Good Friday...No, Great Friday

How about some Good Friday talk? I normally stay away from religion as a topic. But I thought I would share one of my favorite Good Friday memories. To be honest there are too many Good Friday memories, in fact this is the only one that comes to mind. I am sure that all my brothers and sister remember this one as well. As a child, my family would always go to the late church service on Good Friday. You might know that my father has always been hard of hearing, that being the case, we always sat in the first pew. In fact first pew on the left. At the end of Good Friday service, our pastor would walk up to the altar, pick up an old large bible, turn to the congregation and in the dead quiet church with the lights turned down, read from Luke 23: 36-46 or another similar passage:

The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” There was also an inscription over him, “This is the king of the Jews.” One of the criminals who was hanging there railed at him, saying, “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other rebuked him, saying, “Don’t you fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we rightly so, for we are getting what we deserve for what we did, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, because the sun’s light failed. The temple curtain was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!”

And then the pastor would slam the bible shut which would echo throughout the whole church and then he would walk out of the church. The remainder of the congregation would then leave the church as well without a sound and no music playing. The noise of the slam was so loud that it still made you jump to attention, even if you weren’t dozing off and were paying attention. I can even recall some years looking forward to the service just for the slamming of the bible. This was all before my parent’s church made renovations. It used to be your traditional church with just two rows of pews separated by an aisle. The pews were all hard wood, that didn’t have cushions to sit on. And the Sanctuary was tall with exposed rafters. And then two days later we were there again in the first pew for Easter sunrise service.