This Is Where It Hurts
A Good Friday reflection
I don’t want to rush this.
I know how the story ends.You probably do too.
But today isn’t about the ending.
Today is about the part we don’t like to sit in.
This is the day everything broke
Jesus had already been betrayed.
By a friend. With a kiss.
He had already been arrested in the middle of the night.
Already questioned. Mocked. Accused.
The crowd—the same voices that once shouted “Hosanna!”—now shouted something different:
“Crucify Him.”
And He didn’t defend Himself.
He was beaten.
Crowned with thorns.
Given a cross to carry—the very thing that would kill Him.
Piece by piece, the story unravels into something brutal and heartbreaking.
And if we’re honest…it’s hard to look at.
Because this isn’t clean
We like faith when it’s hopeful.
When it’s light.
When it makes sense.
Good Friday is none of those things.
It’s raw.
It’s violent.
It’s confusing.
It’s watching someone innocent suffer.
It’s feeling like evil is winning.
It’s wondering where God is in the middle of it all.
And maybe that’s why this day matters so much—
Because it meets us in the places that feel exactly like that.
Even Jesus felt it
There’s a moment on the cross that always stops me.
Jesus cries out:
“My God, my God… why have you forsaken me?”
Not polished.
Not put together.
Not “churchy.”
Just real.
And maybe that’s permission for us, too.
To admit when we don’t understand.
To say when it hurts.
To name the moments where God feels far away.
Because even here—in abandonment, in pain, in silence—
Jesus is still holding on.
This is love… but it doesn’t feel like it
We call this “Good” Friday.
But there’s nothing about it that feels good in the moment.
It looks like loss.
Like grief.
Like the end.
Jesus breathes His last.
The sky goes dark.
The earth shakes.
And just like that—
It’s quiet.
No celebration.
No resolution.
No clarity.
Just people standing there…trying to make sense of what just happened.
If you’ve ever been here…
If you’ve ever sat in a moment that didn’t make sense…
If you’ve ever felt like hope slipped through your hands…
If you’ve ever wondered where God was in the middle of your pain…
Good Friday says:
You’re not alone there.
This is the day God stepped fully into that kind of suffering.
Not from a distance.
Not as an observer.
But right in the middle of it.
So we sit here
We don’t skip ahead.
We don’t rush to Easter (even though we want to).
We sit in the weight of it.
Because this part of the story matters.
Because love—real love—doesn’t avoid the hard parts.It walks straight through them.
And today?
Today reminds us that Jesus did exactly that.
I don’t have a neat ending for this. Good Friday doesn’t give us one.
But I do know this—
Even here, in the heartbreak…
Even here, in the silence…
Even here, where everything feels lost…
God has not walked away.
And maybe that’s enough for today.
Comments