Friday, April 6 - Good Friday

Pilate was surprised to hear that He was already dead. Summoning 

the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he 

learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph. 

(Mark 15: 44-45) 

Pilate was surprised that He was already dead!   

Thank goodness Jesus did not have to suffer any longer. He had 

endured enough for us already. What a humiliating death.  How many 

Good Fridays have been black Fridays - with darkness encompassing 

the whole world, or so it seems, at 3:00 in the afternoon. Is it 

because God is still trying to get our attention so we will remember 

His son came to die for us? Many churches still have a three hour 

service, the Tre Ore, remembering the hours Jesus hung on the 

cross. How appropriate that it should end in darkness at the moment 

of His final breath. 

I remember such a Good Friday over fifty years ago. I was eight 

months pregnant with our son. Perry and I had attended the Good 

Friday service at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in 

Washington, D.C. where we were married and living in the area at 

the time. We went into church at noon, bright and sunny. At 3:00 

when we left, very sad from “living” the last three hours of Jesus’ life, 

I have never seen such a black sky before or since. The sky was 

totally covered with dark clouds, but not raining. It got my attention.  

In fact I was a little frightened. Was a tornado about to happen? I 

must have been more than a little frightened, as I went into labor 

shortly after that. I entered the hospital that night and gave birth the 

next morning. That was a Good Friday I will never forget, and what a 

wonderful Easter it was holding a new life. 

Jesus’ death. The miracle of giving birth. What do they have in 

common? He came to give each of us new life, a life for us to live so 

that He may live in us and through us. I see Him living in my son as 

he enjoys teaching a weekly Bible study at his church and in my 

daughter, a deacon and treasurer at her church. In our daily living we 

certainly encounter the dying-rising cycle in many different ways in 

this “circle of life.” We are reminded this day to simply notice this 

great mystery of death and resurrection in all of life.

May we be attentive to the dying and risings that we witness each 

day. As we remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, may these 

events stir our hearts to deeper faith.  

Kaye White