Sorrow and Joy - a Good Friday Meditation
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4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, every one, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. -
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20 Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.
21 A woman, when she is in labour, has sorrow because her hour has come; as soon as she has given birth to the child, she remembers the anguish no more, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.
22 Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you.
John chapter 20 records that Jesus, crucified on Friday was not in the tomb two days later. Some said his body was taken by his followers, some suggest the body was stolen from the tomb ( which was guarded by soldiers), some suggest he didn’t really die, though his side was pierced, his body limp was taken from the cross and buried, by two respected men (Nicodemus) a Jewish member of the ruling council, the Sanhedrin and another a wealthy businessman (Joseph of Arimathea). There is one sure thing - the tomb is empty.
For our Good Friday meditation let us focus on the depths of sorrow and the heights of joy
Meditate on three aspects of the Good Friday drama
Preparation for joy
Realising sorrow
Imagining Friday
Preparation for Joy
The difference between happiness and deep sustaining joy is …. Sorrow. Happiness goes when sorrow comes, sorrow kills happiness. Happiness is quenched by pain. Brokenness and happiness do not mix. Joy on the other hand rises from sorrow, it can withstand grief
In Christ brokenness is transformed into joy through a journey of endurance which develops Christlike character and Christ centred hope explodes into joy which cannot be compared with happiness. Joy does not disappoint us.
On Good Friday as we allow ourselves to return to the agony and sorrows of Jesus the Christ. We are truly preparing for unspeakable joy. Easter joy!
Easter Sunday must have a Good Friday, resurrection must have a death and because it is Jesus of Nazareth we are talking about, Good Friday’s death must have the proof of the pierced side, the water and blood of a ruptured heart. An unbelievable resurrection had to have an absolute believable death. Because it was our Lord Jesus, Good Friday’s death had to have a tomb sealed and guarded. And because we love him so dearly and because we are bereft at his death on Good Friday our joy may be full to overflowing.
If there is only one thing I could ask on Good Friday as he said in John 16:24 it is that the mourning could turn into dancing – that my joy could be full. He told us so in John 15 and John 16
‘I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.’
— John 15:11
‘you will be sorrowful,
but your sorrow will turn into joy’
— John 16:20
Sunday completes our joy because we allowed Friday to be awful sorrow, Good Friday is good preparation for joy.
Realising Sorrow
The Jesus who lived 2000 years ago, was crucified, died, and was buried. Humanly speaking that was the end of the story but the sin he bore for us and the death he died for us could not hold him forever and on Easter Sunday, he rose from the tomb.
Notice that Jesus’ words on Thursday night recorded in John 16v20ff spoke of weeping and sorrow. Sorrow that turns into joy. ‘Truly I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice, you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy…. So you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and no one will take your joy from you.’
Easter Sunday, their sorrow turned into joy. That’s what the resurrection does. If Jesus rose from the dead, he is alive today, I can know Him today and introduce others to him.
BUT there is something here that we could easily miss. We hear sermons about sins forgiven at the cross, about by his stripes we are healed, about being reconciled with God through Jesus’ death on the cross.
BUT the joy the friends of Jesus experienced on the first Easter Sunday began with anguish a starting place of absolute loss, bereavement, bewilderment, a life ending.
Good Friday for the personal friends of Jesus Christ in AD33 was heart-breaking, soul-destroying realising sorrow.
Imagine someone you have loved and supported with friendship and meals. On Friday your friend was taken, beaten, mocked, spat on, stripped, whipped, and sentenced to death by crucifixion. Jesus the person you have loved and followed for the last three years was punished in this way for crimes he never did and on Friday, Good Friday…. He died……and Saturday would be the longest, saddest day of your life because the Jesus you know and love has died. This is realising sorrow.
Notice Mary’s intensely personal longing for Jesus in John 20v13 ‘they have taken my Lord’, her whole world is hollow from sunset on Friday, throughout all Saturday and sunrise Sunday her heart was breaking because the end of Jesus is the end of everything. For Mary and the disciples, life will be nothing after AD33 without the one they called Hosanna Saviour on Palm Sunday who died on Friday.
Can you imagine the grief of those friends on that First Easter?
Imagining Friday
For a moment become one of the first disciples and consider what makes the resurrection appearance of the Lord such joy for you?’ In every fibre of your being, how is it that so durable a joy blossoms from this seed dying? It is a joy that will survive threats and dangers and persecutions, confusions and death, even your own death.
What causes this joy? Not that he died on the cross but that you grieved his death.
For three days I grieved his absence, when the world was carrying on business as usual, you blackened the pictures, stripped the altar, refused to say the Gloria. Despite his foretelling and his promises Good Friday and the Saturday seemed to go on forever because it was the end of the new world as we had come to know it. The end of the Lord Jesus was the end of my life.
In grief, you go to the tomb, the darkness of death was everywhere.
Into that anguish and sorrow, my dear Lord Jesus appears. What a shock, amazing, astonished, truth affirming living presence of the Lord Jesus – here and now. From abject sorrow rises absolute joy unspeakable and full of glory!
The experience of grief prepared me for joy and what joy indeed.
Jesus was dead and is now alive! This is speechless astonishment – this is also joy.
The disciples approached the resurrection from the left-hand side, as it were, from the depths of bereavement.
Today we return to the resurrection from a place of knowing, the stone was rolled away, the gardener spoke her name ‘Mary’ and she knew it was Jesus, Peter and John ran to the tomb and found it empty with the shroud folded where he lay.
But the AD33 resurrection comes through a lens of horror, suffering, the cross, death and absence of Christ, an amazing preparation as the vigilantes arrive at the tomb saturated with love for their Lord, deceased. Imagine.
Listen again to our Lord’s promise in John 16v20-22, because the weeping was so great how great will be your rejoicing.
Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you’
— John 16:22
Easter Sunday John chapter 20 records, ‘Early on Sunday, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb… she ran to Peter and John and they ran to the tomb and looked in and Jesus burial cloths were lying…. Can you imagine their rejoicing, after the grief and sadness of Friday and Saturday? Jesus has kept the hardest of all his promises he rose from the dead, as he said. Therefore he will keep all the other promises – our Salvation, the promised Holy Spirit and indeed our resurrection. That also completes our joy.
If we allow ourselves to grieve at his death and to grieve because it was our sin and shame that made his death necessary. If we experience the sorrow we will rejoice and worship because of the resurrection, what joy because he is not dead he is risen!
I cast my mind to Calvary
Where Jesus bled and died for me
I see His wounds, His hands, His feet
My Saviour on that cursed tree
His body bound and drenched in tears
They laid Him down in Joseph's tomb
The entrance sealed by heavy stone
Messiah still and all alone
O praise the Name of the Lord our God
O praise His Name forevermore
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord, oh Lord our God
Songwriters: Martin W. Sampson / Benjamin William Hastings / Dean Ussher
