Good Friday Reflection

It has been over a year since our parish group returned from an amazing trip to Israel – Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus. I kept a journal (now a blog at https://deaconswifeministry.blogspot.com) and recently re-read the entry of 2/6/2023 (posted July 31, 2023). The 6th of February was spent on the Mount of Olives walking through several beautiful churches and having mass in the Grotto of the Apostles with our parish priest and deacon. However, the most impactful, emotional sight on this day was the garden at Gethsemane. It was easy to imagine our Lord in the garden praying to his father “…thine will be done” knowing full well that he would be gone from this world soon. The most poignant thing that I saw that day was the Jerusalem thorn bush (at least that is what it was called) which was said to have been used to make the crown of thorns that Jesus wore on his head. If you have never seen one or even a picture of one, I recommend Googling it (there is also a photo of one we saw that day on the blog referenced previously).

The thorns are not what I imagined. They are inches long and more like a porcupine quill than a rose thorn. The tips are extremely sharp and growing in all directions. Fashioned into a crown it would allow many of the sharp thorns to encounter our Lord’s flesh and tear it causing much bleeding and pain. The scene, now much more vivid than it used to be to me, is one that causes my heart to break and tears to flow even more than a year later. Some days it is still difficult to accept that he willingly died for our sins – mine and yours.  

On this Good Friday, the day our Lord was crucified, reflect on the pain, agony, betrayal, humiliation, and hatred he felt that day. But he did it for the love for us. Thank you Lord Jesus for dying for our sins….and rising 3 days later!!