This day, when my Soules forme bends toward the East.
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I’almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And tune all spheares at once peirc’d with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag’d, and torne?

Read it all.

'Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing''
Luke 23: 34#GoodFriday pic.twitter.com/Udz7vgYqvS

— Westminster Abbey (@wabbey) April 3, 2026

O God, the Father of mankind, who didst suffer thine only Son to be set forth as a spectacle despised, derided, and scornfully arrayed, yet in his humiliation to reveal his majesty: Draw us, we beseech thee, both to behold the Man and to worship the King, immortal, eternal, world without end.

—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)

The Crucifixion with Mary and John on either side of the cross #GoodFriday
BL Harley MS 2904; the 'Ramsey Psalter'; 10th century; England, S (Winchester or Ramsey); f.3v @BLMedieval pic.twitter.com/Tbvchs0o1g

— Ennius (@red_loeb) April 3, 2026

“The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.

Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.”

The Crucifixion, Giovanni da Milano, c. 1360

St Francis of Assisi appears at the foot of the Cross (Rijksmuseum) #GoodFriday pic.twitter.com/MqHbHIh2Jj

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) April 3, 2026

“When God becomes man in Jesus of Nazareth, he not only enters into the finitude of man, but in his death on the cross also enters into the situation of man’s godforsakenness. In Jesus he does not die the natural death of a finite being, but the violent death of the criminal on the cross, the death of complete abandonment by God. The suffering in the passion of Jesus is abandonment, rejection by God, his Father. God does not become a religion, so that man participates in him by corresponding religious thoughts and feelings. God does not become a law, so that man participates in him through obedience to a law. God does not become an ideal, so that man achieves community with him through constant striving. He humbles himself and takes upon himself the eternal death of the godless and the godforsaken, so that all the godless and the godforsaken can experience communion with him.”

–Jürgen Moltmann, The Crucified God: The Cross of Christ as the Foundation and Criticism of Christian Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), p, 414

Crucifixion scene.

Attributed to Kesu Dás, Mughal India, c. 1590 (British Museum) #GoodFriday pic.twitter.com/bWAsnrXGNG

— John McCafferty (@jdmccafferty) April 3, 2026

There was a door

And I could not open it. I could not touch the handle.

Why could I not walk out of my prison?

What is hell? Hell is oneself,

Hell is alone, the other figures in it

Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from

And nothing to escape to. One is always alone.

–Edward in The Cocktail Party, Act One. Scene 3

Diego Velásquez (Spanish painter, 1599-1660): “Christ Crucified”, 1622. pic.twitter.com/1ghgp2tC4L

— Maria Helena (@mhcoutinho_48) April 9, 2020

Almighty Father,
look with mercy on this your family
for which our Lord Jesus Christ was content to be betrayed
and given up into the hands of sinners
and to suffer death upon the cross;
who is alive and glorified with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.

Good Friday

This is one of the greatest days from the beginning of the world to its end. He was scourged, crowned with thorns, carried the cross to Calvary amid taunts, was nailed to the cross between two thieves, and by His painful death finished the great work of redemption. pic.twitter.com/G1fvTD3BJ0

— Memento Mori (@TempusFugit4016) April 3, 2026

Isn’t it curious that the Son of God would die in this particular way? Even Paul was permitted a nice, neat slice of the sword. Why did the Son of God die in the worst possible way? That’s the point here. Crucifixion was specifically designed to be the worst of the worst. It was so bad, good Roman citizens didn’t discuss it in public. It’s very much like the way we avoid talking about death and sin. The Romans avoided talking about crucifixion because it was so horrible, so disgusting, so obscene””they used that word to describe it.

Why this method and not another? Because it corresponds to the depth of depravity caused by human rebellion against God. It shows us just how bad things really are with us. No wonder we don’t want to look at it. Yet again, the African American church has never been afraid to look at it. It gives them hope. It gives them strength. It gives them comfort.
As for the blood: It is important because it’s mentioned so much in Scripture. It’s a synecdoche, a word that stands for the whole thing. When you say “the blood of Christ,” you mean his self-offering, his death, the horror of it, the pouring out of it. It sums up the whole thing.

And it’s not just a metaphor; he really did shed blood when he was scourged. He was a bloody mess. I remember one line from an article by a secular journalist. Concerning the crucifixion of Jesus, he wrote, “He must have been ghastly to behold.” That’s a great sentence.

—Fleming Rutledge in a 2016 Christianity Today interview (emphasis mine)

By His wounds we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5
The Crucifixion, Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506), 1457 – 1460, tempera and oil on panel, 76 x 96 cm, Le Louvre pic.twitter.com/4F54YCT946

— SaintsandScripture (@Saint_of_theDay) April 3, 2026

Almighty Father, who gave your only Son to die for our sins and to rise for our justification: Give us grace so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve you in purity of life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Good Friday.

Christ the Man of Sorrows, 15th Century.
Banningham, Norfolk.

'He was despised and rejected of men
A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief:

And we hid as it were our faces from him,
He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Banningham: https://t.co/LECvrtUAcv pic.twitter.com/3lNkueZ8X1

— Simon Knott (@SimoninSuffolk) April 3, 2026

Remember my affliction and my bitterness,
    the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually thinks of it
    and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
    great is thy faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
    to the soul that seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
    for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man that he bear
    the yoke in his youth.

Let him sit alone in silence
    when he has laid it on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—
    there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the smiter,
    and be filled with insults.

For the Lord will not
    cast off for ever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
    according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict
    or grieve the sons of men.

—Lamentations 3:19-33

"The greatest witness of God’s love in all of history was not Jesus’ perfect life. It was not his teaching. It was not his miracles. The greatest witness of God’s love was Christ’s suffering on the cross." @RickWarren https://t.co/5TWGmtquZG

— Plough Quarterly (@Plough) April 3, 2026