A Sober Good Friday

By |Published On: April 2, 2021|Categories: From Our Founder, Joni's Posts|

Every year around this time—right before Easter—a certain plant comes alive on my patio with bright, red blossoms. It is a Euphorbia milii, commonly known as ‘Crown of Thorns.’ I always enjoy parking my chair close to it to examine its delicate flowers, so thin, fragile, and brilliant with red color. But then, I take a moment and let my eyes linger on its huge, thick, nail-like thorns. Tradition says this was the bush from which the Roman soldiers fashioned the thorny crown for Jesus. I don’t know if that’s true, but just gazing at the ‘Crown of Thorns’ is a heartbreakingly vivid reminder of the pain and sacrifice our Savior endured on my behalf.

The pain and humility Jesus physically suffered leading up to his death was a mere warm-up to the real dread he faced.

As he hung on the cross, he began to feel a foreign sensation. Somewhere during those hours that his body was impaled, an earthly foul odor must have wafted, not around his nose, but in his heart. He felt dirty. Human wickedness began to crawl upon his spotless being – the living excrement from our souls.

The apple of the Father’s eye began to turn brown with the rot of our sin.

That horrid scene is what I picture when I gaze on the ‘Crown of Thorns’ plant on my backyard patio. I look at the delicate red flowers; I focus on those spike-like thorns that look like rusted steel and I picture the thistle-crown pushed into the brow of Jesus.

I let the thought settle deep, forcing my heart to imagine the rage, the wrath of God being poured out like hot oil on the wounded heart of the Son of Man. God the Father watching as his heart’s treasure, the mirror-image of himself, sank drowning into raw, liquid sin.

I sit on that image for a while. True, there is no hint of this horror in the potted plant on my patio… but still, it makes me remember. Especially on Good Friday.

Do you have a similar reminder of what it cost Jesus to die in your place? Because today is a day to remember.There aren’t many days in the church calendar when we are called to remember, but Good Friday is one of them. This day is specifically set aside for you to meditate on all that Jesus suffered, all the pain, the shame, and the curse that characterized his death. My eyes well with tears when I consider the unthinkable affliction Christ endured.

There is no room for a casual sentimentality regarding the cross – as an instrument of unspeakable torture, the cross is far too gruesome for any light-hearted fondness.

Years ago, my high school choir learned the beautiful hymn “O Sacred Head Now Wounded” from St. Matthew’s Passion. Sitting in the alto section, I could not sing my part without feeling heat behind my eyes. This sacred piece of music broke my heart then, as it does now, so many years later. So, join me today in carving out quiet time to reflect on the awful weight of Good Friday. And then, breathe a prayer of wonder and thanksgiving to our Savior using the following words of this special hymn…



O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown!
O sacred Head, what glory,
what bliss till now was thine!
Yet, though despised and gory,
I joy to call thee mine.

What thou, my Lord, hast suffered
was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
’Tis I deserve thy place.
Look on me with thy favor,
and grant to me thy grace.

-Joni Eareckson Tada

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