What are you doing this Friday? You know it’s  a special day, don’t you? The day we remember Christ’s crucifixion. Will you be taking some time out to think about what that means to you? Unfortunately it will slip the minds of a lot of us.

Stations

I grew up a Catholic and was told to stop whatever I was doing at 3:00pm that day to remember the Cross. Stop and think about it and let it sink in. It was kind  of a rule. Looking back on that now, it wasn’t such a bad idea since it’s so easy to motor through our busy routines at work or at school or wherever, without as much as giving it a thought that entire day.

I wasn’t a very good Catholic and I hardly did any of the good Catholic stuff I was supposed to but there was this one thing that went on at the church each year on Good Friday – a way of remembering – that I thought was pretty cool called the “Stations of the Cross”.

It’s kind of a spiritual pilgrimage you go on using prayer and by meditating on a series of scenes of Christ’s sufferings and death called “stations”. You visit each station, recalling what was going on and reciting special prayers. As you move from station to station you’re in the story, standing in the crowd following Jesus on the way to his death, listening, imagining, remembering, letting it all sink in. For many Catholics this can be a very moving experience.

My own pilgrimage

The Bible declares, “Jesus died for our sins.” Not his own sins, our sins, my sins, your sins. But it’s scary how easy it is to take for granted what Jesus did for us. So the past couple of years I’ve set up a Good Friday pilgrimage of my own. I watch the movie, The Passion Of The Christ and experience afresh the sights, sounds and the emotions of the Cross.

It’s not an easy watch. It’s difficult and painful but that’s the point. Every now and then I need to be shaken out of my comfortable Christianity where the Cross is just a piece of jewelry or a cool tattoo. I need to be shocked into remembering what my sins cost Jesus and how much I owe him. I need my pride and my self-sufficiency that’s always trying to push Jesus off the throne of my life.

And at the end as the film cuts back and forth from the Last Supper to the gruesome crucifixion, I take communion along with the disciples on the screen. I’m there at the Cross too, shocked, shaken, humbled. But most of all I’m grateful. Glad that I tooke the time to remember again.

You’re invited
Come out this Friday night at 7:00pm in the Down Under Room at the church office and join me and others from our church for a viewing of The Passion Of The Christ and to take the Lord’s Supper together. Your welcome to bring a guest if you want. Come and make this pilgrimage so you can experience and remember.

See you there,
Mike T