Abandonment, Death & Darkness (Good Friday)

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" 

According to the writer of Matthew, Jesus is abandoned by God

and by the masses of people who stood in approval of his execution. 

His devotees didn't just keep smiling and saying "But Sunday's Coming!"

No.

At this point, they believed it to be as he said:

"It is finished" 

Game over. 

They lamented the killing of their Teacher; Their Guru. 

They didn't pick out pastel outfits and plan dinner parties. 

They buried Jesus of Nazareth, and mourned.


Today, we are invited to sit with abandonment, death, and darkness. 

The suffering, betrayal, hopelessness we all feel in life but desperately seek to escape and brush over. 

The feeling we have at times that God has forsaken us,

with no light of hope for anything that lies beyond this dismal moment. 

It's human nature to try and push these dark days away

but more we avoid the shadows, the darker they become.

The more we try to hide the fact we do have deep caverns of pain in our heart,

the more callus we become to the potential for healing. 


We cannot heal what is not named.

Good Friday represents naming our pain with honesty. 

For Jesus, it was feeling forsaken.

(in the account of Matthew, at least) 

What is it for you? 

Name it.
Sit with it.
Don't try to escape
or change it. 

"Why would I want to do that, Luke!? That's not positive vibez!" 

A battery with only a positive terminal and not a negative is a deficient power source. 

You must accept the shadow to witness the Light. 

This is the invitation of Good Friday:

Accept life and its pain for what it is 

and trust that in moments of suffering and uncertainty there is a cosmic plan, a Divine order. 

Only then will you awaken to a new dimension of living, moving, and having your Being. 

- Luke 

P.S. If you're around north county I'd love to have you join me for an Easter sunrise meditation at 7:30am. Click here for directions.