Good Friday - Our Empire Of Dirt

Good Friday is always a somber day for me. It's the day we remember Christ's conviction, torture and death. It was probably quite a sight. The crowd that loved him on Sunday is now jeering at him as he dies a torturous death.

Everything was going great for the crowd until the sun stopped shining for three hours, the temple curtain was torn in two, the earth shook, and people rose from the dead. At that point, I'm guessing they all thought something like, "Oh shit."

Or as the Roman centurion who witnessed the events said, "Surely this man was the Son of God."

It must have been suffocating to suddenly realize that you were wrong - to realize that you had just killed the Son of God. And all you could do was remember all the sins in your life that nailed him to that cross.

Our sin is never private - we never hurt just ourselves. No matter how hard we try to wash it away, there is still blood on our hands.


A Prayer For Good Friday
Lord, your love incarnate in your son has shown us the ugliness of our sin. Our crimes are so heinous that they require the ultimate sacrifice - the blood of your son. Even as we gaze on the cross, we are so arrogant that we claim to think you are evil for demanding such a sacrifice. Break us of our pride and rescue us in our sin.

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer

-Ben Reed, April 2, 2010

Johnny Cash - Hurt from kakofoni on Vimeo.