Good Friday is a Day of Darkness and a Day of Hope. It is a Day Darkness because on that first Good Friday Jesus Christ died on the cross for all of our sins and we gather together each year to remember that even as well as to reflect on our own mortality due to sin. It is a Day of Hope in that we know Christ’s sacrificial death means that He bore all of our sins granting us forgiveness and that Easter Morning is just a few days away.

Our liturgy for Easter begins with,

Pastor: Alleluia! Christ is risen!
People: He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

These are also the words that we speak at the gravesite of a loved one at the end of the Service of Committal. These are words of hope. They recognize that because Jesus Christ has risen from the dead so shall all who believe in Him rise on the Last Day and enter into eternal life with Him. St. Paul wrote,

Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). From the end of the Good Friday Service to the beginning of the Easter Service we wait outside of Jesus’ tomb. His has been wrapped and laid to rest. The tomb has been shut by a huge stone. We know that on Saturday Jesus will descend into the prison of death (as we confess “into hell”). During this time we contemplate how much God loves the world. They are Days of Darkness because Jesus was dead, but that is not the end of Jesus’s story. We know that the truth is that He did not stay in that tomb. He rose from the dead just like He said that He would. This means that neither you nor I will remain dead. Death has been swallowed up in victory. Everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life.

There will be no Adult Sunday School on Easter.

I will be on vacation from April 5-11.

Wednesday morning Bible Study will begin to meet again on Wednesday, April 14.

~ Pastor Webb

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