A reflective time of worship for Good Friday 2025
Welcome and call to worship
In the name of Jesus, our Saviour, our Master, welcome to the Good Friday service at North Rocks Community Church!
This morning we gather to remember the worst of days, what we ironically call “Good Friday,” the day on which Jesus of Nazareth was killed by the Roman state with the full cooperation of the political and religious leaders of ancient Israel.
We will hear four Scripture readings by members of the congregation; we will hear the story of the crucifixion of Jesus as told by Mariko Clark in The Book of Belonging; I will share a brief reflection drawn from Psalm 22; and we will join together in singing five great Easter hymns.
Prayer of adoration
Let us pray.
God of grace, we bless you for your faithfulness towards us.
You made covenants for our ancestors,
and when they could not uphold their side
of promises and agreements, you remained faithful.
You kept offering us hope, drawing us time and time again,
back to your forgiving heart.
Jesus, Son of God, you are your Father’s image.
You blessed us with your life amongst us.
What we could not see of God’s heart, you lived truly, in our midst.
To all those who came seeking God,
you gave the gift of being God’s own beloved children.
In your death, you ratified all the promises of your Father.
In your resurrection from the grave, you drew us into eternal life,
promising us the glory of heaven.
All we can do is say “Thank you!”
Holy Spirit, you enliven our hearts and our spirits
to say with gratitude that we bless you.
You come like a small voice, at times, which niggles us into obedience.
At other times, you come like a sand-blasting whirlwind,
annihilating unholiness from our souls.
God of grace, we bless you. Amen.
Hymn 1: “Man of sorrows, what a name”
First reading from The Book of Belonging, by Mariko Clark:[1]
It began in a garden, as a great many important things do. Yeshua (Jesus), heaven and earth bound up in a body, the God who came to be a human, was sad because even when you know the end of the story, it doesn’t make the messy middle go away. His friends had fallen asleep while he prayed, and the olive grove was dark and lonesome. He talked with God, sharing his big feelings and asking for comfort, courage, and direction. And God was with him.
Bible Reading 1: Mark 14:32-41 (Nicole)
32 Then they came to a place named Gethsemane, and he told his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. 34 He said to them, “I am deeply grieved[a] to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake.” 35 He went a little farther, fell to the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. 36 And he said, “Abba, Father! All things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not what I will, but what you will.” 37
Then he came and found them sleeping. He said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Couldn’t you stay awake one hour? 38 Stay awake and pray so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” 39 Once again he went away and prayed, saying the same thing. 40 And again he came and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. They did not know what to say to him. 41 Then he came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The time has come. See, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Mariko Clark Reading 2
And then they came to get him. Men with torches and weapons, sneaking through the night, people who had something to hide. Priests, temple guards, religious leaders, armed like soldiers. It was all so backward and wrong. “No violence,” Jesus told his friends, who were awake now, ready to fight. “Put your swords away.”
And then he turned to the men, looking them in the eyes. “Am I so dangerous that you’ve brought swords and clubs to collect me? You know me. You’ve been with me in the temple every day, but you didn’t lay a finger on me.”
But that was the day, and this was the night. And under the cover of darkness, the religious leaders were led by fear. They grasped for control. They grabbed Jesus and took him to the house of the head priest, a man corrupted by power. They questioned Jesus and mocked him and plotted and schemed. Then they sent him to Pilate and Herod, leaders in the Roman power machine …
“He talks about a new kingdom, but we already have a king!” the Roman leaders claimed. “He is not loyal to our power machine!”
“He breaks the rules. He threatens the peace and says he is the new place of belonging with God!” the religious leaders agreed. “He is not loyal to our traditions!”
He’s not loyal. He’s dangerous. He needs to be stopped. They decided that Jesus would be crucified. Executed like a traitor.
Hymn 2: “O sacred head now wounded”
Bible Reading 2: Psalm 22:1-11 (Margaret)
1 My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?
Why are you so far from my deliverance
and from my words of groaning?
2 My God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
by night, yet I have no rest.
3 But you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 Our ancestors trusted in you;
they trusted, and you rescued them.
5 They cried to you and were set free;
they trusted in you and were not disgraced.
6 But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by people.
7 Everyone who sees me mocks me;
they sneer and shake their heads:
8 “He relies on the Lord;
let him save him; let the Lord rescue him,
since he takes pleasure in him.”
9 It was you who brought me out of the womb,
making me secure at my mother’s breast.
10 I was given over to you at birth;
you have been my God from my mother’s womb.
11 Don’t be far from me, because distress is near
and there’s no one to help.
Mariko Clark Reading 3
It was a horrible day, and Jesus felt every horrible thing a human could ever feel. His body was used and abused so that people in power could keep feeling powerful. And then he was hung on a cross of wood. He felt alone. He felt abandoned. But he didn’t fight back. He didn’t escape.
He was God in a body, and that body was part of a bigger story. A story of heaven bumping earth. Hope mixing with sorrow. A story of Already and Almost. So there he hung in the messy middle, arms outstretched as if to hold it all, as if to hold us all.
Hymn 3: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”
Mariko Clark Reading 4
“Forgive them,” [Jesus] gasped to God. “They don’t know what they’re doing.” But Jesus knew what he was doing.
“I love you. I love you. I love you. There’s nothing you could do that isn’t forgiven. Nothing could make me stop loving you, stop belonging with you, stop delighting in you. Not the worst in human hearts, not the heights of human suffering.”
Bible Reading 3: Isaiah 53:1-5 (Barbara)
1 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground.
He didn’t have an impressive form
or majesty that we should look at him,
no appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of suffering who knew what sickness was.
He was like someone people turned away from;[b]
he was despised, and we didn’t value him.
4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses,
and he carried our pains;
but we in turn regarded him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion,
crushed because of our iniquities;
punishment for our peace was on him,
and we are healed by his wounds.
Hymn 4: “The old rugged cross”
Mariko Clark Reading 5
“There’s nowhere you can go where I won’t be with you,” [Jesus said].
Not even into death, because in the most awful moment of that most awful day, Jesus breathed his last breath. It was wrong! It was unfair! It was backward! An innocent person punished like a criminal. A life-giver’s life over. The Creator destroyed by creation.
The earth shook in protest, the rocks split with sorrow, and the noon sky went as dark as the night. As creation rioted, Jesus’s friends stared in horror at his body so silent and battered and still. When it was taken down from the cross, they placed it in a tomb. And as a heavy stone was rolled across the entrance, it felt like a door was being shut forever.
Bible Reading 4: Psalm 22:12-21 (Cay)
12 Many bulls surround me;
strong ones of Bashan encircle me.
13 They open their mouths against me—
lions, mauling and roaring.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are disjointed;
my heart is like wax, melting within me.
15 My strength is dried up like baked clay;
my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.
You put me into the dust of death.
16 For dogs have surrounded me;
a gang of evildoers has closed in on me;
they pierced my hands and my feet.
17 I can count all my bones;
people look and stare at me.
18 They divided my garments among themselves,
and they cast lots for my clothing.
19 But you, Lord, don’t be far away.
My strength, come quickly to help me.
20 Rescue my life from the sword,
my only life from the power of these dogs.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth,
from the horns of wild oxen.
You answered me!
Mariko Clark Reading 6
The dark day was drawing to an end, and the grand city settled and shushed. Everyone returned to their lives in the dazed, hurried way that people do after a spectacle. Doors were shut, lamps lit, and deep sighs released.
Why? Why? Why? wondered the people who Jesus had healed and taught and embraced and celebrated with. He was God in a human body. He performed miracles. He said his kingdom would never end. He was supposed to bring heaven to earth. What happened?
“Why didn’t he save himself?” asked Jesus’s friends.
“What have I done?” asked the Roman soldier.
“That’s the end of that,” said the religious leaders.
Reflection (Rod Benson)
Of all the books in the Hebrew Bible, the Book of Psalms is the most frequently quoted by the New Testament writers. The four Gospels contain about 44 direct quotations from the Psalms, over 35 indirect quotations, and 80-110 allusions (e.g., thematic echoes, patterns, and symbolic fulfilment). Of all the biblical psalms, Psalm 22 is the most frequently quoted and alluded to in the New Testament.
There is only one direct quotation from Psalm 22 in the New Testament. When Jesus cries out from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” he is quoting Psalm 22:1. The psalm is the most vivid of the lament psalms, evoking an experience of almost unparalleled depth of anguish and pain. The intensity of the sufferings, and the powerful metaphors and details (especially verses 12-18), suggest that this refers to more than David’s personal experience. It is not only a lament psalm but a prophetic psalm.
The Gospels also allude to other verses in Psalm 22. For example:
- verses 7-8 (insults, mocking) are fulfilled in Matthew 27:39-43;
- verse 16b (“they pierced my hands and my feet”) finds fulfilment in the act of crucifixion (which had not been invented in David’s time);
- verse 18 (“they divided my garments among themselves, and they cast lots for my clothing”) is quoted in John 19:24;
- the final verse of the psalm (v. 31b) is effectively the last words of Jesus on the cross: “It is finished” (Jn 19:30).
As Christian readers of Psalm 22, we hear resonances of the Passion narratives in the Gospels, just as we discern a link between events of the crucifixion and the account of the Suffering Servant in Isaiah 53. In the psalm, the figurative sufferings given voice through David’s pen become the literal sufferings of the last hours in the life of David’s greatest son, the long-promised Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then, in Psalm 22:22-31, the prayers of the suffering one have been answered, and he prepares to lead his people in praise to God (v. 22f). Verse 22 is quoted in Hebrews 2:12 to indicate that the work accomplished by Jesus on the cross unites all of redeemed humanity with him as “my brothers and sisters.” The victory is not for Israel only, but for “all the ends of the earth” (Ps 22:27f) – for “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Rev 7:9).
Given that Jesus quoted this psalm from the cross, it seems likely that its words were his companion as he suffered – as a way of enduring the pain, and as a signpost to later generations that what happened that day on a hill outside Jerusalem was the literal fulfilment of David’s ancient song.
You and I are among those later generations, as Hebrews 2:10-12 reminds us, quoting Psalm 22:22,
10 For in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was entirely appropriate that God—for whom and through whom all things exist—should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,12 saying:
I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters;
I will sing hymns to you in the congregation.
As American writer Anne Lamott says, “I do not at all understand the mystery of grace – only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.”[2]
Hymn 5: “How deep the Father’s love for us”
Benediction
Depart now into the shadows of Saturday
with hearts broken open by the cross.
As you wait in the silence, and weep with the faithful,
know that justice will prevail,
and light breaks the power of darkness,
and love conquers fear.
Go in peace, in the name of our Master Jesus,
who passed through death for us,
and to whom belongs all glory and praise,
now and forever. Amen.
Sermon 804 copyright © 2025 Rod Benson. Preached at North Rocks Community Church, Sydney, Australia, on Good Friday, 18 April 2025. Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Christian Standard Bible (Nashville: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020).
References
1] Mariko Clark, The Book of Belonging: Bible Stories for Kind and Contemplative Kids (New York: Convergent, 2024), 241-245.
[2] Anne Lamott, source unknown.
Image source: Matthias Grünewald, ‘Isenheim Altarpiece’ (detail), Vincent Desjardins / Wikimedia Commons
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