Black Friday

Today Forsyth’s arrangement is stopped to leave us with all the questions of the real Black Friday. Does God really “self-empty” or only retract? Is this act of Jesus today “although” or “because” he was in the form of God? And sure, the dénouement has yet to be reckoned with too, i.e., are God’s attributes ultimately victorious—can this kenosis stuff be enough—does it, in fact, have soul—can it get off the ground and form something generative? It should jar us awake how many of our questions still derive from various ways of jumping to Sunday. The singular tendency toward making Sunday a parable should abruptly make us get real about today. Today is no parable either.

“My God, my God…why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34)

The way the gospels present just the first line of Psalm 22 shows us that Jesus didn't jump ahead and deem Friday “good.”  Jesus was cruelly murdered and presented this deepest human hurt to God without tritely reciting the rest of a certain take on reality (found in the rest of Psalm 22). In a critical moment--the very threshold of entering death--Jesus cries out in honest hurt and pain. Before all of tradition (and every generation to come), Jesus raised what some have called the "public relations" piece of faith in God. In his silence after these first lines, he raised the question of God's faithfulness in the presence of injustice. Would God prove triumphant? Would God come quickly to his aid? Sure, praise awaits and great fame will be shared if God somehow intervenes in this great suffering and death, but he/we cannot jump out of or ahead of today. It is only Friday, and it is not yet "good."