“Suffering and death were not supposed to happen to the Messiah. He was expected to triumph over evil and not be defeated by it. How could God’s revelation be found connected with the ‘the worst of deaths,’ the ‘vilest death,’ ‘a criminal’s death on the tree of shame’? Like the lynching tree in America, the cross in the time of Jesus was the most ‘barbaric form of execution of the utmost cruelty,’ the absolute opposite of human value systems. It turned reason upside down.” – Black Liberation Theologian James Cone in his seminal work “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”
In this Good Friday episode, we remember the day of Jesus' crucifixion, as well as consider what it means to us as people of faith more than two thousand years after that Earth-shaking and heaven-shaking day. Using “A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church: Year W” by Reverend Wil Gafney, PhD, this series invites you to listen to the Bible lectionary passages for the week. We hope that this time offers a new opportunity for you to notice what themes you see the Divine illuminating throughout the arc of the Old and New Testaments. What do these ancient words bring up for you? What could they build within you?
The Scripture passages for today are Judges 11:29-40; Psalm 22; Hebrews 12:1-4; and Luke 22:14-23:56.
