25 Mar 05 A Very Different Friday

We are nearing the end of spring break here and it seems that everyone and their junior high class is visiting Washington, DC! Yesterday we took a ride on the metro into town with our friends from Oregon — along with every other person in America ‚Äì and what an experience it was. People, people everywhere.

The streets are flooded with people, the restaurants are crowded with people, the museums are swamped with people – there are people here from every corner of the earth taking in the sights. The ride back on the metro was surreal. The train was so full, (how full was it?) only a super hero could have made it on the train - someone like “wafer girl” or “grain of sand boy.”

How else could I describe it? Imagine the tube chute thing at the bank drive through window – cram that thing full of marbles and you will have an idea of our situation. My friend Tim observed that at each stop two people would exit and 12 people would enter. It was not an exaggeration. Let’s just say it was the wrong place to be for a claustrophobic agoraphobic!

Today promises to be another busy Friday of seeing the sights in DC. Today the trains will once again be jam packed full of people on their way into the city. Today crowds of people will head for the mall, the museums and the memorials – just another “normal” spring break Friday in DC!

I’m thinking about all these people and all the activities planned for this Friday. I’m also thinking of the activities and plans in the lives of another group of people in another time and another place on a very different Friday. I’m thinking of that time in history when crowds of people went in to the city to see the sights and were swept up in the middle of an execution.

I’m not interested in discussions about how this may not actually be THE Friday that Jesus was crucified. We can save that discussion for heaven. I am interested in this. There was a Friday, a long time ago, that was quite different from any other Friday.

A Friday when eternity hung in the balance. A Friday when it seemed that the forces of darkness had prevailed in snuffing out the light of the world. A Friday that saw a Father turn his back on the suffering of His beloved Son. A Friday when a large crowd of people got so much more than they bargained for, so much more than they could have ever hoped or imagined when they shouted “crucify, crucify.”

I’m not judging the crowd and their actions. I’ve seen enough of this so called “crowd mentality” to understand how something can snowball out of control. Listen, had one more person tried to get on that train yesterday . . .

I understand the force behind what happened on that particular Friday. Had I been there my loud voice would have probably belted out the same words “crucify, crucify.”

Here’s the thing that really gets me about the events of that Friday. It’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the idea that Jesus willingly gave his life for every person in that crowd who demanded that he be crucified.

On more than one occasion Jesus gave to the needs of a large crowd. There is, however, only one time that Jesus gave in to the demands of a large crowd – it was that time, on that Friday. In giving that crowd what they wanted Jesus gave them the one thing they truly needed.

I don’t know what all will happen today for me or for you. In the midst of the plans and activities for today, I think it might be a good idea that we take some time to reflect on the events of that Friday long ago.

It could be a very powerful time, say around the dinner table, to share some bread which represents the body of Christ, to share a cup which represents the blood of Christ – to share and reflect, to remember and to be grateful for all that began to happen long ago on a very different Friday.