The New Room is sharing a Friday reflection each week during the time that we are closed. Even though we cannot currently join together for our usual Friday lunchtime Communion service in the chapel, we hope that these short reflections will act as a point of spiritual focus, enabling a moment of quiet thought and prayer.

Good Friday Reflection

Revd Josette Crane is one of our chaplains at the New Room.

I invite you to read Luke 24 verses 13-35

It’s Good Friday. On this day we are used to thinking about death, the death of Jesus on the Cross. This year it is different. With our Prime Minister seriously ill in hospital, with death rates rising on our news, perhaps with the deaths of people whom we know and love, this Good Friday feels a lot more real. And when will it be Easter Sunday? Like the disciples travelling through that first Easter, we wait behind closed doors, sometimes in fear of our lives.

Yet maybe we can imagine the joy of Easter Sunday even more this year. As we wait in hope for new life, knowing that it will take longer than 3 days or 3 weeks, we can still trust in the Easter story of hope and resurrection. Usually, we face the death of Jesus on Good Friday, we wait through Easter Saturday, but then we celebrate the joy on Easter Sunday. On Good Friday 2020 we don’t know how long the wait for resurrection is going to be. But nothing can take away the hope of the Easter Sunday story. We have the hope of Easter to sustain us. Like the two on the road to Emmaus we can keep listening to the story of Jesus, knowing He is travelling beside us, until we can turn around and return to the new life of resurrection.

A prayer: Jesus you are alongside us because you faced the fear of death. Help us this Good Friday to listen to your story with fresh understanding. As we know your real presence walking beside us, show us how we can walk alongside others, sharing your story and bringing your comfort. Amen.