“What are you doing for Good Friday?”

I’ve known Al only a short time now. We sometimes share the parlor at the downtown Panera. Today, knowing I am a minister, he asked me, “So, what’s your Church doing for Good Friday?”

When I said, “We don’t have any Church services today,” he was clearly surprised -- almost to the point of confusion – as he told me of his plans to attend mass tonight. So, how should I respond to such a question: What are you doing for Good Friday?

There are some folks in my tradition who might have taken this opportunity to speak against the evils of honoring a religious holiday that is not specifically sanctioned by Scripture. I almost did this myself, armed as I’ve been with the argument. I was somewhat on the defensive, preparing to give an answer … to why we were not honoring Good Friday.

But on the other hand, I rather wished that honoring Good Friday were a part of Presbyterian faith and life (I almost told him so). If it were, Al and I might have enjoyed more of a common point of departure; and my faith might not have seemed so unnecessarily offensive to him.

But gladly, I took neither of these tacks. Instead, he asked me, ”Why is it called Good Friday anyway?” So, I said, ‘If Jesus took your sins with Him to the cross on that Friday, this Friday is most good for you.”

This day was good for me because Jesus took my sins to the cross on that Friday. All the sins I committed before my conversion and all the sins that I have committed and will commit in the Body. And this day is good for all who are in Christ. All who do not worship Him as often as they can or should; and all who go to worship, not knowing why they are there or what they are doing, until the Dayspring rises in their hearts. So, what was i doing for Good Friday?

My congregation has a glorious history. Established in the 1920’s, she very early passed on the opportunity to put a church building on the shores of Lake Highland – the location where a very expensive Christian school now sits. They opted to purchase land downtown. I’m sure there were many at that time who wondered, ‘What are you doing?’ But their answer, as recorded in the congregational history, is something like, ‘We wanted to stay close to downtown to be near the folks who frequent the establishments there.’ My Friday was good today, partly because I joyfully entered into those same labors, depending on His Spirit.

I know Jesus, as He hung on the cross and took on the scorn of the head-wagers, heard roughly the same question, ‘What are you doing?’ Probably no question in all of the English language can set one so quickly on edge as those four words.

But praise God that Jesus knew what He was doing on Good Friday. Praise God for He has forgiven us who knew not what we were doing on that day. And Praise God on this Good Friday, knowing, today, ‘it is good to praise the Lord.”