Good Friday

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding Jesus and saying, " Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus replied, " Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

It was now about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Luke 23:39-45

What does the symbol of the cross mean to you? Humility? Love? Sacrifice? Grace? Fulfllment of prophesy? Suffering...Paradise? Where is this Paradise (capital P) that Jesus refers to? What is does the passing from light to darkness mean? When is it that the veil (curtain) was torn before this? Does the torn veil (curtain) reveal to us something we had not seen before? Does the cross itself symbolize something eternal? Chronos, or physical time, is the cross beam and Kairos, or eternal time, is the vertical. Kairos literally means "the moment of opportunity." What is at the intersection of these two? Who is at this intersection? A man? God? Something eternal....the moment...this moment...NOW.

© Peggy Beatty 2011