of creation will ever again be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 8:39)

• Where are the eyes with the will to see? 
• Where are the hearts that run over with mercy? 
• Where's the love that has not forsaken us? 
• Where's the work that’ll set our hands, our soul free? 
• Where's the Spirit that'll reign over us?

Behold your mother and behold your son. Behold your father and behold your daughter.  If you love God, then take care of each other.