Trinity Church in the City of Boston
Good Friday
April 3, 2026
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Each year, on Good Friday, we gather at 12noon to worship,
to pray,
to listen, again, to the story.
Slowing down in this holy triduum or three days,
We are still and somber.
To hear again of Christ’s betrayal, arrest, sentencing,
and today walk the path towards death.
It is heart breaking to hear the words we heard last Sunday ….again,
today from the Gospel of John.
Today our Story begins in the garden,
the garden of Gethsemane.
The garden of prayer and presence.
our story ends in the garden,
at the garden of the untouched tomb of Joseph of Arimathea.
Stillness and creation bookending betrayal, violence, suffering and pain.
Stillness that invites us to be present in the raw emotion of the day
and contemplate the brokenness that humanity chooses time and time again over love.
As you listened to the Gospel today,
I wonder where you saw yourself within the story?
An unnamed disciple? The Crowd?
Malchus, whose ear was cut off?
Peter, who claimed he did not know the man?
Each person, named or unnamed, experiencing these moments intimately with Jesus. In the slowest movement of time we feel the heart wrenching pain of loneliness and abandonment.
Our songs are somber in cadence and
we read these readings every single year because in them we are reminded that with each moment that we experience the world falling apart,
humans choosing brokenness rather than wellness,
In each of those moments, God says to us
—The last word is not one of failure and brokenness.
The last word today is of God’s unfailing, enduring, faith filled love.
Present in the pain.
Present in the loneliness
Present in the fragments
Jesus’ last words on the cross in John are “It is finished”
– meaning the condemnation of death has not vanquished God’s power over death.
Jesus spent his life on earth restoring God’s people into God’s embrace.
The wide embrace that stretched itself out on the cross.
In the holy space of isolation on the cross we see community.
The women are found at the foot of the cross.
The women named and unnamed who witness Jesus’ final action are present.
Today we, too, are present.
Holding, as Jesus does, all of the emotions and the pain of the world.
“We adore you oh Christ and we bless you”- we will hear sung during the Anthems.
We hold the heaviness of the pain of death and at the same time know that today is not the end the end of the story.
We sit in silence,
We pray for the world because even though we have walked this way each year…
Each year we walk again knowing that God’s love for all of creation is more powerful than death.
We know that in each moment of brokenness there is an opportunity for a new beginning.
Today we, too, rest in the knowledge that even in betrayal, violence, and death – God is present and refuses to let those actions be the final say in our lives.
Love is the final word.
A love so deep that even on the cross Jesus cares for those unnamed beside him, those who still mocked him, those who were on the edge.
All of us restored in relationship to God. All means all,
Those of us like Judas who betray God.
Those of us like Peter who deny God because of fear.
Those of us like Malchus who are wounded by those thinking they are doing the right thing with the wrong actions.
Those of us like Annas or Caiaphas who pass judgment or defer to other’s judgment.
Those of us like Pilate who have authority over life and death and choose to let others decide.
Those of us who are blinded by passion and emotion and join in the crowd.
Jesus came to reconcile all of us. AS we will pray in our solemn collects, Jesus came that those who haven’t heard of him might know him, that those who resist the good news might hear, and so that those who have gone astray might come home.
In his final moments, Jesus unites him mother with his disciple- creating a family- reestablishing, reconciling, and recreating where a loss was occurring.
Jesus gives a new beginning in the midst of his end and in so doing reconciling the world through him. “Woman Behold your son”- joined because of the common relationship through Jesus- God’s son cares for his earthly mother and reconnects humanity in the simplest of forms- through family. Jesus spreads his arms out on the cross that the whole world might come to him and be reconciled.
That we all might cast our eyes upon him and be embraced and welcomed, We pray this week that we might find the way of the cross none other than the way of life and peace; and be restored in fullness in our relationship with God.
Good Friday is a hard day for us- we wait and listen as the story unfolds, we listen to how God allowed his son to die for us in a system that we perpetuate. We act as we do not want to, looking back as we betray God, deny our relationship, ignore his faithfulness and strength, and we can be ashamed.
AND We know that Jesus endures all things, knows all things and connects all things. It’s the love of a Savior who is willing to be killed for us that is the message of this day and gives us hope of returning to the garden. And it is this all love and power that we reflect on today- in all its power and vulnerability.
We keep telling the story because we live knowing hope and that the power of love will prevail.
"I will with God's Help" 